NEW ORLEANS — Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson went before the City Council Thursday, in part to pitch the tax increase for her office that is on the April 29 election ballot.
But instead of Hutson going over the progress of the campaign and a breakdown of how the money would be spent, she spent most of her time being grilled about why so few people know about the proposal, including the councilmembers themselves.
“What I keep hearing from folks out in the community is they're kind of shocked that they just heard about this. And they don't feel like they have the details,” Council Vice President Helena Moreno said.
Councilwoman Lesli Harris said she doesn't have enough information to advise her constituents one way or the other.
“I couldn't take a position on it, so I don't know how we can ask voters to take a position on it,” Harris told the sheriff.
Hutson explained to the council budget committee that her office’s “heavy lift” providing Mardi Gras parade security distracted from the millage campaign.
While Hutson initially got a public relations boost for helping to restore parades to their traditional routes, the controversy that followed put her even further behind in selling the tax increase.
WWL-TV revealed that Hutson paid for top deputies to stay in local hotel rooms – some for 11 days and nights. In in the firestorm that followed, Hutson forced out four or her top executives,: Kristen Morales, assistant sheriff in charge of internal affairs and technology, Graham Bosworth, chief legal counsel, Pearlina Thomas, assistant sheriff for governance, and David Trautenberg, chief financial officer.
“We've had some changes in our office that we've had to navigate through. We had to navigate through the unexpected Mardi Gras (duties),” she said. “So no, the campaign didn't go the way we wanted it to go.”
The millage proposal would roughly double property taxes that go to the Sheriff’s Office, from the current $40 a year for a $250,000 dollar home to about $87 a year. Hutson said the extra money would help pay for salary, equipment, training and building renovations. She said all of those items on the wish list would help with the broader goal of getting the parish jail out of a federal consent designed to improve conditions.
Most of the councilmembers wondered why there hasn't been a more visible campaign by the sheriff.
Here’s one exchange between the sheriff and Councilman Oliver Thomas:
Thomas: “As it relates to people supporting this millage, what do the numbers look like?”
Hutson: “We did not have preliminary polling done.”
Thomas: “So you didn't test the waters at all?”
Hutson: “We did not.”
Hutson explained that she has been telling the council about the need for the millage since shortly after she took office last May. But councilmembers said an abstract proposal to raise taxes is very different than a campaign that sells people on the specific needs for the extra money.
“What I keep hearing from folks out in the community is they're kind of shocked that they just heard about this. And they don't feel like they
have the details,” Moreno said.
Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Casey McGee said Hutson will telling property owners about the millage at upcoming public meetings and that a mailer should be going out to voters ahead of election day. But the Carnival distractions and a short campaign period won’t leave time for other forms of traditional campaigning.
“There have been some changes in our department, critical folks who were helping us with that, but we've had to pivot from that and keep moving,” Hutson said.
Early voting for the April ballot starts Saturday, April 15th.
In New Orleans, in addition to the millage, there is one other item on the ballot, a runoff for a criminal court judgeship featuring Simone Levine and Leon Roche II.