Staffing woes, maintenance concerns: New NORD board gets earful about chronic issues

By Joni Hess

Source: The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com

February 4, 2026

A revamped New Orleans recreation board on Tuesday began to wrap its arms around longtime challenges plaguing the city’s parks and playgrounds, while the agency’s CEO argued that a City Hall cash crunch has harmed his ability to hire staff.

Six new and three longtime members of the New Orleans Recreation and Development Commission board met Tuesday to elect a new chair, set a meeting schedule and understand the depth of the agency’s troubles.

The board will be tasked in the coming months with implementing Mayor Helena Moreno’s vision for NORD, which includes a nationwide search for a new NORD executive director, among other moves. Moreno, also a board member, was not present Tuesday.

CEO Larry Barabino Jr., who could be replaced by someone new under Moreno’s plan, told the board that City Hall’s monthslong hiring freeze to prevent a budget deficit has led to staffing shortages at the departments’ 14 recreation centers. Those centers double as emergency hubs for vulnerable residents during hurricanes, severe heat, and other weather events.

The department is also down eight facility managers, staffers responsible for building sports teams and programs in city neighborhoods, he said.

“Aging infrastructure and deferred maintenance at some facilities, fields and pools continue to require focused attention to support safe and reliable operations,” said Barabino, who has previously attributed staffing issues to low pay.

But city Chief Administrative Officer Joe Giarrusso, a new board member, shot back that NORD was one of the few city agencies to avoid major cuts in the 2026 city budget. Instead, the department received over $22 million from the city, about $84,000 more than it got last year.

“There have been extraordinarily difficult decisions that had to be made,” Giarrusso said. “But I want to say in a very tight and difficult budget, the mayor and the council made this decision to make sure that NORD’s operating budget was more than it was.”

Moreno singled out NORD as an agency in need of dire improvements when she ran for mayor last year, amid mounting criticism from coaches, community members, a former Orleans Parish prosecutor and others over the shoddy condition of some of its facilities.

Though NORD’s budget has increased from less than $5 million in 2010 to $25 million in 2025, “things are worse now in many situations,” Moreno’s campaign plan noted. “NORD requires additional funding to expand capacity, but the primary issue is management.”

NORD would hire new leadership under the mayor’s plan, including a new full-time leader of the NORD Foundation, which could help raise funds for the department, and a new director. Moreno also vowed to increase the agency’s budget by 20% or an additional $5 million, but only if management issues are resolved. The city will also spend $54 million in bonds to improve parks and playgrounds, according to a report by the Bureau of Governmental Research.

On Tuesday, Barabino said NORD’s maintenance division currently has 13 vacant or frozen positions, which impedes response times to maintenance requests. The department has one electrician, one plumber and one heating, ventilation, and air conditioning specialist on staff.

The rest of the plumbing and electrical work is outsourced to two contractors, but budget constraints this year might put the contracts in jeopardy, he said.

Barabino acknowledged that some improvements are underway. The city has implemented a new tracking system that will track repairs, staff vacancies and provide status updates for various projects.

NORD is also in the process of launching a new, user-friendly website — another one of Moreno’s campaign priorities – that will allow residents to sign up for programs and classes online, indicating a shift toward a more modernized registration process residents have called for.

Participation numbers in youth sports also increased, Barabino said, highlighting an 8% increase last year compared to 2024. But the department will have to adjust its services to account for a smaller population of children in New Orleans and for the remaining families who may choose to frequent parks outside the city, he said.

Joining Giarrusso on Tuesday were District C City council member Freddie King, New Orleans Public Library board appointee Alexis Parent-Ferrouillet, and NORD Foundation Chair Ernest Price.

Also present were five other mayoral appointees: Hattie Collins, an interior designer; Michael Farley, the CEO of HBI Construction Group; Kevin Kimbrough, a barber and a former NORD coach; Jamar McKneely, the CEO of InspireNOLA Charter Schools, and Kyle Walker, a director at LSU Health Sciences Center’s Office of Property and Facilities Management.

The board voted to tap Walker as chair and to meet once a month.