It has been one year since New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell took office. How has she done?
"I would grade her a B+ or even an A-," WWL TV Political analyst Clancy DuBos said. He gives her high marks for the infrastructure deal just announced and for her negotiating skills.
UNO Pollster Ed Chervenak says, "She's been able to do what previous mayors were not able to do, and that was to basically steer state money to the city to deal with infrastructure."
Dubos says Cantrell, however, gets low marks for communicating... or not communicating as the case may be.
"The only reason she didn't get a total A is the transparency thing," he explained. "She needs to get over that, and she needs to start practicing it; and I think she needs to improve her communications with the council."
Chervenak noted, "I would agree with the criticism that there is a lack of transparency in this administration. Everything is done behind closed doors and there doesn't seem to be a lot of communication between the mayor and the city council,"
Cantrell secretly took an official trip to Cuba, and she changed the rules for issuing camera generated speeding tickets in school zones without any announcement. Both drew criticism for a lack of transparency.
Chervenak says while Cantrell's administration has also suffered hits because of flooding events and boil water advisories.
He notes, however that she gets praise for strong hirings of a police chief and the S&WB Executive Director.
"The hiring of (Ghassan) Korban seems to be one of the better moves she has made. He has been very up front and transparent about what's going to be needed to fix the Sewerage and Water Board."
