The last two weeks have been pretty rough on New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell.
"I can imagine the Mayor's feeling a lot of pressure right now," New Orleans Political Consultant Ed Chervenak says the Mayor's recurring tax issue goes right to her credibility. "You are the mayor of a major urban center, you're supposed to lead by example."
"This probably isn't going to help her reputation among her constituents," Chervenak says.
He points to the Mayor's public spat with the Council, which only seemed to fuel their determination for launching it's own investigation.
"Certainly she's received a lot of push-back from the City Council and the public over the Hard Rock issue."
The Mayor's insistence the handling of the disaster was entirely under her purview was rebuked when the Council went ahead with plans to hold hearings on the collapse.
Others, including WWL's Newell Normand, questioned the Mayor's priorities, like missing the important Lakeview meeting on car burglary crime to jet to a Mayor's Conference in Washington DC and then staying extra days to go to the DC Mardi Gras Party.
But the lack of action on Hard Rock and the apparent back and forth over how to demolish the broken eyesore seems to be the tipping point.
"People are frustrated by the fact there's no real progress in bringing that building down and recovering the two bodies that are there," Chervenak says.
Chervenak says there is a monetary component that may be complicating the issue for mayor.
"It's hard to know what is going on behind the scenes," he says.
"But her critics will point out she has taken tens of thousands of dollars from the developers of the Hard Rock [Hotel]," Chervenak explains. "And they'll argue that this is preventing her from speaking out against the developers."
But the recurring tax issue, the issuance of another tax lien on her home, appears to have dented the Mayor's public persona.
According to Chervenak: "Credibility comes with the fact that you're having trouble managing your own finances, but you've been put in charge of managing the city's finances. That's where the credibility issue comes in."