NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans Mayor-elect Helena Moreno is preparing to inherit a $1.7 billion street repair program that’s been a big mess for a long time, and — unless FEMA steps in — Moreno says it could get even messier and far more expensive.
Last month, a WWL Louisiana exclusive exposed how the city’s Katrina-era, federally funded road-repair effort — the Joint Infrastructure Recovery Request program, or JIRR — quietly helped create a cash crunch at City Hall.
That investigation found current Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration had allowed a massive, previously undisclosed $123 million deficit to build inside the FEMA-funded program while drawing on the city’s operating budget to cover construction bills…