By Jeff Thomas
What’s big and yellow, has four wheels and sleeps 6-10 people? A Sewerage and Water Board truck. This old joke was emblematic of the perceived waste and bloat of the New Orleans water utility. And while the system was grossly inefficient, the water flowed even after a hard rain. But things have changed at the S&WB. At the urging of the BGR and local state representatives, systemic change of the board shifted away from citizen input and controls to the utility becoming the most powerful political patronage parsonage of the mayor of New Orleans.
Sunday’s shocking and unpredicted floods made driving dangerous and flooded homes and businesses. A spokesman for the Zulu Social and Pleasure Club said that the frustrating part is the club headquarters “is still suffering the same flooding in 2017 as it did in 1978.” New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has had complete control of the board for the past three years. Key state legislators, led by current Council at Large candidate Helena Moreno, pushed through legislation that removed citizen representation and made the water utility a political pawn.
Moreno and her allies slashed the right of city council members and state legislators to appoint citizen members of the S&WB, opting instead to have the mayor appoint members suggested by an S&WB selection committee. This new makeup of the board created an insulated and arrogant group that was comfortable lying in a public forum on TV after having put out misinformation about pumps working to full capacity. This seems more like a Trump/Putin escapade than a NOLA flood dispute. 
That Landrieu cleaned house offers little solace, as Landrieu will select the replacements to his original choices. And the guy who claimed to know what to do and how to do it seems to be as ineffective as the current President and as secretive as the Russian leader. From out of control crime and bungling of the NOPD to S&WB, Landrieu has failed at the most basic function of government – keeping the people safe. And his refusal to accept responsibility for his hires – Cedric Grant to lead S&WB and Mark Jernigan as Director of Public Works – and their complete failure is shameful.
This continued and daily failure of the Landrieu administration proves that for government to be successful policies and institutions not people matter. Early on Landrieu was viewed favorably by most. So much so that people removed protections and allowed Landrieu vast leeway in control, without independent citizens’ oversight. The resulting flooding debacle coupled with the arrogance and incompetence of an articulate and self-confident salesman officials firmly establishes the need for citizen control.
After all our homes, businesses and lives are at risk.
#policies matter
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Publisher — Black Source Media
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Mitch Landrieu admit the citizens has lost credibility in the SWB management, after the obvious poor management of the SWB and equipment maintenance and operation as indicated by recent flood. He should also understand he has lost credibility after many signs of flooding in other areas: crime, high unemployment black males, DBE program inefficient due to corrupt “Good Faith Effort” allowed too easily by large contractors hurting local small businesses, and a New Airport employing mostly non-citizens and businesses not from New Orleans. Growing the tax base locally by strong policies to encourage local economic development and inclusion along with good leadership would solve many of the problems we face.