N.O. Mayor Nagin asks AG to reconsider contract transparency opinion

Despite Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell's Oct. 15 opinion that the City Council is well within its rights to create greater transparency in city contracting by opening the professional services procurement process to Open Meetings Law, Mayor C. Ray Nagin's administration continues to fight that effort by asking the AG for a reconsideration.

The ongoing struggle between City Council Vice President and council Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Arnie Fielkow and the Nagin administration, led by City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields, over the city's professional services contracting process just got kicked into overtime following the administration's request to Caldwell for a reconsideration of the Oct. 15 opinion.

Arguing on the merit of "separation of powers" given to the executive branch by the city's Home Rule Charter -- and that the council's opening the city's contracting process to Louisiana Open Meetings Law would be an infringement on the executive branch's powers -- the administration's outside legal counsel, Martin Childs of the New Orleans firm Hoffman Seydel LLC, requested a reconsideration in an Oct. 27 letter.