New Orleans judge sets deadline for payments on $142M firefighter judgment

Mayor Mitch Landrieu and the New Orleans City Council have until Aug. 21 to begin paying firefighters a judgment worth a potential $142 million, or they will be held in contempt, a Civil District Court judge told officials Thursday (Aug. 6).

The council is scheduled to meet the day before the deadline, Judge Kern Reese said. "If there is going to be any resolution, it needs to be presented at the meeting and resolved once and for all, or I will make a contempt finding," he told Landrieu's Chief Administrative Officer Andy Kopplin.

Reese turned his back on the courtroom to scribble with his index finger across the stone panel behind him.

"You got me, Mr. Kopplin? You know what that means?" Reese said. "The handwriting is on the wall."

Read more: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/08/judge_sets_deadline_for_paymen.html

Cross-posted in Omaha Steve's Labor Group.