Report on Inspector General's Office Released by Project Transparency and Louisiana Justice Institute

This morning the Louisiana Justice Institute, as a part of our Project Transparency campaign, received a copy of the Transition Report of the Office of Inspector General (OIG). The Inspector General's office has been in the news a lot this week, with the hiring of Inspector General Edouard Quatrevaux, the dismissal of former Interim Inspector General Leonard Odom, and the resignation of former Police Monitor Neely Moody. Today's Picayune mentions the report, which has been a central part of the current controversy.

According to the latest Times Picayune story about the office, "The man running the office in Quatrevaux's absence, David Westerling, said he has tried unsuccessfully to get copies of the report, and the two auditors who produced it have taken leave for the rest of the week and locked the rest of the staff out of their files."

You can find the report here, or by heading to www.NolaPublicRecords.org.

We would especially like to draw your attention to page five of the report, which discusses the hiring of the executive director of the Ethics Review Board.

According to the report, when Inspector General Cerasoli hired the executive director of the Ethics Review Board, "she was an undergraduate student from a college in Quincy, Massachusetts, where IG Cerasoli had been her teacher. She was a marketing major whose only previous work experience included part-time employment earning no more than $10 per hour while attending college. Upon graduation, she was hired as the executive director for the ERB with an annual salary and benefits of $90,000."

The new inspector general, Edouard Quatrevaux, dismissed the report as "internal strife," while Cerasoli told the Picayune that Odom's report was "sad, really sad" and was "just an attempt to undermine the credibility of the office."

At this link, you can find the resumes and the salary for everyone at the Inspector General's Office. You can also find the First Annual Report of the Ethics Review Board and the First Annual Report of the Inspector General, all at http://www.nolapublicrecords.org/governance/office-inspector-general-documents.

Since these agencies were authorized by the voters in a City Charter referendum in 1996, and established in 2007, the people of New Orleans have placed great faith in the Office of Inspector General and the Ethics Review Board. We expect and demand that both of these powerful public agencies set the highest standards for transparency and accountability. . . and accept nothing less.

There is a lot more, all available at nolapublicrecords. Want to know about the District Attorney’s Office personnel? The documents are there. Want to know more about the Recovery School District and charter schools? We have all the documents.

And if you want us to make document requests, or need help with forms, send us an email.