The decline of what was once considered an international engineering marvel, the New Orleans Sewage and Water Board (SWB), is a clear example of a failure of modern democracy. As the expression goes, the buck stops here, and “here” is the management board structure, its members, and specifically its Presidents, the many mayors that let this most critical city agency become just one more political plaything.

The Council and the new mayor are making the case that the problem is narrowly a lack of their ability to manage the Board. This may be one possibility, but the public sees how so many other city agencies are not particularly well run. I am left to wonder if such control would raise the performance of the agency, or if it would end up a stepchild to other political considerations. Maybe it would work, maybe not, but I doubt that any narrow fix is the solution.

There are three major problems that must be overcome. The least controversial is the engineering and construction of the repairs and upgrades of a long ignored system. I say the least controversial because these areas are by far the most susceptible to patronage, corruption, political favoritism, and just bad management. As such the administration and policies must be above reproach and meritocracy of the type that originally built and operated the system must be the key factor in future administration.

The next problem is as noted, the actual method by which the SWB is administered. As noted the Council and mayor want oversight of a board, but other options include state management, a pure city agency, or an independent board, free of political influence. This debate has yet to be had, but probably should precede the legislation currently in process.
The final and most complex problem is funding. Doubtless the fix for the most current problems, domestic water not including drainage and sewage upgrades, will be billions. There is no way city taxpayers can afford such, therefore state and Federal funds will be critical. There is no statewide trust in the city’s political governance of its agencies and there is no pool of federal funds on the horizon. These facts make the final structure of SWB administration extraordinarily important. Whatever the administration looks like, it must rebuild trust before large revenues can come from outside sources.

It has taken decades of political mismanagement to reduce this once proud example of civic accomplishment to an unmitigated failure. The economic decline of the city is driven by, but also contributes to the problems. It will take a long time to rebuild the state’s and the public’s trust in a reconstituted effort, but failure could literally mean the end of New Orleans.

My suggestion is that in isolation the proposed political quick fix is unlikely to work. What is needed is a convention of the best and brightest from around the state in a major planning effort led by the mayor and governor, free of politics as usual, to develop a vision and and strategy to create a 21st century salvation for a desperate problem. Getting political influence out will be difficult, but it will be critical.

Such a convention for a purpose has not been suggested by civic or state leaders, but it must be undertaken before business as usual makes the problems insurmountable.