Moreno faces backlash over climate office restructuring
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Mayor Helena Moreno is shaking up how New Orleans City Hall approaches climate change.
Why it matters: Hundreds of residents are pushing back and asking Moreno to reverse course.
The big picture: Moreno's administration laid off several members of the city's Office of Resilience and Sustainability. A new executive order says the initiatives will be spread across all city departments.
- "We need more than just a small little office to work on climate and resiliency issues," Moreno told reporters Tuesday. "In every city department, we have to be thinking about these things."
- Moreno also said she wasn't happy with the ongoing delays in reopening Lincoln Beach, which is under the purview of the office.
Yes, but: The layoffs sparked immediate pushback. A Change.org petition calling for Moreno to save the office has more than 1,400 signatures.
- The petition organizers held a press conference Wednesday saying they feel the move deprioritizes the city's climate change work.
- "What I worry most about is that we proceed with this plan [and] projects fall behind or to the wayside," says Jackson Voss, one of the organizers. "I have a hard time seeing how a lot of the city employees could just add that to their plate if we're reducing staff capacity."
- Chris Lang, one of the laid-off staffers, echoed Voss' concerns, saying he and his colleagues didn't have time to hand off their work.
What she's saying: "I get that there might be some people who are upset," Moreno said Tuesday.
- "But I ask this — give me a shot to show you that there is actually a better way to do it and a way to actually work more urgently on these issues, because these are issues that I very much care about."
Zoom in: Joe Giarrusso, Moreno's new chief administrative officer who is now in charge of the climate office, tells Axios he hadn't heard from the petition organizers directly and that it's unlikely the administration will reverse course.
- "ORS is not being disbanded," he says. "It is being redirected."
- The restructuring is a change in strategy and a result of budget cuts.
- The administration is focused on preserving public safety and city services, he says. It is laying off about 125 employees and furloughing nonessential employees for a day every two weeks.