So now they are blaming the levee board for corruption and

[mother earth]

mishandling money for years & years. Now the spin is the levees failed because of the governor appointed board & this board has been known for mishandling money since the 20's & 30's?

Anybody care to enlighten me, is this true, cuz it's the first I hear of this. Amazing that they let this one slip under the radar until now, IMO. So I'm here to ask the people from LA. Say it ain't so.

[dae]

1. The "Levee Board" in my part of Louisiana, covers

about 80 miles of west Mississippi River levee starting about 60 miles north of Baton Rouge.
They maintain levees and were once considered a plum political position. However, that's no longer the case here. I can't speak for all the other levee districts.
Many in Louisiana, including myself, feel they are outdated and should be absorbed into Dept. of Public Works.

[markus]

2. I think Serpant Head said it best

Good old Carville. To paraphrase: The levee board is in charge of mowing the damn grass. You point out to me the levee that failed because the grass wasn't mowed, and that's the one that's the levee board's faul.

[LA lady]

4. LA is a very different place!

Carville is good for a laugh but incorrect on his assessment.

The Orleans Levee Board remains an old institution that shuns publicity and openness in a state that has seen its share of corruption. In a 2002 lawsuit against the Board, they admitted to raising and spending their own capital funds through businesses they control including gambling.

Local levee boards remained, however, in charge of day to day inspection and maintaince of the levee systems in their areas.

How did the good-old-boy Louisiana patronage system work? Like
this—local politicians would appoint relatives and close friends to
the New Orleans Levee Board. This board had its own police, its own
contractors, its own engineers.

How did the Board work? Something like this: Joseph Boudreaux (a
fictitious name) would get appointed to the Levee Board. Boudreaux
gave his son P´ti Joe a job as a levee board patrol officer. P´ti Joe
would drive his nice new squad car up and down the levees, checking
the water level and soil condition, reporting anything that needed
fixing.
Because things always need fixing, Boudreaux´s mother´s brother had a
nice piece of land by the spillway with "real good dirt," and
Boudreaux gave his Uncle Ronnie Robichaux a "lifetime contract" to
supply dirt "real regular" wherever needed. Uncle Ronnie´s son Frank
owned a truck and machine-leasing company, and Frank´s trucks and
machines were used to move the dirt around; Uncle Ronnie´s nephew
Grady owned the insurance company that insured all Frankie´s
dirt-moving trucks and machinery, and also had all the insurance
contracts on P´ti Joe´s "official" cars; and Grady´s uncle Marty owned
a little plant nursery where Joseph could get a good deal on the St.
Augustine and other sods used to hold the levee dirt together, so it
didn´t erode. Marty made other decisions—whether to plant the grove
of pines and cypress, the alleys of young live oaks, and what color
oleander bushes should we put in between all that?

The levees were sometimes topped with long cement caps where you could
sit, fish, and watch the water levels rise and fall. Marty had a
cousin Edwin in the cement business who could put the whole thing
together real cheap. And Edwin had flooded ten acres on his farm near
Abbeville so that the ducks and geese were landing there in season,
and every Boudreaux and Robichaux and everyone in between could all go
hunting and fishing for free at the camp.

During these hunting and fishing trips, everyone got to know each
other rather well. They traded social invitations, the wives got
together and played bridge and talked about their children, who met
each other, and sometimes fell in love and married.

What was the point of public service, folks sometimes wondered, if you
couldn´t take care of all your friends and relatives?

[markus]

6. An interesting anecote, but I don't see the point

Actual construction work was always contracted out by the Corps. The levee board basically made sure the flood dates opened and closed property, and painted them. They mowed the grass. They did not engage in levee construction. That level of maintenance was handled by the Corps. The levee boards exist primarily as a legal mechanism for providing local matching funds for construction and maintenance through tax levees.

[LA lady]

3. More mishandled money here than anywhere, I imagine

I will never deny corruption in my beloved state. It is a way of life. We didn't get the reputation by not being the best at it!

Sad but true.

[markus]

7. I'm not denying corruption

I am denying that the Levee Board was ultimately responsible for the design, survey and construction of the levees, or maintenance on the scale the cutesy little fantasy above suggets.

[mother earth]

8. Markus, are you from LA too? Because I'm not & while it all

sounds believable, I don't think the blame should rest fully on their shoulders, even if they do make decisions & oversee the work. We know the Bush admin. never funded the levee work adequately. Altho, the person who told me about the levee board also claims there was like $140 million squandered & it's a well known fact that the levee board is corrupt.

I just didn't buy it is all, so thought I'd come here to get the real deal.

[markus]

9. Yep

I was born 1957 at Hotel Dieu in New Orleans. Graduated De La Salle '75. Went to UNO. I left for personal and professional reasons in 1987 and returned Memorial Day to live here permanently (or as permanent as things can get).

The only substantial project undertaken by the Orleans Parish Levee Board (not counting the lakefront, airport, casino, marina, and all that other junk) was raising the floodwalls on the outfall canals, a project the Corps took over and finished. It was a Corps design. So, yes, there's some blame for the OPLB and the others, but the Corps bears ultimate responsibility.

[mother earth]

5. I thank you all for your responses. I feel as though this is just

another example of failures at all levels.

Where is the Dept. of Justice & GAO in all of this? It still doesn't wash away BushCo's handling of Katrina. And now what? Halliburton has at least 10 more years to suck up the gov't funds & what are they paying help these days. Are they fair wages?