New Orleans’ primary sanitation provider, Sidney Torres of IV Waste, alleges Mayor LaToya Cantrell bypassed the bidding process to award a trash pickup contract to a politically-tied consultant.
EXCLUSIVE: Sidney Torres isn’t mincing words when it comes to New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s latest move to scrap his company’s trash contract in favor of a $2.1 million more expensive, no-bid deal with a firm he alleges “doesn’t even own any garbage trucks.”
“She canceled my contract to declare an emergency,” said Torres, the founder of IV Waste. “My contract runs until Dec. 23, 2025. There was no emergency. My contract’s $2.1 million less for a lot more service. The residents and the businesses are 100% behind my contract and the work we’re doing.”
Torres said the French Quarter is headed straight back to squalor under Cantrell’s plan.
“It’s going to smell just like it smelled before we took it over,” Torres warned. “Stale beer, urine, puke, all the things you smell from people getting drunk and walking the streets. Who’s going to want to go and eat and smell that?”
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Sidney Torres, left, founder of IV Waste, stands with a team member at a company yard in New Orleans. Torres is challenging the city’s cancellation of his sanitation contract. (KB Media via IV Waste)
The emergency declaration, issued on July 9, allowed the mayor to override public procurement laws and sign a new $8 million contract with Henry Consulting that goes into effect Aug. 1 in the French Quarter.
Henry Consulting did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.
The next day, the New Orleans City Council passed a resolution calling the emergency “self-created” and terminated it outright. They also barred Cantrell from issuing another emergency declaration related to sanitation through the end of the year.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill stepped into the fray, filing a formal amicus brief that condemned the mayor’s maneuver as “an abuse of emergency powers.”
“The Mayor’s invocation of emergency powers to override public bid laws in the absence of a true emergency presents a significant legal issue,” Murrill wrote, calling the resulting $2.1 million price hike “an unnecessary burden on taxpayers.”
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An IV Waste “lemon fresh” sanitation truck services New Orleans’ French Quarter. The company is fighting a contract termination. (KB Media via IV Waste)
Torres sees it the same way.
“It’s just unbelievable… they’re going to spend $2.1 million more for less service with somebody who’s not even in the business,” he said.
IV Waste began servicing the French Quarter and Downtown Development District in December 2024 under a competitively bid $5.9 million contract. The company used custom-built equipment, real-time GPS tracking and operated seven days a week. The city’s own sanitation director confirmed IV Waste had “no complaints.”
However, in April, Cantrell abruptly issued a notice terminating the contract “for convenience,” then declared a sanitation “emergency” in July.
“This is just insane,” he said. “They’re going to bring in a guy who has never been in this type of business. He doesn’t own any equipment. He’s just the middleman. And he’s being paid $8.2 million for one year, $2.1 million more than what I’m getting, just because the mayor wants it.”
An IV Waste “lemon fresh” sanitation truck services New Orleans’ French Quarter. The company is fighting a contract termination. (KB Media via IV Waste)
“Today, Judge Sidney Cates denied the French Quarter residents and businesses’ (the Conwill plaintiffs), motion for preliminary injunction; meaning to date, the Mayor can move forward with the emergency sanitation contract awarded to Henry Consulting, for trash collection in the French Quarter and Downtown Development District – Area V,” Cantrell’s city news manager, Kourtney Williams, wrote in a response to FOX Business.
“There will not be a break in service to this area. The City reiterates that it will continue to work with all parties to achieve the best possible outcomes for its residents. This administration remains focused on doing the job necessary to move New Orleans forward together.”
The trash deal is just the latest chapter in a mayoralty increasingly defined by controversy. Cantrell has faced public scrutiny for everything from taxpayer-funded first-class travel to public spats with law enforcement, and she drew headlines for refusing to vacate a city-owned apartment in the French Quarter that she used for personal purposes. A formal recall effort launched in 2022 failed to gather enough signatures to force a vote.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell speaks during the CROWN Awards ceremony in the Grand Ballroom of the Westin Hotel on July 3, 2022 in New Orleans. ( Peter Forest/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Torres likened the ordeal to his alleged experience under former Mayor Ray Nagin, who similarly interfered with his contracts at the end of his term.
“But not to this degree,” he said. “What’s going on here is violating so many different laws. If any mayor can declare an emergency, cancel a contract, and hand it to a friend, that’s not how the law was intended to be used.”
Torres pointed to IV Waste’s record during some of the city’s signature and busiest events — Mardi Gras, the Sugar Bowl and the Super Bowl.
“We have custom-built pressure washers, 4,000 PSI tanks, live GPS and camera feeds, real-time dispatch,” he said. “We’re out there 365 days a year. Nobody else can compete with us.”
Revelers walk along Bourbon Street in the French Quarter during Mardi Gras. (Patrick Semansky/Getty Images / Getty Images)
There may still be a lifeline for IV Waste. The French Quarter Management District, newly empowered by state law, has issued its own emergency sanitation bid.
“We put in a bid with them, and it looks like we’re going to win it,” Torres said. “So you might see two companies out there, us and Henry Consulting. But only one of us is going to be doing the job right.”
Even with lawsuits pending and millions at stake, Torres said he keeps a sense of humor and deep loyalty to his city. Sometimes, the trash talks back.
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“We once dumped a can and heard someone yelling… it was a drunk homeless guy asleep in it,” he recalled. “Had to pull over and get him out.”
“Everyone deserves their day in court,” he said. “Justice should be based on law, not who you hire or what party you belong to. At the end of the day, I love New Orleans. And I know the right thing will prevail.”
