Mayor LaToya Cantrell on Friday vetoed legislation backed by the New Orleans City Council that proposed reshaping the city attorney’s office, part of an escalating legislative showdown between the mayor and council.
The ordinance, approved at the council’s July 25 meeting, would ask voters on the Nov. 15 ballot to forbid the city attorney from taking sides in litigation between the mayor and council, and to make it harder for the mayor to fire the city attorney, among other measures.
Cantrell in a statement Friday afternoon repeated a criticism her office has frequently leveled at the council, calling the measure an attempt to erode her office’s authority…