NEW ORLEANS — A private dog training company in Vermillion Parish has agreed to pay for the controversial hotel expenses for top Orleans Sheriff’s Office commanders who spent as many as eight nights at a French Quarter hotel during Carnival season, according to Sheriff Susan Hutson.
The more than $18,000 in lodging expenses for the top brass at the Omni Royal Orleans in the heart of the French Quarter were the subject of questions and criticism when WWL-TV revealed the expenses Tuesday.
While the company LAK9 in tiny Maurice, Louisiana has agreed to pay for the lodging, taking the cost off the taxpayer’s tab, many questions remain unanswered.
Sheriff Susan Hutson sat down with WWL-TV Wednesday before the announcement of the donation and strongly defended the rooms for her top deputies.
“I don't see controversy here, no. I see this as being money well spent to make sure that a million dollars was also well spent,” Hutson said.
Hutson was referring to the extra money the city spent to bring in officers from 18 outside law enforcement agencies to expand parades back to their traditional routes. The city agreed to pay for lodging for outside agencies more than 35 miles away, but not for the sheriff’s office. The New Orleans Police Department, which oversees the Carnival security plan, does not pay for hotels for any of its officers.
When asked why the deputies couldn’t sleep in their own beds, Hutson said her team needed to be close at hand to coordinate those outside officers.
“We made it based on how quickly they had to come back to work and that was really quick,” she said. “We had to get them to some rest and get them back to work as quickly as they could.”
Hutson said her “Mardi Gras Command Staff” worked long hours providing this extra help, and not all of her top brass lives in Orleans Parish.
Records provided by the sheriff’s office detailed that 13 high-ranking sheriff’s commanders received the lodging at high-end local hotels and that it was initially paid for with public money.
The records show that many of the top brass stayed for eight days and nights at a cost ranging from $160 to $270 a room per night. The total cost at the Royal Orleans, in the heart of the tourist section of the Quarter on St. Louis Street, was $18,174, according to the hotel bills provided by the Sheriff’s Office.
The records also show the sheriff paid for rooms for top deputies during the first weekend of Carnival. The bills show $373 spent at the Sheraton on Canal for three nights and $661 for four nights at the Marriott that weekend.
The question of who will ultimately foot the cost of those rooms changed suddenly Wednesday afternoon, when Hutson issued a statement saying that Paul Leblanc and Lance Broussard, owners of LAK9, which is listed as a dog training site in Vermillion Parish, had agreed to cover the costs.
“We are grateful that a donor and supporter of our office has agreed to cover the costs incurred for hotel stays over the course of the season,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a statement.
Hutson reiterated her support for the idea of housing the commanders in the Quarter in her statement.
“I am proud of our Mardi Gras Command & Supervisory Team, the hundreds of deputies who worked the parade security assignments and the many other supporting OPSO staff members who had a hand in achieving this assignment to support our city, NOPD and the Carnival Krewes,” she wrote. “These men and women worked long hours, with very little time to prepare and executed on everything I asked of them.”
But Councilman Joe Giarrusso, chairman of the budget committee, questioned the lodging expenses.
Giarrusso said that not only do the charges seem excessive, he questioned why the sheriff’s office decided to book rooms while the NOPD never has. Previous sheriffs, including Hutson’s immediate predecessor Marlin Gusman, also provided significant help to patrol Carnival parade routes but never put up deputies in local hotel rooms.
“A lot of public servants are crunched and they spend the night in their own bed,” Giarrusso said.
But at least one council member applauded the sheriff’s efforts
“There is no doubt that the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office went above and beyond to meet the needs of the city and our community in its support of Carnival parade security,” said Councilman Freddie King III, whose district includes the French Quarter. “I applaud Sheriff Hutson’s decision to do what was necessary to show care and concern for this community, her staff and those in OPSO’s care and custody.”