Cantrell uses emergency power in effort to install trash contractor in French Quarter

Mayor LaToya Cantrell filed an emergency declaration in Civil District Court on Wednesday, a move that would allow her to install her preferred sanitation contractor in the French Quarter and Downtown Development District.

Cantrell is planning to give an emergency contract to Henry Consulting while a long-term deal she signed with the firm last year is tied up in court, according to a source familiar with Cantrell’s plans not authorized to speak publicly. 

Cantrell’s declaration cited the July 31 expiration of an existing emergency contract with IV Waste as the basis for the emergency, though Cantrell is voluntarily terminating that contract early. IV Waste’s contract was set to expire at the end of this year before Cantrell announced in April she would terminate it early, a move that some of Cantrell’s top deputies publicly opposed.

A spokesperson for Cantrell did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Troy Henry, owner of Henry Consulting, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The early termination has also infuriated French Quarter residents and businesses who have raved about IV Waste’s service.

“She created the emergency by cancelling my contract before the day it was supposed to run out,” IV Waste owner Sidney Torres said. “This is such a waste of taxpayers’ money on legal fees … and administrative time.”

A spokesperson for Cantrell did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Troy Henry, owner of Henry Consulting, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The New Orleans City Council plans to respond to the emergency declaration at its meeting on Thursday, a council source said, although it wasn’t clear what sort of action the council might take.

According to the state law cited in Cantrell’s emergency declaration, a “state of emergency or disaster may be terminated” by a majority of the “parish governing authority.”

Controversy over a $73 million Henry Consulting contract has boiled for nearly a year, when a dispute with a subcontractor blew up in public. That caused some council members to balk at approving it. Other council members raised alarms about contract terms they said are extraordinarily favorable for Henry Consulting. The council never voted on the contract. 

Civil District Court Judge Paulette Irons ordered the council to green light the contract in December, but the order was stayed while the council appeals. Cantrell has insisted Henry Consulting would begin providing service on Aug. 1, despite the stay on the order.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers gave the French Quarter Management District — a state created public agency — authority to hire its own contractor if the city doesn’t have one in place. The district issued a request for proposals this week.