Posted on 10/29/2005 7:50:00 AM PDT by Libloather
State wants more control of levee boards
Jeremy Alford
Daily Comet Capitol Correspondent
October 28. 2005 12:00AM
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin testifies as Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco (on screen) listens via video teleconference in front of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure joint hearing on rebuilding New Orleans while on Capitol Hill in Washington, October 18, 2005. REUTERS/Larry Downing
BATON ROUGE — Administrative officials are expected to push a set of proposals during the special session that convenes next Sunday to grant the state greater oversight of local levee boards.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco announced her intentions this week as a contentious debate continues to flare up regarding a series of South Louisiana levees that failed in the face of two monstrous Gulf hurricanes.
While official language for the proposed package has yet to be released, some levee officials are already worried that a consolidation or shift of power could result in a weakened local voice when it comes to hurricane and flood-protection issues.
There’s also a growing concern that the two-week session isn’t long enough to broach related issues such as construction priorities and land rights.
Supporters argue the move has been long coming, and topics such as coastal restoration and flood protection must be merged under one central umbrella of state control.
‘A DRASTIC STEP’
Officials with the state departments of transportation and natural resources are working on the proposals in concert with lawmakers, but it’s unclear what will be debated during the upcoming special sessions scheduled for this year and next.
For several different interests, ranging from business groups to local governments, hurricanes Katrina and Rita made levee construction and maintenance top priorities. Stronger levees have come to symbolize security blankets for businesses and homeowners wishing to return to the devastated regions of southeast Louisiana.
There are currently 24 levee districts in the state that operate individual boards to administer flood-control programs. Most have their own budgets with very little oversight as well as full-time staffs and policing powers in certain cases.
A group of Republican lawmakers wants to consolidate the two dozen boards and give the state full control of their operations, in the hope that the move would impress a wary Congress enough to dole out more money.
But any proposal to eliminate levee boards, along with their memberships, would likely face stiff opposition from local lawmakers.
“Combining all of the levee boards is a drastic step,” said Rep. Damon Baldone, D-Houma. “I have faith in our levee boards in Terrebonne and Lafourche. I think it’ll be a step back to combine them all.”
Baldone added that he is open to change, however, and is interested in exploring ways to add oversight to each board’s operations.
KEEPING IT LOCAL
Windell Curole, manager of the South Lafourche Levee District and a member of the Association of Levee Boards of Louisiana, believes the proposal is rooted firmly in politics.
As officials continue to investigate what caused levee failures in St. Bernard and Orleans parishes, they may be trying to shift the blame from the top down, Curole said. But the end result of stripping local boards of oversight would only be a muddled system, he argued.
“The concept of always having consistency is a good idea,” he said. “But when you’re dealing with flood issues you need a local will to make things happen. It takes a local group to see the importance of something big. Administrations come and go, but we’re always here. You don’t have local will on the state level.”
Sen. Reggie Dupre, D-Bourg, who may be sponsoring some provisions in the legislative package, said he knows of no plans to abolish existing levee boards.
“It’s just more oversight for the state and the formulation of a master plan,” Dupre said. “It’s still conceptual at this point and the devil will be in the details.”
Rep. Warren Triche, D-Chackbay, said he wouldn’t mind seeing levee boards disbanded.
“All these levee board members, except for a small handful, aren’t worth a flip,” he said. “They spend taxpayers’ money and don’t have to answer to no one. If you put one person in an authoritative position, at least they would have to be responsible to the people.”
A BITTER DEBATE
Triche said the debate has all the makings of a barnburner, one surely to create tension on both sides.
“Some of these levee board commissioners would sell their mothers’ gold teeth to keep their positions,” Triche said. “None of this would be happening if we would have sold New Orleans to Cuba like I’ve been saying.”
For the most part, New Orleans seems to be at the center of the debate.
Critics have come to blame a variety of local agencies with levee oversight in the Crescent City for the recent breakdown of the supposed Category 3-proof floodwalls. Additionally, Orleans Levee Board President Jim Huey resigned this week amid allegations he awarded contracts to relatives and overstepped his authority.
Jerome Zeringue, executive director of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District, agreed politics will likely play a major role in the debate, but added he would support an oversight system akin to the Board of Secondary and Elementary Education’s relationship with parish school boards. In that partnership, local boards maintain some control over finances and priorities.
“I don’t think anyone is generally opposed to oversight,” Zeringue said. “I welcome the oversight and we have always tried to maintain an open-door policy. But I think lumping everything together is very shortsighted. It’s ineffectual to vest all the authority in a state agency without the input and support of the locals.”
If that were to happen, Zeringue said he fears south Louisiana parishes would be competing for attention with those in the northern reaches of the state, where challenges are vastly different.
OTHER IDEAS
Among the ideas considered for the proposed package is the transformation of House and Senate interim committees on Coastal Restoration and Flood Control into standing committees capable of handing down legislation.
The change would provide a legislative hub for tens of billions of dollars in related projects, Dupre said.
Among top projects being discussed lately:
-- A massive $20 billion levee system stretching from Morgan City to Slidell. It would include several ongoing projects including Morganza-to-the-Gulf, a 72-mile system of locks, levees, floodgates and dams.
-- The centerpiece of the proposal, Morganza is estimated to cost $1.7 billion to protect from Category 5 storms and will take years to build. Construction is set to begin soon on the first portion, a 3-mile section of levee in Pointe-aux-Chenes. Construction will start in the most-vulnerable areas of the parish, including Pointe-aux-Chenes and lower Montegut.
Additionally, levees need to be repaired in southern Terrebonne, where Hurricane Rita flooded 12,000 homes and businesses last month. The storm’s southeast winds overwhelmed the area’s system of drainage levees, busting dozens of gaps in the Chauvin floodwall alone and pushing water into homes.
-- Toward the west, officials also want to build a system stretching from Morgan City to the Texas border, but Curole and others say the plan is still very preliminary.
Rep. Loulan Pitre, R-Cut Off, said debates in the upcoming special session could get contentious, which makes him worry that major problems facing Terrebonne and Lafourche, challenges that have existed for decades, could get lost in the fray.
“I fear that the focus on remediation between the two hurricanes may take attention away from things that should have been done some time ago, like coastal restoration, like upgrading the levee protections and like highways,” Pitre said. “We can’t afford to do that. We need to use the devastation to reassess everything and to reassess what we want Louisiana to look like.”
Jeremy Alford can be reached at jeremy@jeremyalford.com.
The 2006 Atlantic hurricane season officially starts June 1, 2006, and last until November 30, 2006. The list of names - Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Debby, Ernesto, Florence, Gordon, Helene, Isaac, Joyce, Kirk, Leslie, Michael, Nadine, Oscar, Patty, Rafael, Sandy, Tony, Valerie, William.
The blind leading the blind.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. At least, in New Orleans.
I wouldn't trust either of that pair to oversee the construction of a Lincoln Log house.
Blanco: "My view is that the State officials are just as stupid, corrupt, and incompetent as the local officials, so logically, they should oversee the maintenance of the levees."
Greedy lefty freaks. It's always about the money.
If LA really wants to build trust with Congress they should volunteer to turn the entire system over to the Corp of Engineers.
I have had my disagreements with the Corp in the past, most recently with the Missouri River spring flow issue, so I do not worship at their feet, but as a taxpayer who will be helping to fund these new systems, it seems like a reasonable solution to me.
I don't know about totally trusting the corp of engineering either. I'm reading Rising Tide by John M. Barry and it's eye opening to say the least. The whole thing has been politicized since before the Civil War.
They will spend billions. The people will come. SOMEDAY, they will be devastated again. "Hurricanes" It's the nature of the "beast" and where they are not what they do.
I agree about the politics. But I don't think there would be as much corruption with the Corp. I certainly don't think they're perfect. Far from it. But I do view them as the lessor of the evils.
I agree with you. But I think we're foolish is we think we can stop the Feds from funding the rebuilding. So IF they're going to rebuild, let's put someone in charge who will at least put the money towards the project rather than diverting funds to something else, as has happened in the past with the Levy Bds.
I don't trust the state anymore than I trust the Levy Bds.
I agree about having the Corp in charge being less likely to be corrupt but having read the way that the Corp did things from the very beginning explains a lot of the problems now. If you want a good read Rising Tide is one.
These two's dance ended a long time ago. They should leave.
Thanks for that suggestion. I will beginning my winter reading as soon as the snow flies, so this will definitely be on my winter reading list. Again, Thanks.
Heaven help them if Blanko Blanco get control.
If I were thinking about returning to that area the reform of Law Enforcement would be on the top of my list.
As a property owner with land adjoining Corps owned land I can tell they are Pi$$ Poor Neighbors and I wouldn't trust them with anything.
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