Office of Inspector General seeks to set the record straight
12th October 2015 · 0 Comments
Editor’s Note: The Office of Inspector General objected to two quotes in an article about the rift between the OIG and IPM that appeared in the October 5 issue of The Louisiana Weekly and submitted the following letter to the editor.
The New Orleans Office of Inspector General requests that The Louisiana Weekly correct the following misstatements in its October 5 article “New Orleans’ IG, IPM at odds over autonomy.”
1. “Ed Quatrevaux is employed by the Mayor of New Orleans, Ed acts upon the directions of the Mayor.”
Correction: The Ethics Review Board appoints the Inspector General. City Code Sec. 2-1120(3)
“The office of inspector general shall be at all times operationally independent from the legislative and executive branches of the city government, including the Council of the City of New Orleans, and the office of the mayor. “ City Code Sec 2-1120(6)(b).
2.“What the Inspector General doesn’t seem to get is that the Independent Police Monitor is by definition supposed to be an INDEPENDENT police monitor.”
Correction: The laws of the City of New Orleans place the Independent Police Monitor within the Office of Inspector General as one of its divisions.
Home Rule Charter Sec. 9-401 provides that:
“(2) The OIG shall provide for a full-time program of investigation, audit, inspections, and performance review to provide increased accountability and oversight of entities of city government or entities receiving funds through the city, and to assist in improving agency operations and deterring and identifying, fraud, waste, abuse, and illegal acts. The OIG is specifically authorized to conduct audits of City entities. The OIG shall also provide for an Independent Police Monitor Division, charged with monitoring the operations of the New Orleans Police Department, particularly in the areas of civilian and internally-generated complaints, internal investigations, discipline, significant uses of force, and in-custody deaths.”
The word “division” is defined as “one of the parts into which a thing is divided; section.” A plain reading of the Charter indicates that the intention is that the IPM be part of the OIG.
Further, the provision for the Independent Police Monitor Division was placed into a section of the Charter which is entitled “Office of Inspector General. ” The Charter then has a separate provision, which establishes the Ethics Review Board (Sec. 9-402). If the IPM were a separate organization, then it would have been set out separately in its own charter provision – not placed within the OIG’s charter provision. (CHAPTER 4. – OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL; ETHICS/Section 9-401. – Office of Inspector General/Section 9-402. – Ethics.),
In addition, the independent police monitor, in an interview with The New Orleans Tribune shortly after her selection, stated she would be working for the Inspector General and would be independent of the police department.
“Tribune: Could you define for our readers what your exact duties are going to be with respect to your title of independent police monitor for the city of New Orleans?”
Ms. Hutson: “I will be working for the inspector general…..”
“People should know that I will be independent of the department (P.D.) and will be hard in critiquing them.”
– Paula Pendarvis
Media Consultant for
Office of Inspector General
This article originally published in the October 12, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
