New Orleans RTA violated public meetings law when it moved to oust former CEO, judge rules

By Ben Myers | The Times-Picayune - The New Orleans Advocate (TNS)

NEW ORLEANS — The Regional Transit Authority violated state law when it took steps to oust former CEO Lona Edwards Hankins, an Orleans Parish Civil District Court judge said Thursday in a ruling that doesn’t reinstate Hankins but could strengthen her position in future litigation.

Hankins resigned from the RTA on May 26 and sued it a day later, alleging that the agency violated Louisiana’s open meetings law when it met on May 9 behind closed doors before reconvening in public to vote on a trio of resolutions affecting Hankins’ job.

One resolution voided a three-year extension of her contract, which was set to expire in 2028. Another allowed RTA Board Chairperson Ann Duplessis to negotiate with Hankins on leaving her position, and a third authorized Duplessis to start a national search for Hankins’ replacement.

Judge Omar Mason on Thursday nullified all three resolutions, agreeing that the RTA board violated state law by improperly noticing its closed-door session and by not adding the Hankins resolutions to the board’s public agenda.

But the judge denied Hankins’ request to levy $14,000 in civil penalties upon board members, saying that the board didn’t purposely violate the law.

“There was at least an attempt to comply with the open records law. They just didn't comply,” Mason said while making his ruling.

It’s not clear if the RTA board will take a new vote on the contract amendment, or if the board will appeal Mason’s ruling. The RTA’s attorney, Kim Boyle, and Duplessis declined comment on that point.

An attorney for Hankins, Bill Aaron, said the ruling won’t affect her separation from the RTA but could strengthen her hand in an upcoming wrongful termination suit that will seek damages tied to her employment contract.

Aaron, said she will seek damages amounting to five years of her annual salary, which was about $315,000.

“We needed this ruling to say the resolution voiding the contract extension to 2031 is invalid,” Aaron said after the hearing. “That ups our damages by a million dollars.”

The relatively new RTA board adds the lawsuit to a list of its challenges as it attempts, with a push from Mayor Helena Moreno, to right an agency seen as having veered off course. The public transportation authority oversees buses, streetcars, ferries and paratransit services.

Hankins, a lightning rod during her three years atop the agency, is credited for rebounding bus ridership after the COVID-19 pandemic and securing $197 million in federal grants. But under her watch, the agency has also been criticized for faltering on paratransit improvements.

Her oversight of a controversial construction contract attracted FBI inquiries in 2024, although it’s not clear what became of any investigation. Before her resignation, Hankins repaid the $21,000 to the agency from improper excess allowances.

Meanwhile, a dozen current and former employees filed a lawsuit in April claiming workplace harassment, wage theft and First Amendment violations.

On Thursday, the question before Mason was whether the agency in May violated a state law that requires public agencies to conduct business before the public, and to provide a legally acceptable reason on meeting agendas when taking up matters in private. The May 9 meeting agenda specified the contract extension as the purpose of the executive session, but the statute it cited only allowed for discussion of Hankins' character and competence.

"The agenda item as described was false," Aaron said.

And when voting on items not on the agenda — like the three RTA resolutions — the board must first vote unanimously to amend the agenda. That did not happen at the RTA meeting.

But Kim Boyle, representing the RTA board, argued the agenda gave the public a reasonable idea of what would be discussed, and said the discussion was allowed under a different exception for attorney-client privilege.

She also argued that the board’s votes on May 9 don’t need to be voided because they are moot or were addressed by a subsequent vote. The termination negotiation isn’t necessary because Hankins resigned, and the national search was ratified at a later meeting, Boyle said.

As for the contract extension, Boyle said that it wasn’t legally valid to begin with.

“That addendum was not properly executed and therefore void as a matter of law,” Boyle said.

The contract extension was executed by a former board chair, Fred Neal, Jr., without public notice or full vote of the board. Neal has previously told WWL Louisiana the execution was proper because it did not increase Hankins’ annual salary.

The extension, signed only by Neal and Hankins, was executed on October 15, shortly after Mayor Helena Moreno was elected to succeed former Mayor LaToya Cantrell. Moreno replaced Neal, along with all of Cantrell’s appointments to the board, after taking office in January.

Moreno had taken issue with the extension and the RTA’s lawyers on Thursday argued that it was illegal, though Mason did not rule on that point.

Editor’s Note, 07/10/26: This story has been corrected to note when Hankins repaid the board.

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