NEW ORLEANS — Bills that would change the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans are advancing through the legislative process.
Some of the bills address billing woes that WWL Louisiana has investigated for years.
At Tuesday's City Council Budget Committee meeting, Cm. Joe Giarrusso III (District A) said billing has been a problem since 2016.
"We have been living with the billing problem for such a long time," Giarrusso said.
Cm. At-large JP Morrell grilled SWBNO leadership on billing. At one point, Morrell reminded them they're under oath and accused the utility of failing to comply with billing ordinances the council already passed.
“The legislature is going to come up with another set of laws that are very similar to this, and I can tell you, that we are like puppies compared to the Louisiana legislature and Gov. Jeff Landry," Morrell said, “If The legislature and task force pass laws, I’m going to continue going through them, that mirror these and you don’t follow them, we won’t be having this meeting. He might be putting some of y’all in cuffs.”
SWBNO Executive Director, Ghassan Korban, defended the utility and said they've had logistical issues that have prevented them from implementing the changes necessary to complying with the law.
“What we could do and fully control, we are doing. To say that we’re not doing anything about billing, that we’ve never acknowledged that billing is the number one issue is not correct. I’ve acknowledged it every public opportunity I’ve had," Korban said.
Later this week, legislation that aims to solve billing issues and the backlog of billing disputes will be taken up.
In the Senate on Wednesday, a bill that would consolidate drainage between the Dept. of Public Works and the SWBNO easily passed through committee.
Morrell was at the committee meeting to testify.
“It’s not a governance issue, it’s a responsibility issue," Morrell said.
One thing some councilmembers and SWBNO seem to agree on is they're not in favor of the Governor's task force recommendations for a board, with no local ties, temporarily taking over the utility.
“Makes no sense to me," Giarrusso said Tuesday.
“We think it would be terribly distracting and disruptive," Korban said.
SWBNO said its priorities for the legislative session include short-term staffing support, funding, and support for the construction of the power complex and the replacement of lead and copper pipes.
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