Speaker numbers apply only to this recording. Names come from transcript evidence. “Possibly” marks uncertain attribution.
This was the tenth and final day of the 2027 Proposed Budget Hearings for the City of New Orleans, held on October 29, 2026. The council heard presentations from the City Planning Commission (CPC), Historic District Landmarks Commission (HDLC), Vieux Carre Commission (VCC), Parks and Parkways, New Orleans Recreation Development Commission (NORD), and received updates on the Parks Millage from Audubon Nature Institute and City Park. Discussions focused on budgetary constraints, staffing levels, enforcement of fines, and service delivery. Public comments were received on urban agriculture, historic preservation, parks maintenance, and recreation funding.
The meeting adjourned. Budget deliberations will continue before final adoption.
All right, Ashley. I know some of the other council members were at a street dedication this morning, but I think we can go ahead and get started so we can wrap up day ten of our budget hearings. This is uh the last day, and um we add some introductory comments on October 19th. I just want to uh point out that it's a job of of city services um to uh to serve and to be responsive and uh to the goals of the administration to the council and ultimately to the people of the city in New Orleans, and it's in that spirit that we come before you today to present proposed budgets for the other departments within city services, and um uh I am going to yield the floor uh uh for the presentation for the city planning commission. Good morning, council member. Uh I'm Larry Massey, I'm the deputy director of the City Planning Commission. Uh Bob Reverts will be joining us any second now. Um I would like to take a moment to um just thank um all of the commissioners that dedicated so much time and effort and uh thought and work and board members who have done the same over the past year, and our uh 24 employees who uh work hard every day, uh day in and day out to try to improve the quality of life uh for this city. Um Bob has returned, so I think I'll turn it over to him. Good morning, thank you. Sorry for dropping in late. Um just for the record, um Bob Rivers, I'm the executive director of the City Planning Commission. With me today is Larry Massey, our deputy director. I want to thank the council for the opportunity to present our 2027 budget. For background, the CPC is an unattached nine-member commission charged with protecting the public health safety and welfare through land use planning, subdivision regulation, capital improvements planning, and major streets planning. Commission is responsible for making recommendations on land use matters, zoning decisions, neighborhood improvements, environmental protection, capital budget, and other policy matters. The CPC office also supports the city's brownfields program, the urban agriculture program, and provides staff support to the seven-member board of zoning adjustments. The commission is supported by a professional staff of 24, organized into four sections land use regulation, comprehensive planning, border zoning adjustment, and policy formulation. Next slide. So the mayor's proposed 2027 budget keeps the CPC staffing at its current level of 24 positions. Over the course of the last year, uh the City Planning Commission lost one senior city planner position but gained the urban agricultural liaison position uh formally in the Office of Resilience, so our numbers remain the same. Uh the increase shown in the general fund budget slide is a bit misleading as the 2026 budget adopted last year included a number of personnel reductions that never transpired. Other reasons for the increase are the increased reliance on the STR fund. I'm sorry, the reduced reliance on the SDR fund, uh increased employer portion of health care, and increases in workers' compensation. Um as far as the operating side, uh the proposed budget recommends an increase in the operating budget, and that increase is primarily due to a proposed $500,000 allocation for professional services to support the first year of the CPC's three-year effort to develop a new citywide master plan.