Who’s ahead and who’s behind in the City Hall slugfest?
An opinion published in The Times-Picayune by David Marcello, executive director of The Public Law Center of Tulane and Loyola law schools
Who’s ahead and who’s behind in the City Hall slugfest? I don’t know, and I don’t care.
It matters not who’s winning between the mayor and the council. What’s important is which one of them might finally deliver real procurement reform in city government.
Both have that power. The Home Rule Charter gives each branch authority to set its own procurement policies — the Council by rule, the mayor by executive order.
The mayor and council could each be awarding professional services contracts next month in accordance with the best practices in America. Four or more votes in the council, the stroke of a pen by the mayor, and citizens would have something to celebrate at long last!
We should find the best possible system for procurement of professional services and test the council’s and the mayor’s selection procedures against it, then challenge them to be the best they can be.
Let’s stop the blame game. Use your executive orders, Mr. Mayor. Use your rules, council members. Deliver the procurement reform that voters approved in 1995.
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