Lawsuit is filed a day after Lona Edwards Hankins resigned as leader of the transit agency.
NEW ORLEANS — The former CEO of the Regional Transit Authority alleges the agency’s board of commissioners broke the law during a recent special meeting called to discuss her employment.
Lona Edwards Hankins made those claims in a lawsuit she filed Wednesday in Orleans Parish Civil District Court, a day after she resigned from the job she held since 2023.
Defendants include the RTA, its board and four of its members: chairwoman Ann Duplessis, Barbara Major, Mitchell Guidry and Nelita Manego-Ramey. (Commissioners Tyrone Casby and Erika Mann were not at the special meeting.)
An RTA spokeswoman said the agency did not have any comment “at this time.” The board members named in the lawsuit did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
At the heart of the board’s concerns about Hankins was a three-year contract extension that she signed last October with former board president Fred Neal Jr., which would have kept her in the job through 2031.
The new board, mostly made up of appointees of Mayor Helena Moreno, was surprised to learn about that agreement, as was the mayor herself. The addendum was signed four days after Moreno was elected mayor but while LaToya Cantrell was still in office.
While the agreement was signed privately, Hankins and Neal maintain that it was allowed under the board’s bylaws.
In her lawsuit, Hankins alleges that the special meeting on May 9 to discuss the...
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