Four weeks ago, the clerk of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, Arthur Morrell, threatened to bring the local criminal justice system to a virtual halt by furloughing nearly his entire staff in response to a seven-year-old budget battle with the city.

Inmates could have been stranded in jail with nowhere to post bail. Local judges could have seen their dockets grind to a standstill.

On Thursday, Morrell said his brinkmanship played a role in securing an agreement with the city to increase his funding from $4 million to $4.6 million this year.

In exchange, Morrell will dismiss his pending lawsuits against the city — he has at least six — including his bid to have Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration fork over $7 million for prior years of alleged under-funding.

"I’m glad that this is over with. I think we can work now, at ease with the agreement," Morrell said in an interview.

New Orleans clerk of court announces near-total shutdown, furloughing employees and stranding inmates Orleans Parish Clerk of Criminal District Court Arthur Morrell announced Friday that he is going nuclear in his long-running budget dispute wi…

The agreement signed by Morrell and city Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montaño on Tuesday appears to end a long-running budget dispute that flared vividly into view with Morrell's furlough threat on Jan. 3.

Since former Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration first sliced his budget in 2012, Morrell has filed a series of lawsuits alleging that the city is in violation of state laws requiring his office to be fully funded at the level he says he needs.

Morrell has won often in court. But he's been less successful at wooing political allies. Cantrell and the City Council last fall gave Morrell $600,000 less than what he asked for in 2020.

With the additional funding secured this week, the Clerk's Office will be able to hire about 10 extra employees and boost office salaries, Morrell said. The office's entry-level pay is currently $23,000 a year, which will rise to $26,000.

Morrell also hopes to stem turnover and complete the office's long-delayed project of digitizing its records, which at present are only available to the public on paper.

Morrell said the furlough threat, which he rescinded less than a day later amid pushback from stunned criminal justice system leaders, played a role in reaching the agreement. Faced with the prospect of being unable to run their courtrooms, Criminal District Court judges stepped in to facilitate his negotiations with the city.

Orleans Parish court clerk Arthur Morrell wins round in long battle with city over funding Orleans Parish Clerk of Criminal District Court Arthur Morrell won a round Wednesday in his long-running legal tussle with the city over fundi…

"I think the seriousness of it came when I mentioned about the personnel I needed, and the furlough was on the table, and the judges asked me to postpone it because they wanted to give me some assistance in trying to get this resolved," he said. "They did talk with the administration, and I think that that helped."

Morrell expressed confidence that the peace pact will stick in future years.

In a statement, Cantrell said she was proud to have resolved the dispute.

“We are pleased to have the matter resolved and confident that this agreement allows us all to move forward in the best way possible for the residents we serve," she said. "Throughout this process, we have remained committed to getting the job done and to upholding the trust that the people of our city have placed in their elected officials.”

Karen Herman, the court's chief judge, said she also was satisfied.

"Criminal District Court is committed to working closely and cooperatively with all criminal justice agencies," she said. "We’re thrilled that the litigation has been disposed of and we can move forward from there."

Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, Morrell asked Civil District Court Judge Sidney Cates to dismiss the clerk's various lawsuits. The judge did so on Thursday.