Nagin administration leaders are following through with threats that budget cuts would force cuts to essential services.
The City Attorney is canceling contracts with at least nine law firms, including those that conduct the city's blight hearings.
The hearings started back in February. They are large-scale gatherings of people sighted for blight or code violations.
The city held its last one in September, but the blight hearings may soon be put on hold.
“My recommendation to the departments that will be affected, which is the health department and code enforcement, is for them to postpone any hearings that are scheduled for January or February or for them to find other funding sources,” said City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields.
According to Moses-Fields, the City Council's one million dollar cut to her operating budget led her to cancel all city contracts with law firms that do work for her office, including the attorneys who serve as administrative hearing officers in the blight hearings.
“All law firms that provide legal assistance to the City Attorney's office received notice of cancellation,” she said.
Nine letters have gone out to law firms with city contracts. Some handle legal matters related to bond issues, while some are experts for the 1,600 cases City Attorneys handle in Civil Court. But the blight will likely be the biggest sticking point.
“Unfortunately, those priorities of things that are being cut are those that are important to the citizens. So, it's really the people who are losing out and the council cannot do anything about that,” said City Council Member Shelley Midura.
The bottom line is, Fields can decide where to make the cuts to live within the office's approved budget.
Whether the other agencies involved in blight hearings will find the money else where still remains to be seen.
Fields said she's also re-evaluating all the civil lawsuits that the city is involved in to decide whether the cut in funding will keep the city from adequately pursuing them.
