Tuesday the New Orleans mayor's office will discuss with members of the city council what kind of budget shortfall the city is facing, with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We are being very thoughtful and we're using certainly a scalpel instead of a hatchet to make some of these cuts, but they're significant," warned New Orleans Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montaño.
Montaño says they are looking at everything from modifying service contracts to reducing overtime.
"There is anywhere between ten and 12 million dollars of saving identified by just stricter and tighter controls of our overtime usage," he said. "Some of that is a ripple effect of the cancellation of budgeted overtime from events that have been canceled."
City Hall has also instituted a hiring freeze, but that freeze does not affect public safety.
"We maintain our hiring freeze and I see that for the future and that's absent public safety employees," Montaño said. "We do not want to regress in that regard."
The budget committee meets Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. The meeting will take place via video conference. The public can view it at the city council web site.