Robert A. Cerasoli

Robert A. Cerasoli is a former member of the

Cerasoli completed his undergraduate education at the American University in Washington, D.C. and his graduate education at Harvard Kennedy School.

Career

Cerasoli is retired from over 37 years of public service in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the City of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Massachusetts

He began his public service career in the

After retiring from his post, he taught at Eastern Nazarene College and the local community college,^[11][12] in his home town of Quincy, Massachusetts.^[13] He also taught ethics courses in several African nations and other countries around the world.^[14]

New Orleans

Cerasoli left retirement in 2007 when he was unanimously voted^[14] to become the first-ever Inspector General for the City of New Orleans,^[15][16] a post that "was created in late 2006 by the City Council to send a message that New Orleans could be trusted to spend federal recovery aid after Hurricane Katrina,"^[17] although the City Charter was amended to require an office as early as 1995.^[18]

The position required that Cerasoli start the office from scratch. Initially without a budget beyond $250,000, no office, no staff, and no car, Loyola University President Kevin Wildes, the chairman of the city's Ethics Review Board, provided Cerasoli temporary office space in the stacks at the university library.^[19][20][21] By a vote of the citizens of New Orleans, a city charter amendment was passed to secure funding for the office,^[22] roughly 3/4 of one per cent of the city budget.^[21] The State of Louisiana also showed unanimous support for Cerasoli's office by widening the powers of the office and making them part of state law in House Bill 80.^[23] The office released its first report in December 2008, on the city's take-home-car policy. It revealed that the city allows 273 employees, not including the mayor or the police department, take-home cars in spite of a city ordinance that limits the number to 60, and calculated that the city could save roughly $1 million by complying with that law.^[24] Other investigations were initiated, but no reports have yet been published because the investigations are ongoing.^[25]

Despite state and citizen support, Cerasoli ran into several roadblocks with city administration,

Cerasoli resigned in January 2009. He cited recent health concerns, two non-cancerous growths surgically removed in December and two other potentially cancerous growths yet to be removed.^[25]

Notes and references