In The News › Governance

In an October report, the Bureau of Governmental Research, a nonprofit policy research organization in New Orleans, recommended removing elected officials from the board and giving the board authority to increase water and sewerage rates by an indexed amount annually, citing that local politics have long interfered with needed rate increases.

The task force’s recommendation to renew the tolls is at odds with a report released in April by the non-profit Bureau of Governmental Research, which said the tolls should be allowed to expire because just 19 cents of every toll dollar goes toward bridge maintenance and policing.

We, the Metropolitan Crime Commission, the Bureau of Governmental Research, Citizens for One Greater New Orleans, Women of the Storm, Levees.org and other citizen advocacy groups, promise to continue to hold government officials at all levels accountable for their actions.

New Orleans voters will get a chance Saturday to weigh in on efforts to tighten oversight at the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad, a once-obscure agency that was thrust into the spotlight as a result of misconduct by its top administrator.

The beleaguered Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans needs the power to increase water and sewerage rates annually and fewer politicians controlling its activity in order to aptly tackle billions of dollars in city infrastructure improvements, according to a report the Bureau of Governmental Research released today.

A new report calls for drastic measures to improve the crumbling sewer and water services in the city, including removing elected members from the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board and giving the agency more control over its own finances.

The system needs billions of dollars in repairs and improvements, said the Bureau of Governmental Research, which noted that the city’s Sewerage and Water Board can’t bill people for an estimated 75 percent of the water it treats, mostly because that water is lost to leaks.

A report issued Tuesday by the Bureau of Governmental Research is the first of two to be released by good-government groups in the coming weeks. The Business Council of New Orleans and the River Region will also make governance recommendations in response to a request from Mayor Mitch Landrieu for an outside review of the agency’s finances and management.

The beleaguered Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans needs the power to increase water and sewerage rates annually and fewer politicians controlling its activity in order to aptly tackle billions of dollars in city infrastructure improvements, according to a report the Bureau of Governmental Research released today.

“If you don’t have a fund balance, if you have an emergency, if you have terrible flooding or something like that, you don’t have money on hand to deal with it,” Bureau of Governmental Research CEO Janet Howard said. “Ideally you would have one in place, but when you are coming out of a $25 million hole, you have an issue of how fast you can rebuild.”

Orleans Parish already has one, and now voters in Jefferson Parish will decide if they want one.

The department thrived for many years, supported by a strong local economy and plentiful federal grants. But the oil bust of the mid-1980s and the drying up of federal dollars brought on hard times. Between 1985 and 1991, the cash-strapped city cut NORD’s budget from $6.2 million to $2.2 million. Translating those numbers into 2010 dollars, the nonpartisan Bureau of Governmental Research calculated, that amounted to a drop from $12.5 million to $3.5 million.

The Bureau of Governmental Research noted in its analysis of the amendment that the department suffers from “frequent turnover of NORD directors, deteriorating facilities, poor maintenance of fields and parks, and inadequate programming.”

In an analysis of the charter amendment, the nonpartisan Bureau of Governmental Research said council members have “asserted that (the change) would allow for more informed representation.” The analysis went on to say that in their view, district members are more aware than at-large members of the challenges facing the S&WB, because constituents typically go to district council members with problems related to water and sewerage service.

The Bureau of Governmental Research endorsed the proposed City Charter amendment, but the local chapter of the NAACP gave it a thumbs-down.

The report, titled “Managing Innovation: Models for Governing the System of Public Schools in New Orleans,” was released by two watchdog groups: Tulane University’s Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives and the Bureau of Governmental Research.

It comes at an opportune time; the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education must decide by late this year whether to extend state control over most of the city’s public schools beyond 2011 or return them to local control.

“Further, I will seek the assistance and advice of respected civic groups like the Bureau of Governmental Research, Public Affairs Research Council, Council for a Better Louisiana, etc., to form a watch committee, similar to Court Watch. This committee will have full access to the methods used and the information obtained by the Assessor’s Office and will have my full cooperation in answering any questions regarding the performance of my office.”

Capella’s resolution calls for the crime commission, the Jefferson Business Council, the Bureau of Governmental Research and the East Jefferson and West Jefferson civic coalitions each to appoint one person to an advisory committee. It would help define the job of inspector general and recommend a source of money to run the office.

The Bureau of Governmental Research asked candidates to weigh in on the city’s budget, municipal services, infrastructure and blight. The group didn’t ask the candidates to make any promises, just to provide succinct answers to two questions per topic.

Capella’s resolution will call for a five-member committee to select the IG. The committee will be comprised of civic and business leaders, the Metropolitan Crime Commission and the Bureau of Governmental Research.

With Jefferson Parish mired in political scandal, Councilman Tom Capella called Thursday for an inspector general’s office shaped by independent government watchdogs…. The panel members would be picked by the Metropolitan Crime Commission, the Jefferson Business Council, the Bureau of Governmental Research and the East Jefferson and West Jefferson civic coalitions.

The resolution calls for the creation of a 5 member committee. The panel members would be chosen by 5 different organizations, including one that keeps a close eye on how taxpayer dollars are spent, the Bureau of Governmental Research.

The Bureau of Governmental Research has released the second part of a four-part series of questionnaires completed by the candidates for New Orleans mayor.

The Bureau of Governmental Research releases the first installment in a four-part Q&A series with mayoral candidates, “Questions for a New Mayor.”

The New Orleans mayor’s race will hold the main spotlight in the upcoming elections, and rightfully so as the voters’ choice could largely determine the outside world’s perception of the city for decades to come.

The Bureau of Governmental Research says the current seven-assessor system has been grossly inefficient and has produced inaccurate assessments, depriving the city of needed revenue. But the move to a one assessor system is not guaranteed to make things better.

Replacing New Orleans’ seven elected tax assessors with a single assessor was a triumph of civic activism, a sign that New Orleanians were determined not just to rebuild their city but to reform its government.

The Bureau of Governmental Research issued a report Monday urging the eventual winner of New Orleans’ first citywide assessor’s election to hire an expert staff and adopt the latest computer technology to correct a “grossly inefficient” system.

Mayor C. Ray Nagin’s new executive order regarding professional services contracts goes into effect Wednesday, and one particularly frightening detail for City Council Vice President Arnie Fielkow is the potential absence of a paper trail in the awarding process.

After nearly two hours of often racially charged debate about the desirability and implications of government transparency, the New Orleans City Council failed Thursday to override Mayor Ray Nagin’s veto of an ordinance requiring committees that rank would-be city vendors to meet in public.

Rather than comply with a unanimously approved ordinance requiring committees that recommend firms for certain city contracts to meet in public, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has announced plans to suspend the panels and give himself sole authority to evaluate such deals.

The City Council voted unanimously in favor of 100 percent transparency in city contracting, approving council Vice President Arnie Fielkow’s ordinance to open the city’s professional services contract selection process to the state’s open meetings law with a 7-0 vote.

St. Tammany President Kevin Davis told local business leaders Tuesday that he opposes term limits for members of the Parish Council and is against reducing the size of the parish governing body.

Reducing the size of the St. Tammany Parish Council and putting term limits on the parish governing body are the most-discussed elements of a package of proposed Home Rule Charter changes before the council.