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Political Interference With Flood Protection
Part 1: Levee Police
When Governor Landry took office in January 2024, he began a series of actions resulting in the complete overhaul of the Board of Commissioners of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority – East, the levee board (SLFPA-E). Those new board commissioners, along with local businessman Shane Guidry, have repeatedly stated their intentions to increase the size, cost, and scope of the levee police force, which patrols a small subset of wealthy neighborhoods along the lakefront, in addition to providing security for the levees and flood gates. The primary intended function of the levee police is to protect the region’s flood protection infrastructure from sabotage or vandalism, so it is unclear how bolstering residential neighborhood patrol serves this purpose or why these neighborhoods receive this unique arrangement.
Last year, the Superintendent of Police of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - East, Joshua Rondeno, was awarded an eye-popping raise and ‘promotion’ to $208,000 a year, compared to his predecessor’s $110,000 salary in 2023.Louisiana State Senator Kirk Talbot (R-10) voiced his concern in the Louisiana legislature that this is more than almost every sheriff in the state earns and that this almost doubling of salary “looks excessive.” Sen. Talbot also raised a conflict of interest concern around the unusual circumstance that Supt. Rondeno will oversee internal auditing of his own police force, serving as both Superintendent and Chief Compliance Officer of the Orleans Levee District Police. “I’ve sat on a lot of boards. I’ve never seen where someone who is in charge of a police department be the one that is in charge of making sure that the internal auditing and inefficiency and spending . . . usually you have an employee who doesn’t have the power to spend money looking at everybody making sure they’re spending money right.” Senator Talbot asked SLFPA-E President Peter Vicari “how do you justify” this? “What do I say to my constituents” about this use of tax dollars, Sen. Talbot added.
The size of the levee police department has indeed grown substantially over the past two years, from $8.4M to $13.7M–an increase of 63%! With these increases, a growing percentage of our tax dollars intended for flood protection are now being directed towards a police force serving just a small sliver of neighborhoods by the lake.
SLFPA-East Budgets Fiscal Year 2025, 2026, and 2027
Despite the obvious concern that money meant for maintaining and improving the levees is directed anywhere else, such as to residential neighborhood patrol, consider that these Lakeview neighborhoods are already among the safest in the city!
Why should tax dollars meant to maintain the levees and keep the city safe from catastrophic flooding be redirected to this mini police force to serve a few neighborhoods?
How do these changes keep the city safe from flooding?
Just this week, we learned that current SLFPA-E President Vicari signed an unusually hefty employment contract with Levee Police Superintendent Joshua Rondeno earlier this year. The contract appears unlike any other public servant contract in that it has a 12-year term, and guarantees a 6% raise each year, meaning Supt. Rondeno will earn a shocking $250,000 by 2029! This contract, which has not yet been approved by the board, states that Rondeno can be fired only by a majority vote of the board for cause. This is a positive change from a previous version of the contract which guaranteed Rondeno a four-year severance payout, totaling over $900,000, if he was removed from his position without cause–this version luckily was not approved.
SLFPA-East board President, Peter Vicari, replied to Alex Lubben, the reporter on this story:
“We have so many (expletive) rats over there in that building,” describing the flood authority’s employees as rats.
Even Newell Normand, who has defended the SLFPA-E board and allowed them generous and soft air time, was astounded by the terms in Rondeno’s employment contract. “A twelve year term contract–that’s unheard of!” Normand commented on his show Monday. On his April 20, 2026 program, he spent several minutes describing why the contract’s terms are highly unusual for a public employee:
Edited excerpts from The Newell Normand Show, April 20, 2026
Levee-Related Legislation Updates
HB 1240 (Hilferty) - Currently allows for the Senate to reconfirm all members of the SLFPA-East board in September. We SUPPORT this bill in its current form. It would be an excellent opportunity for the Senate to reinstate its power to confirm candidates appointed by the Governor - a step that was likely rubber stamped in recent years. This is important because otherwise, members can serve three consecutive three years terms. All current board members have been installed for less than 2 years, most less than 1 year.
SB 56 (Connick) - This allows for the SLFPA-West to absorb the Lafitte Levee District and manage the maintenance of their levee system. The Lafitte levee district has suffered from mismanagement, poor transparency, and is broke. We SUPPORT the effort, although we question whether Lafitte has a large enough population to source board members in perpetuity. Currently, the bill requires that one of nine SLFPA-West board members reside in Lafitte.
What can YOU, the citizens, do to combat this backwards slide?
CALL or EMAIL your Legislators!!! The Louisiana Legislature is in session until June 1, and they need to hear from YOU!!! Tell them your flood protection tax dollars should NOT be used to fund a mini police force for Lakeview neighborhoods. Let your Representative and Senator in the state legislature know your concerns. You can look up your elected official using your home address on this website.
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