Political Interference With Flood Protection
Part 2: Employee Turnover
On Tuesday, April 28th, we learned that the Director of Operations and the manager of the 17th Street PCCP pumping stations were fired from the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - East (SLFPA-E).
The timing of these firings could not be worse. We are four weeks from the start of hurricane season.
The employees of the operations department are the individuals responsible for closing the system’s flood gates and barriers before a storm. They also operate the pumps. This slow-moving emergency of political interference with flood protection has now become a five-alarm fire emergency.
These firings are the latest in a long string of employee turnover that began after Governor Landry asserted control over SLFPA-East via his board President selections and informal advisor, Shane Guidry.
This is a summary of the high-level employee turnover that we have confirmed in the past two years:
We are pressed to find a single leader in the organization who remains since the Landry takeover began in 2024. This loss of institutional knowledge of our flood protection system is shocking and frightening. The size, scale, and scope of our levees, flood walls, surge barriers, sector gates, and flood gates is truly a wonder of modern engineering. Here is how the Hurricane Storm Damage Risk Reduction System is described on the SLFPA-East website:
The jobs are not easily replaced by high quality candidates. Even the most qualified candidate will require months, if not years, of training and experience to become experts on how to operate it. Simply put: with the firing of the Director of Operations and the manager of the 17th Street PCCP Station, we have diminished confidence that we are prepared for hurricane season.
Images, floodauthority.org
Citizens for 1 Chair, Blair duQuesnay, Was a Guest on The Newell Normand Show April 28, 2026 to Discuss the Full Picture Concerning Developments at SLPFA-East
Former board commissioner, Deborah Settoon, called in to support Blair’s comments and add additional details to the inner workings of the flood authority at the end of the half hour segment.
Former SLFPA-East President, Roy Carubba, called into the Newell Normand show after Blair’s interview. He made a clear claim that the recently fired employees were stealing from the flood authority. Given a chance to walk back his accusations, he doubled down on that statement.
“The people that were let go today — I’m not going to go into the details. I’ll leave it to our regional director if he wants to call — were stealing public money from the agency, period. It’s documented,” Carubba said.”
Given Carubba’s long history of making allegations and accusations against former SLFPA-East employees and board members, we question the authenticity of this latest claim. For almost two years, Carubba has insinuated that the former board and many of the employees at SLFPA-East were corrupt. He claims that SLFPA-East engaged a law firm to prepare an investigative report that was paid for by the state Attorney General’s office. Carubba went as far to to as speculate that the AG’s office is withholding the report “for political reasons”.
If indeed such a report exists, we implore the Attorney General’s office to confirm. Are these allegations backed up by any facts? The public deserves to know.
Otherwise, in the absence of such evidence, we assume these are baseless allegations and should be treated as such.
What cannot be denied, is the startling amount of employee turnover at SLFPA-East in the past two-years.
These resignations, retirements, and terminations are alarming. We cannot afford to lose any more institutional knowledge of our flood protection systems.
ACTION ALERT:
Levee-Related Legislation Updates
HB 1240 (Hilferty) - Scheduled for House floor vote on final passage Tues., May 5 that will determine whether it moves to the Senate. 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.
EMAIL REP. HILFERTY TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT
SB 56 (Connick) - Scheduled for House Transportation committee next week. This bill 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 financially insolvent. 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 voice your concerns?
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.
CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR LEGISLATORS
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NEVER AGAIN!
Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans
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