New Orleans City Council would have final say over City Hall move under new proposal

Any potential relocation of City Hall – including Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s plan to shift the seat of government to Municipal Auditorium – would require City Council approval under a new measure Councilmember Helena Moreno will put forward this week.

Combined with a temporary halt on any development at Municipal Auditorium proposed last week by Councilmember Kristin Gisleson Palmer, the new restrictions will likely be a significant roadblock that could prevent Cantrell’s efforts to squeeze the city’s offices into the historic venue in Armstrong Park by requiring most city employees to work from home.

Cantrell is the third consecutive mayor to try to move City Hall out of its dilapidated home on Perdido Street and plans for a relocation go back even further. The Municipal Auditorium proposal has been assailed by neighbors and critics around the city, who say the building should be left as a cultural center and argue that turning the building that fronts Congo Square into an office would amount to desecrating a sacred space.

Moreno said Tuesday that her plan is aimed broadly at forcing community engagement and preventing the lack of buy-in that sank the previous proposals and now imperil the current administration’s ambitions.

“She’s not the first mayor to have some trouble and some pushback on the relocation of a City Hall,” Moreno said.  

“It’s because there was a lack of public engagement and a lack of a public process. This is a problem that has persisted now for decades, so let’s create that process, lets require the public engagement, let’s require the accountability and let's all be in this together,” Moreno said.

Read the full article here: https://www.nola.com/news/politics/article_fe36a768-d8f4-11eb-a9c4-2fda7995b253.html