More on the "non-flood assets"

John Barry in today's T-P

These nonflood assets provide real flood protection, both indirectly -- by providing revenue -- and directly, by employing a labor force that the levee district needs during flood threats. The levee district has many more structures and gates requiring attention in a storm than do other districts. Think of its labor force as firefighters. Firefighters may sit around a lot, but when you need them, you really need them. The nonflood assets employ this labor force, which flood operations alone cannot afford, and keep it available.

But right now a gold rush is under way as everyone from private developers to the University of New Orleans to the city of New Orleans is scrambling to grab the district's holdings. Virtually none of these players have an interest in flood protection. One specific proposal, which unfortunately has considerable support among New Orleans legislators, symbolizes just how little the Legislature is thinking about floods: It actually defines "the operations center of the Orleans Levee District" -- that's a direct quote from the proposal -- as a nonflood asset. Yet the district must control its own home, or its operations may be compromised.

Anything the Legislature does must have two paramount objectives. First, people who work for the nonflood side must continue to play the role of firefighters when a flood comes. The Orleans Levee District must have absolute command and control over all personnel during an emergency.

Second, the Legislature has to guarantee that when the nonflood assets start turning a profit again, those profits will support flood protection. Under existing law, the flood protection authority has no say whatsoever over control of revenue-producing nonflood assets. So there is no incentive for whoever is running the nonflood assets to turn over profits, instead of, say, paying itself a higher management fee or hiring more people.