Speaking publicly for the first time about former recovery czar Ed Blakely's comments that New Orleanians are racist and lazy, and that city workers are unsophisticated, Mayor Nagin says he's disappointed with the comments, but Blakely is entitled to his opinion.

Blakely also predicted in an interview with CalTV, the University of California-Berkeley's online TV station, that race riots would occur in the city unless "the next mayor is very clever."

"I can't imagine there being race riots in New Orleans. I don't see where city workers are lazy or incompetent, but he's entitled to his opinion," Nagin said on "Sunday Journal" on FM98 WYLD.

The mayor says the impression he got after speaking to Blakely in Australia was that Blakely did not feel his efforts and achievements as recovery chief were appreciated here. "He (Blakely) has a nice-size ego, he loves to think of himself as the person who knows better than most," Nagin said.

On the 63-count federal indictment against the city's former technology chief Greg Meffert, his wife Linda and a former city vendor, Nagin said "We have cooperated at City Hall and we continue to cooperate. It's an indictment, not a conviction, and we'll just continue to monitor it. And hopefully, it will come out in a good place for the Mefferts and for the city."

Nagin also said he does not see himself being indicted in connection with the federal case against the Mefferts.

"You have to do something wrong to be indicted or convicted. I haven't done anything wrong. I'm not the target of any investigation. No one has suggested that I am a target," Nagin added.