FED KEEPS INTEREST RATE UNCHANGED DESPITE DEMANDS FROM TRUMP 4A
N O L A.C O M
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T h u r s d ay, J u ly 31, 2025
$2.00X
Court halts Quarter sanitation contract
Ruling takes Henry Consulting out of the running for now BY BEN MYERS and JAMES FINN
Staff writers
On the eve of a showdown between two firms warring over the right to clean New Orleans’ French Quarter, the Louisiana Supreme Court has yanked Henry Consulting from the running, leaving IV Waste as the sole legal trash hauler in the area — for now. The high court ruled late Wednesday in favor of a French
Quarter restaurant owner and a property owner who argued that Mayor LaToya Cantrell arbitrarily terminated IV Waste’s existing $6.2 million emergency contract and improperly substituted Henry Consulting at a greater expense. The court found plaintiffs Daniel Conwill and Maria Costopoulos “raised significant legal questions” about the $8.3 million Henry Consulting contract, which Cantrell awarded without soliciting bids.
The ruling overturned two lower court rulings that allowed Henry’s contract to proceed. Instead, IV Waste will continue to handle pickups in the French Quarter for at least the next month at a cost of $459,000, under a new contract with the French Quarter Management District. The Cantrell administration will likely tap a separate contractor to handle work in the city’s Downtown Development District, since
the contract the court batted down covered both areas, city Sanitation Department Director Matt Torri said. Henry Consulting’s owner, Troy Henry, did not immediately return phone and text messages. Henry and subcontractor Richard’s Disposal Inc. had planned to start work Thursday. But in an interview with WBOK Radio shortly after the court issued its decision, Henry acknowledged that the ruling meant his firm would not be working in the French Quarter come Thursday.
Top Cantrell deputy to exit City Hall post
Montaño has been with mayor since Day 1
He accused the Supreme Court of playing politics by favoring IV Waste’s emergency contract. “I’m very disappointed for the 80-plus employees who were starting tomorrow,” he said. “My manager is having to communicate messages to them that as of 12:01 tonight — or, actually, as of 10 o’clock tonight — that that’s not going to occur.” IV Waste owner Sidney Torres IV on social media said Wednesday that his firm is “grateful that the
ä See CONTRACT, page 5A
Release from Orleans jail called a ‘grave error’ Prosecutors say mistaken exit of another felony defendant undetected for months
BY JOSEPH CRANNEY Staff writer
Before the May jailbreak and last week’s mistaken release of 30-year-old Khalil Bryan, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office in December let another felony defendant out of the jail amid a mix-up with his bond paperwork, which attorneys described as an error that wasn’t discovered for more than four months. The public was never notified about the earlier mishap involving 32-year-old David A. Jones, who OPSO released despite a judge’s order that he be held without bond, according to court documents. The Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office didn’t know Jones had been let out until April, shortly before his trial on charges of seconddegree kidnapping and child sex trafficking, according to a letter from District Attorney Jason Williams. “Unfortunately, as of the date of this
ä See RELEASE, page 7A
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
Gilbert Montaño, New Orleans’ chief administrative officer who has managed the city’s day-to-day operations since Mayor LaToya Cantrell took office, announces his departure during a news conference at City Hall on Wednesday, accompanied by Cantrell. BY BEN MYERS and JAMES FINN Staff writers
Gilbert Montaño, New Orleans’ chief administrative officer who has overseen the day-to-day work of running city government since Mayor LaToya Cantrell took office, is leaving City Hall, he said Wednesday. Montaño’s departure five months before the close of Cantrell’s final term caps a seven-year period in which he served as the city’s most senior official beneath the mayor. In that role, he shaped the administration’s spending priorities and balanced the city budget through a pandemic, massive federal aid injections and extreme inflation. Montaño, 44, also helped steer the city through several crises, before and after the pandemic. The 2019 cyberattack on city servers crippled city government, and the Hard Rock Hotel collapse earlier that year — which killed three construction workers — exposed severe shortcomings in the city’s ability to ensure basic public safety. He is one of a select few top
WEATHER HIGH 92 LOW 79 PAGE 8A
“I’m looking forward to my change of life, my change of stress. This is a 24-hour, sevenday-a-week job. I couldn’t count how many hours I actually work, and it’s going to be a nice change to calm down a little bit.” GILBERT MONTAÑO, New Orleans’ chief administrative officer Cantrell aides who have remained in their positions since her 2018 inauguration. Montaño told The TimesPicayune this week that he’s leaving the Mayor’s Office as he weighs his professional options and that he will continue living in New Orleans. “I’m looking forward to my change of life, my change of stress. This is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job,” Montaño said in an interview. “I couldn’t count how many hours I actually work, and it’s going to be a nice change to calm down a little bit.” Montaño will depart at the end of August. Joseph Threat, a deputy
chief administrative officer overseeing infrastructure, will become chief administrative officer for the rest of Cantrell’s term. LaNitrah Hasan, a management consultant who works in the administration, will take Threat’s current job. Montaño’s departure removes from City Hall a rare member of Cantrell’s administration who maintained open lines of communication with a politically hostile City Council during the mayor’s scandal-ridden second term. In recent months, he also showed increasing willingness to break from Cantrell and other administration officials when questions arose over the mayor’s decisions. Cantrell said Wednesday she respects differing opinions among her leadership team, and said Montaño is the longest-serving chief administrative officer in the city’s history. “Gilbert brought not only skill and discipline to the role of chief administrative officer for the city of New Orleans, but a real compassion and innovation, and again, a deep
ä See DEPUTY, page 5A
Flood agency police chief gets pay hike, promotion Group’s focus shifts under Landry’s allies
BY ALEX LUBBEN Staff writer
New Orleans’ regional flood protection agency has granted its police chief a promotion that comes with a large pay increase — he now has the highest salary at the agency — as Gov. Jeff Landry’s allies carry out a controversial overhaul there. Internal documents obtained by The Times-Picayune through a public records request show that Superintendent of Police Rondeno Joshua Rondeno now earns $208,000 per year, nearly twice what his predecessor made, and has taken on expanded duties.
Business ......................6A Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
ä See CHIEF, page 4A
12TH yEAR, NO. 353