If the head of a household leaves town, usually somebody in the house should know about it. That doesn’t seem to be the case at New Orleans City Hall. On the Newell Normand Show this week, at large New Orleans City Councilman J.P. Morrell discussed the controversy caused when media reports revealed that Mayor LaToya Cantrell was planning to head to Singapore as a speaker at the World Cities Summit. She was scheduled to attend that summit on August 1. Cantrell has come under intense criticism over the timing of the trip. It would have been her third international journey in just over a month. On social media, Cantrell came under fire for leaving the city during a time where crime is spiking, the NOPD is losing officers and police response times are averaging at least 2.5 hours.
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J.P. Morrell told Newell that the mayor’s cancelation of her Asia visit was a “good first step” and that it was an acknowledgement that local issues have to be addressed first. Outside of the optics of the mayor’s recent trips, Morell brought up several concerns about her travels in general. One key concern is notification of her travels.
“There are about four of us that find everything when the press finds out. So, I only speak for myself and my colleague at large, Helena Moreno in particular, we’re in very close contact, but we had no idea. We’ve had no idea she was going anywhere before the mayor either announced it or she was already gone,” Morrell told Newell.
Listen to Morrell explain how travel habits by former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal are relevant to Cantrell’s handling of her travel.