NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Governor Landry’s newly appointed task force to investigate recent sewerage and water board failures and come up with long term solutions to the problems residents face is getting the attention of city leaders.

Councilman JP Morrell says none of the members live in any of the neighborhoods that have flooding issues, but task force chairman Paul Rainwater says that while he may not directly experience the problems, he has plenty of experience and understands the needs of residents.

“I’ve worked with everybody. I’ve worked with the business community. I’ve worked with the council. I’ve worked with the mayor currently, so he asked me to facilitate this,” Rainwater said.

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Even so, Councilman Morrell is concerned that the task force falls short.

“There was no effort made to reach out to anyone in the community, any of the elected officials. This is not a legitimate group looking for reform, it’s a group probably that has an agenda and is looking for a task force to rubber stamp the agenda,” Morrell said.

Rainwater says they’re already working on the issues.

Besides the obvious flooding, the task force will also tackle billing concerns; something he’s already discussed with the governor.

“That is one of the most challenging issues that I think the sewerage and water board has, and if we’re going to move forward with rate increases that are important to the viability of that system and providing the services. We gotta fix the billing fees so that people feel comfortable with what they’re paying for,” rainwater said.

The governor has given the task force 30 days to figure things out and make recommendations.

Rainwater says it shouldn’t be a problem.

“Governor Landry says hey I’m gonna support this moving forward. Let’s see what we can get done that’s going to fix this and create a system that provides a service that the citizens of New Orleans deserve,” Rainwater said.

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