The New Orleans City Council today voted 7-0 to prohibit overnight stays in the city-owned apartment unit in the Upper Pontalba on Jackson Square. The mayor can still use the apartment, but it must be for official duties.
Although the vote was unanimous, Council President J.P. Morrell expressed some issues he has.
"You have prohibited overnight stays; you have not prohibited parties that go the whole night and no one stays there, for example," said Morrell. "You still will have a unit at the use of future mayors for whatever does not constitute an overnight stay."
Morrell said he would rather get the city out of having that apartment unit, period.
"We had an opportunity to solve this problem and get the city out of that headache, and instead we just turned it into a different one," Morrell said.
The original ordinance would have required the mayor, or any other city official or employee, to pay fair-market rent, as set by a written lease, effectively putting the city-owned unit on the rental market.
But the council voted 6-1 to amend the ordinance and keep the apartment for official business, in a move offered by District E member Oliver Thomas.
"If used the right way, for dignitaries, culturally, and in a celebratorial way" said Thomas, "it would yield more benefit."
A report from the New Orleans Inspector General's office found that if the city rented the apartment at market rate, it would bring in $41,000 a year.
Thomas said no one on the council's legal staff said his amendment could potentially lead to future problems.
The action today was prompted by Mayor LaToya Cantrell's use of the apartment, staying overnight in it without paying rent. The Pontalba apartment has also figured in salacious allegations involving Mayor Cantrell and an affair with a member of her personal security team.
