Here’s how New Orleans’ mayoral candidates would fix the Sewerage and Water Board
By Ben Myers
Source: The Times-Picayune | Nola.com
August 25, 2025
The New Orleans mayoral election comes at a critical juncture for the Sewerage and Water Board, as agency officials warn the board’s distressed infrastructure and uncertain funding pose threats to public safety.
As election season shifts into high gear, the S&WB has also tapped a new executive leader, Randy Hayman, who took over last month for former chief Ghassan Korban after a national search overseen by Mayor LaToya Cantrell.
The new mayor and executive director will join in an arranged marriage with enormous implications. The mayor serves as the board president, appoints nine of the 10 other board members and acts as the executive director’s de facto boss. Together, they will oversee the S&WB’s strategy for pitching new revenue sources, restoring neglected catch basins, tackling a billion-dollar drainage maintenance backlog and replacing lead water pipes.
Hayman’s immediate tasks include seeing two of Korban’s signature projects to the finish line. A citywide water meter replacement is seen as the solution to inaccurate bills and, officials hope, the key to building public trust. And a new power complex aims to keep drainage pumps working during heavy rainstorms.
Both projects are expected to be largely complete by year’s end, but neither is a cure all.
Billing consistency may soothe some of the most heated outrage directed at the S&WB, but boil water advisories, street flooding and broken mains are still commonplace. The power complex may stabilize electricity for drainage pumps, but Korban, before leaving in May, frequently raised alarms about the condition of the drainage system and its ability to handle climate change-fueled rainstorms.
Hayman, formerly the Philadelphia Water Department commissioner, has been on the job for only two weeks. In interviews, the three leading candidates – state Sen. Royce Duplessis, City Council Vice President Helena Moreno and District E Councilmember Oliver Thomas – said they would give Hayman a chance to perform.
The candidates also discussed the S&WB’s governing structure – often maligned by critics – ideas for funding the agency, and plans for engaging state lawmakers, who in recent years have not looked favorably on S&WB funding requests.
Agency funding
Thomas and Duplessis said they would evaluate Hayman’s performance with metrics tied to boil water advisories, customer complaints and other measurable statistics. Moreno said she would insist Hayman improve S&WB communication with the public and local officials.
Thomas, Moreno and Duplessis each stressed rebuilding public trust, especially since voters next year will be asked to renew a property tax that makes up nearly one third of the S&WB’s annual drainage revenue.
S&WB officials say losing the tax would severely compromise basic infrastructure maintenance. They also warn that keeping the tax still doesn’t leave enough for critical repairs and upgrades, not to mention 72,000 catch basins the agency took over this year after decades of City Hall neglect.
“The agency does need money. They need additional dollars. The problem is that the public doesn’t trust the Sewerage and Water Board,” Moreno said.
Moreno would move S&WB board meetings to City Council chambers for easier public access. Thomas would hold town hall meetings with Hayman and other S&WB officials to discuss “the good, the bad and the ugly.” Duplessis would personally make the argument to renew the tax.
With pressure building for new revenue, the S&WB is hoping it will come from tax-exempt property owners who don’t pay drainage millages. The agency is now working on a stormwater fee proposal that all property owners would pay while – somehow – avoiding increased burdens on non-exempt property owners, perhaps through credits on annual tax bills.
The long-discussed stormwater fee is controversial. Critics worry it will inevitably be a double tax or unfairly applied. The mayoral candidates generally support the fee, but they differ on how and when to adopt it, and how to manage the new revenue.
Thomas has supported the nonprofit Water Collaborative’s independent stormwater fee proposal, but he said public confidence to advance it “isn’t there yet.”
“I think people want to see us operate better with what we have,” Thomas said.
Duplessis said a stormwater fee is ultimately necessary, but said the S&WB should build support among the city’s universities, churches and other tax-exempt property owners.
“It’s something that we need to act on. But I think the way you build trust is to try to bring as many people to the table as possible, especially those entities who are going to be impacted,” Duplessis said.
Moreno, who has called for a fee in campaign appearances, said she believes it can be fairly structured to address critics’ concerns. She would give the City Council control of new revenue, with S&WB requests to use it evaluated by the Council Utilities Regulatory Office.
“I’m hoping with that level of scrutiny that the voters of New Orleans would approve this type of fee,” Moreno said.
Governance
The S&WB says it needs a minimum of $25 million annually to clean the catch basins, but the Cantrell administration ponied up just half that amount this year, mostly from one-time sources.
That illustrates a potential conflict in the mayor’s role on the S&WB governing board. As board president, the mayor is the S&WB’s most important cheerleader. As City Hall’s chief executive, the mayor doles out limited funding to various departments, inevitably picking winners and losers.
The candidates all said the S&WB’s annual cost estimate needs independent verification, but they also agreed City Hall is responsible for coming up with the money, either through city funds or state and federal partnerships.
“If you’re mayor of this city and president (of the S&WB), you’re responsible for every damn thing that affects the citizens,” Thomas said.
Moreno said the board should elect its own president, and will consider appointing someone to fill her spot on the board. She said she is open to other ways to reduce the mayor’s influence, so long as the board remains composed of New Orleans residents.
“I’ve always thought that was a really tricky spot to be in, the way that it’s been set up,” Moreno said, referring to the mayor’s dual role.
Duplessis said he doesn’t see a conflict in the mayor’s dual role: he said the S&WB is like any other department the mayor must steer through sometimes-competing funding requests.
Duplessis also dismissed other concerns, voiced by the Bureau of Governmental Research and others, that the board structure creates “a misalignment between operational control and funding responsibility,” as the BGR has put it.
“There’s no evidence to suggest that changing the board structure will lead to necessary changes,” Duplessis said. “This really boils down to the fact that we have a 300-year-old city working on a system that was built over a century ago.”
Thomas said the next mayor needs to focus on the basics of governance before toying with major changes to the S&WB governing structure.
“What you want is stabilization, delivery of service and improved consumer confidence,” Thomas said.
The candidates also shared other ideas for improving infrastructure, both within the S&WB and overall. Moreno would spearhead a regional water treatment plant to protect against saltwater intrusion. Thomas would make sure the sewer system isn’t overlooked. All three candidates would fully staff the public works department and rely less on outsourced project management.
“We blow a lot of money on project managers,” Duplessis said. “There is a need and a place for project management, but we have to be better about how we spend.”
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