Ten minutes after issuing a statement defending Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s to mail out pamphlets touting Cantrell’s accomplishments to New Orleans residents on the city’s dime, the mayor’s spokesman issued a second statement defending his boss.
This time, Cantrell’s director of communications Gregory Joseph rebutted a report that claimed Cantrell’s security officers recorded working hours on their time sheets even when they were nowhere near the mayor. According to that report by WVUE-TV, the city paid four officers who are part of Cantrell’s security detail for a total of 48 hours of work. Those payments were made despite security cameras showing the mayor coming and going from a city-owned apartment in the French Quarter alone. The report also noted two instances in which Cantrell brought security officers with her on private trips, including to a family funeral.
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In his defense of the mayor, Joseph attacked the people who provided interviews for the story, including Metropolitan Crime Commission president Rafael Goyeneche, who questioned the need for the mayor to take police officers with her on a private trip when the city is facing a major crime problem and a massive police shortage.
“Those who purport themselves to be in law enforcement but who rather score cheap and meaningless political points at the expense of the safety and well-being of the people of the City of New Orleans should exercise their right to remain silent," Joseph said in a statement. "It is deplorable and simply disgusting that in the day and age of heightened and realized political violence, that so-called public safety leadership would place the lives of Executive Protection, the Mayor, her family, and the people of the City of New Orleans at risk. By fabricating lies and half-truths they expose the fact that they know next to nothing about New Orleans Police Department procedures or the roles and functions of Executive Protection."
Joseph did not provide any examples of the “lies and half-truths” he believes were featured in the story.
However, he explained why the city did not provide information WVUE requested about the work the mayor’s security officers performed.
“The duties assigned to the Executive Protection team are at the discretion of the Mayor, and the Mayor and the Executive Protection team are not subject to provide reasoning on changes to itinerary, hours of operation, or safety needs,” Joseph said. “Officers within the Executive Protection team are subject to the same operating guidelines outlined by the NOPD, and all operations of the NOPD are at the discretion of the Superintendent. Ultimately, Executive Protection is responsible for protecting the Mayor from all threats to her safety and well-being, regardless of where those threats may exist. This is a duty and responsibility that every member of the Mayor’s Executive Protection team performs admirably.”
Joseph closed his statement by defending the mayor’s use of her security detail and the work that detail does.
“No one, whether a public official or otherwise, deserves to feel unsafe and uncomfortable in their home, their community or doing their job,” Joseph wrote.
