A system of bonuses designed to keep experienced New Orleans police officers on the force is running out of money, and the Cantrell administration says there won't be enough left to pay all of them.
The Cantrell administration set aside $20 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act money in 2022 to pay $10,000 bonuses to officers who stayed for three more years.
But the administration said last month that the city is $6 million to $8 million short on money due to officers this month.
The revelation has mayor-elect Helena Moreno, who takes office in less than a week, scrambling to figure out how to cover this latest recently-revealed shortfall.
New Orleans City Councilmember At-Large J.P. Morrell says the botched bonuses are just part of it. He told WWL's Newell Normand on Tuesday that officers are also fed up with how long it takes the city's Office of Secondary Employment to process payments for off-duty details.
"Newell, they sometimes won't get their paycheck from the Office of Secondary Employment for three to four to five weeks after the detail's been worked," he said.
Morrell said these are self-inflicted wounds in efforts to keep officers or attract new ones.
"The number-one advocate for anyone entering a job or soliciting a new job is the current people who are on the job," Morrell said. "One of the biggest challenges we have with NOPD is that the quality of life for officers is so bad; they don't recommend other people necessarily join the NOPD."
