Big Easy Budget Equity Voter Guide – Mayoral
Mayoral
The Mayor and the people who work for them are the Executive Branch of the local government. They are responsible for engaging with residents, shaping city plans and priorities, enforcing laws, appointing department heads, and managing day-to-day operations of the City, like fixing streets, collecting trash, issuing permits and collecting taxes. The Mayor is the public face of the City locally and nationally.
Hover or click on the questions below each candidate to see their provided responses. For the sake of brevity and readability, some candidates’ responses have been summarized, the full transcript of their responses can be found here.
Joseph 'Joe' Bikulege Jr.
Didn’t answer survey
Manny Chevrolet' Bruno
Stated Top Priorities
- Community safety
- Youth, families, and culture
- Economic development and housing
How would you make the City's budget process more equitable and transparent?
I don't know yet
If elected, how will you provide meaningful opportunities for residents to hold you accountable to will of the people of New Orleans
people will have access to everything under my administration
Russell J Butler
Didn’t answer survey
Eilen Carter
Stated Top Priorities
- Youth, families, and culture
- Infrastructure, transportation, and environment
- Economic development and housing
How would you make the City's budget process more equitable and transparent?
As mayor, I will make equity the foundation of our city’s budget. I’ll prioritize investments in historically underfunded areas like affordable housing, youth programs, mental health, and neighborhood infrastructure. The budgeting process will be brought directly to residents through inclusive, district-level town halls co-designed with community leaders. To ensure accountability, my administration will use an Equity Assessment to evaluate how proposed spending impacts marginalized communities. We’ll increase transparency by releasing plain-language summaries, earlier budget drafts, and regular public updates. I’ll also launch a grant and equity advisory committee to align funding with community priorities and expand access to state and federal resources. Within my first 90 days, I’ll deliver a public State of the City focused on financial transparency and equity, outlining the challenges we face and how we’ll meet them—together. For us, the budget won’t just be numbers—it will be a tool for justice, inclusion, and real progress.
If elected, how will you provide meaningful opportunities for residents to hold you accountable to will of the people of New Orleans
"That's exactly why I'm running to enact the will of the people, because for too long, our elected officials have ignored us. I know what's missing because I've seen it firsthand. I worked in the Mayor's Office of Communications for three years, and I understand both the challenges and the opportunities.
I'm excited about the chance to completely revamp how City Hall communicates with residents to make it more transparent, more timely, and more responsive. That means clear, consistent updates on what's happening, why it matters, and how residents can be involved not buried PDFs or vague press releases.
We'll use every tool digital, print, text alerts, neighborhood signage, and town halls to ensure every resident, in every neighborhood, has access to accurate, accessible, and relevant information. When government communicates well, it builds trust. And trust is where change begins."
Renada Collins
Didn’t answer survey
Royce Duplessis
Stated Top Priorities
- Economic development and housing
- Community Safety
- Infrastructure, transportation, and environment
How would you make the City's budget process more equitable and transparent?
I believe in working with stakeholders, leveraging the best ideas, and surrounding myself with smart people. A leader's strength lies not in speaking the loudest, but in listening the deepest, and turning what they hear into shared progress.
I will work with the Big Easy Budget Coalition when it comes to formulating an equitable budget crafted through a transparent process.
If elected, how will you provide meaningful opportunities for residents to hold you accountable to will of the people of New Orleans
The most honest way to measure accountability is whether people are staying in New Orleans or leaving. We've lost more than 20,000 residents in recent years, and if that trend continues, we risk losing the critical mass our city needs to survive. As mayor, I will be judged by whether families see enough progress to put down roots here again, whether services improve, insurance and housing become more affordable, and neighborhoods feel safe and supported.I'll use transparent, real-time reporting so residents can see where their tax dollars go and what results we're getting. And ultimately, I will have to stand before the voters in four years. If people continue to leave in large numbers and daily life has not improved, then I will have to answer for that. I welcome that accountability.
Frank Robert Janusa
Stated Top Priorities
- Economic development and housing
- Infrastructure, transportation, and environment
- Community safety
Helena Moreno
Stated Top Priorities
- Economic development and housing
- Infrastructure, transportation, and environment
- Youth, families, and culture
How would you make the City's budget process more equitable and transparent?
We would start the budget process earlier, so the public can be more engaged. We also commit to working with the community to explain better the budget - its constraints, its inputs, and its opportunities and tradeoffs so that we can build an equitable way forward.
If elected, how will you provide meaningful opportunities for residents to hold you accountable to will of the people of New Orleans
My administration's priorities will be restoring basic services, reducing wait times for permits and
other economically critical processes, and expediting work on our built infrastructure. We will
also continue our transformative work on violence intervention, civilianization, reducing police
response times, and crisis intervention to make all our neighborhoods safer. Our budgets will be
formed through true community collaboration and reflect the will and needs of our communities. From the beginning of my career as a public servant, I've pressed for more transparency and accountability from government. As a councilmember, I led the way to create dozens of citizen
dashboards for crime, streets, and utilities. I'd continue this work by building a citywide data
portal that would display information across departments in an easily digestible format.
Frank M. Scurlock
Didn’t answer survey
How would you make the City's budget process more equitable and transparent?
Create a public dashboard.
If elected, how will you provide meaningful opportunities for residents to hold you accountable to will of the people of New Orleans
I would invite neighborhood associations to bimonthly meetings at City Hall to discuss, analyze and then solve problems.
Oliver Thomas
Didn’t answer survey
Richard 'Ricky' Twiggs
Stated Top Priorities
- Infrastructure, transportation, and environment
- Youth, families, and culture
- Economic development and housing
How would you make the City's budget process more equitable and transparent?
“Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” — Justice Louis Brandeis. I will embed that principle into City Hall by making the budget transparent, traceable, and accountable in real time. My administration will create a centralized Office of Innovation & Technology (OIT) to launch an Open Budget—a living, public ledger showing every dollar from proposal to payment: who requested it, where it goes, when it was spent, and what it produced. Budgets will include real-time data, equity impact statements, and a neighborhood-level Equity Index. Residents will receive plain-language “Tax Receipts” to see exactly where their money goes. To build trust, we’ll pilot blockchain-backed budgeting for public verification, with smart-contracts managing high-risk funds like housing and disaster relief. Alerts will flag missed deadlines or cost overruns. OIT will also modernize city services—launching a single Permits & Licensing Portal with real-time tracking and guaranteed timelines, publishing 311 dashboards, standardizing digital forms, and improving procurement with public vendor scorecards and diversity metrics. We'll embed participation through district-level participatory budgeting, quarterly town halls, and a Civic Audit Board to keep government accountable—and codify it all into the Home Rule Charter to outlast any one mayor.
If elected, how will you provide meaningful opportunities for residents to hold you accountable to will of the people of New Orleans
A public dashboard of goals and milestones that are hit from the transitionary phase the election. Townhalls at NORD centers and in various community centers (my administration will come to you).