New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin sent an e-mailed letter to City Council President Jackie Clarkson Wednesday, saying that he wants an investigation into what he calls "a City Council member verbally abusing" the sanitation director.

In the letter, Nagin admitted he hadn't seen the video tape of the exchange between Council Member Stacy Head and New Orleans Sanitation Director Veronica White.

Nagin’s spokeswoman said the mayor is out of town on a GNO, Inc., lobbying trip to Florida to see the NASA Space Shuttle launch, and that he was unavailable for an interview Thursday.

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Nagin's e-mail to council president

In one of the most heated parts of the Tuesday City Council exchange, White responded to one of Head’s questions about the city pays its trash contractors saying, "I reserve my comments for the Inspector General.”

Head replied, “Well, I am not going to approve your budget not dime number one. And I will stand before the citizens of New Orleans and say you are not going to get sanitation service collection because I am not going to be bullied by Ms. White. You are not telling the truth Ms. White and I find that incredibly offensive."

White responded, “I find it offensive when you say that I'm not telling you the truth. When I've always been truthful. The problem with you is, you have selective understanding, and your motive is to paint a picture as if everybody in this department is thieves and crooks, when you're the one.”

Wednesday’s e-mail from Mayor Nagin said "It was [his] understanding that a council member verbally abused the City sanitation department head, used profanity, and boldly proclaimed very crude race-baiting remarks during a public meeting."

Nagin’s e-mail continued, "I have not reviewed the full tape yet, but it has been reported that the employee was publicly chastised, threatened, belittled, and carelessly accused of being a liar."

"It was almost a void of all reason. A void of all factual back up and irresponsible," said Stacy Head in an interview Thursday as she responded to Nagin’s investigation request.

Head called Nagin’s e-mail a “knee-jerk reaction” and said that the Mayor has no authority to investigate a City Council Member under the City Charter.

“I was irritated. I was frustrated. For two years, I've asked for the same thing. For two years, I've been told that these monthly Microsoft Excel spreadsheets do not exist. That we are just paying on an estimate,” Head said about the information she said she has been trying to get from White.

Head said she has been questioning the sanitation director about the city's trash contracts for more than a year, and that two of the three trash contractors are supposed to include an updated, specific spreadsheets of properties that they pick up trash from with their invoices every month in order to get paid.

According to Head, every time she asked to see those spreadsheets, White told her they didn't exist, and that the city was paying for trash pick-up based on a list of people who registered for trash carts.

In fact, 4 Investigates looked into the issue this time, last year.

"We will not have an accurate house count. All we have is the raw data for everyone who has registered for a cart," said Veronica White during the City Council’s 2007 Budget hearing.

As recently as April 25, 2008, White testified before the City Council’s sanitation committee. Back then, Head asked White, “I just want to confirm that the list of service locations are the lists that I asked for, and were provided in these three binders for SDT, Richards and Metro.”

White replied, “Yes, that's everything that we have today.”

Head continued her questioning, “And that was early 2008, February 2008. Correct?”

White replied, “Yes.”

In our interview Thursday, Head showed us those three binders and said, “These three binders are the only lists that until two days ago, Ms. White claimed existed. Now, miraculously, because there's interest in this matter, particularly because the budget is up, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets on a monthly basis for 24 months do exist.”

This comment from Veronica White during Tuesday’s Budget Hearing is what started the war of words between the two: “We get reports every single month. It is with the invoice. It is in the contract and we receive them. I can give you every last one of them because we receive them on the disc. We have it on the disc.”

According to Head, the city's Chief Administrative Officer Brenda Hatfield promised to turn over the monthly spreadsheets to the council member on Thursday morning. But as of 6 p.m., Head had still not received them. 

We requested an interview with Veronica White for this story, but the Mayor’s Spokeswoman, Ceeon Quiett, said White was “out” and unavailable.

Nagin's Wednesday e-mail implied that White was "traumatized" and was considering both an EEOC complaint and legal action because of the exchange at the Budget Hearing.

When asked who would investigate the situation, if an investigation was launched, Quiett said in an e-mail to Eyewitness News that Nagin had addressed the issues with Council President Clarkson, and said that, "The next steps will be handled and decided upon by them."