New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell's office announced Sunday afternoon that the mayor is traveling to Washington, DC to take part in the Yale Mayors College Conference.
New Orleans City Council President J.P. Morrell on Monday called the trip "patently unlawful" and in violation of a recent city ordinance.
"This annual conference was confirmed on the Mayor’s Office schedule well before the recent council ordinance," read a news release from the mayor's office.
Morrell called that "irrelevant."
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"It is legally irrelevant that the Mayor’s latest lark was announced before the Travel Moratorium took effect," Morrell wrote to Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montaño and city finance director Romy Samuel. "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."
Morrell asked that neither the mayor nor anyone else who made this trip receive reimbursement for their expenses from city funds.
"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," Morrell said, concluding, "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."
In a statement to news media Monday afternoon, the mayor's office said "the City of New Orleans will not incur a cost for the Mayor’s participation and attendance at the Yale conference." It did not elaborate as to how or why.