Part of Thursday's 50-minute discussion of the city's non-profit agency New Orleans Affordable Homeownership was overshadowed by heated moments between Mayor Ray Nagin and a few city council members.

“I'm here ready to work with this council and, for the most part, we get along great,
Nagin said during his noontime appearance at the council meeting.  “But there's a couple of you, I don't understand why you're doing what you're doing.  No, I do.”

Nagin took issue with some council members who questioned him for not being able to commit to making an appearance at the meeting.

“I do not appreciate what has been going on today as it relates to my schedule,” he said.

Nagin may be responding to a letter council members Arnie Fielkow and Shelley Midura sent to him Wednesday night.  The letter said it was "disconcerting” that Nagin would “probably be unable to attend the meeting."

About 30 minutes later, Nagin responded to Fielkow, writing “Tomorrow is a very heavy regularly schedule (sic) day for me.  Enjoy your day tomorrow, I hope your letter gets you the media pop you so desperately crave."

On Thursday, Nagin continued to take some council members to task.

“If you want a team-based environment, we need to act like a team and I am getting sick and tired of this,” he said.

District B council member Stacy Head was out of town and not at Thursday’s meeting.  Three other council members, Cynthia Willard-Lewis, Cynthia Hedge-Morrell and council president Jackie Clarkson, didn't ask the mayor a single question at the meeting. 

Attack mode to the media

The most heated exchange came between Fielkow and Nagin over the city's handling of the NOAH issue.

“Two weeks ago when the media first brought this, in a major way, to life, your reaction to it was defensive and an attack mode to the media,” said Fielkow, the council vice president.  “And I said this privately and I wish we could have diffused the issue then by saying ‘If there's a problem, we will look at it.  We will investigate it.’”

When Nagin said that he did respond in that manner, Fielkow challenged him and Nagin responded “Go check the tapes.”  To which Fielkow answered, “I will.”

Nagin said City Hall has begun investigating the NOAH home remediation program and is trying to determine what the city paid for and if there is a need to get any money back from contractors.  He said his administration is conducting its own investigation, with city workers so far reviewing all 870 properties on NOAH’s list.

“We have 90 properties where we cannot substantiate the work was actually done,” Nagin told council members.

“46 of those properties were actually billed so we had some with bad addresses, we don't have the invoices or they never were billed.”

The mayor left the meeting before answering reporters’ questions, so it's still unclear what method the city used to compile this data or how inspectors differentiated between work done by NOAH, volunteers or even contractors hired by homeowners.

What is also unclear is whether the city's review includes a look at the property owners who received remediation work.  According to NOAH documents, some businesses and owners of multiple homes, who wouldn't appear to qualify for the program, did have work done to that property.

Fielkow also raised concerns that some of the same people doing the investigating for the city may be part of the substance of what's being investigated by other authorities.

“Given the relationships that exist between NOAH and the city, I think it is somewhat less than credible for the city to do its own internal investigation, especially when others are willing to take it on right now,” Fielkow said.

Eyewitness News has learned that at least two people with knowledge of the NOAH home remediation program have been contacted by the FBI and will meet with agents in the next few days.

Nagin said he still doesn't have an accurate count of just how many homes NOAH gutted and what the city has actually paid for, but he told the council he has never relied on any list.  That contradicts what he told reporters at a news conference last month, when he gave the media a list he called “accurate.”

“The list that counts is the list where we paid for services and that list was provided to you,” Nagin said on July 22 at the news conference.

Who knew what

On Thursday Nagin said WWL-TV’s initial report on July 21 was the first time he was aware of any problems with NOAH.

“It's amazing to me that some people have been working on this quietly and supposedly knew some things and didn't bring them to light, and I don't appreciate it.”

However, council member Stacy Head's office provided WWL-TV with a copy of an e-mail sent April 1 to housing director Tony Faciane, in which Head wrote, “NOAH appears to be a mess.”

Another e-mail from July 3 to city chief administrative officer Brenda Hatfield also addressed NOAH's problems.  The mayor was carbon copied on much of that exchange.

Still Nagin told the council on Thursday he never had any evidence of problems at NOAH.

“It's had a history of clean audits,” he said.

But according to the state's legislative auditor, NOAH was cited for five straight years, all before Nagin took office.  The program was established during the administration of former mayor Marc Morial.