{"id":1676047,"date":"2022-10-06T12:05:05","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T16:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1676047"},"modified":"2022-10-06T12:05:15","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T16:05:15","slug":"new-orleans-mayor-agrees-to-pay-city-back-for-30000-spent-on-first-class-flights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-orleans-mayor-agrees-to-pay-city-back-for-30000-spent-on-first-class-flights\/","title":{"rendered":"New Orleans Mayor Agrees to Pay City Back for $30,000 Spent on First-Class Flights"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnew-orleans-mayor-agrees-to-pay-city-back-for-30000-spent-on-first-class-flights%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1676047&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-new-orleans\">New Orleans<\/a> Mayor LaToya Cantrell has changed her stance and agreed to reimburse the city for nearly $30,000 that she spent on first-class flights.<\/p>\n<p>Cantrell, a Democrat, had refused to repay the city, saying that her luxury flights on trips to France and Switzerland were for legitimate city businesses. She initially claimed that the flight upgrades were necessary to\u00a0protect herself from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-covid-19\">COVID-19<\/a> and that she had some travel safety concerns as a black woman.<\/p>\n<p>New Orlean\u2019s top legal officer, City Attorney Donesia Turner, issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TraversWDSU\/status\/1574855420367233025\">memorandum<\/a> on Sept. 27, stating clearly that Cantrell is an employee of the city and therefore she needs to follow the city\u2019s travel policies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEmployees are required to purchase the lowest airfare available,\u201d states the city policy (<a href=\"https:\/\/nola.gov\/chief-administrative-office\/policies\/policies\/no-9-(r)-travel-and-business-expenses\/\">pdf<\/a>) cited in Turner\u2019s memo. \u201cEmployees who choose an upgrade from coach, economy or business class flights are solely responsible for the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following Turner\u2019s ruling, Gilbert Montano, the city\u2019s chief administrative officer, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wdsu.com\/article\/new-orleans-cao-mayor-latoya-cantrell-repay-travel-expenses\/41463155\">said<\/a> he would enforce the travel policy and have Cantrell pay for her flight upgrades.<\/p>\n<p> Cantrell <\/p>\n<p>On Oct. 4, at a groundbreaking for a new YWCA facility, Cantrell told reporters that she will repay the costs, though she did not give a timeline on when the payment would be made.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBased on the policy review, however, I will have to reimburse,\u201d she said, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/new-orleans-37965c3bc094de65707f8780ff2a217f\">according to<\/a> the Associated Press. \u201cSo I\u2019m moving forward to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The mayor reiterated that the flight upgrades were for her health and well-being, noting the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Cantrell traveled to Europe over the summer, signing sister-city agreements with Ascona, Switerzland, and Juan-les-Pins, France. Her first-class trip to France cost nearly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wafb.com\/2022\/08\/23\/mayor-cantrell-spent-40k-four-days-french-riviera-sign-sister-cities-agreement-records-show\/\">$18,000<\/a>, and she spent about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nola.com\/news\/politics\/article_b74732f6-0f52-11ed-85f5-676e80ab96ab.html\">$9,800<\/a> on business and first-class flights to Switerzland.<\/p>\n<p>New Orleans City Council President Helena Moreno, who had previously threatened to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wwltv.com\/article\/news\/local\/orleans\/new-orleans-city-council-prepared-to-dock-mayor-salary-for-airfare-upgrades\/289-636c2319-0250-49d2-ad3b-ec8075343270\">dock<\/a> Cantrell\u2019s salary over her first-class<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has changed her stance and agreed to reimburse the city for nearly $30,000 that she spent on first-class flights. Cantrell, a Democrat, had refused to repay the city, saying that her luxury flights on trips to France and Switzerland were for legitimate city businesses. She initially claimed that the flight [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":252,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1676047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/252"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1676047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1676047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1676047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1676047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}