The New Orleans City Council's efforts to restrict Mayor LaToya Cantrell's frequent travel faced another setback this week when a Orleans Parish Civil District judge struck down a ban the council passed in April as unconstitutional.
Cantrell’s administration had already won a preliminary injunction freezing the law that restricted most employee travel, but the ruling issued Wednesday by Judge Jennifer Medley nullifies the council's action, which the mayor has characterized as an illegal power grab.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell poses for pictures at the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meetings in Washington, D.C. in January (Photo credit: City of New Orleans)
“This ruling upholds the integrity of the city’s governing structure and confirms that the council cannot simply rewrite the rules to expand its power as it sees fit,” said Charles Rice, a private lawyer who represented the Cantrell administration in the case.
The council's lawyer, Adam Swensek, said the council will likely appeal.
"We maintain that the Constitution does not prohibit the council from regulating publicly funded travel by city employees," Swensek said.
The travel ban spun out of a controversy over a proposed settlement in the Orleans Parish School Board's lawsuit against the Cantrell administration over its fees for collecting school-dedicated property taxes. The $90 million settlement was announced in November, but Cantrell nixed it two months later, claiming she hadn't been told about it and that the city couldn't afford it.
The city's chief financial officer, Romy Samuel, then issued dire warnings about out-of-control spending, drawing ire from council members who called it a bluff to justify Cantrell's decision. In response, the council passed a temporary ban on non-essential employee travel on Feb. 27.
The ordinance applied to all city employees, but it was a direct shot at Cantrell, who has been heavily criticized for a busy travel itinerary during her second term. Cantrell, who took a trip to Washington D.C. after the ban passed, won a temporary restraining order and injunction. The mayor has spent about one in four days outside the city, on average, since the ban passed, according to her official schedules. They include trips that weren't announced in advance, or at all, breaking from tradition.
The fight over the travel ban fit with other recent court battles over the council's authority, though none directly involving the mayor. At issue are ordinances the council passed in 2022 and 2023 giving it the right to approve professional service contracts worth more than $1 million, as well as all outside legal contracts. Judges in two lawsuits, including one by Rice, have now said those ordinances violate the city charter and wrongly impede the mayor's executive authority.
The council is appealing both rulings, and the orders are stayed while the appeals are pending.
The council last refused to sign off on a $75,000 legal contract for Rice that Cantrell endorsed for his work on a lawsuit against the Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System.
Council President JP Morrell said at the time the contract would send "the wrong message" because Rice was the head of Entergy New Orleans during an infamous astroturfing scandal in 2018. Rice, who has denied any wrongdoing in that controversy, argued the council had no right to obstruct the contract and said his past employment was irrelevant.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell during a meeting in Doha, Qatar in May 2024.
In a similar landmark case, Judge Paulette Irons overruled a 2022 ordinance giving the council power to approve professional service contracts over $1 million. Henry Consulting brought that case after the council declined to approve its $73 million sanitation contract for the French Quarter and Downtown Development District.
Irons’ ruling – like Medley’s in the legal services case – is stayed while the council appeals, meaning the council retains its signing power on contracts like Henry’s while the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal considers the case.
Cantrell has insisted the Henry contract is lawful and said Henry will begin work on Aug. 1, even without a favorable ruling from the 4th Circuit. Her administration has not answered questions as to how the contract is lawful while the stay in Irons’ order is in place.