New Orleans Inspector General Allowed To Hire Staff

The T-P has reported that the New Orleans' new inspector general can begin recruiting specialized investigators and legal staff.

Civil Service staffers agreed to create three new job classifications for auditing, criminal investigations and so-called "forensic engineering," specialists who evaluate the quality of public construction projects.

The commission approved 19 positions in those three main groups Monday. It also allowed the Ethics Review Board to hire three management-level positions: an executive director, legal counsel and a first assistant inspector general for legal affairs. The first assistant will report directly to Cerasoli.

Cerasoli and his new staff should now examine all of the old contracts, awarded to the City, if they want to stamp out corruption. This would make the citizens of New Orleans feel that this new watchdog group is moving in the right direction.