Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux remembers Mayor Mitch Landrieu approaching him at Parkway Bakery just after Landrieu was elected in 2010. “I’d like you to tell me the best way to do professional services contracts. Tell me how they do it in Utah,” Quatrevaux recalls the mayor asking.
To the question, “Why Utah?” Quatrevaux says, Landrieu responded, “Well, they’re clean out there.”
Fairly or not, politicians in New Orleans have no such reputation for cleanliness, and the “professional services” contracts that City Hall hands out to law firms, architects, technology companies and other businesses are a big part of the reason.