December 1, 2005
Merging the Levee Boards - Part 2
In spite of all the evidence pointing the finger at the US Army Corps of Engineers as the culprit in the flooding of metro New Orleans during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Da Paper still comes swinging against the various independent Levee Boards in the metro area. They're pretty upset that a number of local lawmakers voted to kill a proposal to pull the area into a unified levee district controlled by a "super board." The rhetoric was pretty harsh:
The self-serving lawmakers who killed Sen. Walter Boasso's levee board reform legislation last week probably thought they had taken care of the assault on their little political fiefdoms.
Well, Da Paper got part of it right. This is a fight over political fiefdoms. The catch is, the battle has little to do with flood control. As we saw in part one of this article, the responsibility for the failures in the levee system in Orleans Parish lies with the Corps of Engineers, not with the Orleans Parish Levee Board. The other levee boards which Senator Boasso and Da Paper would like to see combined together have no responsibility for flooding either. In their case, it's because their levee systems worked as planned by the Corps.
This isn't about levees. It's about casinos, marinas, and an airport. It's about a number of hare-brained schemes over the years to enrich the coffers of the Orleans Parish Levee District. It's about riverboat casinos docked in Jefferson Parish.
Political power in a given jurisdiction tends to be a zero-sum game. For one politician to acquire a biger fiefdom, another politician has to lose something. The conventional wisdom of the moment is that the Orleans Parish Levee Board (OLB) should lose some of its power. Sen. Boasso, Lt. Gov. Landrieu, and Da Paper are telling everyone they want to see the OLB lose its power because they're bad stewards of our flood protection system. They seem to think that a management body that combines OLB with the Jefferson Parish levee boards would do better. But this is a myth that has been soundly debunked:
The Orleans Levee District today controls 101 miles of hurricane levees with 127 floodgates, as well as 28 miles of Mississippi River levees with 76 floodgates. But neither the Orleans board nor any other entity has final authority or accountability for coordinating the various flood-defense systems. The Army Corps built most of the current levees using mostly federal funds. But it must seek funding and cooperation from local agencies anytime it needs to shore up or do other work on the levees.
Sen. Boasso, Lt. Gov. Landrieu, Da Paper, and scores of others want to re-structure a system that has neither the final authority nor the accountability for the flood-control system, because they say they want to improve the flood control system. While you're scratching your head over that one, remember, power is a zero-sum game. If you take power away from the OLB, it's going to go somewhere.
If a "super levee board" is to be created, charged with really being the final authority on our flood-control system, all the side projects that have popped up over the years, such as marinas and casino boats, will have to be managed by other entities. If levee boards are the wrong place for management of airports and large-scale fiber-optic systems, then perhaps a city or parish council is the right place. I'm sure New Orleans City Councilman Oliver Thomas would agree. Perhaps that's why he's such a vocal proponent of dismantling the OLB. City government already managed one marina at West End, so they would be a prime candidate to take over the OLB-managed facilities at West End and South Shore Harbor. And there's no doubt that city government wants total control of the Bally's riverboat casino, docked at an OLB pier on the lakefront.
The New Orleans City Council isn't the only agency that whose power and revenue would increase if levee boards were consolidated and tasked only with flood control. Jefferson Parish has two casino riverboats, one along the Harvey Canal on the West Bank, and one along the lakefront in the city of Kenner. Kenner and parish officials would have a merry time dividing up the East Jefferson Levee District's piece of the Treasure Chest Casino.
Then there's law enforcement. All three levee districts mentioned have their own police forces, tasked with securing the levee system. In Orleans Parish, the OLB Police Department is even more extensive, patrolling the marinas, the public park areas along Lakeshore Drive, and the airport. The OLBPD even maintains a fire unit for the New Orleans Lakefront Airport. All those law enforcement and fire protection responsibilities will have to be assumed by other agencies. That gives the NOPD and the JPSO vested interests in seeing the current system dismantled.
Of course, in any zero-sum game, those with no power at all have everything to gain when the system is re-structured. Their biggest hope is that they'll be able to then get a seat at the table. As Lieutenant Governor, Mitch Landrieu (D-New Orleans) has little power unless something happens to his boss. His office is tasked with tourism promotion and working with the film industry (essentially an offshoot of tourism promotion). It makes sense for a popular political figure like Landrieu to come out for changes to the system that will enrich the power base of a number of influential politicians in the region. No doubt they'll remember his hard work on this issue when he stands for re-election or for other political office.
Then there are the carrion-fowl of the process like Ms. Peggy Wilson, former New Orleans City Councilwoman and OLB member. Wilson's name comes up regularly as a possible candidate for Mayor of New Orleans, now that there is a very serious possibility that the city's electorate will be majority-white and a lot more Republican in 2006. As a former OLB member, she's been lending her "expertise" on the situation to any news outlet who will print her words. Free media exposure while attacking a straw man is a good way to kick-start any political campaign.
This whole debate isn't about levees. It's not about flood control. No matter what changes are made to Louisiana's levee districts, the Corps is still calling the shots. No matter who supervises the floating casinos, the US Congress is still going to provide the overwhelming majority of the funding for flood control projects in Southeast Louisiana.