Get used to this sort of thing under Governor Landry. The City of New Orleans and its people can consider themselves an occupied territory, basically. Decisions about their basic infrastructure, even, are going to be made from elsewhere.
Landry announced Tuesday he had signed an executive order creating the Governor’s Task Force for the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans. The 14-member body, consisting of appointees by the governor, state agencies, city economic development leaders and others, will have wide latitude to make recommendations on any aspect of the agency's operations.
It also has a specific mandate to look at the S&WB's billing practices, its governing structure and whether its management should be reorganized to "achieve more direct lines of authority" over key operations.
The task force is to provide recommendations within 30 days, in time for the upcoming legislative session.
Notably, the group does not include any dedicated appointments by New Orleans elected officials — including Mayor LaToya Cantrell, who serves as president of the state-authorized agency — or any leaders of the S&WB, though a Landry spokesperson suggested some local officials could be named.
No one you've elected gets to appoint anyone to the "task force." Nor does anyone who can reasonably be construed to represent the residents and workers here. Instead, we get bosses and business owners.
One person appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Development
One person appointed by the Executive Director of the Coast Protection and Restoration Authority
One person appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality
One person appointed by the American Council of Engineering Companies of Louisiana
One person appointed by the Louisiana Engineering Society
One person appointed by the Louisiana Associated General Contractors
One person appointed by Jefferson Parish Public Works
One person appointed by Greater New Orleans, Inc.
One person appointed by the Business Council of New Orleans
One person appointed by New Orleans & Company
Four people appointed by Governor Landry
None of these parties has released the names of their appointees yet. But the wind is blowing toward privatization now so keep an eye out for Jim Bernhard.
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