New Orleans Cuts Municipal Fleet 12%, Tightens Take-Home Vehicle Policy
The city sold 200 vehicles in the first nine months of 2026 and restricted take-home cars to public safety officials and the mayor.
Source: NOLA.com ↗
New Orleans cut its roughly 2,600-vehicle municipal fleet by 12% during the first quarter of 2026, the first three months of Mayor Helena Moreno’s term, according to a report submitted to the New Orleans City Council in September.
“This administration has been absolutely committed to eliminating waste and wringing efficiency from government,” Andrew Tuozzolo, Moreno’s special counsel, said in a written statement.
In the first quarter of 2026, the most recent data available, take-home vehicles dropped 6% to 882 and other public vehicles fell 15% to 1,397. City Chief Administrative Officer Joe Giarrusso limited take-home vehicles to public safety officials and the mayor in June. Before that change, department heads had authority to assign them. The new policy pulled roughly a dozen vehicles that the mayor and senior non-public safety officials had been driving home daily. The mayor retains access to two vehicles.
“The mayor did exactly what she said she was going to do: If you’re not NOPD you weren’t going to get a take home car,” Kim DeLarge, the city’s assistant chief administrative officer, said in an interview. “We’re right-sizing the fleet, and we’ve come a long way.”
“Now, if you’re a department head and you ask for a take-home car, we have told you: It needs to uphold the mayor’s scrutiny because we’re going to run it by the mayor,” DeLarge said.
The New Orleans Office of Inspector General reviewed city fleet management and concluded that while the city has built a “comprehensive” system, it “should take further steps to preserve substantial resources and taxpayer dollars.” The report did not examine the city’s take-home car policies. One-third of the city’s vehicles were left without the $1.4 million-a-year software that tracks vehicle maintenance and mileage, the report said. Consistent data-entry failures by Equipment Maintenance Division staff left maintenance and repair records incomplete in the city’s digital system, the report found. “The OIG acknowledges the progress the EMD has made… However, significant gaps remain,” said Inspector General Ed Michel. “The OIG encourages the CAO and Purchasing and Law departments to strengthen policies and pursue additional means of oversight to further reduce the risk of fraud, waste, and abuse.”
How the city will replace vehicles removed from service remains unclear given a roughly $100 million shortfall in the 2027 budget. Among the options under consideration to address the deficit is rolling forward millages. “That’s something that we hope in future years that we can get to as we come out of this budget crisis,” DeLarge said.
