New Orleans council a step closer to controlling S&WB as bill advances

By Ben Myers

Source: The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com

April 15, 2026

A bill that grants the New Orleans City Council broad authority over the Sewerage and Water Board breezed through a state House committee on Wednesday, clearing its first major hurdle in a lengthy legislative process.

House Bill 573, sponsored by state Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, R-New Orleans, gives the council the power to exercise authority over all aspects of the utility’s funding and operations, including the hiring of the executive director and all other S&WB employees.

The bill is supported by Mayor Helena Moreno and all seven members of the City Council. Moreno, who has complained she has little say over the board’s makeup or management, showed up to the House Municipal Affairs Committee to praise the measure before the committee’s unanimous vote in favor of it.

“This agency has been broken for way too long. We keep doing things the same and expecting a different outcome,” Moreno said.

The bill also gives City Hall leeway to take over the drainage system, although it doesn’t set up a process for doing so, a little more than a year after all drainage operations were consolidated within the S&WB as part of a 2024 state law.

The Moreno administration didn’t answer directly when asked if there are any plans to shift control of the drainage system.

“The mayor has long believed that there needs to be much closer coordination between the Sewerage and Water Board and the city,” Moreno’s spokesperson, Isis Casanova, said in a statement. “The administration looks forward to working with the City Council, the public and stakeholders to reform the board’s operations, oversight, and management.”

It’s not clear what, if any, new authority the council will ultimately give itself. Hilferty said the bill is intended as a “toolbox.”

“The council looks forward to working with the legislature and other stakeholders in making SWB finally work for our residents with true local accountability,” Council President JP Morrell said in a text. The full council later this month will approve a resolution in support of the bill that is backed by all seven members.

The concept of turning control over to the City Council didn’t sit well with some S&WB board members. The chair of the board’s governing committee, Courtney Scrubbs, warned lawmakers in an 11-page letter that the bill could lead to political uncertainty that would weaken its standing with ratings agencies and bond investors.

“We believe governance reform should be judged not by whether it creates more political flexibility in the abstract, but by whether it materially improves the utility’s ability to prevent, absorb or respond to system stress,” Scrubbs wrote.

The bill next moves to the House floor. If it clears both House and Senate and receives the governor’s signature, it will become law.

The S&WB was created in state law more than a century ago, and is regulated by more than 80 state laws and a handful of local ordinances. The council approves water rates while the mayor presides over the 11-member board, with members serving staggered four-year terms.

The Bureau of Governmental Research and others have blamed the convoluted thicket of laws and funding mechanism for a void of accountability and historic underfunding.

“This structure has not served the city of New Orleans. It has not served its residents. What it leads to is finger pointing and a position where the buck stops nowhere,” Hilferty said before the vote.

New Orleans-based lawmakers have repeatedly tinkered with the S&WB and taken steps to give the council more regulatory authority over the years. Hilferty sponsored laws in 2022 that gave the council oversight over the S&WB’s billing system, which at the time was notorious for its inaccuracy.

The council set up new appeal procedures while the S&WB installed automatic water meters, and complaints have since plummeted, according to S&WB data.

Members of the Municipal Affairs Committee voiced enthusiastic support for the bill before voting unanimously to advance to the full House, with some suggesting it’s past time for New Orleans to take control of its water systems.

“It’s so vital, so crucial, that we break the wheel and we start over with something that’s much more responsive and responsible,” said Rep. Paul Sawyer, R-Baton Rouge.

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