As city leaders push forward with the effort to wipe out blight around New Orleans, they aim to do so a little more carefully.

"It's almost everyday you're getting these little emails that tell you another house has been destroyed, another house has been destroyed. Now we're getting these people that are out of town that say, 'I was waiting on my Road Home money, now my house is torn down,'" said Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell.

Hedge-Morrell and other council members added an extra layer of security Thursday.

In a 6-0 vote, they created a new position -- someone who will oversee the demolition process. The independent monitor will survey each property on the chopping block, to make sure demolition is the right call.

"We're trying to catch the mistakes before they happen. One more step in the process of a checklist," said Council President Jackie Clarkson.

"We were still finding historic structures destroyed, or people's houses when they were out of town and still working on them, destroyed or demolished. And yet, we had serious blight that was truly imminent danger that was being neglected."

Council members say they don't know how much the new position will cost the city -- something a bidding process will decide. Whatever the price tag, they say it's a necessary move.

"If the house could be put back into commerce, and it's a Creole cottage or whatever, we need to make sure NORA is available to purchase that property, if the homeowner doesn't have the wherewithal to fix it up," said Hedge-Morrell.

"We don't want to slow blight from being torn down, but we also want to add maybe another person in there. A person, not a process, so that maybe we can make sure these terrible things that are happening, don't happen."