A lengthy investigative report on Mayor Latoya Cantrell's use of the Ponatalba Apartment brought about the City Council stripping the apartment from the Mayor's office and a demand to put it back into commerce.
However, new information suggests that the Mayor, the French Quarter Corporation, and the building staff have done everything but that.
President of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, Rafael Goyeneche says that the City Council overriding the Mayor's veto on decommissioning the apartment should have been the end of the story, but it seems it was only to be continued.
“We received information that the apartment was sitting vacant and it had not been offered for lease.”
He says this is despite a lengthy waitlist of potential renters. However, after six months elapsed with seemingly no movement towards a new tenant, it prompted some digging
Goyeneche says that after a public records request it became apparent that all parties were still treating the apartment as under the domain of the Mayor's office.
“French Market Corporation has failed to abide by the law. Two weeks after the ordinance there is communication between them and a liaison at the Mayor’s Office."
Goyeneche says the office did not push back.
“They didn’t even say, you don’t have to ask us. The city council has already made the demand.”
