Former Mayor Morial to assist Moreno in mayoral transition

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Former Mayor Marc Morial is helping Moreno make the transition from councilwoman to mayor.

Morial points out that he’s been on both sides of a mayoral transition.

He praised the passing-of-the-torch he received from Sidney Barthelemy, but he called the transition between his administration and Ray Nagin “awful”.

“There was no transition. There was no level of engagement. So what it meant was on day one, none of the unclassified employees knew whether they still had jobs, didn’t have jobs, if they should show up for work,” Morial said.

Morial says a positive transition from Mayor Cantrell to Mayor-Elect Moreno is crucial, and Moreno says Cantrell is already involved.

“She is giving us point people to talk to and identified a few people that my team will be working with and along with preparing certain documents and things like that and portfolio so that we are fully ready,” Moreno said.

Once she’s in office, Morial says Moreno will face some of the same issues on her desk that he faced, one specifically being an unbalanced budget.

Moreno says she is already in talks with the state legislative auditor to get a clear game plan for the future.

“I think that that’ll allow us more ability to have a full understanding of what we’re facing, and then also potential solutions on what we need to do to get the budget more in order,” Moreno said.

Morial says that with a strong administration and residents united with her, the city should be able to push forward in the right direction.

“This city thrives when a strong leader that loves the city surrounds herself with a strong, competent team and communicates with the public the direction forward,” Morial said.

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