NEW ORLEANS — A glossy tri-fold mailer went out to 106,000 households in the city of New Orleans at a cost of about $50,000 in late January.
The flyer titled the ‘City of New Orleans: 2022Recap’ highlighted Mayor Latoya Cantrell’s successes in the areas of infrastructure, public safety, and the economy.
“When you look at the mailer on its face, it’s problematic,” City Council President J.P. Morrell said.
Potentially problematic for a number of reasons according to members of the city council.
Wednesday, they voted 7-0 to launch an investigation into the mailer.
It was sent out in the final days of the push to recall Cantrell.
“We just have a lot of questions about the nature of this particular mailer and whether it was done appropriately or not. If it was not done appropriately, then I do believe the city should be repaid that it utilized to pay for this,” City Council VP Helena Moreno said.
According to state law, no public dollars can be used to advertise the name of a public official.
Morrell says they will now subpoena documents and testimony from MPress, the company that printed the mailer and Mercury Public Affairs, the consultant that designed it.
“When we tried to contact the print house, they stonewalled us and said unless you subpoena these documents, we will not give them to you and the only way the council can subpoena anyone is when an investigation is open.”
Karen Pritchett from MPress told WWL-TV, “The original request from the City Council was for emails from our customer. We do not furnish emails or customer information, without a Subpoena, which has been Mpress policy since 2005.”
Moreno says it appears some of the work was done through a no-bid contract and there’s a question whether the contract was ever executed.
“There’s things within the contract that talk about voter engagement and voter ID which doesn’t really make sense to do as a public unit, as a city.”
Morrell said he expects subpoenas to go out by the end of the week or early next week.
City Communications Director Gregory Joseph who is among the city officials also expected to be subpoenaed by the city council released this statement:
“The City of New Orleans consistently communicates with our residents through many different avenues and will continue educating the public on the work being done and meaningful results being rendered throughout their community. The work is real, and the intent to transparently communicate that work directly and effectively to the residents of this city should not go unnoticed. Given the challenges the City has had to endure and work through, our people deserve to be notified of the efforts being made by this administration to ensure that future generations of New Orleanians are given opportunities to thrive in a progressive, safer, healthier, more inclusive and more equitable city.”
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