The Joint Budget and Governmental Affairs Committee of the New Orleans City Council met on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, at 9:30 AM. The meeting covered a financial update from the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), an ordinance on police drone reporting requirements, a contract extension for armed security services, and board appointments. Key discussion focused on the city's cash shortfall, past fiscal mismanagement, and strategies to avoid a projected deficit of $110–125 million.
Drone Ordinance: Five speakers from the public (Edith Romero of IO Surveillance, Dr. Sunny Moon, Alexandra Jaoosh, Morgan Clevinger of the Police Community Advisory Board, and Sarah Whittington of the ACLU of Louisiana) expressed support for Councilmember Willard’s drone reporting ordinance but called it the "bare minimum." They urged adding penalties for non-compliance, requiring demographic data on those surveilled, and creating a complaint mechanism. Several noted that NOPD had previously violated its own reporting policies and changed policy to remove requirements.
Budget and Contracts: Morgan Clevinger (former Deloitte auditor) questioned whether the city would cut the Civix staff augmentation contract (worth up to $21.5 million) and raised concerns about emergency spending and unlicensed contractors. The CAO noted the Civix contract is in litigation.
CAO Budget Presentation (Item 7): CAO Joe Jerusalem and Alyssa (Director of Finance) presented a detailed financial update. They reported that the city had brought in $125 million in one-time revenue (vs. an anticipated $75 million) and built a cash management fund of over $130 million. However, as of July 31, the city had only $38.7 million in cash due to surprises including:
The CAO outlined a contingency plan to raise $110 million needed through year-end, including:
Councilmembers questioned the CAO about sales tax audits (93 active, 59 completed totaling $3.8 million), the bond rating (downgraded by two agencies but maintained by a third), past deficit spending, the need for enforcement of parking and property tax collections, and the potential for reducing outside contracts.
Drone Reporting Ordinance (Item 4 – Ord. Cal. 35,523): Councilmember Willard introduced an ordinance amending city code to require NOPD to report monthly on drone usage, with a quarterly presentation to the Criminal Justice Committee. An amendment added (i) quarterly and monthly reporting on which agencies and city departments request drone deployment, and (ii) monthly reporting on the supervising officer for each flight. The ordinance was developed in coordination with NOPD. Councilmembers noted the need for transparency and guardrails. Public comment reinforced demands for stricter accountability and penalties.
Security Contract Extension (Item 5): The committee considered Amendment No. 8 to the contract with Universal Protection Service, LLC dba AlliedUniversal for armed security at municipal facilities, extending through December 31, 2026, with a maximum of $3,000,000. No debate; approved.
Board Appointments (Item 6):
Note: The meeting was originally scheduled to begin at 9:30 AM but the CAO presentation was taken out of order. The final adjournment motion passed 4-0.
Good morning. Councilmember Harris. Here, Councilmember McCarron. Here, Councilmember Willard. Councilman Hughes. Everybody here is saying the same. Councilmember, if you want to move to come out of executive session, second. Seconded by Councilmember He's all in favor? Uh folks are gonna take uh this a bit out of order. We're gonna go to item number seven, which is the CAO budget presentation and financial update. Council members, good morning. Thank you for having us today. Um I know you all specifically requested this information, so I appreciate you working with us and providing a forum to explain things um that are important for the city of New Orleans and where we all think we're headed together. Um as you know, uh we're gonna talk about where we've been, where we are, and where we're going. So in terms of strategy solutions and um solvency, I did think it was important to start with a chronology, because unfortunately I think people have a tendency to forget the past or rewrite history, and so since I and you have lived this, I think it's important to do that and and to do it in some detail. Some of these slides, as usual, you know, I spend more or less time on. This is what I'm going to spend more time on. Council will remember that in November of twenty twenty-five, Councilmember Morrell, then Councilmember Moreno and I went to Baton Rouge to seek a revenue anticipation note in order to make payroll through the end of twenty twenty-five. Now, that is important not only because of the fact that the revenue anticipation note was sought, but also because at that time we said the auditor said, and even the state said that they expected the city to be back because we would run out of cash at some point in twenty twenty-six, whether that was in the summer or whether that was in the fall. So this has been a known thing that the city would likely run out of money, and it was and it was not something that crept off either on the administration or on the council. This has been eyes wide open and a matter of vigilance with everybody. I just want to be clear. We highlighted that yeah. I think um I think the mayor actually uh put that clip on social media. You're exactly right. So then um after coming off the revenue anticipation note, the council worked extraordinarily hard because the last administration submitted a budget to the council that had 30% across the board cuts. And the last council said, we're not comfortable with doing that. What can we do in order to try and fix this problem? And really in the span of three weeks, um uh mayor elect Moreno sort of demanded that the transition team find additional funds. And we were able to find about $75 million in primarily one-time funding. Now why do I say primarily? Because some of the funding is parking expenses, which are one time, but some of which are recurring. But the rest of the money using ARPA is one time, having recurring Sujin Waterboard reimbursable, that $29.5 million was one time. And the amount of WISNER money we got, roughly about $11 million was one time. But there is recurring revenue from WISNE that will be a little bit less than that going for. We, the administration, came and presented about our cash management model in March of 2026. And what I think the council will remember and the public should remember is that the cash management model did two things. Number one, it showed where the administration planned to get $100 million and where we planned on infusing $100 million between April and July. And if my memory serves, and Alyssa correct me if I'm wrong, what the report showed was that as we got money in, we would infuse roughly $20 million into the budget in April, $30 million into the budget in May, $20 million into the budget in June, $30 million in July, getting to $100 million. As that starts to resolve itself, in the spring, we are able to do a few things. We're able to actually significantly increase the cash management fund, which I'll discuss in more detail. The mayor initiates with New Orleans Building Corporation, Caesar's renegotiation, and the ability to receive $100 million, which now has drastically increased the unassigned fund balance and largely puts us over what bonds, sorry, what the rating agencies are looking for to make sure we have enough cash on hand. And also what our long-term borrowing plan looks like. And again, I'll discuss that in more detail, but I think I think we all know that means borrowing against the general alimony millage. Now I'm going to take a pause right here. For those of us who serve together, one indelible message I learned from the last administration is that you can never just have an A plan. You need an A, B, and C plan. And so at least by this point, the mayor and I are discussing what happens if things go awry with State Bond Commission for whatever reason, obviously not being able to forecast what happened in this situation, but having a backup plan. And from information gained both during getting the initial $75 million and continued follow-up with agencies, how if we needed to get to this point, we would do it. But also that we all sat down and within three weeks found $100 million.