Some New Orleans leaders call for folding S&WB to City Hall as bill advances

By Ben Myers

Source: The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com

May 8, 2026

In a first on Thursday, the chief proponents of a bill to give the New Orleans City Council sweeping authority over the Sewerage and Water Board said their ultimate goal is to fold the agency completely into city government.

State Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, R-New Orleans and Council President JP Morrell stated goals beyond what House Bill 1243 calls for at the state Senate committee hearing on Thursday, where the bill was passed unanimously.

“What we are looking to do here is get ourselves one step closer to that system, and eventually get us more towards that system. This is the first of probably two steps,” said Hilferty, who added that many other parishes fold water, drainage and sewer operations into a city Public Works Department.

Morrell added that the S&WB and its 1,400 employees should “be inside Public Works.”

“It would be a much more seamless, locally managed thing,” Morrell said. “This bill is the framework to get there.”

The bill has been touted by Mayor Helena Moreno and City Council members as a way to assure local control over the agency, which is state authorized and has come under fire recently after numerous water main breaks.

It has already passed the House and next heads to the full Senate. If the Senate approves, the two legislative bodies will reconcile amendments, vote on a final bill and, if successful, send it to Gov. Jeff Landry.

Transferring water, sewer and drainage operations would be complex and time consuming. A Moreno administration official, Andrew Tuozzolo, said the administration isn’t taking a position on the idea for now.

Instead, Tuozzolo said Moreno will set up a working group to recommend changes for the council to consider if the bill becomes law. The bill itself doesn’t force any changes, but it gives the council “regulatory authority and oversight” of S&WB budgets, operations, personnel and the composition of its governing board.

The S&WB did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday afternoon.

Complexities

Morrell said one potential complication with transferring the S&WB to City Hall is the utility’s outstanding bond debt, which stood at $505 million at the end of 2024, according to the most recent S&WB financial statement.

“You basically have to wind it down to remove it as an entity,” Morrell said.

Morrell, who first disclosed Moreno’s plans for a working group at the hearing, said it would include bond counsel to sort through questions about the debt.

Tuozzolo said Moreno will formalize the working group with an executive order if Hilferty’s bill becomes law. He said the group is to include community members, businesspeople, experts and council members, and that it will meet in private. It will focus on improving the utility’s accountability, competence, financial stability and public trust, according to a draft language of the executive order.

Tuozzolo said merging the S&WB with City Hall “is not going to be a charge of the task force.” He said the Moreno administration has no position on the issue.

“The immediate need is to synchronize the Sewerage & Water Board’s work with the city, which does not necessarily mean merging it,” Tuozzolo said.

Beyond assuming the S&WB’s debt, a merger would also require City Hall to absorb S&WB employees who currently have different health and pension benefits than city employees, although they work within the same civil service system, according to the Bureau of Governmental Research, a nonprofit public policy watchdog. The city’s workforce would increase by roughly 30%.

Folding the board into City Hall might eliminate the need for appointed board members, who govern the agency and who have been at odds with Moreno over the bill. The board’s Governance Committee chair, Courtney Scrubbs, wrote in a letter to lawmakers that the bill risks politicizing the utility and jeopardizes its bond ratings. 

Unknowns

In a 2023 report, BGR recommended replacing the S&WB with a new municipal utility as one of two options to fix the utility’s governance; the other was to keep it as a standalone state agency that is less dependent on City Hall for funding.

Either option would fix a misalignment of accountability, according to BGR, which found that pension and workforce complications can be overcome with careful planning.

Any transfer of water, sewer and drainage functions to City Hall would likely require months – or longer – of planning and execution, but Hilferty’s bill would give the council unfettered authority over the utility in the immediate term.

Hilferty and Morrell told the Senate Municipal Affairs Committee on Thursday that the bill’s the purpose is to empower the council to make needed changes to the S&WB in the future without needing to come back to the legislature year after year.

BGR Executive Director Rebecca Mowbray, who testified at the hearing on Thursday, said the organization is neutral on Hilferty’s bill, but is concerned that it doesn’t spell out what will happen once it passes. She said the bill should be amended to require the city to come up with plans for the utility’s future with a deliberate process.

“Our chief concern is that this bill breaks the current system but doesn’t state where it’s going,” Mowbray said.

After the hearing, Mowbray said she was glad to learn of Moreno’s working group and looks forward to learning more about what it will do.

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