Did Mayor LaToya Cantrell's office knowingly and intentionally break public bid laws and laws banning use of public funds for political purposes?
A New Orleans City Council Investigation concluded that did happen.
Council President JP Morrell says they found emails where Cantrell's communications office was warned the mailer they were producing to promote the mayor during the recall was not legal.
He says the Law Department advised the Office of Communication that the laws "specifically prohibit the use of city funds for political activity."
That didn't stop them.
Morrell says the mailer contained the mayor's picture and name in addition to clearly promotional statements about the mayor.
"The mailer campaign served a partisan, political purpose that violates state law."
Additionally, he says the mailer contract was too expensive to be done without a public bid. Morrell says the administration's solution was to divide the contract into a pair of contracts.
"Chief Deputy Attorney Tracy Tyler believed that separating the Mercury contract into two operate agreements violated the city's public procurement rules," the council president said. "The City Attorney's Office opined in advance this did not meet the law."
He says emails show the warnings were ignored.
Councilman Joe Giarrusso said one of the publisher's emails made it clear what the administration was asking them to do by splitting the contract to avoid a public bid.
" 'The coms director for the mayor of New Orleans called and wanted a proposal from us,' " Giarrusso read from the email. " 'He wants us to get the business and hasn't gone to anyone else. So, he says this is pro forma; but we still need to make it look good."
Morrell says Communications Director Gregory Joseph instructed the publisher to not only split the contract in two, but to also back date it too.
"As to not trigger the requirement that this be done as a public bid document."
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