Landrieu administration diverted $40 million in federal grants

Get his arse.

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Mandatory, "I bet they used some of the money to take down the statues."

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I mean yeah, they did.

Spending $35 million on "priorities" freed up plenty of money to take down the statues.

It's the same as Planned Parenthood saying no federal money goes to abortions - yeah, it just pays all the other bills so private money can be used for abortions. It's semantics.

Lock him up. I would bet he broke some federal grant laws.

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Landrieu

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I wish nothing but bad things for this a-hole.

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The original cost estimate for the entire project was $6 million, with $4 million coming from the city and $2 million from the Sewerage & Water Board.

The current estimate to complete Phase 1 is $6.343 million and Phase 2 is $7.022 million, bringing the total to $13.365 million, with $7.879 million coming from the city and $5.486 million from the S&WB.

Despite the cost overruns, officials said the project remains fully funded by both the city and the S&WB, with the additional $3.879 million cost to the city coming from bond funds.

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Originally priced at an estimated $6 million for all eight blocks, the Bourbon Street reconstruction project's budget nearly tripled last year to about $17 million, prompting officials to cut the scope of work in half. The full overhaul calls for reconstructing eight blocks of Bourbon from Canal to Dumaine streets.

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Rather than put the centerpiece of Landrieu’s $40 million citywide public safety plan out to bid as a capital project -- as is typically done for work of this size -- the city used an existing pavement maintenance contract to get the project started more quickly.

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Adding to the political intrigue with this project, Landrieu’s critics took to Facebook in recent days to complain that his cousin Renee Landrieu’s company, Landrieu Concrete and Cement Industries, had trucks on the job.

The city, Entergy, Hard Rock and Renee Landrieu all say the concrete firm is working for Entergy’s contractor, Boh Bros., and not for the city’s contractor, Hard Rock. Renee Landrieu said her concrete is being used only in the catch basins on Bourbon Street.

She also pointed out that nepotism and ethics laws do not prohibit cousins of public officials from holding contracts with that official’s agency. Still, she said, her company does not have any city contracts.

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frick em all

When they announced the plans for the site, a lot of people were excited. This is the kind of transformational project we need here. There were even a number of jokes that with the new cruise port space, we might get a Disney Cruise Line boat.

I was wondering why we haven't heard anything about that project. Meanwhile, everytime I go to Crescent Park, I see the buildings and the space starting to fall apart.

Taking the money was NOT ok. But at least if some actual drainage work had been done... whatever. But what was done was 40 million of studies and plans and still not a damn shovel worth of work.

When Mitch came into office, I thought he had some good ideas. He realized we needed to balance the budget, and took hard steps to do that.

It's becoming more clear that, just like Jindal, his budget successes were nothing more than robbing Peter to pay Paul.

I hope he does run for president, so all this can be exposed to the country.

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“Diverted”. Is that the words liberals use instead of embezzled?

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And we thought it was a big deal when Baton Rouge used $750k to build some bike paths. How does this happen? Mandatory, "I bet they used some of the money to take down the statues."

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The Landrieu administration took at least $40 million in federal grants intended for revitalizing an old Navy base in New Orleans' Bywater neighborhood and used it for unrelated projects, according to a WWL-TV report.

The defunct Naval Support Activity site on Poland Avenue was put in the city's hands five years ago through the military's Base Realignment and Closure process. Since then, officials have touted plans to turn the facility into a disaster response center. Much of the 22-acre former Navy campus remains intact, including three six-story buildings.

WWL reports that a city official learned that Cedric Grant, then a deputy mayor, went to FEMA in 2015 and requested that the weatherproofing money be redirected to drainage projects. Former Mayor Mitch Landrieu had also put Grant in charge of the Sewerage & Water Board.

The drainage projects never reached the construction stage, and an official with the Cantrell administration says the $35 million has been used for other projects deemed priorities, according to the TV station's report. The mayor's office holds no hope the federal money can be recouped.


It is like you have a bunch of crack dealers running the city budget. Hmmmm... There is some extra money, let's go buy a bunch of Jordan's.

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I bet I know where you got your shoes at?