Disruption

Mayor Landrieu is really "the Uber of" disrupting Civil Service protections with overpaid political appointees.

Michael Glasser, head of the Police Association of New Orleans, said the emails only confirm what he and his union suspected from the start: The creation of the job is the latest in a long line of attempts by the mayor to assert more control over the department.

The deputy chief of staff job was "clearly implemented by the mayor, and it will be the mayor's pick that fills it," he said. Given the department's decreased size since Landrieu took office -- it has shrunk by a third, according to Glasser -- the addition of another management position only makes sense when viewed as "a hand up the back of the department ... a continuation of the puppet show," Glasser said.

Meanwhile State Senator JP Morrell introduced a bill to the legislature yesterday to consider creating a new elected head of a merged NOPD and the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Department.  Not sure how that would affect the Civil Service framework but it's reasonable to suppose it would limit the Mayor's influence over the department either way.