There's a move to strip power from New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell

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The political power of the mayor of New Orleans is under attack.

In the past two months, Democratic state lawmakers have sponsored a series of bills that would dilute the authority of Mayor LaToya Cantrell — and any future New Orleans mayor — over boards that control public housing, regional transit, emergency dispatch and the Downtown Development District. A task force appointed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry recently threatened a state takeover of the Sewerage and Water Board, while Louisiana State Police officers, who report to the state, will once again patrol New Orleans.

And for the better part of two years, the City Council has secured more power by convincing voters to give it authority over mayoral appointees, forcing out a top Cantrell aide and, at times, and freezing departmental budgets to force the administration to comply with its demands.

Together, the moves represent the broadest affront to mayoral power in New Orleans in decades, according to long-time political observers, who said critics of Cantrell — a second-term mayor beset by controversies — are seizing on a power vacuum created by her perceived unpopularity.

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