Somebody finally woke up Arthur Morrell

Usually Morrell times his shutdown fits to coincide with the annual budget negotiations for maximum leverage. He was bit late this year. Wonder what happened.

Orleans Parish Clerk of Criminal District Court Arthur Morrell has called off his plan to furlough nearly all of his office's dozens of employees, a day after announcing it.

Morrell said Saturday that he was backing down on his threat to furlough about 80 workers at the request of Karen Herman, the chief judge of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.

The two were set to meet to discuss the situation on Monday, the same day that the furlough would have gone into effect.

In a telephone interview on Saturday, Morrell said the furlough was being called off until further notice.

Again the timing is weird. If you are going to do this after the budget is already active, you basically have to call your own bluff the next day.