Tensions over how to reopen New Orleans’s economy boiled over Friday, between Mayor LaToya Cantrell and Steven Perry Director of New Orleans and Company.
Perry sent Cantrell a profanity-laced rebuke to her calling her plans for reopening the economy, restrictive and accused her of not consulting business experts on her reopening plans.
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Political Analyst Clancy Dubos told Newell Normand he knows and has worked with both Perry and Cantrell and says Mayor Cantrell is the last person who should be calling out people for being blunt.
“First of all, leaders need to talk to each other and sometimes they need to be blunt, but of all the people in politics who are blunt, LaToya Cantrell is at the top of that list,” Dubos said.
Dubos says he has known Cantrell since she was a Broadmoor community leader and councilmember. Dubos also was on the board of then named, New Orleans Convention and Visitor Bureau from 2002 to 2010 when Steven Perry when he was hired. He says Cantrell was known for using profanity when directing staff members.
“There is a running joke, how long does it take for the mayor to drop an f-bomb when having a conversation with her...sometimes it’s less than ten seconds if she is not happy about something,” said Dubos. “She is not in a position to be talking about anybody else using an expletive. When she was on the council, she had that reputation among her staff, among her fellow councilmembers and among the public.”
Dubos says Perry rightfully apologized for his remarks to the mayor but says he has never known Perry to speak in that way.