Including upgraded flights, the latest France trip by NOLA mayor cost more than $50K

quote:

---

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s trip to the French Riviera last month cost more than $50,000, but it is still unclear if taxpayers foot the entire bill.

More than a month after requiring a public records request for the public to learn who traveled with Cantrell to Nice, the city’s law department released the names and travel expenses. The entourage included Robert Monlyn for executive protection, Rosine Pema Sanga with intergovernmental relations and Austin Feldbaum with the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

“She’s traveling out of the country. You know, the normal security engagement rules don’t apply,” said Dillard University political analyst Robert Collins. “A New Orleans police officer cannot even carry their weapon through customs when they go to a foreign country.”

Cantrell and her delegation took part in the United Nations Ocean Rise & Coastal Summit, alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. Records show the mayor, her security detail and NOHSEP flew first class in and out of New Orleans and business class on the connecting flights to and from France.


Receipts show the upgraded flights cost more than $9,800 per person. Flight records provided for Sanga were limited.

While in France, Cantrell and her team stayed at the Villa Victoria. The mayor stayed in a superior room with a double bed at $552 per night. The rest of her team stayed in a superior room with twin beds for $529 per night.

“If this truly was official travel, which is what I believe the mayor’s office is going to argue, then you should always use the least-expensive flights, the least-expensive rooms,” Collins said. “You’re on a business trip. It’s not a vacation.”

---