NEW ORLEANS — On Tuesday, the New Orleans City Council moved to remove Communications Director, Gregory Joseph.
According to Council President, JP Morrell, Tuesday's vote was historic.
“This is, from our research, the first time the New Orleans City Council has ever moved to terminate an unclassified city employee, pursuant to the charter," Morrell said.
Mayor Cantrell has until Friday to terminate Joseph.
If she doesn't, there will be a public hearing on October 3 where the administration and Joseph may have outside counsel dispute any of the facts that were revealed in the months-long investigation.
The council will have the final vote at that hearing as to whether or not Joseph will be removed from his position.
The City Council has been investigating thousands of mailers that were sent to New Orleans voters during the recall to remove Cantrell from office.
After reviewing thousands of documents of evidence and hearing testimony from Joseph and Chief Procurement Officer, Julien Meyer, the council concluded Joseph's actions warrant termination.
Joseph claimed the mailers were informational and educational and had nothing to do with the recall.
Councilmember Euguene Green said on Tuesday that the decision to terminate Joseph's employment shouldn't be taken lightly.
“In general, I don’t agree with the removal proceedings that are being brought. I felt that there could be a little more consulting and alternatives to this measure," Green said.
Councilman King also voted no, but the majority voted yes.
“Mr. Joseph clearly lied to us while under oath," Cm. Lesli Harris said, “I don’t think that the City of New Orleans can afford to employee not only someone who is dishonest with the City Council but dishonest with the public.”
Councilman Morrell said that if they have to remove Joseph on October 3, Cantrell could hire Joseph again. However, he said that would be a "mistake."
“The idea that you could have a civil servant throw away over $50,000 on a political mailer to benefit their boss and then kind of flip the entire city off and say, 'haha nothing you can do to me,' I think that sends a tremendously poor message to the citizens," Morrell said.
The council has said that none of the evidence or testimony implicates Mayor Cantrell.
The Mayor's Office did not respond to our request for comment following Tuesday's vote.
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