Horseplay

Totally normal stuff going on in Property Management.

A month after Hogues was suspended, Cantrell's nascent administration gave the boot to the department's director and deputy director, George Patterson and Edward Sens.

In a rambling interview with The Advocate, Hogues, 73, acknowledged he was unusually close with female colleagues, saying he would often lend a sympathetic ear to their complaints about workplace spats and low pay. Inside his office, he added, some would even pull up their dresses and dance for him, displays he said were “innocent horseplay.”

“One thing is, I am an older guy, but I play,” said Hogues. “Not sexually, but I do play. They come in and they ask me advice: ‘Do you know anybody that can help me? Help my children? I need a better job. I need some money, Mr. Herman.’

“They come in and they play, they do the booty pop, and show themselves, they would do that,” he said.

That's pretty off the wall. And it seems to have gone on like this for a number of years. So that's worse. It also says that the Landrieu Administration was aware of some of the complaints, but it isn't clear how far along in the process that stuff was before they left office. It's possible that a similar action would have taken place even if this hadn't been a transition year.

As always, though, there's probably more to this than meets the eye. The subject of these complaints was already retired. The people LaToya fired were his supervisors.  That certainly would be appropriate if they weren't taking the complaints seriously.  The two supervisors offer different takes on that. The deputy tries to throw the director under the bus a little bit. He may have a point since the director seems to think 1) the allegations were not proven but also 2) he was not aware of the allegations. So that's fishy.

Still, it's possible they were both aware of the circumstances and taking what they thought were the steps required.  In any case, it wasn't enough.

Still, Cantrell was frank about the matter in an interview last week, calling it proof of a "cesspool" culture of harassment that her administration is determined to clean up.

"There was no accountability," Cantrell said in an editorial board meeting with The Advocate, adding that she has since tapped interim leaders to replace those she ousted. A “complete overhaul” is in the works for the Property Management Department, she said.

Was the office really a "cesspool" or was there just one problematic employee undergoing the normal disciplinary process?  It's worth asking because there are a lot reasons why a new mayor might want to do a "complete overhaul" of the Property Management Department that go well beyond the admittedly very bad behavior of one retired employee.