Be aware: After this op-ed was submitted, Gov. Jeff Landry eliminated his chosen board chair, Roy Carubba, and changed him with Peter Vicari, who Landry appointed to the board simply final month. The author hopes that the brand new chair doesn’t go down the trail as his predecessor.

At a number of board conferences,  a governor-appointed chair of the board has emphasised how a lot time he’s spending attending to know the workers.

“I’m concerned from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. nights and weekends … and I do it willingly and I do it humbly.” pronounced Roy Carubba, chair of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Safety Authority-East (SLFPA-E), at round 1:27:50 on this video, of a current board assembly.

After making inquiries into the state of affairs, I felt compelled to write down this. It was crucial, I consider,  that Chairman Carubba “know his place” and never meddle with the workers, as a result of the SLFPA-E is answerable for the most important flood-protection system in the US.

To many New Orleanians—particularly these unfamiliar with how public boards function—this involvement would possibly sound like a constructive improvement. It’s not.

Board members have an vital however restricted function: they supply oversight, monitor funds, and set general course. They aren’t speculated to become involved in day-to-day operations. That work is for the professionals employed to do the job.

Usually, the bridge between the board and workers is an govt director. On the SLFPA-E, this place is called the Regional Director, and it’s a singularly crucial one.

When Roy Carubba was appointed chair by the governor, his first official act was to vacate the place of Regional Director—after which not discover a alternative particular person for the place.  The place stays vacant to this present day. 

Over the next eight months, Carubba successfully assumed the duties of the Regional Director himself, whereas persevering with to function board chair. That’s inappropriate, unsustainable, and demoralizing for workers.

This type of association inevitably drives away succesful professionals. Certainly, 4 board members and 6 high-level staffpersons have resigned, along with the Regional Director. The exit of so many workers represents an enormous lack of institutional data on this comparatively small group.

Framing Chairman Carubba’s degree of involvement as merely “attending to know the workers” misses the purpose. It blurs important strains of duty and undermines the construction that enables public establishments to operate successfully.

If the SLFPA-E fails to correctly preserve and function its flood-protection system, the Military Corps of Engineers can assign a grade of “unacceptable” to the levees and floodwalls, which finally might result in FEMA decertifying the constructions . 

That will imply that nobody might get flood insurance coverage.

Due to the Flood Authority’s essential function, the general public can not afford to have it run by a board chair who acts recklessly.

Chairman Carubba ought to have allowed the board to pick and rent a Regional Director after which step again — like different board chairs do — and permit the particular person employed to do their job.

On the February 2025 board assembly, Carubba introduced that he was saving the SLFPA-E $300,000 by eliminating contracts for grasscutting, a activity that will therefore be carried out by Levee Board workers, he stated. Everybody can recognize a frontrunner with an eye fixed to fiscal duty. However clearly, this shift of duties was not well-planned.

As somebody who has walked commonly on the levees for 20 years, I’ve by no means seen the levee grass wherever close to as excessive as it’s now. 

That goes past aesthetics: the overgrown grass doesn’t meet Military Corps of Engineers’ specs. We’re approaching the peak of hurricane season and the grass is simply too excessive for efficient levee inspections.   

Routine upkeep can fall via the cracks when leaders micromanage based on their very own whims. The board is there to offer strategic steering, oversight and accountability for the group. The board chair’s function is to offer management to make sure the board fulfills this function successfully —no extra, no much less.

Good governance depends upon understanding the place the strains are. And respecting them.

Sandy Rosenthal is the founder and president of Levees.org

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