After a midnight news release from New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell stating she no longer has keys to the Pontalba apartment unit the city council barred her from using, City Council Vice President J.P. Morrell is asking for verification.
"We would like to confirm that the keys have been transferred," Morrell's chief of staff, Krystal Herndon, asked a Cantrell staffer in an email obtained by our partners at NOLA.com. "Please confirm the status of these issues as soon as possible."
The city council voted in August to prohibit mayors from using the apartment, 530B in the Upper Pontalba building, and for that apartment to be put up for lease like any other unit in the building.
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Last week, Morrell sent notice to the mayor's office asking that the keys to the apartment be relinquished to the French Market Corporation, which manages the property. Failure to do so by the following Monday would result in a council vote to seek eviction.
That Monday deadline passed with no word from the mayor. It was not until around 1 a.m. Wednesday that the mayor's office sent out a news release denying she was in possession of the keys.
"As reiterated in several Official Statements from the City of New Orleans, the Mayor is not utilizing the apartment, and any suggestion that the Mayor is preventing access to it is inaccurate," the statement read.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the council still planned to call a vote on Motion M-24-93, "ordering the Mayor to surrender possession of Unit 530B in the Upper Pontalba Building to the French Market Corporation by March 11."