(A version of this is running as the July 22 official editorial of the Advocate/Times-Picayune)
With the height of hurricane season fast approaching, Gov. Jeff Landry owes Louisianans a thorough public explanation of what he is trying to do with a major levee board, and why.
Right now, the board of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East, which guards part of Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard Parishes, seems to be in a shambles. The public can only hope the actual operations of the agency are in better shape than the board which oversees it. With some of the floodwalls actually sinking slightly, and with sea levels apparently rising, and with this hurricane season still projected to be of above-average activity, the region can’t afford to have a levee authority that doesn’t work.
Unfortunately, there are numerous reasons to be concerned. For ill or for good, and with very little explanation, Landry and his team have gone out of their way to roil the waters at the agency. Landry unsuccessfully pushed legislation to upend the reformist, apolitical advisory committee that nominates board members. Landry’s hand-selected board president, Roy Carubba, claims to answer directly to Landry’s unelected and unappointed buddy, businessman Shane Guidry – who alternates between sometimes boasting of his role and other times saying he is paying no attention while he rests “in the Bahamas on my big yacht.”
An aerial view of the areas still flooded two weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck in and around New Orleans, Louisiana (LA).
Carubba effectively forced out the agency’s director in January and hasn’t replaced her. Four members of the nine-member board resigned in protest of Carubba’s management, forcing the cancellation of May’s board meeting when Carubba’s own absence left the board without a quorum. The June meeting became so heated that it nearly resulted in fisticuffs. The board still remains three members short, and one of the previously vacant spots was filled by a man who is Carubba’s “very good friend” and business associate, who Landry chose for the position over someone whom the head of the nominating committee said was more qualified.
The security chief, with no formal experience in engineering or flood control, is the one put forth on the radio to discuss “flow rates” and other technical aspects of the levee system. Meanwhile, formal complaints of civil service violations have been filed both by and against Carubba’s team.
And that’s only a sampling of the controversies surrounding this East-bank levee board.
Granted, it’s possible there’s a method to all this. Carubba expresses great enthusiasm for the agency’s flood-protection goals and says he is on a valuable reform mission. Still, the appearance of all this turmoil is hardly reassuring.
Throughout all of this, Landry himself has been notably silent. If the governor has a beneficent plan at work, rather than merely building a political fiefdom, he should tell the public what he is doing. Louisianans have a right to know that both their floodwalls and the agency managing them stand on firm foundations.
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