Before Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, the City of New Orleans says they had 213 crime cameras up and operational.  That number has since been cut in half, but that's only where the problems begin for the New Orleans Technology Department. 

According to the new interim IT Director Harrison Boyd, millions more of your tax dollars have also been sent to the program, this time without the City Council even knowing it.

"Who made that decision and on who's authority was that decision made," asked New Orleans Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell on Thursday inside the Council Chambers.  All eyes were back on the city's electronic eyes, as council members questioned the Nagin administration about the embattled crime camera program.

Boyd is now the new face meeting old problems.  As the city's new interim technology director, Boyd attempted to answer questions on the programs' funding, spending, and apparent over spending.

The city council was recently dealt a multi-million dollar surprise.  Before the former interim Technology Director Anthony Jones resigned in July, he apparently committed the city into paying an additional $2.5 million for the crime camera program this year---that's more than 4 times the amount previously approved by the City Council.

"I was very disappointed when that amount of money was spent when we were told that $615,000 was the estimated budget for 2008," said New Orleans Councilwoman Stacy Head.

But Boyd is quick to point out that not all of the millions have actually been paid out.

"The city hasn't expended $2.5 (million), it's only expended $1.2 (million)."

Even still, news that over a million dollars of taxpayer money has been spent without the City Council's approval came as complete a shock to Councilwoman Shelley Midura.

"To your knowledge, is that a legal way of doing business in city government?" Midura asked Boyd.

After pausing for a moment, Boyd responded carefully:  "To my knowledge, that is not the appropriate way of contracting services and to my knowledge we don't the kind of authority to make those kind of verbal directions."

And according to Boyd, $374,000 more dollars are still owed to yet another company for maintenance work done on the crime camera system--work Head says was never even contracted for.  Boyd says the city is holding off on paying.

"The city has received and not paid related invoices and at this point we're in the process of reviewing their invoices for their validity," said Boyd.

The city has hired a private firm to complete an audit of the city's IT department, and the financial mess that some council members say the previous technology director, and possibly his predecessors, left behind.

Boyd hopes to have the results of the audit in hand by November---around the same time he says, all 213 of the city's crime cameras should also be functioning once again. 

In the meantime, the man he replaced, Anthony Jones, is still working within the Technology Department.  Jones left his post to take on a lower ranking position in the department back in July, amid allegations he lied on the resume and application he turned into the city before he was hired.  According to Boyd, Jones is still playing an integral role in the department's operations.