Morial's
Surprise
In an interview broadcast last week on
WWL-TV, former Mayor Marc Morial expressed surprise upon
hearing that former Office of Municipal Investigation (OMI) director
Peter Munster asked for whistleblower's protection before his
death in a New Mexico car crash on July 10, 1998.
"You are telling me something I'm hearing for the first time,"
Morial told WWL-TV's Angela Hill.
Morial also seemed doubtful about reports that OMI was
beleaguered during that time in his administration. "It is strange
to me that if there was a raging controversy about OMI, why wasn't
it in the newspaper, why wasn't it the subject of budget hearings?"
he asked.
Actually, the controversy was in at least two newspapers -- and
so was the news that Munster asked for whistleblower's protection.
In Gambit Weekly's July 28, 1998, issue, we confirmed that
Munster asked for protection, which is extended to employees fearing
job reprisal for alleging wrongdoing. The specific reason for
Munster's worry? "Because Mayor Marc Morial's right-hand man --
Chief Administrative Officer Marlin Gusman -- and an
'intermediary' in the CAO's office both threatened to oust him,"
Gambit Weekly reported in the article titled
"Whistle-Blower."
Three days earlier, in its July 25, 1998, issue, The
Times-Picayune had also reported that Munster asked for
whistleblower protection: "Weeks after his office issued a critical
report about possible ethics violations in the New Orleans Police
Department, the city's top government watchdog asked for protection
under the Civil Service Department's whistle-blower rules. Peter
Munster ... apparently sought the protection because he feared
retaliation related to his office's investigation of the two top
NOPD officers." The Times-Picayune's story, "City Watchdog
Feared for Job After Cop Report," appeared on the first page of the
paper's metro section.
Both papers reported that neither Gusman nor Morial would provide
comment for their stories; Gambit said that Morial was out of
town. Last week, Morial did not return a call seeking further
comment about his remarks on WWL-TV. Contacted last week, former
Munster attorney Mary Howell expressed "surprise" that Morial
would be unaware that Munster filed for whistleblower protection,
given the media reports that appeared following Munster's death.
Munster had worked on OMI reports investigating two controversial
issues of the day: the accuracy of NOPD crime statistics and the
alleged misuse of cell phones by then-Police Chief Richard
Pennington and Assistant Superintendent Ronal Serpas. In
its 1998 article, Gambit Weekly cited unnamed sources as
saying that Munster complained that Gusman pressured him to "water
down" his findings. "I think that's a logical assumption to make
based on the pressures that were put on [Munster]," Metropolitan
Crime Commission president Rafael Goyeneche told us at the
time. "He ... sensed the administration's displeasure with anything
that would cast a negative pall on the department. ... [H]e had
basically broken file with the administration by coming out with
those reports. The administration didn't want those reports to be
released publicly."
In an interview last week with Gambit Weekly, Gusman
stressed that he never took action against Munster. Gusman also said
he became aware of Munster's request for whistleblower protection
when news reports surfaced shortly after Munster's death. Gusman,
who served as Morial's CAO from 1994 to 2000, acknowledges he had
concerns about Munster's work, saying that some of the former OMI
chief's memos were "horrible ... full of mistakes and errors."
Gusman also said he was concerned at the time over press reports
about the OMI probes. "I said, 'Peter, we're having leaks, man. We
started an investigation and before we know, we have all these press
people around.' So I said, 'We're going to keep our reports
confidential until they're done and then we're going to release them
with counsel from the city attorney.'"
Last week, Gusman, now a New Orleans councilman, released a
report by the Police Civilian Review Task Force that sharply
criticized OMI. Gusman acknowledges he had delayed the report,
citing concerns that a report by Morial appointees might "sound like
we're trying to get in the new mayor's way."
