The New Orleans City Council says it won't need to hold any further hearings looking into the legality of a flier that New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration mailed to the city's residents.
On Friday, the council said in a press release that next Thursday's meeting, originally scheduled for members to hear more testimony, has been, for all intents and purposes, scrapped.
"The New Orleans City Council has received sufficient information from the August 31, 2023, Governmental Affairs Committee meeting to conclude the investigation regarding the written communication by the Mayor’s Office entitled 'City of New Orleans 2022 Recap,'" council members said in a press release issued Friday afternoon. "The subpoena of the remaining witness, Lesley Thomas, has been formally rescinded."
Council members say Thursday's meeting will be held only so the council can formally adjourn the hearing.
Council members heard testimony from Cantrell's communications director, Gregory Joseph, during Thursday's hearing. Joseph testified that the flier was mailed to voters to inform them of achievements made by the Cantrell Administration. However, the city's chief procurement officer, Julien Meyer, testified that he had been told that the flier was about the mayor's recall.
If they mayor's office sent the flier in an attempt to hurt the recall effort, the mayor would be in violation of state laws prohibiting elected officials and government agencies from spending public funds for political purposes.
The flier was mailed to voters in the midst of the recall effort seeking to remove Cantrell from office. According to documents quoted during Thursday's hearing, the contract with the company that produced the flier ended on the same day that the signatures in the recall effort were due.
