New Orleans police who are assigned to Carnival parades will be paid as much or more as the supplemental officers the city plans to hire during the 2023 Mardi Gras season, according to Mayor LaToya Cantrell's top deputy.
Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montaño said late Wednesday that the city will pay most New Orleans Police Department officers at least the same $50 per hour wage that City Hall has offered to qualified officers brought in by krewes to bolster the city's depleted force during this year’s Carnival. If they work Fat Tuesday, NOPD officers will be paid the $75 per hour wage offered to police from other jurisdictions, he said.
The extra compensation will cost taxpayers be between $700,000 and $1 million, Montaño said.
Eric Hessler, a retired NOPD sergeant who is now the attorney for the Police Association of New Orleans, said Thursday morning he had not yet heard that the city had notified the department of the Carnival pay hikes, but he was happy that the issue had been resolved.
Hessler called the former disparity in pay, which caused grousing among many on the force, “a predicament” for the city. The offer of enhanced pay “will go a long way to avoid it,” he said.
“I think police officers will appreciate it,” Hessler said.
Due to a shortage of police officers and other service personnel last year, the length of all of the city’s parade routes was shortened. In October, the city announced that the routes would remain trimmed this Carnival season, to...
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