New Orleans Executive Director of Recovery Ed Blakely needs to stick to business and drop his commentary, Mayor Ray Nagin said Thursday.

WWL-TV

Mayor Nagin said he'd had a very frank discussion with Ed Blakely.

The mayor said he’d talked to Blakely about interviews he made while out of town regarding the city’s recovery.

Recently, Blakely was quoted in the ‘New York Times’ as saying the city's racial factions were akin to “Shiites and Sunnis,” and later said that newcomers to New Orleans would be impatient with "local buffoons."

Nagin was responding to media questions Thursday morning following a groundbreaking for reconstruction of Fleur-de-lis Drive in Lakeview.

"We had a very frank discussion and what I'm telling Dr. Blakely, 'Look, we hired you to do recovery. Stay focused on recovery. Leave the other commentary for other people who do that for a living," Nagin said.