NEW ORLEANS — Mayor LaToya Cantrell apparently has a taste for irony. She travels the world promoting herself as an expert on managing climate change. But, here at home, her administration fumbled a one hundred forty-million-dollar federal grant for green infrastructure projects. Naturally, Cantrell herself had no comment. Her team blames COVID-19, a cyberattack, and hurricanes. Federal auditors say it was more like poor planning, misallocation of funds and insufficient staffing.
There’s a pattern here. Cantrell also failed to spend $38 million in FEMA funds to clean up the Municipal Auditorium.
You’d almost have to work at it to achieve this level of failure. Amid all this, and a federal investigation, Cantrell seems to have checked out.
Sadly, the people of New Orleans don’t have that luxury.
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