The mayor and different high-ranking New Orleans officers may nonetheless have the ability to use taxpayer cash to journey abroad below a brand new Metropolis Council ordinance. However now they’re going to must cough up the receipts.
On Thursday, the council unanimously accredited new guidelines that may require quarterly stories on Metropolis Corridor journey and set deadlines for a way shortly officers produce detailed data on any prices.
The ordinance, which was initially filed in response to a series of overseas trips taken by Mayor LaToya Cantrell in latest months, scrapped an earlier proposal from Council Vice President JP Morrell to cap “non-essential” journey at $1,000, which probably would have stopped abroad journey altogether. Morrell stated the change got here in response to group suggestions.
“The first concern that I received in talking with people, particularly from the group, our constituency, was transparency,” stated Morrell.
A well-stamped passport
In June and July, Cantrell and different metropolis officers made journeys to France and Switzerland to ink symbolic “sister metropolis” agreements. Even earlier than these journeys, the mayor this 12 months had spent almost $80,000 on journeys for herself and prime aides.
The visits to Europe got here within the midst of a roiling debate over learn how to tackle town’s violent crime spike and different ills like spotty trash assortment and slow-moving highway repairs. Critics charged that the mayor was abandoning her put up at metropolis expense.
The howls grew louder when Cantrell introduced — and then quickly canceled — a visit to Singapore for a local weather change convention.
Cantrell has defended her journeys as a software of financial improvement and spreading the phrase in regards to the metropolis’s tradition.
“After I go, I am reinvesting within the individuals who get marketed, and no apologies surrounding that in any respect,” Cantrell stated at a city corridor on Tuesday.
Even earlier than the Singapore journey went public, Morrell and Council President Helena Moreno launched an ordinance that might have capped “non-essential” journeys for metropolis elected officers at $1,000 a pop.
Underneath the ultimate ordinance, there’s no particular greenback restrict. As an alternative, town’s chief administrative officer and the chief of employees for the Metropolis Council should craft journey insurance policies for elected and non-elected officers alike. The ordinance additionally applies to council members.
Airfare and resort payments have to be disclosed in response to public information requests inside three days, and all receipts inside 14 enterprise days. After Cantrell’s journey to the French Riviera, town was sluggish to provide particulars on the bills.
The town should additionally produce a quarterly journey report.
A Mayor’s Workplace spokesperson stated the brand new ordinance will not change a lot.
“Immediately’s vote duplicates most of the insurance policies and practices already set forth because it pertains to elected officers’ journey,” stated John Lawson. “Because the chief ambassador for this Metropolis, the Mayor will proceed to advertise New Orleans, our historical past, and our tradition and make the connections essential to not solely appeal to extra guests however to additionally drive extra financial investments into our metropolis as nicely.”
Ordinance drew ‘pushback’
Moreno thanked Morrell for carrying the ordinance into the tip zone — previous a protection that went unnamed.
“I do know that it has not been straightforward, that you simply definitely have gotten important pushback,” she stated. “I used to be glad to face with you on it, as a result of I do assume it is crucial and is one thing that’s really lengthy overdue.”
Whereas the mayor’s journeys introduced out some hecklers on social media, District E Council member Oliver Thomas wished her “safe travels” in July, including, “Simply convey again a Sister Metropolis settlement, an financial relationship and a few concepts and issues we will do higher right here!!!”
Thomas was the only real Council member absent when the journey ordinance handed 6-0. He stated earlier that he needed to go away to talk at a youth commencement occasion.
