The board of the French Quarter Management District voted Monday to have IV Waste continue picking up trash in the Vieux Carre starting this Thursday.
The FQMD contract is only supposed to kick in if there is no legally executed city contract by then.
So far, courts have not stopped New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration's plans to award an emergency contract to Troy Henry Consulting to do that work.
"We have a fully executed valid contract with the city," Troy Henry told our partners at NOLA.com. "It should render any FQMD contract null, void, and unnecessary according to the law."
However, IV Waste owner Sidney Torres IV said the amicus brief filed last week by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill demonstrates why the city cannot have a valid contract with Henry Consulting.
"The mayor cannot manufacture an 'emergency,'" said Murrill. "I have filed an amicus brief on this matter due to the public's interest in not having public officials abuse their authority under the disaster powers law. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell is blatantly abusing her emergency powers under the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act in order to circumvent the public procurement laws."
When the new contract for French Quarter sanitation begins July 31, Torres said "we're going to do what we normally do."
Should the FQMD's emergency contract need to be implemented, the $495,000 owed to IV Waste would be ultimately paid by the city.
However, FQMD board chair Jane Cooper said they may have to go to court to force the city to pay up, at further expense to the city's taxpayers.