Louisiana lawmakers to weigh giving New Orleans council broad power over S&WB

By Ben Myers

Source: The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com

April 14, 2026

State lawmakers on Wednesday will consider a bill that gives the New Orleans City Council sweeping powers over the Sewerage and Water Board, including the ability to remake the utility’s governing board and exercise broad authority over its funding, budgets and operations.

House Bill 573, sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, also opens the door to City Hall taking over the drainage system, though it doesn’t lay out a process for doing so.

The bill, which is backed by Mayor Helena Moreno and some council members but opposed by the S&WB’s leadership, is set for a hearing before the House Committee on Municipal Affairs on Wednesday afternoon after the full House adjourns. Moreno is expected to testify at the hearing.

Moreno has said the S&WB is “the top example of a governance disaster” and that the bill would give her more control over an agency that has struggled with water main breaks, billing issues and other problems in recent years.

S&WB Governance Committee Chair Courtney Scrubbs, however, has said the proposal would create a “model too easily altered by shifting political priorities,” which could weaken the S&WB’s already precarious financial standing.

The bill comes at a sensitive moment for the agency and its executive director, Randy Hayman, who has faced withering criticism from Moreno and council members for a range of issues, including at a council committee meeting on Tuesday over sewage leaks in New Orleans East.

The board, then led by former Mayor LaToya Cantrell, hired Hayman in July from the top job at the Philadelphia Water Department. Moreno has said Hayman should not have been appointed to the permanent role and that the S&WB should have instead picked an interim leader. HB 573, in its latest form, gives the council the right to approve the board’s executive director.

In a statement Tuesday expressing support for Hayman’s leadership, the S&WB called attention to an S&P Global report highlighting Hayman’s “successful track record in securing funding for aging infrastructure in similarly challenged metropolitan systems.”

“We believe this experience will be instrumental in maintaining public confidence and continued support for the system’s financial needs,” the report said.

A dramatic shift

The bill could eventually lead to a dramatic makeover for how New Orleans manages its water systems. It authorizes the council to pass ordinances creating a new governing board, and to give itself authority to regulate rates and fees, operating and capital budgets, internal policies, contracts and the hiring of the executive director and staff.

The council currently has limited power to approve the S&WB’s rate requests, but the bill potentially gives the council the ability to set and regulate rates on its own.

The bill also says the governing board composition “may” be set by the city charter, which currently mirrors state law in making the mayor the board’s president. Charter amendments require council and voter approval.

Amendments laying out details to the bill were posted to the legislature’s website on Wednesday. The initial version, which was considered a placeholder, gave the council the ability to override state laws. The amended bill clarifies that the council cannot contradict any existing laws. Other than expressing support for Hayman, the S&WB didn’t comment on other proposed amendments.

The bill potentially consolidates responsibility for both funding and operations with the council, which already controls water rates but has no say over the S&WB operations. The Bureau of Governmental Research, a local nonprofit public policy watchdog, has long identified the misalignment of accountability as one reason the S&WB is perpetually underfunded.

“My initial reaction is it goes pretty far in that it would empower the City Council to actually provide oversight. But again, with that comes a parallel responsibility to make sure that the entity is adequately funded,” said BGR Executive Director Rebecca Mowbray.

A conflict of interest?

But Mowbray said the amended bill also poses new questions. For one thing, she said the new draft muddles the authority of the city charter to establish the S&WB governing board. And even without a recomposed board, the bill gives the council more power than the existing board even has, Mowbray said, noting that the council could oversee the hiring of all board employees.

Mowbray also said the council could potentially give itself both governance and regulatory power, which could potentially cause a conflict of interest.

“There’s going to be a lot to figure out here,” Mowbray said.

The bill also specifies that the city’s drinking water, sewer and drainage systems are “a state entity separate and apart” from the City of New Orleans, but it modifies an existing stipulation that the S&WB is responsible for all the city’s drainage operations. The bill says this will continue to be the case “unless otherwise provided by the parish governing authority or other law to the contrary.”

Before the bill was amended, Scrubbs wrote an 11-page letter to lawmakers saying that giving the council too much power creates political uncertainty that could ultimately weaken the utility’s finances and cause lower bond ratings.

City Council President JP Morrell skewered Scrubbs’ letter in an April 10 interview with Newell Normand on WWL-AM, saying “it was as obviously an effort by people who support the current executive director to try and protect his position.”

Latest problem emerges

Hayman was in the hot seat again on Thursday as Council Vice President Matthew Willard and District E Councilmember Jason Hughes quizzed S&WB officials about efforts to remediate sewage the leaks into the Dwyer Canal in New Orleans East. The S&WB acknowledged the leaks this year after activists and residents brought the problem to council members.

The S&WB has hired contractors to identify faults in its pipes and to test the canal’s water quality. Recent tests have shown the presence of fecal coliform bacteria, which officials say will dissipate as repairs are made over the next several months. The S&WB also recently posted signs along the canal warning passerby not to come into contact with it.

“I believe we had our first meeting to talk about the issues at the Dwyer Canal in January, and we just put signage up? That’s a problem,” Willard said.

Michael Pellet, the community activist who initially identified the leaks, said in an interview the S&WB has recently made consistent efforts to address the problem and communicate with residents.

“We are not confident that the issues are 100% remedied, but we do believe there has been significant progress,” Pellet said.

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