In the latest twist in a bizarre soap opera, Mayor Ray Nagin's administration has fired a team of technology experts that drew the mayor's ire recently after they claimed that Nagin's missing e-mail messages were intentionally removed by someone with high-level access to the computer system.
Meanwhile, a Virginia firm that specializes in recovering electronic data has been hired by the city to continue searching for the messages.
Louisiana Technology Council President Mark Lewis said Thursday that he learned from WDSU-TV that his contract with the city has been terminated. Lewis, who said he last met with administration officials on July 6, said his repeated efforts to contact city officials by e-mail and phone during the past 10 days have been unsuccessful.
"They put us on hold, " Lewis said, referring to a recent sit-down he had with Harrison Boyd, the city's interim technology director, and his staff regarding the tech team's investigation into lost e-mail messages.
"They said they wanted to review our written report and get back to us on the results of our findings, " he said. "But we never heard from them."
Earlier this month, Lewis and an associate held a news conference, saying their review found that a tech-savvy person had intentionally removed the mayor's e-mail inbox from the server months earlier. Nagin lashed out at the nonprofit group the next day, arguing that assigning blame "is not their charge."
Nagin also suggested that the technology council was eager for "15 minutes of fame, " but also was in over its head. "I just hope that this is not a case where . . . we did not get the company with the expertise that we needed, " the mayor said.
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Source: nola.com
By: Frank Donze
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