The New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board should be reformed into a public utility regulated by either the city council or the Louisiana Public Service Commission or reformed into a quasi-municipal corporation.
Those are the findings of Governor Jeff Landry's task force commissioned with examining the SWB and providing its analysis of how the maligned public utility should operate in the future.
According to the task force's report, released on Wednesday, fractured governance, low public confidence, and revenue deficits are all major problems facing the Sewerage and Water Board as it exists today. In fact, the report states the Sewerage and Water Board's lack of revenue is the direct result of low public confidence. That low public confidence, the task force says, prevents city leaders from asking residents to raises taxes to fund the SWB and forces them to beg state officials for more money.
The task force recommends that the SWB appoint an independent arbitration panel to hear billing disputes, reform civil service requirement for SWB employees, and take over the New Orleans Department of Public Works's street drainage duties. The task force also recommended reforming the SWB as a recovery district for two years before converting the agency into a fully-regulated public utility or into a municipal water system similar to Louisville, Kentucky's.
The full report is below: