Marc Morial - Morial As Mayor

Morial As Mayor

In the 1994 election for mayor, Morial defeated Donald Mintz with 54% of the vote. He campaigned with the promise to “clean out City Hall with a shovel not a broom.” The issue of endemic corruption in the city's Police Department was addressed after Morial hired Richard Pennington as Police Superintendent. On Pennington's first day of work, Morial introduced the new superintendent to investigators from the FBI. Together they worked to rout out corruption in the New Orleans Police Department. During the first seven years of his time as mayor, Morial’s approval rating stayed at or near 70%.

The growth of the city's tourist and convention sector accelerated appreciably during Morial's mayoralty, boosted in part by the general economic growth of the United States in the late 1990s. Tourism boomed during Marc Morial's mayoralty; the city’s downtown core saw the construction of 14 new hotels during his tenure. This development was due in part to the much-publicized reduction in New Orleans’ high crime rate through the effective leadership of Morial’s Superintendent of Police, Richard Pennington. Of particular significance was the 60% reduction achieved in the city’s violent crime rate. These real gains enabled a resurgence of interest and investment in the city's older historic neighborhoods. New Orleans benefited from an increase in downtown population. The number of households within the city limits stabilized for the first time since beginning their decline in the 1960s, a significant accomplishment. Morial also secured bond issues for street improvements, the Canal Street streetcar line, and an expansion of the city’s convention center.

Morial worked to institute fairness into the city's contracting policies. He reached out to black-owned businesses, encouraging them to apply for contracts. He also enforced the city’s residency rule for police officers and other city workers, which had previously been unevenly enforced.

Two of the most well-known accomplishments of his administration dealt with professional sports: NBA basketball returned to the city after Morial orchestrated negotiations for the league's Charlotte Hornets to relocate there. Secondly, following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Morial persuaded the organizers of a large automotive exposition to change its date so that Super Bowl XXXVI (held at the Louisiana Superdome) could be played one week later than originally scheduled, enabling the NFL to keep its post-season tournament fully intact. The week of regular-season games slated to be played on the weekend following the attacks had to be postponed and was transferred to the end of the regular season.

Based on his achievements in reducing crime and reforming the police department, Morial easily won re-election to a second term in 1998 New Orleans Mayoral Election. In the 1998 Mayoral Election, Morial received 79% of the votes, while his opponents Paul D. Borrello received 1% and Kathleen Cresson received 20%. Like his father, Dutch Morial, Marc Morial made an attempt to amend the city charter to run for a third term as mayor in 2002. It was tied to his campaign to save the New Orleans Public School System by assuming control of the city's public schools to turn around their performance. He was trying the approach of other mayors, such as Richard M. Daley in Chicago. But, 61% of the voters rejected the proposed amendment to the New Orleans City Charter.

From 2001 to 2002, Morial was President of the United States Conference of Mayors.