I just had a thought. What if Nagin's claim of at least 10,000 dead had something to do with this? What if the NOPD isn't the only governmental institution with a lot of phantom employees? What if Nagin was hoping to use that 10,000 figure to explain away more than phantom cops? The Feds ought to be going over the whole darn city, not just the PD.
If Nagin was thinking about folding his phantom employees into the 10,000 dead number, he must have been quite shocked when FEMA explained that there was little likelihood of the "bodies" being washed out to sea forever. After all, it was not the World Trade Towers where incinerated people would leave no trace of their prior existance.
"10,000" did seem like a rather random number to pull out of thin air. Did he choose it because it's the number of body bags NO always keeps on hand? Did he choose it because it was a high enough to cover the rough estimate of the expected deaths plus, as you pointed out, a "phantom employee" count.
How does the mayor afford to run out and buy a new house in Dallas, anyway????