Kenner official promoted to Chief Administrative Officer

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - The city of Kenner has a new Chief Administrative Officer.

In an email sent to staff and councilmembers Thursday (Oct. 29), Kenner Mayor Michael Glaser said former Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Natalie Newton will now serve as the city’s CAO.

Jose Gonzalez, the previous CAO, will now work part-time for the city as its executive coordinator of capital projects, according to the e-mail.

The memo also notes Elizabeth Herring will assume a deputy chief administrative officer role, while also serving as the city’s operations and communications and chief financial officer.

Aimee Vallot will continue as deputy chief Administrative Officer, development and compliance while also working as the city’s director of public works, according to the email.

Another shift noted is that the director of the Pontchartrain Center will report to Newton.

“These changes are intended to ensure continuity in executive leadership and maintain the efficient delivery of city services,” Glaser wrote in the email.

The executive leadership and organizational changes come the same week Newton filed a lawsuit against Kenner city councilmembers over their aviation board appointment.

Newton and her husband, Richard Newton, filed the lawsuit as private citizens this week, months after Kenner City Council members wrote a letter to New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno regarding the potential appointment of a new Kenner representative on the New Orleans Aviation Board. The board oversees the administration and strategic development of Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

In the lawsuit, filed in the state’s 24th Judicial District Court in Jefferson Parish, the Newtons allege that council members sending the letter to Moreno was “not lawful,” because it was crafted and sent outside of a public meeting and “without public notice, comment or a recorded public vote.”

The Newtons also requested a $500 civil penalty for each of the four council members who sent the letter.

“This lawsuit is about ensuring that elected officials follow the same laws they are entrusted to uphold,” the Newtons’ attorney Joe Rochelle said in a statement Wednesday. “When elected officials circumvent the public process, citizens have every right to hold them accountable and demand transparency.”

But Kenner council members Joey LaHatte and Danny Riehm said in interviews Tuesday and Wednesday that they had already voted publicly and were simply making Moreno aware of their choice.

“The letter was basically like me voting at the meeting ... and then putting on Facebook, ‘Hey, this is how we voted today!’” LaHatte said.

LaHatte said he first learned of the lawsuit early Tuesday.

“It’s just absolutely shocking, in particular the fact that it’s the deputy chief administrative officer for the mayor’s office,” LaHatte said.

Riehm called the filing an “absurdity,” saying he believes the mayor’s office doesn’t understand an airport expansion agreement from 1985, which he and LaHatte say they followed exactly.

“It’s a total joke,” Riehm said of the lawsuit, calling it “frivolous.”

Glaser’s office declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing active litigation.

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