Mayor Cantrell’s D.C. travel plans ignite controversy

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — New Orleans’ Mayor LaToya Cantrell is headed to Washington D.C. for the Yale Mayor’s College Conference.

Organized by Yale University officials, the conference provides an immersive learning environment for mayors nationwide.

“This event offers a valuable opportunity for leaders to interact and share best practices related to challenges facing metropolitan areas across America,” according to city officials.

While in Washington, Cantrell will participate in community engagement efforts to support a program for future youth leaders.

Council President JP Morrell objects to the mayor’s travel plans. In a letter to Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montaño and Director of Finance Romy Samuel, he writes, “I write to express my dismay and extreme concern” about the trip.

The letter read that on Feb. 27, the council reportedly adopted Ordinance Cal. No. 34,984, a Travel Moratorium “temporarily banning precisely this kind of non-essential travel and the incurrence of nonessential-travel-related expenses”.

Morrell wrote that Cantrell did not veto the legislation which ultimately became law and adopted to address claims reportedly made by Montaño and administration members, of spending being out of control.

It is legally irrelevant that the Mayor’s latest lark was announced before the Travel Moratorium
took effect. The law clearly prohibits employees both from “engag[ing] in non-essential travel”
and “incur[ing] any non-essential-travel-related expense” between March 9 and April 30. So,
even if the expenses were approved, the act of travel itself is also prohibited. This interpretation
is underscored by Section 1(f) of the Travel Moratorium, which contemplates reimbursement for
travel expenses already incurred when travel must be cancelled because of the ban. If preapproved or pre-paid travel was exempt from the ordinance, then this provision would not be necessary.
JP Morrell New Orleans City Council President

He ended the letter by requesting that the council be sent statements of any additional expenses incurred by the Mayor or her team in connection with this trip, any reimbursements paid, and a list of the employees involved in approving and facilitating these reimbursements.

“Given the administration’s claims that the City is headed for a potential fiscal crisis, it is simply
beyond the pale that the Mayor would ignore an ordinance designed to address the fiscal crisis
that prompted her to withhold funding from Orleans Parish schoolchildren. If the Mayor seeks to
learn about “best practices” in leadership, she might begin with “obeying the law” and with
“leading by example through self-sacrifice and financial discipline.” Neither lesson requires a
trip to Washington at taxpayer expense,” said Morrell.

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