The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority board of commissioners on Thursday (Jan. 9) voted to terminate its longtime attorney, Sundiata Haley. 

Thursday’s meeting was specially called to approve a resolution terminating Haley, who has acted as the agency’s general counsel since 2005. No other business was considered at the meeting. 

Under the resolution, which was approved unanimously by a 6-0 vote, Haley will be replaced with an outside law firm operating on a short-term “emergency” contract. 

The reasons for the seemingly abrupt decision are not clear. Haley declined to comment on the termination. RTA’s executive team also declined to provide comment. 

After the meeting, board chair Fred Neal, Jr. thanked Haley for his “steadfast” service and “expertise.” 

“The board decided that we wanted to take six months of interim counsel for us to look at everything,” Neal said in an interview following the special meeting, while declining to say why Haley was being fired. The board did not provide any additional information to the public on Haley’s firing. 

Prior to the vote, board members held a closed-door executive session — to discuss a “personnel matter.” Neal said the personnel matter was unrelated to the resolution to let Haley go.

Before commissioners went into executive session, Haley, who was still acting as general counsel, acknowledged how “awkward” the situation was. 

The move follows a turbulent year for the agency. In February, The Times-Picayune published a report detailing an internal RTA investigation that found that a former agency employee authorized more than $1 million of work by a contractor — BRC Construction — without board approval. The scandal ultimately resulted in the withdrawal of Jefferson Parish from the RTA. 

It appears the agency is now facing a federal investigation over the contract. In June, according to a report published last month by the Times-Picayune, the FBI subpoenaed Haley for records related to the BRC contract. 

According to the resolution, the board now intends to replace Haley with the law firm Wright, Gray and Harris, LLC under a six-month contract for outside legal services.

Haley advised the board of a potential conflict of interest, in that the firm is representing plaintiffs in two ongoing cases against the RTA. 

The firm put in a bid on a September request for proposals for outside legal services issued by the agency. Though Thursday’s resolution refers to the Wright, Gray and Harris contract as an “emergency” contract, the September RFP was not advertised as an emergency contract, which agencies use when they have an urgent need to expedite a purchase, allowing them to sidestep normal competitive bidding procedures.

This story has been updated to include the board vote and comments from Sundiata Haley and Fred Neal, Jr.

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Before joining Verite, Bobbi-Jeanne Misick reported on people behind bars in immigration detention centers and prisons in the Gulf South as a senior reporter for the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration...