NEW ORLEANS — Mayor LaToya Cantrell has had some big challenges in her first year in office, including revamping the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board, hiring a new police chief and finding enough money to tackle the monumental job of repairing the city's crumbling infrastructure.
Cantrell sat down with Eric Paulsen for a one-on-one interview about her accomplishments and thoughts on the previous year.
Below is the transcript for part three of our three-part interview with LaToya Cantrell. You can watch the other two parts using the links below:
---
CANTRELL: Well sometimes you do have to prove yourself and being a woman and being African-American, absolutely, that comes with it as well. This isn't new. I'm absolutely not the first, however... it's challenging but if I stay focused and continue to deliver to the people what I said then that will ultimately continue to build trust within the community and we'll all, you know, win. This city will win.
PAULSEN: Quickly, how do you grade your first year?
CANTRELL: Well I grade my first year... you know, I don't know, it's hard to grade yourself. I feel that I've given it all I have.
PAULSEN: But you feel proud of what you've done?
CANTRELL: Oh very much so.
PAULSEN: I'm impressed with what you've done with the office, you've brightened it all up!
CANTRELL: Oh, that's small things but meaningful, your environment does matter. My love song to the city is I'm giving you the best that I've got and I believe that I do that every single day and it is a spirit of transparency, in my opinion, that I do provide. And a sense of authenticity and where I'm not afraid to go to people,
I go to them, I listen to them. I'm not afraid to, after I listen, to also change my mind on certain things. That's what leadership is about. Understanding that you have to do it together, you have to compromise and you have to get there together and so that's how I believe that I have been leading our city, that's how I will continue to lead.
But it will be transparent. I have been, I'll continue to be, but at the same time I know my role as the mayor and there are things that I can do under my purview that are in the best interest of the city that I will do.
I was challenged again as it relates to the selection of the police chief (Shaun Ferguson), that I didn't do a national search. Well I didn't have to do a national search. I felt that I had competent, capable police officers within the New Orleans Police Department that have made tremendous strides underneath the consent decree that we're teaching other departments on a national level. I chose from within and I absolutely know that I did the right thing.
PAULSEN: So those people who think you may have driven Michael Harrison out. Not true?
CANTRELL: Oh absolutely not true, at all. I've supported him 100% and that has been something that has been highlighted as him being the commissioner of Baltimore, that he was able to work in transition from one mayor to the next. It's a partnership, we're not throwing anybody away and we don't eat our own in the Cantrell administration. We back up our people. We give them the support that they need to be successful. That's what I'm doing with Sewerage and Water Board, our executive director (Ghassan Korban) came in with an interim (director), had to select another interim while hiring a permanent director. We've done that. We've turned that corner.
PAULSEN: But you got someone with experience at the S&WB?
CANTRELL: Oh, absolutely. And one that has been able to build credibility amongst all of our partners here in the city from residents, business community, our employees, at the state.,.. of course our governor, our local delegation - we're behind this director. We're behind the changes that need to happen in order for this city to be sustained.