New Orleans City Council fails again to achieve a quorum
by Michelle Krupa - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

Two weeks after they walked out of a New Orleans City Council session and left the legislative panel without a quorum to conduct public business, council members Cynthia Hedge-Morrell and Jon Johnson failed to show up to this morning's special meeting, again leaving the body unable to do its work. "Councilman Johnson notified us at 9 o'clock this morning he would not be coming," Council President Jackie Clarkson said shortly after the council clerk called the roll. "Ms. Morrell called at 8, earlier this morning, to say that she is not feeling well. We wish her well, " Four council members -- Stacy Head, Susan Guidry, Kristin Gisleson Palmer and Clarkson -- showed up for the 9 a.m. session. The District B seat is vacant. Though they could not vote on any of the 31 items on today's agenda, council members met for about a half-hour this morning and heard brief testimony from city finance officials about the impact of the council impasse on government business. Hedge-Morrell and Johnson left the May 3 meeting shortly after the failure of an ordinance they co-authored that would have changed the way voters elect the council's two at-large members and moments before a vote on the temporary appointment of urban planner Errol George to fill the District B seat.