After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans “reformed” its local levee boards. What did that really mean?
Mere weeks after the levee breaches during Katrina – while New Orleans was still underwater – a small group of business-people had a plan crafted and ready. Using full-page newspaper ads and paid-media releases, the group quickly convinced a traumatized populace that it needed “levee board reform.”
In the chaotic environment of February 2006 – years before levee investigators concluded that the US Army Corps of Engineers was responsible for the flooding – the Louisiana legislature approved this reform followed by the passage of a Constitutional Amendment by voters in September of that same year.
Today, it is accepted that the two new authorities, the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority (SLFPA) East and West, have no authority to oversee or directly influence the Army Corps.
However, the SLFPA East and West do control how more than $60 million of taxpayer money gets spent every year.*
In essence, the “levee board reform” did little more than take control of who gets to award lucrative contracts out of the governor’s hands and give it to a small group of people. This small group is the SLFPA Nominating Committee and they appear have their positions for life. There are no term limits.
And this committee - at the end of the day - controls who is gets appointed to spend upward of $60 million of taxpayer flood protection dollars annually. And are at least indirectly responsible for protecting multiple regions from flooding.
So the group Levees.org champions a bill to change that. A bill authored by Louisiana State Representative Patrick Connick-R (Marerro) would require term limits for all members of the SLFPA Nominating Committee.
The good government bill is intended to “close the barn door before the horse gets out.” And it has broad support in the city of New Orleans.
The bill has been approved and adopted by both the House and Senate Committees. If this momentum continues, the bill will soon become law. And the people of the Greater New Orleans region will be protected by a law that better safeguards flood protection dollars.
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