Moreno Helped Write the Oversight Rules. Is Her Administration Working Around Them?

In 2022, Helena Moreno and JP Morrell told New Orleans that City Hall needed more public oversight. They said powerful department heads should not simply appear in office without meaningful public review. Instead, the City Council should examine their qualifications and approve their appointments through a real deputy mayor confirmation process.

Moreno and Morrell did more than talk about reform. They helped put the issue before New Orleans voters. And they campaigned hard. They made a strong case that the mayor shouldn’t just appoint whoever she wants without public oversight.

The voters agreed, approving the charter change with roughly 60% support.

Now Moreno occupies the mayor’s office. Morrell leads the City Council. The system they helped create should apply just as strongly today.

But did the rules somehow change?

Moreno created six deputy mayor positions that sit near the top of city government. Yet, most never faced the confirmation fight she once demanded not only for the Cantrell administration, but all future administrations.

Moreno Once Said the Next Mayor Should Welcome This

During the 2022 debate, Moreno strongly defended the confirmation proposal.

“I think for whoever is the next mayor, I think that they should be incredibly eager to showcase who’s going to be part of their team and their expertise.” — Helena Moreno, 2022

That future mayor turned out to be Helena Moreno.

Her argument was easy to understand. A mayor should proudly introduce powerful appointees and let the public examine their qualifications. Moreno was not talking about clerical staff or ordinary City Hall employees. She was talking about people entrusted with major government responsibilities.

That’s the problem. Moreno once said powerful City Hall appointees should face public scrutiny. Now some of her most powerful appointees — the deputy mayors — never had to face a formal deputy mayor confirmation hearing.

Moreno also explained why the old system troubled her. Appointees could arrive with almost no scrutiny, and the next thing New Orleans knew, they were running entire departments while the public had no idea who they were or what qualified them.

“Next thing you know, they’re over these departments and the public doesn’t know anything about who’s leading these departments.” — Helena Moreno, 2022

That complaint deserves a second look now that Moreno runs the administration she once described.

Six Deputy Mayors Now Sit Near the Top

After taking office, Moreno built out six deputy mayor positions: Joseph Giarrusso III as First Deputy Mayor and Chief Administrative Officer, Kevin Ferguson as Deputy Mayor and Chief of Staff, Michael Harrison over Public Safety, Dr. Jennifer Avegno over Health and Human Services, Renée Lapeyrolerie over External Affairs — now also the administration’s point person for New Orleans East economic development — and Jeffrey Schwartz over Economic Development. The administration describes these roles as covering the entirety of city government. Together, they draw roughly $1.37 million a year in base salary before benefits.

Those numbers alone don’t prove anything went wrong. They do confirm these are serious jobs at serious public expense — exactly the kind of positions that should have gone through deputy mayor confirmation before someone stepped into them.

This is not an argument about fancy titles. It is an argument about power, precedent and following the rules.

Why Deputy Mayor Confirmation Never Happened

Some of Moreno’s deputy mayors have appeared before Council committees. That sounds reassuring until you look at what those appearances actually were. The Council has treated several of them as presentations — a chance to introduce an official and take questions — rather than formal Section 4-106 confirmation hearings that end in an up-or-down vote.

Those are different tools doing different jobs. A presentation introduces someone. A confirmation vote decides whether that person keeps the position. Those are not the same thing. Dr. Avegno’s own record shows the gap plainly. The Council confirmed her as Director of the Department of Human Services in a real Section 4-106 vote. Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services is a separate title the administration created afterward, carrying authority over more than her original department. For that title, she gave the Council a presentation. She never went before it for a confirmation vote.

One confirmed title and one unconfirmed title, held by the same person, doing work that overlaps but isn’t identical. That pattern is worth checking across all six deputy mayors, not just one.

Morrell Fought Hard for This. Now He’s Gone Quiet.

Morrell wasn’t a bystander in 2022. He was the amendment’s chief architect, and he built his argument around how much unchecked power the mayor’s office holds.

“We are one of the most mayor-centric cities in the entire state of Louisiana, if not the country.” — JP Morrell, 2022

Morrell also drew a real line. He didn’t want the Council dragging every mayoral staffer before a committee.

“We don’t have oversight to micro-manage everybody she picks.” — JP Morrell, 2022

That’s a fair distinction for a mayor’s personal aides. It stops being fair once an official sits above confirmed department directors, sets their priorities, and carries a title the administration itself says covers major swaths of city government. Morrell knew that difference better than anyone. He said powerful directors should face public questioning “at least once per administration” — his standard, not this newsroom’s.

Deputy mayors fit exactly the category Morrell built his 2022 argument around: officials who direct policy and stand above department heads, not aides who quietly support the mayor. He hasn’t applied his own standard to them. He hasn’t said why not. The man who spent a term warning New Orleans about a mayor-centric City Hall now leads the Council while a new layer of unconfirmed authority sits at the top of one, and he’s said nothing about it publicly. That silence is its own answer until he offers a different one.

So where is the line? Who directs policy? Who evaluates department heads? Who sets their priorities? Who controls major personnel decisions? Who can reverse a department director? Those questions matter more than the words printed on an organizational chart.

The Council Already Holds the Fix

Section 4-106 lets the Council extend confirmation requirements to additional executive offices by ordinance — the exact tool it would need to require deputy mayor confirmation going forward. Louisiana’s 2022 charter amendment already covers 11 statutory departments, including public works, finance, police and fire. If deputy mayors now function like department heads in practice, the Council can hold hearings, write an ordinance, and vote on whether that layer belongs under the same rule. So far, it hasn’t.

That inaction deserves scrutiny too. Morrell chairs the very committee positioned to close this gap, and he spent his first term arguing that New Orleans concentrates too much power in the mayor’s office. Our earlier coverage of Moreno’s opening months showed a Council working closely with her administration on the budget crisis. Close cooperation makes governing easier. It doesn’t answer the oversight question voters settled in 2022.

This Isn’t About Whether Moreno Is Good at the Job

Moreno could turn out to be an excellent mayor. Every deputy mayor could be fully qualified for the authority they hold. Neither fact settles this. Good government rules shouldn’t bend based on whether the public happens to like the person currently holding office — that was the entire argument behind the 2022 amendment in the first place.

Whatever precedent Moreno sets now becomes the playbook for the next mayor, and the next one after that. As BSM noted in our assessment of Moreno’s early tenure, she inherited a genuinely difficult City Hall. Difficulty explains urgency. It doesn’t excuse skipping a public process that voters specifically wrote into the Charter.

Moreno and Morrell Should Answer This Directly

Mayor Moreno should say plainly what power each deputy mayor holds. Do they supervise confirmed department directors? Can they set budget priorities, direct policy, or influence hiring and firing inside departments they oversee? If the answer is largely no, City Hall should say so clearly. If the answer is yes, the Council should explain why that authority doesn’t warrant the same vote every confirmed director already faced.

Morrell owes New Orleans more than silence. He set the standard that powerful officials should face public scrutiny at least once per administration. He should say, on the record, whether a presentation meets that standard or falls short of it. If he still believes what he argued in 2022, he has the votes and the committee gavel to extend confirmation to deputy mayors himself. If he’s changed his mind, he should explain why — instead of letting the question sit unanswered while his ally runs the office he once fought to check.

Neither official can plead confusion about what this rule was supposed to do. They wrote it. They defended it against a sitting mayor who fought them on it. They asked New Orleans to trust that transparency would outlast whoever happened to be in charge.

The solution is simple. Show us exactly who holds power. Explain exactly what they control. Then determine whether those positions deserve Council confirmation.

Moreno and Morrell asked New Orleans voters to demand greater transparency from City Hall. Now New Orleans should demand the same transparency from them — and from the Council president who’s gone quiet on his own rule.

Sourced References:
NOLA.com, “New Orleans City Council gains power to approve mayoral appointees,” Nov. 2022
NOLA.com, “New Orleans City Council meets for first time this term,” Jan. 2026
Bureau of Governmental Research, “New Orleans City Council flexes muscle with new oversight power”
City of New Orleans Council agenda records, Motion Nos. M-26-33 through M-26-35

Jeff Thomas is the founder and CEO of Fenix AI Inc. and publisher of Black Source Media. He covers New Orleans civic affairs, politics, and government accountability.

Jeff Thomas

Publisher — Black Source Media Jeff Thomas Publisher • Opinion Columnist •  New Orleans Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades. His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands. He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had. Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know. They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead. Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans? The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It. The Failure of Mitch Landrieu

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