The Louisiana Board of Ethics has filed charges against Mayor LaToya Cantrell in connection with flight upgrades she made in 2022, and WWL's Newell Normand added more fuel to the fire.
There's no way the trip she's currently on to Nairobi, Kenya to attend a U.N. committee meeting is about New Orleans, he said. "No matter how many times she puts out the word salad, this is a waste of time," Normand said.
Rather, he argued the exotic trip is about furthering her own ambitions for a post-mayoral career.
He cheekily added Cantrell could do her own seminar instead on how 'not to be transparent to the public.' "They may want to fly her back to New York to do a presentation there to clean up that mess," he said.
She could also work on seminars about proper trash collection, cleaning up the French Quarter, fixing potholes and sidewalks, Newell suggested.
"You get this deflection all the time," he said. "There's no doubt this mayor had a desire to go to Africa. What she's going to bring to the table is beyond me."
The meeting is ostensibly about micro-plastics and recycling, something Newell said no one has ever heard her discuss.
"Has anybody out there heard anything about any of this?" he asked. She's flying to Africa on a free trip to discuss topics while Normand said her own City Council can't get her to respond to simple issues.
Also notably, she left five days before the U.N. event starts and is heading back six days before it's over. "How does that work?" Normand asked, adding, "These things are a joke."
