New Orleans levee board turmoil rises after resignations, allegation police chief was punched

By Alex Lubben

Source: The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com

February 3, 2026

The board that oversees much of New Orleans’ $14.5 billion hurricane-protection system, which has faced upheaval over the past year due to resignations and new appointments, is facing a new round of turmoil.

In recent months, Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office has opened an investigation of the nine-member board. Misdemeanor battery charges have been filed by the agency’s police chief against one of its board members. And state lawmakers are considering stepping in, including Metairie Republican Cameron Henry, the powerful state Senate president.

Now, the two remaining board members who were not chosen by Gov. Jeff Landry are resigning, effective Monday. One of them, Deborah Settoon, a 68-year-old former Shell engineer, stands accused of punching the agency’s 46-year-old police chief, Joshua Rondeno, at a closed-door meeting in October. Settoon called the accusation absurd and part of a pressure campaign to force her to resign.

“I think the board as a whole has become completely and utterly dysfunctional, and the entire board needs to be replaced,” said Henry.

He added that legislators may put forward a bill this year to “get this board under control.”

With the resignations of Settoon and Randall Noel, board president Peter Vicari said he hopes the agency can start fresh. “It’s for the betterment of the authority,” he said. “We’re moving on.”

But with only five members currently on the board, the agency will not be able to approve any major infrastructure projects, like levee improvements. Vicari hopes the agency’s nominating committee will act fast and put forward new members.

The turmoil began last year, as Shane Guidry, a confidante of Landry, started to push changes intended to expand the agency’s small police force and, he says, to address mismanagement at the agency. Former board members have questioned the role of Guidry, a successful businessman who holds no elected or appointed office, in overseeing reforms.

Guidry and his allies argue that the controversy is manufactured, part of a politically motivated campaign to stop reforms that are sorely needed at the agency, formally known as the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East. Waste and fraud have proliferated, they say. At the same time, residents in the lakefront neighborhoods patrolled by levee board police have voiced support for the increase in police funding. Policing has improved since Rondeno took his post, they say.

“The people are ecstatic about the police coverage they’re getting,” Guidry said. “The 10% of liberals out there might not be, but the rest of them are.”

Until recently, the agency was heralded as a model of post-Katrina reforms. But in the last year, the board’s recurring controversy has raised questions about whether the critical work of maintaining the city’s hurricane protection system is still being properly overseen.

Meetings have turned into shouting matches, and board members have resigned in protest. Good government groups like the Bureau of Governmental Research have raised concerns about the increase in the flood agency’s police budget, and questioned whether that spending is aligned with the agency’s core mission.

Landry’s office has not publicly explained the rationale for changes on the board. Spokesperson Kate Kelly has not responded to questions or to requests to interview the governor about the flood agency. Whatever his goals for the flood authority are, Landry is now free of the last two board members who stood in the way of his vision for the agency.

‘On the line for this’

The flood protection authority operates and maintains the vast system of levees and pumps on the Mississippi River’s east bank, rebuilt by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after Katrina.

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Before Katrina, the region’s various levee boards were widely viewed as plagued by patronage and corruption. After the storm, the boards were consolidated and their operations overhauled. An independent nominating committee was created and required the board to be largely made up of engineers and scientists.

For nearly 20 years, that system has remained in place. But recently, Landry has attempted to sidestep the nominating committee. Bruce Thompson, chair of the nominating committee, said he worries that efforts to remove Settoon and Noel will make it more difficult to recruit new members.

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“I personally would not put my name forward to serve on this levee board knowing what’s going on. I would not put myself, my family, or my reputation on the line for this,” he said.

A significant change at the agency since Landry’s appointees took over has been a 45% increase in the budget for its 50-officer police force.

Some residents have voiced their support. At a public board meeting last October, Frank Barrett, a realtor who lives in a lakefront neighborhood, said that he would take a bullet for Rondeno.

“If anybody shoots, I would stand in the way,” he said.

Residents elsewhere in New Orleans pay taxes to support the flood protection authority. Some say they receive little benefit from the levee police.

“They never come out,” Dawn Hebert, who has lived in New Orleans East for about 25 years and previously served on the board of Lakefront Management Authority, said last month. “You rarely see a police car on Lincoln Beach Boulevard.”

A simmering dispute

Rondeno’s conflict with Settoon started early last year, when she and Noel voted to limit the police chief’s power at the agency.

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Rondeno had taken on duties historically assigned to the regional director, the top staff role at the agency, which was vacant at the time. The board, which still had a majority of members who were not appointed by Landry, voted to effectively demote Rondeno, appointing the then — director of engineering, Chris Humphries, as interim regional director.

At the February 2025 meeting, Settoon publicly accused Rondeno of threatening employees and causing them distress. She also alleged Rondeno and then-board president Roy Carubba, who was tapped by Landry, coerced an employee into removing an item from the meeting’s agenda.

Rondeno denied the accusations and called them defamatory. Shortly after that meeting, Rondeno, who is Black, filed a lengthy formal complaint against Settoon, who is White, alleging racial discrimination. Carubba said that Rondeno’s complaint prompted him to “get the attorney general involved.”

In March, four board members resigned in protest over the changes at the agency, clearing the way for Landry to tap new members.

The public meetings in the months that followed often turned into shouting matches. At the agency’s June meeting, Carubba and then-board member Clay Cossé appeared to nearly come to blows, with Carubba calling Cossé an expletive and Cossé responding, “Hit me.”

Guidry has hinted that the attorney general’s investigation would reveal explosive findings demonstrating “waste, fraud and abuse.” He suggested that the board members resigned because they were hiding something that they feared would be uncovered, an assertion they deny.

So far, Murrill’s office has not made any findings public, and Guidry said he does not believe it is likely to do so.

“I really wish they would,” he said earlier this year. “But everything’s going to come out eventually. You can’t keep skeletons in closets because they don’t like being in there.”

‘Multiple times with a closed fist’

Months after the public confrontations between Settoon and Rondeno, at the agency’s October 2025 meeting, board members convened in a closed-door session. The agenda listed the topic to be discussed as “investigative proceedings regarding allegations of misconduct by commissioners.”

Settoon and Noel weren’t permitted to attend. Both board members believe that they should have been given an opportunity to understand any accusations against them. Settoon briefly managed to enter the meeting room, was told to leave and ultimately complied.

When the board reemerged, its members voted on whether to remove Settoon and Noel. The motions ultimately failed.

The following day, Rondeno gave a statement to a New Orleans police captain, alleging that Settoon “struck him multiple times with a closed fist on his arm” while she attempted to enter the meeting room.

Carubba said he witnessed it. “She started pushing him, then it turned into her slapping him,” Carubba said. “Then she cocked back and hit him in the shoulder.”

Settoon insists she never touched Rondeno, and she has pleaded not guilty.

“It’s ludicrous that a woman who’s almost 70 years old, with all these physical problems, is going to approach a fully armed police officer,” said Settoon, who has carpal tunnel syndrome, she said, and plantar fasciitis — and recently underwent surgery to correct a bunion.

Rondeno declined to comment, citing the ongoing legal proceedings.

‘Patently unfair’

Three months later, at the agency’s Jan. 12 board meeting, members once again convened behind closed doors. This time, board members were joined by lawyers from Degan, Blanchard & Nash — the law firm conducting the investigation on behalf of the AG’s office — and a representative from Murrill’s office.

Again, Settoon and Noel were denied entry.

Lester Duhé, a spokesperson for the attorney general, declined to comment on the investigation and referred to the police report for details about the battery allegation.

Settoon and Noel said they still don’t know what they stand accused of, if anything.

“I think it’s a miscarriage of justice. I don’t feel like I’m even in the United States,” said Settoon. “This is just not due process.”

She said that she hired a lawyer when she was informed of the investigation and had accumulated $50,000 in legal bills. She also said that last summer, an attorney with the Degan, Blanchard & Nash law firm offered to drop the investigation and cover her legal bills if she resigned. She rejected that offer.

Attorneys at the law firm have not responded to requests for comment.

“I’d like to know what is in the report,” Noel said. “This has been going on for a year. It just seems patently unfair that no one’s willing to talk to us about it.”

Carubba wants the investigation’s findings made public and has alleged that Senate President Henry was keeping the findings from being released, which both the attorney general’s office and Henry flatly denied.

Through all the turmoil, regional director Jeff Williams, the top staffer at the agency who oversees its 250 employees, said he is trying to keep the staff focused on their jobs. He stressed in January that he was “focused on the agency’s main mission, and that is flood protection.”

“All of this stuff — I’d rather not focus on it,” he said. “It does not take energy from me or my staff. We’re doing what we’re tasked to do.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct Deborah Settoon’s age.

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