Louisiana to Restructure Management of Levees

NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana voters on Saturday approved consolidating the New Orleans area’s levee boards, the generations-old agencies whose politically appointed members were criticized after Hurricane Katrina for failing to maintain the area’s levees and floodwalls.

The constitutional amendment -- passing with about 80% of the vote -- will combine 10 southeast Louisiana boards into two, one for each bank of the Mississippi River. Members of the new boards will be required to have expertise in engineering, geology and hydrology, a mandate that advocates of the new structure hope will convince Congress and the nation that Louisiana has shed a system mired in cronyism.

“I think it shows that people really care about basic reform in Louisiana,” said Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, who supported the measure. “They want everything to be professional.”

After Katrina breached New Orleans’ levees in August 2005, the boards were criticized as disorganized, full of patronage and lacking in technical knowledge to manage the system of levees that protects New Orleans, which is largely below sea level.

Members of the existing boards are appointed by the governor and need no expertise in flood protection.

The boards are responsible for levee upkeep and inspections, but critics say they have become distracted with other projects. The board in New Orleans, for example, runs marinas, an airport and a police force.

Blanco said she wants to have the two new levee panels in place by January.