According to the motion, if that doesn’t happen by Mar. 21, the French Market Corporation can evict her.
NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans City Council hopes a vote taken Thursday will finally put the feud over the Pontalba, to rest. Thursday they voted 5-2 to direct the French Market Corporation, the building’s management company, to get the keys back from Mayor Cantrell and get her belongings out.
According to the motion, if that doesn’t happen by Mar. 21, the French Market Corporation can evict her.
“The French Market Corporation has diligently tried to work with her, the council has tried to work with her as recently as last night to say listen tell us the property isn’t yours and you don’t want anything to do with it give us the keys back save us the expense of having to rekey the property and store furniture if one of it is yours. What we’ve gotten is silence,” Council Vice President JP Morrell said. “You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.”
The vote comes after days of back and forth between the Mayor and Morrell over whether or not she has the keys. A statement from the Mayor’s office early Wednesday morning said the Mayor hasn’t been in the unit since the council voted to turn it over to the French Market Corporation. According to the statement, the French Market Corporation has keys has been able to access the unit.
Friday, Morrell said his office was never able to confirm whether or not the Mayor turned in her keys, saying the last time he heard from her office was Thursday evening.
“The last communication I received was yesterday evening where mister Clifton Davis, who is her chief of staff indicated the French Market Corporation has their keys and no other keys will be forthcoming, which was a pretty clear indicator there’s no intention of turning the keys over,” Morrell said.
During Thursday’s vote, Council member Freddie King indicated his desire to be done with the issue and move on. Morrell says this could’ve been resolved long ago.
“If we just had a clear line of communication with the administration, if the keys had been returned, if the Mayor had just said the property’s not mine or I don’t care about it, we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about it, it would’ve been resolved. Instead we’ve had radio silence and we haven’t been given clear indications of anything,” Morrell said.
We’ve reached out to the Mayor’s office for comment on Thursday’s motion but have not heard back.
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