New Orleans City Hall begins layoffs to end budget deficit | Local politics

Thirteen employees from two New Orleans city departments received pink slips this month as part of Mayor-elect Helena Moreno’s plan to balance the city’s budget, the first in a series of pay cuts expected to recoup $37 million in savings.

On Dec. 12, Moreno’s transition team informed the four employees of the Mayor’s Office of Youth and Families and the nine members of the Office of Criminal Justice Coordination that their jobs were ending after Moreno took office on Jan. 12, transition and City Hall staff members said this week.

“As Mayor-elect Moreno prepares to take office, we have reviewed unclassified positions within City Hall. At this time, we will not offer you continued employment in your current role in the new administration,” the letter read.

The move follows Moreno’s previous announcement that she would transfer oversight of youth, family and criminal justice services to other city agencies. But until recently, it was unclear whether employees in those departments would lose their jobs. The offices are led by Asya Howlett and Tenisha Stevens.

Todd Ragusa, a transition spokesman, said new Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Michael Harrison will oversee criminal justice coordination, while new Deputy Mayor Dr. Jennifer Avegno will manage youth and family programs in the city’s Health and Human Services division.

“Crime, health, family stability and opportunity are deeply linked, and this reorganization reflects that reality,” Ragusa said.

Ragusa added that the move also reflects Moreno’s “vision of a more coordinated municipal government, focused on results rather than silos.”

This is just the first round of layoffs, and more layoff notices are expected to be sent out by Jan. 6, he said. A total of 36 unclassified at-will employees and 62 employees who have been with the city for less than a year will be laid off under Moreno’s spending plan.

This plan also provides for the leave of 724 non-public security or essential services employees who would lose one day of salary each pay period. The city will also freeze the hiring of 134 vacant positions. The city will save $37.4 million with these moves.

Moreno is also counting on $74 million in new revenue from the city’s Water and Sewer Authority, unspent federal grants and other sources.

In late November, the mayor-elect said her 2026 budget proposal would avoid a projected $222 million deficit and would be a “surgical approach” to necessary cuts than would Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s proposed spending plan, which called for a 30% reduction in nearly all city services.

The city council, of which Moreno is vice president, adopted his proposal on Dec. 1 over Cantrell’s strong objections.

One of the two departments affected so far, the Office of Youth and Families, was created by Cantrell early in his tenure. The other, the Office of Criminal Justice, has been housed in the Mayor’s Office for decades and works to improve public safety in the criminal and juvenile justice system.

In addition to staff layoffs, Moreno’s budget would cut $740,000 from the Office of Youth and Families’ flagship Pathways youth internship program, which provides internships to 20 to 30 at-risk youth.

Another $400,000 will be cut from the Office of Criminal Justice Coordination’s Evening Reporting Center program, an after-school alternative to detention that serves about two dozen students.

It is unclear what additional programs would be removed from these offices.