NEW ORLEANS — Everybody makes mistakes.
But good leaders don't make the same mistake again and again.
Eyewitness News investigator Mike Perlstein's ongoing reports on Dr. Kyshun Webster, the controversial former head of the city's Juvenile Justice Intervention Center, point to a bigger problem: Mayor LaToya Cantrell's history of not properly vetting some of her top appointees.
Exhibit A: Cantrell put Peter Bowen, a former short-term rental executive, in charge of regulating short-term rentals. The result: an explosion in illegal short-term rentals.
Exhibit B: Cantrell put Jonathan Rhodes, who created a "smart city" consulting company in Delaware, in charge of her smart cities program. The result: another scandal.
And now, Exhibit C: Webster, who ran an education nonprofit into the ground while paying himself $130,000 a year a decade ago, let things at the City's juvenile jail go from bad to worse. Worst of all, Webster ran an outside business on City time with Cantrell's permission.
And yet, the mayor says the City Council should not be able to vet top mayoral appointees. Lately, it appears no one is vetting them.
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