The New Orleans City Council is seeking repayment of more than $40 million it says was improperly distributed from the Wisner Trust to private individuals and other organizations over the last decade, as the council ratchets up its claims in a two-year-old lawsuit over Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s handling of the trust.
Reversing a 4th Circuit Court of Appeal decision in June that blocked the case from going forward, the Louisiana Supreme Court voted 5-2 that the council is an independent body with special powers under the New Orleans Home Rule Charter, allowing it to sue the mayor, unlike legislative bodies in other Louisiana cities.
Louisiana has been allowed by the Army Corps of Engineers to count $110 million spent on two major coastal restoration projects in recent years as credits towards the state’s $1.12