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Council fills mortgage post

Section: Politics

Michelle Krupa

The New Orleans City Council on Monday appointed Carol Carter as the city's interim recorder of mortgages and set a special election for Oct. 4 to fill the post permanently. A runoff will be held Nov. 4 if necessary.

The election will precede by just three months the dissolution of the recorder's job. That position, along with the registrar of conveyances and the appointed job of custodian of notarial archives, all are scheduled to be folded into the operations of the clerk of civil court starting in 2009.

"Even though this office is being merged and eventually will be dissolved, we still need to have an election called to fill the vacancy," Council President Arnie Fielkow said.

The push for consolidation was part of a grass-roots movement to streamline city government in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The state Legislature agreed last year to place all three agencies under the control of the civil court clerk.

Carter, 54, has been serving as recorder since Nov. 25, when Desiree Charbonnet stepped down to assume the Municipal Court judgeship that she won Oct. 20.

Carter had held the No. 2 job in the recorder's office since Charbonnet first was elected in May 1998. A former registered nurse, Carter ran a title abstract business before joining Charbonnet's staff.

Though Carter missed Monday's special council meeting because of an illness, a handful of her colleagues attended the meeting to lobby for her appointment, which also was supported by Charbonnet, Fielkow said.

Carter was the only serious candidate for the interim appointment. She has not said whether she intends to seek election to the post next year. The three-day qualifying period for the Oct. 4 primary begins July 9.

Fielkow, along with council members Jackie Clarkson, Shelley Midura, James Carter and Cynthia Willard-Lewis voted in support of Carter's appointment and the special election date. Stacy Head and Cynthia Hedge-Morrell were absent.

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