Outrage and confusion filled the New Orleans City Council Chambers today, all because up until recently filth, insects, and unsecured documents filled the old New Orleans Visitors Center.

"I'm appalled that could go on and none of us even know about it," said Council President Jackie Clarkson. "And thank you to Channel Four it's been discovered."

A recent Eyewitness News report exposed the fact the facility had been unlocked with sensitive information inside, including the social security numbers of former employees. After repeated calls to the mayor's office, the city sent a crew out on Tuesday to board up the building -- more than three years after it closed down.

The issue took center stage Wednesday during the city's weekly recovery committee meeting. During the hearing, the federal government's recently appointed Gulf Coast Recovery Director Gen. Doug O'Dell listened on in disbelief. "It sounds kind of counterintuitive that you don't fix your welcome center when you're trying to recover."

And the testimony at the meeting went on as Council President Jackie Clarkson questioned several city agencies about the old center. The city's code enforcement director Winston Reid said he didn't know who owned the property. "I'm not sure who's the legal occupant of the building in terms of the lessee or lessor," Winston said.

And a representative from the Office of Recovery couldn't explain why it was still blighted.

"I have not been briefed on this issue unfortunately; I cannot really speak to any of these questions," said Jeffrey Thomas, Special Assistant to the Office of Recovery.

Those remarks came as quite the shock to Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis.

"Well, I just have to smile because if they don't know they obviously have very short memories," said Willard-Lewis.

Councilwoman Willard-Lewis says in hopes of getting action, she, on more than one occasion, has brought a handful of city agencies to the blighted property, including she says, "Property Management, The Office of Recovery, as well as the efforts from Sanitation Department." And she says their last visit out to the facility "was less than two months ago."

The councilwoman says pre-Katrina the city was in the works to turn the facility into a police substation for the Seventh District.

Willard-Lewis says she is now trying to get those plans rolling again, in light of the fact the Seventh District police station lost their headquarters in the storm and is now working out of an office building, making the need even greater according to Willard-Lewis. "It is more apparent, more obvious, and should be certainly more compelling," she says. "The question is where is the sense of urgency from the Office of Recovery to get the job done."