Thank God the "Not For Sale" side won

Otherwise, we might start to worry that this unfortunate privatization business might not be behind us. 

On Thursday, a selection committee of Sewerage and Water Board officials nixed the firm that sent in the lone proposal, Metairie-based ECM Consultants Inc., because it fell short of the 25-year minimum experience requirement. ECM, records show, first registered with the secretary of state's office in 1995 - leaving it three years short.

As such, committee members - on motion from interim superintendent Bruce Adams - unanimously vetoed the proposal and decided to kick the contract solicitation back to the agency's board of directors, though one member remarked that she was "incredibly impressed" by the proposal.

Ordinarily, we'd want to keep an eye on this. S&WB leadership is very much in flux at the moment and just because they said no to ECM's "staff augmentation" proposal this week doesn't mean they are opposed in principle. And a lot of things can change five months from now when the new mayor takes over.  Thankfully for us, though, the good guys won the election and the new mayor can't possibly be seen as someone who might owe ECM any favors or anything like that.