NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Four of the six superintendent semi-finalists, as well as members of the review panel, made their way to Gallier Hall Thursday morning to begin the two-day interview process.
Over the course of seven months, the International Association of Police consulting group reduced a field of 33 applicants to the final six.
As interviews were being conducted, WGNO crews heard nothing from the candidates or the panelists and neither did city council members who called the process “secretive.”
Councilman Joe Giarrusso says he wasn’t given any information on how the decisions so far have been made.
“I have no idea what criteria were used to get to these six candidates, so were they graded against certain categories? What was reviewed? Then was there a scoring matrix, or how did they get to those and how did we arrive at these six candidates?” said Giarrusso.
Interim Superintendent Michelle Woodfork is the only internal candidate.
Woodfork was selected by Mayor LaToya Cantrell to hold the job temporarily.
Councilman JP Morell says that without any insight into the decision-making process, he worries the secrecy will only lead to the mayor getting her way instead of the best pick.
“There’s a concentrated effort to make sure that our local middleweight is only fighting lightweights. If you look at it, it’s almost like there was a concentrated effort to pick people who would be less qualified than the mayor’s preferred candidate,” said Morrell.
Wednesday, the six semi-finalists were announced along with the list of panelists who would interview them.
WGNO asked one of the panelists what happens if the council votes down the mayor’s final selection based on its dissatisfaction with the entire process.
“Hypothetically, if I was to provide any conjecture, it would be we would start the process over, but I don’t think that this is what we have in this situation,” said New Orleans Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montano.
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