New Orleans Mayor-elect LaToya Cantrell announced her new city Chief Financial Officer. She picked Norman White to fill the role.

From The Advocate:

Mayor-elect LaToya Cantrell’s pick as chief financial officer of New Orleans once held the same position under disgraced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is now serving a 28-year sentence in federal prison on corruption charges.

Former Detroit Chief Financial Officer Norman White, who Cantrell announced late Monday would take the same role with her administration, was not implicated in the charges that brought down Kilpatrick. But his tenure under Kilpatrick’s administration and later included questions about checks issued without proper documentation, reports required for state funding that were turned in late and losses on city investments.

Those controversies in many cases followed a pattern that began before White’s tenure as chief financial officer, and it’s not entirely clear what role he played in continuing them.

Cantrell issued a statement Monday night saying her transition team “conducted an extensive search to fill the CFO position, and I am confident that Norman White is a phenomenally qualified candidate for this role. He served the people and the city of Detroit with distinction, and helped right the ship there during a challenging time. He’s going to bring the same level of professionalism and commitment to his work with our new administration.”

Well, LaToya certainly knows a thing or two about not turning in checks without proper documentation. We imagine that White should be fine in that regard.

But we wonder what kind of message that White’s appointment will send to the city. Hiring Kwame Kilpatrick’s former failed CFO is not exactly a vote of confidence in the incoming Cantrell administration.

We know that Cantrell is going to try to turn New Orleans into a Southern San Francisco or Seattle. It appears that Cantrell’s new progressive paradise will not be a very well run one.

In the end, the citizens of New Orleans maybe hoping for an indictment by Jeff Landry over Cantrell’s illegal expenses to put an end to her mayorship.