October 31, 2008

New Orleans Officials Delayed AIDS Funds 6 Months

It took New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin’s administration more than half a year to distribute money to agencies serving more than 4,000 HIV-positive people living in the city, The Times-Picayune reports.

Fran Lawless, director of Mayor Nagin’s Office of Health Care Policy, told the City Council’s Housing and Human Needs Committee that while the city received $7 million through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program on March 1, it did not send out grant award notices to case management agencies and did not finalize contracts—which are required for the Ryan White money to be spent—until October.

Lawless affirmed that some of the city’s HIV/AIDS agencies were slow to file spending invoices and cited “implementation problems” for the long process, adding that “it will flow better from now on.”

However, Lawless’s testimony was met with criticism from council members, including Council committee chairman Arnie Fielkow.

“Why does it take that long?” he asked. “We’re not dealing with a pothole here. We’re dealing with life.”

Search: New Orleans, Ray Nagin, Ryan White, Fran Lawless

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thomas bruneau, new orleans, 2008-11-04 14:13:02
i was at this counsil meeting.this is hot issue here and will not go away ray nagins administration is utterly in competent this problen has caused one case management organization to close its doors due to this problem and unless city hall and miss lawless get thier acts togher more will close due to no funding this is not city money it belongs to hiv/aids organizations giveof the people

Greg747, , 2008-11-04 11:29:57
Oh, my NOLA! As the song goes, oh my New Orleans, wait for me! Can the Nagins administration do ANYTHING right? As a Long Island servive provider, I am appalled and mad as hell that it took so damn long to get their Ryan White contracts out. What are they doing down there; these contracts should have been signed and started on March 1. I would love to head down to that beloved and beautiful city and kick some ass.