Oh won't you stay..ay..ay...just a little bit longer...

....please stay-ay-ay, MWH.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu to extend MWH recovery contract

Company officials claim the city is least $9 million in arrears, Grant said. But while records in Nagin-era files turned over in May to the Landrieu administration don't reflect such a large debt, Grant said the company has given him additional, more accurate records to determine the actual bill.

"It appears that the information is actually there," Grant said. "It was just collected in a way that makes it indiscernible."

Poring over the records will take "probably another couple of months," he said.  Given the shoddy record-keeping and lax oversight, Grant acknowledged that he isn't sure precisely how many people the firm has assigned to the city's recovery-management contract over the past 2 1/2 years. But he said he's confident it's far more than the 10 to 12 workers he plans to keep around through September. 

Well my estimate was a wee bit aggrandized, but I still don't trust the numbers being delivered to da papah.  Nagin allowed so much of our standard city services to be taken over by MWH it's going to be a difficult process to surgically remove them and get ourselves back on our own two feet. 

The good news is that Team Mitch seems to be on the right track here:

To further reduce its reliance on MWH, the Landrieu administration has purchased the same software program that the firm uses to maintain documents related to the city's 655 recovery projects, Grant said. The $8,000 investment will allow City Hall to maintain in-house control of the raft of documents -- from memos to purchase orders to building specifications -- that until now largely were held by the contractor, he said. 

I'm not necessarily saying the software purchase is good news, I don't know anything about it, but beginning to move expensive contractors out of the picture and start reincorporating city services in-house is definitely good news.  That's encouraging...very encouraging. 

And as if that wasn't good enough news:

Meanwhile, tasks handled by two other recovery consultants hired by former Mayor Ray Nagin -- Telecommunications Development Corp. and its subcontractor, Integrated Disaster Solutions -- have been reassigned to municipal employees, Grant said. Several council members raised questions about Nagin's decision to pay those firms in part using money in a state-financed revolving loan. 

Gloomy days for contractors in the crescent city.