BGR Reports: City Council Contract Is Out of Bounds

OVERVIEW This report is the latest installment in BGR’s Candidate Q&A Election Series. The new report consolidates and reissues the responses of the newly elected City of New Orleans mayor and councilmembers who completed BGR’s surveys last fall on important issues facing City government. We encourage citizens to revisit the issues by reviewing the BGR […]

Overview For the October 14, 2017 primary elections in New Orleans, BGR provided voters with its 2017 Candidate Q&A Election Series. BGR submitted questions to all mayoral and City Council candidates on public safety, infrastructure and other important public policy issues facing the City of New Orleans government. BGR compiled the answers of the candidates who […]

Overview In It’s the Law: Land Use Decision Making and the Master Plan, BGR provides clarity to recent public planning dialogue in New Orleans over the extent to which the Master Plan has the force of law.

Overview BGR reviews a proposed property tax for the upkeep of public school facilities in New Orleans and 11 propositions to amend the Jefferson Parish charter that voters will decide on December 6, 2014. The charter propositions relate to: Modifying the Jefferson Parish Council’s authority to investigate parish affairs Limiting the outside employment of the […]

Overview In A Trojan Horse in the Draft CZO: Article 5 Puts Years of Planning at Risk, BGR describes the article on New Orleans’ Planned Development Standards in the draft comprehensive zoning ordinance and the problems it poses.

Overview BGR examines two proposed amendments to the Home Rule Charter of the City of New Orleans, one Orleans Parish property tax proposition and two constitutional amendments on the ballot for November 4, 2014. One City charter amendment would incorporate certain professional services contracting reforms made in 2010. The other charter amendment would move the […]

Overview In this letter to the New Orleans City Planning Commission, BGR focuses on Article 5 of the draft comprehensive zoning ordinance, which would allow a wide array of exceptions to the zoning rules under vague circumstances in various neighborhoods across the city. BGR argues that, as written, Article 5 creates an Achilles’ heel in […]

In a letter to the New Orleans City Planning Commission, BGR examines its draft Neighborhood Participation Program for Land Use Actions. The letter calls for changes to enhance the integrity of the process.

Overview In this letter to the New Orleans City Planning Commission, BGR suggests ways to make New Orleans’ draft comprehensive zoning ordinance easier for the public to use and understand. BGR enclosed with the letter a copy of a map showing how zoning changes might be better illustrated. CZO Map_showing_changes_-_example

Overview Inside Outsourcing: A Year in the Life of City Contracting builds from an analysis of hundreds of City contracts in effect during 2009 to provide a broad overview of City contracting and discuss key problem areas that require the attention of the current administration and the New Orleans City Council.

Overview In A Need for Clarity: The Revised New Orleans 2030 Draft Plan, BGR continues its work to improve the draft master plan. While the report recognizes limited improvements from the previous draft, it finds that the revised draft does not live up to its mission in key areas. The report provides specific recommendations for […]

Overview Contracting with Confidence: Professional Services Contracting Reform in New Orleans presents a new model to improve contract administration in City government and restore faith in the contracting process.

Overview With the primary on the way, BGR submitted questions to all mayoral candidates on topics in four areas: the city’s budget, city services, infrastructure and blight. Four candidates – Rob Couhig, John Georges, Mitch Landrieu and James Perry – responded. BGR is presenting the Q&A to the public in a web-only, four-part series, Questions […]

Overview In this report, BGR examines the draft master plan’s proposal for citizen participation, a key element of the planning process in New Orleans.

Overview BGR’s report, In Search of the Master Plan: Making the New Orleans 2030 Draft Plan Work, provides analysis and recommendations on the draft of the New Orleans master plan that is currently before the public. It provides key insights on this fundamental planning document for the city.

Overview In this release, BGR calls on the New Orleans City Planning Commission to delay public hearings on the master plan until the missing portions – including chapters on citizen participation and plan implementation – have been released to the public.

Overview This BGR release deals with proposed legislation that would require a referendum for approval of the city’s Master Plan. It focuses on three bills, all introduced by New Orleans legislators, that attempt to undermine a charter change approved by New Orleanians seven months ago that clarified and strengthened the planning process in New Orleans.

Overview BGR provides analysis of local propositions as well as amendments to the state constitution appearing on the ballot for November 4, 2008. A proposition in New Orleans would amend the city charter to make comprehensive changes to planning and land use decision making in the city. A proposition in Jefferson Parish would expand the permissible […]

Overview This release raises concerns about proposed budget approvals for the New Orleans Office of Recovery Management’s plans in advance of a public vetting of those plans. New Orleans recovery planning process following Hurricane Katrina requires transparency and public input.

Overview In UNOP Revisited: An Analysis of the Revised Citywide Plan, BGR follows up on its previous report on the Unified New Orleans Plan citywide product, focusing on the revised plan. It offers recommendations to the New Orleans City Planning Commission for further revisions.

Overview BGR provides an analysis of the nearly 600-page draft Citywide Plan, the centerpiece of the Unified New Orleans Plan. The report is part of BGR’s monitoring of New Orleans’ recovery planning process following Hurricane Katrina.

Overview In this follow-up to its October 2003 report Runaway Discretion, BGR sets forth proposed charter amendments to reform planning and land use decision making in New Orleans.

Overview As part of BGR Reports, a web-based series of reports BGR began publishing following the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster, BGR comments on a $3 million contract for recovery planning in New Orleans awarded without inviting competition. BGR also provides links below to documents referenced in the report: 2004 Request for Statement of Qualifications 2004 […]

Overview BGR challenged New Orleans mayoral candidates to implement BGR’s model for professional services contracting reform within 90 days of assuming office.

Overview BGR comments on post-Katrina redevelopment strategy in this installment of a web-based series of reports that BGR began publishing following the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Overview BGR offers detailed suggestions for enhancing citizen participation on the Bring New Orleans Back Commission’s planning process. This report is the first installment of a web-based series of reports that BGR began publishing following the 2005 disaster. BGR also issued a letter to the commission.

Overview Quality of life problems, traffic congestion, chaotic growth patterns, and environmental degradation are plaguing St. Tammany. Slip-Sliding Away? serves as a no-nonsense planning guidebook for a greener, cleaner, more people-friendly parish.

Overview Runaway Discretion: Land Use Decision Making in New Orleans reveals deep flaws in New Orleans’ land use decision making process, its approach to zoning, and its interaction with businesses and citizens. It suggests legal changes in the City’s approach to land use planning, placing neighborhoods and citizens at the center of reform.

Overview BGR presents its new Professional Services Contracting Model along with a pledge for current mayoral candidates in New Orleans to sign, promising to implement these specific and fundamental reforms.

Overview As a supplement to Public Contracting for Legal Services, this report provides information and analysis of contracting practices of local governments. Also available are appendixes summarizing 18 local government entities’ practices and the text of Louisiana laws. The Public Law Center (TPLC), the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR), and the Bureau of Governmental […]

Overview The Public Law Center (TPLC), the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR), and the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) prepared this study of contracting for outside legal services by state and local government entities at the request of the Kendall Vick Public Law Foundation. The objectives were to survey the laws and regulations […]

Overview This report analyzes professional services contracting practices by five area school boards in Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and St. Tammany parishes.