Railroaded

There's a lot going on right now but notice in the meantime Mitch is moving ahead with his plan to sell off the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad. Kyle Wedberg, a key opponent of the sale, recently resigned from the NOPBR board. Also.. Veolia? Wow.

According to an off-the-record source, French based New Orleans RTA contractor Veolia Transportation has expressed interest in purchasing NOPB if the option for sale is eventually passed.

A source also suggested that the Mayor may be replacing Wedberg's Committee position with long-time Landrieu confidante, Emily Sneed Arata.  Arata has worked in some capacity with Mayor Landrieu since his tenure as Lt. Governor, including serving as Deputy Mayor of Communications under his first Mayoral term.  Sneed left her stint with the City in January of 2016 to take a job with Ochsner Health Systems.

In addition to her stint as Deputy Mayor, you might remember Arata from the time her husband was convicted of fraud in connection with one of the many many "Hollywood South" scandals to touch the politically connected classes in recent years.  But now she works for Ochsner so you can see things have gone downhill ethically.