Whenever you're ready, Erin.

Good morning, Council members.

Councilmember Hughes, present, Councilmember Green, present, Councilmember Morel present, Councilmember Willard, present, Councilmember King, present, Councilmember McCarran present, we have a quorum.

Thank you.

First up, we have the approval of the minutes from the joint utility committee from September 16th as well as July 11th.

Those are the meetings for the joint committees, not the individual committees, just so you know.

Um I will move for the approval of the September 16th and July 21st minutes.

Second by Council Vice President Willow, all of those say aye.

All right, unanimous, the minutes are approved.

First up, we have Delta Utilities.

Good morning, Council members.

My name's Tim Pochet, I'm the CEO of Delta Utilities, and joining me today is Terren Brown, Ryan King, and Sarah Podius.

Uh connection with your approval uh in December 2024.

Uh we've also updated um the utility committee uh twice last year after the transaction uh was consummated on our progress with respect uh to uh to the integration of the business.

But today we want to provide you an update uh as we get through the winter heating season, which generally runs uh from December through February of each year, when usage significantly increases.

In New Orleans, our average customer consumes about 27 CCF of gas a month during the year on average, but during that heating season in December through February, that average increases to almost 60 CCF per month.

Um this is particularly timely, giving our customers are now receiving separate bills for natural gas and electricity.

On top of that, natural gas commodity prices uh have increased consistently over the past 12 months.

All of these factors have led to a significant number of questions from our customers and and your constituents.

And today we'd like to update you on our efforts to address these issues and meet our customers where there are.

Whether we we are responding to customers' inquiries on billing, are participating in broader community outreach efforts uh and engagement activities, all of this is is part of our mission to deliver safe, reliable, affordable natural gas with a focus on customer service and making a positive impact in the communities that we live and serve.

New Orleans uh every day.

On top of that, in the last couple of weeks we have experienced a pretty significant winter storm.

Uh we activated our emergency response protocols uh throughout our two-state system, and these efforts were led by our 700 legacy utility employees, including the 200 that joined our team from InterG.

No significant service disruptions have occurred during this process.

We actively monitored our system and the pressures and controlled uh those pressures at regulator stations as necessary to ensure reliability of our system.

We operated our gas supply under the same ingredients that were in place in the prior legacy utility, and all of our gas nominations on the system were met, and we did not have any supply curtailments that affected our service to our customers.

When significant winter events such as winter storm fern occur, inevitably there's some certain amount of volatility in gas prices, daily gas prices, as a result of increased demand and to a certain extent curtailment in the production of gas.

But 90% of the gas volume that we delivered to customers in the month of January was not subject to daily volatility and fixed before the month started.

And that was fixed for based really on three reasons.

About 60% of that usage was based on the first of the month price.

About 24% of that was based came from storage that we injected during the summer season when gas prices are lower and withdrew as gas prices increased during the heating season.

And we exercised a certain amount of call options that we had for first of month prices.

All this to get to uh over 88% of our gas was not subject to daily volatility.

So but 12% of it was, and that was a significant increase in cost.

We continually will meet with uh the council and its advisors on an annual basis to discuss and update our hedging plans to exit point execute upon agreed upon strategy there.

But let's dive into a little bit uh more as to really what drove uh bills and in usage and volatility from our gas prices.

So, Tiern?

Yes.

First, we want to acknowledge that we understand many New Orleans customers are frustrated and concerned about the higher bills they see this winter.

We hear that concern every day through our call center, and we take it very seriously.

I want to take a moment to explain in plain language what is driving these higher bills.

Because for many customers, the increase can feel sudden and unexpected.

So the main reason bills are higher right now is because people use a lot more natural gas during the winter.

When temperatures drop, most homes use a gas furnace to heat the house.

When the furnace runs more often, the home uses more natural gas, and that causes the gas bill to increase.

Um that during these winter months, electricity is not used as much.

In the past, well when electric, I'm sorry, electricity is not used that much because many customers use electric ACs to chill their homes during summer months.

Now, what has changed is that customers are receiving two bills rather than one bill.

And the past, many customers received one combined bill from Energy New Orleans, and that included both electric and gas charges together.

Because of that, many customers did not realize how much their gas usage increased during the winter months since it was blended into a single single bill.

It is also important to note that Delta has not changed the gas rate structure or tariffs when it was in place under Energy New Orleans.

The overall rate design remains the same.

In prior years, customers may have not noticed that this seasonal shift because everything was combined into one bill.

Now that gas and electric are billed separately, the gas portion is more visible, and it can appear like a bigger increase, even though the seasonal pattern is normal.

As you can see on our chart, we have also been able to review customer usage history and show that many customers, winter gas usage is consistent with what they have used in prior rent winters, including during 2024.

In the chart, the blue represents the 2024 usage, the orange represents the 2025 usage with entergy, and the green represents the 2025 usage with Delta utilities.

And you see that they are consistently the same.

So another reason that customers may have felt an increase in their bill is due to not yet enrolling and levelized billing.

Levelized billing spreads higher winter heating costs more evenly throughout the year by allowing customers to pay approximately the same price month to month.

Instead of a customer seeing a large spike during the coldest months for gas, the program helped smooth out monthly payments so bills are more predictable.

We have offered customers the opportunity to enroll and levelized billings since we started operations in July.

However, many customers who were enrolled in levelized billing at Entergy have not yet enrolled in levelized billing at Delta.

So they are also seeing that spike in the winter months that they weren't seeing with Entergy.

So levelized billing is one of the most effective tools we can offer customers who are concerned about their high winter bills, especially during the cold winter months when gas usage is at its highest.

While it does not eliminate the costs, it helps spread those higher seasonal expenses evenly throughout the year.

Okay.

I do have a question regarding levelized billing because it has been brought to my attention.

It seems to me an extra step that if someone was interested in and had levelized billing with integy that they'd have to go to another process to start it with you.

Yes.

Shouldn't have been an assumption on your end that if they were interested in levelized billing with integy and were using it, that there would be no reason that they would want to change.

My answer my question is almost an answer.

I feel that one of the concerns is that everyone who is in levelized building with integer should have been in levelized billing with Delta.

Yes.

Um, and that is a great question.

I believe that we were not able to automatically enroll people in levelized billing because we are adjusting their bills, and we are that's Delta deciding what they're going to pay for natural gas.

And the customers should have that power of saying, yes, I want the levelized billing with Delta and for natural gas.

Maybe they do not.

But we don't want to make that decision for them.

We want them to make it for themselves.

I would submit to you that you should have made that decision and let them opt out.

Because at the end of the day, you have thousands of customers who had gotten used to consistency in their bills.

They may have planned their finances behind it.

So now you have a totally new situation for them.

And I will submit to you that part of the reason that you're here today under criticism is because of exactly what we're seeing.

The spike in bills that people weren't prepared for because they had for years been used to a bill that they could incorporate into their into their financial portfolio.

And I I do want to make clear something that maybe I wasn't um clear about earlier.

Levelized billing is one of the reasons.

Another key factor is the combined bill.

So in the winter, for instance, you could pay $50 for natural gas and ten dollars for electricity.

In the summer, you could pay $50 for electricity and ten dollars for natural gas because of the usage.

The gas furnaces in the winter and the electricity, electric ACs in this in the summer.

That is one of the biggest factors that evens out people's bills is the combined bill with energy, and they're seeing that drop in the winter because of that.

I mean, and so yes, I we we take your concern with levelized billing.

We can look into that in you know, legally if we can switch people over without their consent.

We will have to look into that.

But it is it's also the combined bill factor.

One thing, council member I'll submit to you is that we didn't have the information as to by detail as to who was in levelized building when we initiated the process.

We do have that information now, and we are reaching out to people that are not enrolled and asking them to enroll.

I understand, except that that's hard for me to understand that you wouldn't have the list of people who are on levelized billing with entergy as you do a transfer to an entirely new company.

I think that it was some something that somebody missed in terms of recognizing why thousands of people were choosing to be under levelized billing, because they're not seeing increases in their salaries in many respects, they're not seeing increases in the amount of money that's coming into them.

And so this is a challenge.

I understand.

I hope that we can be very proactive.

No, I don't hope.

I'm sure after this meeting, we'll be very proactive in sending a letter to those who are on levelized billing, not only encouraging them, well letting them know about the option, but also encouraging them to take advantage of it so that they can plan and also Delta can plan.

I can I can assure you that process is already underway.

I'd like you to keep us updated as a council as to what is done, what is being done to reach out to those customers who have levelized billing right now.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

In addition to the increased usage that occurs during the winter months, another primary factor for the seasonal high bills is increases in the broader gas market.

The purchase gas cost adjustment is it reflects the monthly adjustments in the broader gas market.

And this process has not changed since the way it occurred under inter G New Orleans' ownership, and we in fact are still using the same gas supply contracts that existed prior to the transaction.

The adjustments for the purchase gas price are primarily driven by the NIMEX settlement price, and there are monthly filings made that track the actual and projected costs to ensure that ultimately the customers only pay for the actual cost of gas.

So it isn't it is absolutely as a true pass-through of gas costs to the customers.

As you can see in the graph, the broader market gas calls have increased through 24 and 25 with accelerated increases into 26.

As Taryn mentioned, the the usage increased four times towards the end of 25 for as occurs normally during the winter.

But over that similar period from September 25 to February 26, the price of gas increased by 2.6 times.

And these two factors are the prior are primarily the drivers of increased bills during this winter season.

Importantly, in the coming months, as warmer weather approaches, the gas usage will decline.

And so customers will see some relief there as their usage declines.

And while we can't predict the gas market, we are seeing favorable movement in gas costs as well, which will pass through to customers through that purchase gas, purchase gas cost adjustment.

Good morning, council members.

Um, and that we've been getting a lot of questions about.

So you see a sample bill on the screen, starting with the billing details at the top.

Uh, you see the meter number, the billing period, and your actual gas usage.

In this particular example, the customer used 18 CCFs during the billing period and and CCF, which we mentioned, that's how that's how you measure your month or monthly natural gas usage.

One CCF represents a hundred cubic feet of natural gas.

Um, want to talk about the customer charge of twelve dollars and thirty-two cents.

So this is a fixed monthly fee, and that covers the cost of maintaining your service connection.

This is not a new fee.

That's very important to recognize.

It was previously bundled on the entergy bill with the gas rate base charge.

So again, not a new charge.

Uh it was an existing charge.

Gas services, which shown here on this bill example, is 479 for this customer.

This represents the charge for delivering natural gas service to customers.

It's a variable charge that is tied to your natural gas usage each month.

This charge has not changed.

The purchase gas adjustment or the PGA, uh, which with Ryan just shared information about it, is $9.87 in this example.

So again, this is the actual cost of the natural gas commodity that we purchase from suppliers, fluctuates monthly based on the market price, uh, which is why customers are seeing the amount vary from bill to bill.

You know, the important thing to remember while these line items look different.

We haven't increased the rates.

We have separated what was previously bundled together to give customers better visibility uh into the charges that make up their bill.

Okay, in terms of uh payment assistance, we want to make sure the customers are aware of the programs and options that are available to help manage their natural gas costs.

Uh Taryn already talked about levelized billing.

I want to give a little bit more detail on that.

Um, this allows customers again to spread their costs evenly throughout the year, uh helping them to avoid seasonal spikes, makes budgeting more predictable uh and easier as council member green noted.

It is very simple to enroll, so customers can sign up online, they can visit Delta utilities, they can click on the enroll and levelized billing.

You can enroll by phone.

Uh always want to share our toll-free number 1833 Delta 99.

Customer service reps can help you with that.

You can also do it in one of our customer care centers for people who prefer to do it that way.

And just to give you an example of a residential customer whose bill ranges from $35 in August of 2025 to $89 in February of 26.

They would pay between 42 and 45 dollars each month on the level ISIS billing program.

So again, this program would provide them some some predictability.

For customers who might be having some difficult difficulty paying their bill, we definitely want to encourage them to reach out to our customer service to see if they qualified for payment arrangements.

We're here to work with customers and help them to find solutions.

So we really want them to be aware of that.

Um also want customers to know about the LIHEAP assist the LIHEAP programs, the low-income home energy assistance program.

This is the federally funded program uh that helps manage costs associated with home energy bills.

We can help uh connect customers with that program as well.

Do you care?

Why don't we take some questions from the council?

Council member Wellard.

Thank you, Council President.

I guess I'll start backwards.

So on the bill on the bill, at the top in blue, there's this 1232 customer charge.

Yes.

If you use no gas for a billing cycle, you'll still have a minimum bill of 1232.

Is that accurate?

That is actually correct.

And that is nothing new.

This charge was already included in entergy bills back when enter G still had gas.

Yes, it was just bundled as part of the gas rate based charge.

Okay.

Now under the gas chargers, the first one in this example it has 18 CCF.

That that.266.

That's a fixed rate.

In this top line right here, gas services 18 CCF at 26 cents.

27 cents.

That's that's correct.

That's that's a fixed rate.

That same point two six six, if you look at your your prior energy bill, the same rate would have applied.

And in this example, the 18 represents the amount of gas utilized.

So that's that will so that is what will vary month to month.

Yes, based on your usage.

Okay.

That that line right there represents like the the gas service charge.

Is that is that what we're paying in that line item?

It's it's it's it's the service charge for you maintaining the gas infrastructure?

Yes.

Okay.

I'm just trying to get a breakdown of kind of each line item.

Okay, that's correct.

All right, and then I'll skip formula rate plan.

So then you go to the purchase gas adjustment.

That is essentially the price that we're paying for the gas utilized.

Exactly.

And so in this example, the 55 cents is going to be what varies month to month.

Abs yes.

Okay.

Correct.

Yes.

And then can we touch you didn't really go into the formula rate plan, so you can just can you touch on that?

And that line item that's at 1326.

Yes.

Yes.

So Energy New Orleans prior to the transaction had an annual filing mechanism where they would come in annually and adjust their rates.

As part of the transaction, we, as a condition, agreed that we would not continue to file that annual rate plan, and that we would come in if more than 15 months after the closing and file with full open books to do basically restart the entire structure.

And so that was a commitment made by Delta.

Annually, typically annually, that gas formula rate plan rider would adjust.

And we've we're foregoing any adjustments to that currently.

So that you the same amount applies now as it did under energy new orange.

Okay.

So just to be clear, um since Delta took over the gas uh utility in New Orleans, nothing has changed except the price of natural gas, which is dynamic and always changes.

That's what that's what you're saying.

Okay.

Um as it relates to the purchase of the gas, zero percent markup.

Zero percent markup.

Every time.

Every time.

Okay.

Um so I think it was you, Tim.

You were talking about how the rates in January were uh essentially set on January 1.

Is that you?

The yes, the the gas cost rates.

Like 88% of it was was set by the market on January 1.

Yeah, so the the gas that we purchased that we anticipated being able to sell in January, about 88% was based on first of the month prices, and 12% was based on us going into the daily market to buy additional gas when usage spiked.

Okay, so that was for the additional gas you needed to cover for for the rest of the customers for the billing cycle.

Are we expecting to see kind of a repeat in February of January bills with this spike?

The one thing that happened was that as this winter event um happened at the end of the month of January and into the month of February, gas prices were uh the first of the month gas prices for February closed at 745, 746.

So a significant amount of gas that we had to buy for February was based on the February first of the month price.

So there will continue to be an increase in cost for February as it relates to the beginning of the month prices.

But those gas prices are starting to come down now.

Was that February one price higher than January one?

Yes.

So are we going to see even higher bills this month?

From a gas perspective, the gas cost perspective, the adjustment will be higher.

Okay.

And it applies to the bills that go out during the month, not when the gas is used.

So the bills going out in February will have that February higher PGA.

And then we're seeing the price of gas drop.

So the bills that are going out in March, we expect to have moderation there or reduction.

Okay.

Is this kind of SOP by early in the month to cover the the current month or uh I guess I'm looking at what what do you do to protect um the rate payers from that dynamic volatility in the market?

Like if you buy for the month on February 1, but then rates drop 70 percent on February 5th, but we're paying that February 1 rate for the whole month.

Is there any anything that's the to hedge against that?

There is hedging and there, so we will file an annual hedging report where we make a request to the council for a hedging plan for the following winter.

Now we didn't close on this transaction until July, which is after when that report would have been submitted.

But we intend to file our first hedging request of the council this year.

But to also a little bit more detail on the way the filing works, even if the first of the month pricing is higher, that that does last through the bills that go out that month, but there's always a reconciliation and true up in the filing.

So that first of the month price is used, or the NIMAX price is used, and then we file actuals monthly so that the council and the advisors can see you know, make sure that true's up and and customers ultimately only end up paying the actual cost of gas for that period.

Okay.

So is that kind of like the average price for that that cycle?

What you're explaining right there with the true up and the action?

That is a much cheaper price, what we purchased on the beginning of the month prices and what we purchased during the month on a daily basis.

Got it.

Okay.

Generally, the volatility really occurs on a daily basis.

Like during winter storm fern, some of the daily prices were as high at Henry Hub, 35 to 40 dollars.

Closing price, not higher.

That was the price.

So generally what you trying to do is avoid the daily volatility in the price.

Okay.

Thank you.

Council McCain.

Um couple of questions.

So obviously there is a lot of concern regarding as Councilman uh Green said, regarding levelized billing as well as arrearages and disconnects.

And I guess the first question is is there a possibility for those people who are in arrearages to then transition to levelized billing as a mechanism to deal with gas with the price of gas.

Is that something that you'll offer currently?

That is correct.

We're we're talking to customers every day when they call us and we are putting them on levelized billing if they ask for it, and we are retroactively addressed adjusting their balances on a go-forward basis to kind of put them on a combination of a payment plan and levelized billing.

I guess the councilman green's point, I don't think this should be a if you ask.

I think it should be a have you been on levelized billing previously.

Do you know what levelized bill it is and aggressively sell it?

Because I think when I talk to a lot of people, the councilman green's point, I'm sure some of our speakers, when we separated the bills, there was an assumption that this would be a smooth transition and people would not see a change.

And for a lot of people, if they have been on levelized billing with entergy for five, ten, fifteen years, the assumption they probably went into it with was that the bill was going to be to be levelized.

And because there had to be an affirmative action on their part, and they were not properly educated on that affirmative action, I think that has led to a tremendous amount of confusion.

So I think as you're having people who are calling regarding arrearages, I think there needs to be an aggressive effort on the part of Delta to say levelized billing is an option.

Here's how levelized billing could help, and really be affirmative in that because I think that people who are calling need to understand you were likely on levelized billing with entergy, and that transition needs to be facilitated by Delta.

Um also want to ask.

So I know that we have tried to emphasize the people regarding scams.

Can you guys once again kind of emphasize the fact that Delta does not call for your payment information?

Could y'all emphasize that and tell us about how you're fighting scams?

Yes.

So you know, we don't accept payment at people's homes.

Uh we uh we won't call them and ask them uh uh to to make a separate payment online.

Um you know, I think that we're trying to make sure that people understand what our payment protocols and processes are.

So just and speaking of council member will be a little more explicit.

So right now, in the transition from uh entergy to entergy and delta, there was an anticipation that there would be scamming, and scamming is actually happening, which is that if individuals show up to your house and go, I'm the gas guy collecting gas bills, that is not a thing.

That is uh when people call you on the phone and say, I'm the gas company, give me your payment information.

That is not a thing.

There are protocols in place, such as going to an actual payment location, setting up a Delta account, paying on the internet.

There is a process and procedure for paying your gas bill.

No one's gonna one off you and show up to your house or call you on the phone asking for your credit card information over the phone.

I think it's important because when you're transitioning to two different utility providers, people are used to what they've been doing and they don't know kind of what is the new the new standard.

And any effort you can do to continue to message to people, because every time we get a call regarding someone who has been scammed, it is a failure on our part not to educate the people who are in the transition.

It's not a failure on their part.

So whatever we're doing, we need to do more.

Uh councilmember Hughes.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh good morning, everyone.

So I want to piggyback a little bit on the previous line of questioning and uh I appreciate that we're gonna have some customers that are going to pick up the phone and call you uh if they're behind.

But we're gonna have another subset of customers that are not gonna pick up the phone at all.

They're not gonna reach up for whatever reason.

So what what proactively are you doing on your part to uh reach out to customers who may be behind uh and offering them various options to try to get caught up?

So um to Councilman Green's point, we are reaching out to customers now that were previously on levelized billing and making sure that they understand and we're asking them to sign up for levelized billing.

Um secondly, uh people that are behind are getting notices from us that uh we're asking them to contact us if we need to set up a payment plan, if we there are other ways that we can find assistance for them, we're working with them proactively to um to find ways that they can uh we can get them either in levelized billing or a payment plan.

Uh, are they simply getting mailed notices?

Are they getting calls as well?

Are they getting calls, emails, and mailed notices?

Are we exhausting every option, or are they just getting that one option?

They're getting emails, they're getting calls, they're getting um uh in mail also.

Okay.

Um the LaHeap program and the La Heap funds, how how are we how are you getting that message out to people?

That's what I have.

So um we're doing a lot of uh outreach.

Can I can I go through one other slide?

Sure.

And I do want to mention just quickly that the DU CARES program, because I want to make sure that people are aware of this.

So we we talked to you about this program um, I think last year we've been working on developing it with United Way since last summer.

Um it's a one-time annual assistance program designed to help customers who are struggling to pay their natural gas bills.

So I won't go through all the details, but but essentially customers get up to 250 dollars once in a 12-month period.

It's a one-time benefit, you know, for each qualifying household that they can receive in a 12-month period.

And United Way does the uh verifications to determine who is eligible.

Um, all kinds of details up there about um what you need in terms of required documentation, but we've tried to make the program very um very simple.

You can apply online, but you can also apply, you can walk into one of United Way's prosperity centers, or you can call, and the numbers are listed on the slide.

So I think really want to make sure that customers know about that.

We've already had uh since we rolled out the program at the end of January, we've already had over 400 applications, 60 percent of which are from New Orleans.

So we're getting a really good response to it.

Um but to that point, so how how are you notifying customers?

So about that.

Yeah, it's a good question.

So we are certainly leveraging the reach of United Way.

They have an incredible network, which is why we wanted to partner with them.

Um we've also um you know done our best to get it out in the media pretty broadly.

Uh we're also participating in community events.

Um I'll just share with you a couple of things on the next slide, because I think this is really important for us to, you know, kind of meet people where they are.

Um, attending events, including your town halls, attending neighborhood association meetings, making sure that all of our customer care um our customer representatives at the care centers as well as uh in the call center are educated about these programs so that they can truly you know connect customers to them.

So we're doing our best to promote them pretty broadly.

And then now that it's active, there will be additional additional information, including in the billing package or associated with it.

Yeah, let's just be as aggressive as possible.

And you know, it it I know it's not lost on any of us, it shouldn't be.

I mean, look, um, these bills are hitting at a time where folks' property taxes are due, and it it's just a really really tough time.

And so I think we need to exhaust every communication option possible uh to ensure that you know we we let our customers know what resources are available now.

Agreed.

Um just two other events I want to I want to mention.

So we're gonna do a pop-up event at United Ways Prosperity Center on Morrison Road uh on February 28th.

It's up on the slide, and it'll be from 9 to noon, so that's a Saturday.

Um and we'll continue to do those as needed, and then we're gonna be participating on the 26th in a community resource fair uh at Sanchez Center.

So we're trying to tap into events where we know people are already going to be.

And then do some of our own top-up events.

Gotcha.

And if you have social media graphics, you can feel free to pass that alone to our offices, you know.

Absolutely, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh Councilmember Harris.

Thank you.

Um, and to follow up on Councilmember Hughes' line of questioning, I always say that sometimes our most vulnerable, including our elderly, don't have internet access, do not have social media, um, where they can be reached are senior centers, uh, community events, churches.

So I would encourage you all to either attend church service or flyer some of the churches, especially in the communities that we know might have higher bills.

I'm sure you can target that by zip code, right?

Absolutely.

The other thing, Sarah, I just went online as you were talking about levelized billing to level as my billing.

And there's a pop-up, but when you click it, it doesn't take you to levelized billing.

On the mobile site, you have to go hunt for account services.

Is there some way that you all in your genius minds can make it so when you click on something when you log on to your account, it takes you straight to the levelized billing area because again, you know, I'm sitting here as you're talking hunting for it, and I couldn't find it.

Yeah, I'll take a look at that.

It should be yes.

All right, thank you.

Another quick question just before we get to public comment.

Um, I know historically there's a lag between when Delta incurs the expense and when the customer the cost is passed through to customers.

When are the February Warren gas prices going to actually appear on the customer bills?

Basically, I said that because obviously I know from from our previous uh regulation of energy, you would sometimes see a spike in the winter, and the spike would not be completely exhausted until March or April.

And for a person who's not on levelized billing, when they are seeing high gas prices in March and April, when in New Orleans it is usually sweltering heat, there needs to be a way.

First off explain the lag, and second, how you're gonna communicate that to customers because every customer is gonna know my heater was not running in March, my heater was not running in April.

Why is my bill high?

Right.

Yeah, so that there are 21 individual bill cycles.

They all have a period in which the gas is used, and then the the bill goes out at a date after that gas is used.

The PGA adjusts based off the NIMEX at the end of the prior month.

So just before February first just before that first February cycle goes out, the PGA is filed, and that's the rate that is used for the February, the bills that go out during February.

Now that takes into account the NYMEX price just before the month began, and then we track actual gas costs and actual sales so that ultimately there's a true-up that occurs within the PGA mechanism to ensure the customers are only paying what we actually paid for gas, and not just the NIMEX that was.

So what you're describing means you might actually have a less of a lag that energy did as far as when the prices actually spike and when they f show up on a customer bill.

It's intended to spread any difference out over a period of time so that it doesn't move up greatly and it tries not to move down greatly.

It tries to stay pretty significant the way that over and under works over that period of time.

And I'll just follow up on one of Councilman Willard's uh comments.

There was a lost opportunity in that when the transaction happened, obviously you guys weren't able to as aggressively hedge as we have in the past.

And I think it's important to acknowledge that part of that process over the summer when you guys do your hedging proposal, we look at it, is to really try and control the cost of gas.

Because when you hedge, I mean, obviously, hedging is itself is kind of like a safe gamble insofar as you're trying to make sure that the cost of gas does not fluctuate in very abrupt ways, but there's always uh uh a situation in which the price of gas may plummet.

And then when you've hedged you're overpaid for gas.

So I know that this council has been uh fairly conservative on gas hedging.

Um obviously, with the volatility happening in the world, we have that filing in the summer, we'll take that into account, but hedging gas also helps prevent the tremendous spikes because what you're buying on the market is what we didn't already have in supply that have been previously hedged.

And what you're seeing with the volatility and the cost is because once we access the hedge price, then we're buying on the market, and I have to remind people constantly it's an open market for utility resources like gas.

So we are competing with the United States for gas prices, which means though we may not need our heaters to run if there is a storm event in the United States, it spikes the gas of cost the cost of gas.

So even though we're only using gas necessarily to cook, if people in New England are willing to pay a premium to keep their house heated, we have to pay a premium to cook.

So that hedging is very important.

I expect when we do that, uh we get that filing in the summer and we talk about it, we're gonna revisit what has happened right now and why the hedging situation is important.

I know we've got a host of public comments.

Is any other counsel members or council we go to public comment?

All right.

Uh Jesse George, followed by Ms.

Hurst.

Thank you, Jesse George.

On behalf of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, um, I just want to mention that um there's been a lot of discussion about the increase in gas prices and its effect on Delta customers.

Um, this uh increase in gas price will also affect entergy electric customers because entergy generates nearly three quarters of its electricity from gas generation.

So this is going to be felt by people whether they have gas service in their home or not.

Um if you look at long-term trends, look at any forecast for gas prices over the next couple of decades, few decades, the price only increases.

So in the short term, we're going to continue to be hit with these price spikes, and over the long term, we're only going to continue to pay more and more the longer we stay dependent on gas for our energy needs.

Um the previous council made the mistake of creating a for-profit utility whose sole business is selling gas, uh, which makes it a little more difficult for you to create pathways for people to reduce their dependence on gas.

But it's not impossible.

This council has the authority to help people to reduce and ultimately eliminate their dependence on fossil fuels.

Um the distributed energy resources battery storage program that the Alliance for Affordable Energy and Together New Orleans proposed and the council approved last year uh is a good step in that direction.

And we look forward to entergy's uh implementation plan file uh to be filed next month.

Uh but there are more steps that the council can take.

Uh one such step would be to amend the healthy homes ordinance to include indoor air quality standards, which would incentivize landlords to electrify and degasify their rental properties.

Uh natural gas is terrible for human health, it's bad for the climate, and it's bad for bills.

Um this council should act to help people eliminate their dependence on natural gas.

Thank you.

Ms.

Hearst, followed by Mr.

Morgan.

Good morning.

My name is Ladwina Hearst.

I reside at 5711 Carl Our Co.

And I'm here this morning in regard to my increase in Delta utilities.

I first would like to address the levelized building.

I have levelized building with energy.

I have met with various representatives of Delta utilities in person and on the telephone.

Just last week, I was on the telephone with a representative and complaining about my increase in bill, which has tripled over the last couple of months.

I'm a senior citizen.

I live on a fixed income.

I was informed that there was levelized building.

So I asked them, well, when did this become into effect because I had not seen it listed anywhere?

I was told that they had to look at my bill over a six month period to determine whether I was eligible for levelized building.

So it didn't start off in July.

It had to just start off.

And I was offered it at that time.

It was not offered in the beginning.

None of the representatives told me about that before.

My bill went from 30 some dollars in three months to 70 to some dollars the fourth month, 120 some dollars in the fifth month.

Now there's I have an energy uh energy saving thermostat that's set on when I am not at home.

I only have two, and also in sleep mode.

Gas supplies, my heating, and my hot water heater.

That's it.

No, every representative I've talked to, either in person or on the phone, has given me a different I know my time is up until I had not any regulation.

I have my energy dealt with the last question.

Thank you, Ms.

Hurst.

I appreciate you.

Mr.

Morgan, followed by Miss Galitha.

Come on down, Mr.

Morgan.

Mr.

Morgan.

Thank you so much, Ms.

Hurst.

Thank you.

I think you have already Ms.

Gholefa, Mr.

Morgan's first.

Mr.

Morgan, then you.

That's all right.

After Mr.

Morgan's you, Miss Galita.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning to everybody in the house.

My name is Larry Morgan.

Bill, bill, bill.

Complaint, complaint, complaint.

It's separating the gas from energy.

People are complaining about the high bill they are getting already, man.

I mean, what are you counseling up there for?

Y'all cry for our vote.

And when we get you in there, you look like you turn your back on the people.

It looked like you become waiters to the goddamn energy and the gas people.

We are the ones that put you in there.

But I tell you one thing, I'm going to change that equation.

And the next election, I do not want my organization, any veteran poison to be re-elected again that is on this council.

Because if you ain't getting nothing in the eight years before this system here, you're not going to do nothing for the people in the future.

And the people, they can't afford it.

Just like prime, you mentioned the people in England with Prime.

How many poor people can afford that?

They got elder people right now.

You know what they're doing?

They're leaving the house.

They're going other places.

People who worked in the city and built this city.

The system has turned it back on them.

You can look at the goddamn ceiling, but I'm speaking reality.

And when election time comes, I will remember every last one of you.

And you know one thing, I ain't afraid of none of y'all.

Ms.

Golitha, followed by Mr.

Miller.

Okay, good morning, afternoon.

I don't know which one it is.

However, I want to thank Ms.

Hurst because she basically covered a lot of what I have.

I've been to a couple of meetings with Delta and I've been on the phone with so many of your representatives, and nothing has been consistent.

I was told the other day that the reason the gas bill mine went from the 30 to 50 to 110 to 192 just for gas was because last month it was seven cents per cubic foot.

And I was trying to get an explanation on that, but I couldn't.

And then it went to $1.05.

And I'm not a mathematician, but those percentages are very, very high.

The other thing is my online bill, I'm paperless, and my online bill does not allow me to see a breakdown of everything.

And if it I looked at somebody else's breakdown on the bills, and you need a law degree to understand all of the point two two six six, whatever, whatever.

So I can see uh what's gonna happen in the future.

Our gas bills are gonna continue to increase because uh Delta Utilities has not satisfied my answers, answers that I need.

Um let me see what else, if there's anything else that I need to cover.

Yeah, I need a I need a better breakdown of that.

But uh, are you saying that you're going to increase the billing based on what you think gas might be?

And then if it's less, we've already paid.

I'm trying to get is that what we're talking about?

So hedging, the way hedging works is that you look at the current rates of gas when you're looking at a hedging plan and you purchase gas in advance, not based upon what the so I'm trying to understand what your question is.

But hedging hedging is okay.

You're trying to buy gas cheap so that when it spikes, right?

Okay, okay, thank you very much.

The other thing is I have a smart thermostat, and if you don't have one, you might want to purchase one because right now, as we speak in mine, it's off and it's been off for days, and it was off for days.

Thank you.

All right, so um Robin Miller, followed by uh uh Reverend Willie Galhood.

Good morning.

Um, I'm Robin Miller, uh 3534 Blair.

I'm in counsel in King's district.

Um I came here to take care of my mother in 2024.

They had her on level eyes billing in energy.

I got that all taken off because somebody was under the impression because my mother was constantly on oxygen that they should put on level lines billing, but she really didn't need that.

Um she had oxygen tanks that she didn't really need.

You know, they were saying that she had her oxygen thing on all the time, so this is why all of that increased.

But I happen to know my parents lived in this district in this area since 73.

The gas is being taken from under that area.

Now, after Katrina, I moved to Fort Worth, Texas, and there's a company called Chesapeake.

Chesapeake gives you money for taking money of taking gas from underneath your property.

Entergy has never given anybody any money for taking harvesting gas from under their property, and Delta is not doing the same thing.

You all need to give somebody some incentive.

You are taking gas from under that property.

My parents are owed money from entry for taking gas.

Um when it's cold, because it's just me.

I don't need to put a uh unit on.

The furnace is actually broken, but some kind of way I have a hundred and fifty dollar uh gas thing, so I know that's wrong.

I also know for two weeks during Christmas, I was in Texas at my other home, Fort Worth, Texas.

So I wasn't in New Orleans.

The only thing it was on was the refrigerator that does not use gas.

So for two weeks, nobody no utility can give me answers for whatever y'all are doing.

Now, if I have storm shutters and all that stuff on my house, everybody needs to come and look at each individual's houses because y'all are projecting bills.

That's not accurate because if for somebody who's not using it and burning the fireplace, and y'all are still coming up with these gas bills.

I don't see where y'all are gonna get.

Reverend Calhoun, followed by Jesse Perkins.

Uh Reverend William Calhoun Jr., 2125 Delaware Street.

I too am confused by this, these charges.

You're telling me that I used 229 cubic uh feet, and you charge me two dollars 26 cents a foot.

But then when I go down to the purchase gas alignment, you're telling me that I'm also being charged another 71 cent per cubic feet for that usage that I've already paid the two dollars, I mean the 26 cents for something is not balancing that.

The other piece I have is this gas formula rate writer charge.

$55 just to do that.

I watched my bill go from September of $39 from Delta up to today.

Well, at least my last payment was $310.

Now I'm trying to figure out how then do we arrive at those arbitrary figures of $55 and 50 cents?

Then you're telling the $71, uh $71 cent, and that was $159.

Where is the details of how we are arriving at these figures?

You're telling me that the 71 cent is a projection, right?

It's gonna happen.

Uh we buying it in advance, so we don't have to pay more for it.

But if we didn't, if you the guys didn't pay that much, then I don't understand how we get that money back.

The other piece is I know this is an equity company.

Is there any data that tells us what the profit margin is that the equity company makes for the last quarter as opposed to the quarter before?

All right, thank you.

Before you come down, Mr.

Perkins.

I think it's important of you sit down, Mr.

to answer that question regarding the uh purchase gas adjustment because that is not the hedging, correct?

Correct.

So why don't you re-explain kind of the difference between the gas services with the fixed rate and the variable rate because I think there's some confusion regarding that with the public.

Yes, so the customer charge is a part of the fixed rate, and that pays for the operate the system in the ground operations and maintenance.

There's also a variable component to that on our bill that's called the gas services.

Those two items were combined, and they were the result of uh a rate increase of energy New Orleans around 28 2018.

The ongoing change in annual rates is that gas formula rate plan.

Energy filed to adjust rates annually under that program to kind of update the base rates over time.

I think the the specific question that I want answered, because I think that was the question that Mr.

Calhoun put was you have a gas services rate on this sample bill, 18 CCs at 0.26 per CCF.

Then you have a purchase gas adjustment.

I think there is some confusion as far as you have a fixed rate on the top one and a variable rate, and I think you can explain difference between the two.

Because I think that is what's I think that part of the confusion in the presentation today is that they are not on there is not a concise explanation.

I want you to explain it to the public.

I don't want to have to explain it for you.

I will, but I think you are best suited to do it, which is what is the purchase gas adjustment and how is it different differential from the gas services fixed rate?

Yes.

So I'll I'll I'm not talking about the gas formulary plan rider.

We already know what that is.

That's the rate rider pride, that's the rider that goes all the way back to 2018.

There's two different rates, one's fixed, one's variable.

Why is there a variable rate and explain what it is?

The the purchase gas adjustment is specifically to account for the cost of the gas.

So the other variable rate that's based off of your usage by variable, we mean the number of CCFs you use in a month gets applied by a factor.

So all these rates under gas charges, that's effectively their variable rates.

The difference between gas services is that's the pipe in the ground, the operations and maintenance, a component of that.

Purchase gas adjustment is the cost of the actual gas that flows through that pipe to your home.

Correct.

So what we're saying is the first, the first number, the gas services rate, the one that is fixed, is basically an infrastructure cost.

Correct.

Correct.

And the second one, the purchase gas adjustment, which is actually probably not a great descriptive term, is the actual cost of the gas based upon the market rate, correct?

Correct.

I think that it is gonna be incumbent upon y'all to really have the ability to have the sample bill reconstituted in a way that the public can understand and disseminate it because the reality is you heard from one person, if you are paperless, there's not even a breakdown.

If that's true, if there's no breakdown, it's just the number you pay, that's a problem because you don't want to disincentivize people from not having the breakdown by going paperless.

If you go paperless, that's saving you a cost and saving the environment a cost by not having paper.

You want a person who's gone paperless to have every single detail that a person would have on a paper bill.

I mean that is correct.

Yeah.

So we will make sure that's the same.

There is so just to be um I hate to reiterate, but just want to make sure I hit this point.

There should be an identical bill or nearly identical paperless bill to a paper bill because every customer needs to be able to see the breakdown regardless of how they pay.

So we're all on the same page, right?

That is correct, and that exists today.

We'll make sure that people make sure that exists today because as a regulator, when I have customers tell me I can't find the breakdown of my bill, that is a problem.

Mr.

Perkins, you are next.

After Mr.

Perkins, we have Elizabeth Soychak.

Jesse Giovanni, Aguilar Perkins, former resident of Garden Plaza, still a resident of New Orleans East.

And it wasn't by accident.

I stayed here for a reason to fight this kind of bullshit that we're talking about today.

Okay.

I have to adjust much of my comment because of what's been said about the other people, but I wanna touch on pretty much what some of the things that they said.

First of all, y'all keep feeding us shit and telling us it's pudding.

We know better now.

And we're tired of it.

We we tired of hearing the same old rhetoric over and over again.

Okay, we keep getting more of the same and rely on our elected officials to be, you know, speak on our behalf.

And I'm trusting that you all will do everything as it relates to that, okay?

Because the people don't have the voice that they really need.

Okay, we have we've been depending upon our people that we put in office, you know, to represent us, and you know, we're falling short.

We're missing the mark, guys.

You know, so we we need to step it up as well, as well as we need to step it up as well.

The people that's sitting behind me and all of you viewers, okay.

My shirt says the power of the people is greater than the people in power.

Because I solely and only believe that in my heart.

And I know that as a person might have been fighting this stuff for over the last past 30 years.

So what I wanna say is I wanna speak to what the gentleman said about putting some incentives in place as it relates to uh degassing.

When I moved in the house that I'm I live in now, when I moved from Garden Plaza to where I live, is gas.

First thing came to my mind was I don't like gas.

One reason I don't like gas is because it's explosive.

The second thing, the reason why I don't like gas is carbon monoxide poisoning.

And I'ma say this quickly because I'm my time is running out.

My gas has always been cheaper than my electricity, regardless of the season, okay?

And I also wanna say this that level lies billing is still a thousand dollars is still a thousand dollars no matter how you straighten it up.

Elizabeth Sojak, followed by Belda Batiste.

Hi, good morning and happy carnival to everybody, and I'd like to say welcome to the new council members who won't my representative.

So I'm excited about that.

Um I'd like to say that rising gas prices were totally predictable.

Anyone who's been paying any attention to the gas market over the past few years, this is related to LNG exports, knew that gas prices were probably gonna be rising over the winter as opposed to flat or going down.

And um, I'm asking where was the public education campaign about the rising gas prices.

Um also just to let you know that during winter storm fern, solar and wind power perform very well.

And I'm gonna be sending you information on this so that you can hear more about consistently about solar and wind and renewable energy and how they can help us in New Orleans um to alleviate the totally predictable financial suffering of the ratepayers.

And one thing I want to mention is that you mentioned New England.

Um I was born in Maine, so I pay attention to what's going on there.

And Mainers have installed over a hundred and forty thousand electric heat pumps over the past half dozen years, and they're on target to install 275,000 um by 2027.

And these run off electricity and provide consistent heat, and we can get electricity here in New Orleans from solar and wind power.

So we don't have to rely on gas any longer, which is um you know, bad really bad for the climate crisis.

So I urge you to support more support of solar and wind so that um we don't have to have these um issues with gas.

Thank you very much.

Belda Batiste.

Good morning, Consul.

How y'all doing?

When y'all sold this company to um Delta Utilities, I know that's gonna be a problem because Delta utilities are crooks and frauds.

You know what I'm saying?

And I'm gonna keep it real, you know.

People suffering.

We got energy suffering.

I mean energy robbing the people, and now we bring Delta here.

If they not prepared, like you say, GP, to give the people a breakdown, why should the people trust them anyway?

Because when they first did it, they should have been doing it.

So what I'm putting on you, uh, JP, I'm asking you to put a committee together to watch these crooks.

Because at the end of the day, you got people such as my mother and a lot of seniors get disability.

And then now we got the gas company robbing us.

We got energy robbing us.

So I'm counting on you, JP, and I know you fix things.

And some of you new council members like Jason Neals, uh Leslie Harris, Freddie King, I got fate in y'all guys, even Matt.

I got fate in y'all guys, but we gotta watch these crooks because they're not caring about the people.

And if they can't get the job done, we gotta do something about Delta.

Now, look, I'm gonna be nice to y'all, Delta.

If y'all don't fix this, we come and shut y'all down.

That's what we gotta do, shut y'all down.

Mr.

J Mr.

Jesse took a lot of words out of my mouth.

You, you know, and you know, so today I'm gonna be nice because Mr.

Justin said enough.

I meant Mr.

Jesse said enough, but JP, I'm counting on you.

I'm counting on you.

Leslie Harris, I'm counting on you.

Freddie King, I'm counting on you.

Amy, Matt, and um Jason, I'm counting on y'all to fix this problem because we don't deserve this, and y'all have Delta, y'all should be coming to the community trying to see how y'all can help people because a lot of people can't pay those gas bills.

It's enough.

We got the crooks energy robbing us.

So that's all I got to say today.

But if I gotta come back here, it ain't gonna be too nice.

Thank y'all.

Council Mr.

Ward.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I want to thank all the community members who came out and and spoke on these issues today.

Um, to the representatives of Delta, in case you did not know, our offices have been fielding uh dozens, maybe hundreds of emails and calls from people all throughout the city of New Orleans.

Uh, and and really the the core element, the core theme is just mass confusion.

People are confused about the bill, and I know you know you said that you broke everything out for the sake of transparency, which is good.

But if you don't understand the transparency, that's not good.

It can actually be even more convoluted.

So, one thing that I would ask of all of you is to just do a better job at conveying all of this, especially if you know that the people in New Orleans are about to see huge increases in their monthly bill.

Um there's been differing uh comments on levelized billing.

Levelized billing is not a solution to high bill prices.

It is not, but levelized billing can help in household budget.

If you if you have a good idea of what your bill will be every month, at least a household can prepare for that.

They can't prepare if their previous bill was 60 bucks and now it's a and and now it's 300 bucks or 200 bucks.

And like council member Hughes said, at the same time, property tax bills are due, federal taxes are due.

Um there's just a lot going on.

So uh I would also ask for you to be more aggressive in pursuing people who were enrolled in levelized billing with energy to get them enrolled in levelized billing with Delta.

So you can do that uh in a public awareness campaign.

I know you guys have a good communications team, I'm sure, uh, to get that messaging out uh to explain the different factors that make up a Delta utility bill for the sake of transparency, just explain it, right?

And uh one thing that we did not touch on this meeting uh are disconnects.

And I know um through our conversations that um you have a lot of customers, I think over a thousand customers in New Orleans uh who uh are not paid up right now, uh, including some customers who have never paid a Delta utility bill.

Now, in my head, I think a percentage of the people who've never paid a Delta bill could also be on the part of confusion.

Not aware of this new utility, Council President Morrell uh noted scams going on, so maybe they're just you know cautious about their money.

Um, but with all of that, what we heard today, uh kind of dropping the ball on the levelized billing, um, I would really urge you guys to uh postpone these disconnects until we get a better public awareness campaign and and really let people know this is how you come out of this process.

We don't want to disconnect you.

It costs us more money to disconnect you because then we physically have to come out and reconnect you.

So this is what you can do to come up to speed and roll in a payment plan, etc.

So I just wanted to leave you all with those parting thoughts, but I do appreciate and thank you all for coming up uh to testify in front of the council today.

Uh and I look forward to working with you guys.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember King.

All right.

Good morning.

First, I want to um ask Ms.

Mrs.

Porteus, as I'm reading my emails.

We just got an email from a lady who wants to explain um the customer service outreach on the West Bank, and Councilmember Harris also was asked the same thing via email.

So can you touch on customer service outreach on the West Bank?

Yeah, so we have two customer care centers.

So our customer care center on the West Bank, we partnered with Liberty Bank, 3535 General De Gaulle.

So we have customer service representatives there Monday through Friday.

And you know, customers are welcome to come in and talk with customer service reps about billing questions and rolling in any one of our programs, including levelized billing or others, talk about payment arrangements, all of those things.

Um, in addition to that, we have um I think recently um we are attending neighborhood associations.

We attended one uh on the Westpring pretty recently.

I need to look at my slide to see which one.

Um, and we will continue to do that.

We are trying to proactively reach out to neighborhood associations to schedule times to come and talk with people.

So I did see you all at the um president's council meeting.

Yes.

Um at the police for at the Ford District Police Station.

There's going to be a uh the mayor's general meeting on the the 19th at Etnikar.

So that'd be a Yeah, we're happy to attend.

That'd be a packed house.

I mean, it's a good place to uh to also be just want to kind of humanize.

We've heard from several of our speakers, but these are this is just an example of one of the several emails we get.

Um, Mrs.

Porters, you've been great at responding and keeping everyone in the loop.

I just want the people to just understand um guess you all who may not receive the emails, understand what we get every day.

Um could you please investigate and and provide an explanation regarding the significant increase in gas bills affecting me and hundreds of other customers?

Since Delta took over our gas services, many of us have found the charges to be unfair.

For example, my bill has tripled over the past three months compared to the same usage levels with NCG was my provider.

My home is occupied by one person, and my only gas appliances and is a water heater.

So that's very difficult to understand how a home occupied by one person and what one gas appliance, how the bill has tripled.

I understand that the hedging and and maybe I don't understand it that great the hedging and and the levelizing and everything else, but there seems to be a major issue with the everyday person not understanding how and why their bill is tripled.

Now I've seen people say tripled and whether one person stay from like $30 to $300.

It has to be something else going on outside of the market for gas.

Maybe my colleagues understand it better than me, but I'm having a hard time understanding seeing so does the rest of our constituents.

Thank you, bro.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Um we have several online comments.

We're gonna add those to the record because we still have two other presentations we have to do.

So we'll add those online comments to the records.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Jason, go ahead.

Sorry, Councilmember He's the Councilman McCarron.

Thank you thank you, Mr.

President.

I'll be brief.

Um, for first of all, thank you all for attending by two town halls in New Orleans east of the lower ninth water.

I appreciate that.

Um, you know, some feedback that I continue to get from our residents, and I know we touched on it briefly, but I am gonna ask you all on the record to please explore putting a permanent footprint uh in New Orleans East and the Lower Ninth Ward.

Um a lot of my residents are retired, they're elderly, they like to interact with a live person, they like to pay their bill in person.

Sometimes if they have questions, they want to interact in person.

Uh I don't know if you ever tried to catch an RTA bus from New Orleans East to downtown or the Lower 9 to downtown, but it's it's difficult.

Um, and so you know we have a Liberty Bank on Crowder, we have the Prosperity Center, we have a new Rouse, we have Sanchez with a lot of active senior centers in the Lower Ninth Ward.

Um, but I just think that permanent footprint in District E uh would be critically important.

We hear you winds down.

Thank you.

McGarrin.

When you are revising the way that your bill is explained, can you explain it in like regular person terms too?

So that way people are more clear of like what the charges are.

And then the other the only other thing I was gonna mention, I see that you've got the assistance details up to 250 applied directly to natural gas bill.

When you guys are calling people that are in arrears for this, are you mentioning this and then connecting them directly with United Way, or how does that process work?

Yes, we we do share all of our payment assistance, including DU CARES.

Um we can help them at in-person events, we will actually help people with filling out the application and kind of getting to it, or we can direct them uh to United Way to this prosperity centers they can do it by phone or in person.

That's it, council member.

I I think it also might be helpful just because the council members tend to get we tend to have more direct conversations with constituents in need of assistance.

It would really be helpful if you could provide us with information, including hyperlinks to these resources.

Okay, and I say that in that if you can provide us with hyperlinks, that means that when we respond to an email, they can click directly on that link in the email to get to, for example, the possibility of looking at that 250 per uh 12-month cycle, as well as a united way, because the reality is that any way we can facilitate removing extra steps to access assistance makes it more likely that it'll be utilized.

Yes.

And as all of the council members have said, I think that any effort we can as a council can do to help utilize existing city structures or city places to have additional outreach to residents, like the prosperity center was a great example, and the conspiracy made.

I think having physical spaces where with regular hours where people can speak directly with a Delta representative to try and resolve the issue, would help solve a lot of confusion because the reality is that I can tell you from this meeting today, I think a lot of people are gonna leave with more questions than answers, and I think that individuals are gonna need that individual interaction with Delta representatives to resolve bills and to make sure that they have access to all of the resources that are possible to resolve arrearages because arrearages and disconnects are what's gonna happen next, and this council is gonna have to mitigate all of that as best we can with the resources that we have, and those resources are limited.

Council Murgreen.

Two things I just want to encourage you all to know that there's an office of neighborhood engagement.

The title may have changed, but it lists all of the community meetings, the neighborhood meetings, for example.

I encourage you to attend those because many times from those meetings, information is shared from there to constituents who aren't even present at those meetings.

I also have a general statement.

Umd as lower cost, more efficient, better for appliances and the like.

Because it represents those industries represent the non-fossil fuel industry represents stability.

If you all are going to, as an industry, not be in a position to control these sorts of increases.

You're gonna put more pressure duly on your industry because people are gonna move toward and even put more pressure on cities and government agencies to move toward non-fossil fuels.

There are so many benefits to non-fossil fuels, and I know that you all in your positions don't necessarily want to talk about it because that's not the industry in which you all do business, but it's important to recognize that when you see these things happening throughout the nation, you're putting pressures on people in situations that are even worse than in New Orleans in northern climates or in climates, even northern Louisiana, where you're having all kinds of increases due to storms and the like that you make it very um easy for industries that are different from yours to get the support of elected officials and of constituents.

In a nutshell, I ask you all to be conscious and to do better because your industry is really really based on what you're doing, hurting a lot of people, and I think that it's unnecessary.

I can't get into the all the buying that you do of the natural gas, but it's not necessarily all above board, and it's not with you all, it's with the people who are brokering these deals.

All right.

Uh we'll add those online comments to the record.

Uh, thank you for your presentation today.

Enter G URL.

Good morning, council members and members of the public.

Uh, we certainly appreciate the opportunity to provide an update on the recent winter weather event and associated outages.

As you all know, we take interruptions and service very seriously.

Our process is centered on working ahead of time to reduce potential outages and restoring power as quickly as possible.

In the case of this weather event, while we were prepared for the worst, we were extremely fortunate that our service territory was impacted to a lesser degree than other areas of the state, which experienced as many as 90,000 customer outages.

Because of the hard work of our dedicated employees and our ongoing engagement with members of this council and its advisors, we were well positioned to limit outages and were able to keep restoration times under 90 minutes.

And this is a real testament to everyone involved.

Today I have with me my colleague Dan Calamari, Director of ENO Metro Reliability, who will be walking us through today's presentation.

Also joining us is Courtney Nicholson, regulatory counsel, and Jessica Williams, manager of customer service.

As always, we appreciate the council's partnership and oversight and look forward to sharing our activities during the weather event and answering any questions that you may have.

With that, I'll turn it over to Dan to go through the presentation.

All right, good morning.

Thank you, Leroy, and good morning to the council members here.

Uh, as mentioned, my name is Dan Calamari, director of Metro Reliability, supporting NTG New Orleans.

Um, thank you for allowing us time to uh discuss how we prepare for the winter weather and some of the uh outages uh that we had and how our system performed.

Next slide.

Uh every year, entergy prepares for winter weather by doing proactive inspections and maintenance.

This is done in October and November before the winter season.

But when winter weather is forecasted, we take it seriously as well, and we begin local preparation.

Our line workers perform critical feeder patrols that serve warming centers, hospitals, sewage and water board, and other facilities.

We ensure our employees have the necessary safety equipment to work in extremely cold temperatures for long durations, which include ice cleats, thermoclot, and personal voltage detectors, which detect down wires caused by wind and ice.

Our substation technicians perform inspections to ensure heaters and control cabinets are working properly, and we inspect gas pressures on our equipment to ensure they are at the proper levels.

Our generation teams winterize their equipment by insulating and draining water out of pipes to prevent freezing and breaks.

Our customer service team updates our council members, customers, and other agencies about our preparation, and we postpone any planned outages and any service disconnections.

As the weather gets closer, our crews stand ready to be deployed when it is safe to do so.

We work to ensure the best information is communicated to all of our customers.

Next slide.

During the recent cold snap, a small subset of our customers were impacted.

However, the restoration required limited scope and duration to restore customers quickly.

On January 31st, wind gusts exceeded 40 miles per hour, leading to two events that affected customers.

That'll be right there.

Keep in mind these gusts were recorded at the ground level.

Most of our power lines are 50 to 60 feet tall.

Winds at those heights are typically 10 miles per hour higher than you feel on the actual ground.

And this is because you have less obstructions due to buildings and trees.

These wind speeds can cause tree branches to break, causing them to fly into our wires and damaging them.

Also, the constant swaying could cause multiple wire breaks from the added strain.

Our crews were ready to respond when the outages occurred in the lakefront area and also the gentili area.

The line workers patrolled the location, they found the issue, they isolated the issue, and they restored as many customers as possible within an hour.

Repairs were made as quickly and safely as possible, where the remaining customers are on within 90 minutes.

On February 1st, when the temperature was nearly 20 degrees, we had an O-ring failure causing a breaker to trip.

Immediately, the crew on site used switching procedures to restore customers also within 50 minutes.

Was the issue?

This equipment is under warranty, and the manufacturer has worked with us to make those repairs and return that equipment to service.

Council member Harris.

Thank you for recognizing me.

What is an O-ring?

An O-ring is a gasket that uh prevents something from leaking.

So it's between two pieces of metal and uh under pressure.

This googram, this O-ring prevents in this case, gas from leaking out of a fitting.

Um, in the we have gas in our in our equipment similar to our car tires.

In the winter months, um, just like the gas pressure, the the air pressure in our tires uh fluctuates and sometimes can drop.

Our equipment gas pressure can also drop.

We monitor that, and uh before actual winter event or winter weather, we monitor that gas pressure and ensure they're at the proper level.

Uh here um we were alarmed through an alarm similar to like uh non cedo on your vehicle saying, hey, one of your tires are low.

We had uh that type of alarm come.

We responded uh to that substation, identified the issue in the midst of working to isolate the PC equipment out of service and avoid in a in uh avoid um interruption to our customers, uh the O-ring actually failed, uh allowing all the gas to remove out of the breaker, which allowed it to which forced it to open up, and that's what caused that outage.

How how old was this O-ring?

So the breaker was put in service in January of 20 uh 25, so it's just one year old, uh, and that's where the warranty was set in.

Is there are these o-rings in other areas?

I assume from great questions.

So uh we have looked at our inventory.

We have 14 similar breakers, and we are actually working through an inspection cycle with a special camera that can detect if there's any small leaks uh before they they move into a larger situation that we had here.

Yeah, no, look, it's 8,000 customers plus or minus that were impacted for an hour and 20 degree weather.

So, you know, to the extent that these o-rings are still in service, you may want to look at them, see if there's a substitute, a different manufacturer.

I get that it's under warranty, but you're saying it failed within six months of being installed.

You said it was installed in 2025.

January of 2020.

Okay, so it failed within a year, right?

So it I should a rings fail within a year?

They they should not.

Right.

And uh, so we're we're inspecting these and and monitoring and making sure that we don't have uh uh uh issue like this.

Yeah, we can't have this happening.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

And council member, our expectations are in line with yours in terms of um performance expectations, which is why we will be aggressively tackling the inspections of those uh those those pieces of equipment that are out in the field.

So thank you.

And we could go to the next slide because we were able to cover everything then on February 8th, we did experience an outage in New Orleans East.

Uh it was due to a shout uh down shield wire.

Uh in this same area, there was a previous outage on January 21st, where we had a car hit a pole.

Sometimes we do see secondary uh impact uh in in these types of situations.

This outage is still under investigation uh as we try to figure out what the true root cause was.

And uh, if you want to go to the next slide.

Uh as we wrap up our presentation and and what we discussed today, just want to thank y'all for the time here uh this morning.

Um we do have carnival season coming uh and it's here, and we want to make sure that everyone is safely uh enjoying themselves, but also which y'all support over the years avoiding that mylar cafetti and and balloons to make sure that we have a uh safe carnival season.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Council Robert McCarron.

Thank you.

Um I I want to go back to that lakefront um outage.

I'm assuming this is district A, since we usually break this out per district, I think.

So it says on your slide that it was all customers were restored within an hour.

However, I have sort of a different timeline from that day, and uh majority of people were back on within like four hours.

Uh my power was out for almost six hours.

So where is the difference here of what was communicated to me during the day and then what's communicated here on this slide?

Okay, yes.

So we we have some large the this particular outage that we were talking about had a number of large uh large number of customers, 600 uh customers in that area.

That that's the outage that we're talking about.

You do we do have some residual type outages that happen where we may actually have to change a transformer out that may take a little bit more time, smaller numbers of customers.

We know that's still an impact to our base here, but um uh you could have had someone that that might have been out, the the majority of them were with this particular outage were on in that 50 minutes.

Yeah, I think there was also two separate things.

So I think there was a downed wire was there a reason for one of these in the same timeline, and then a separate event.

Yeah, so they there could be many different events um that that have different levels of impact um and in different type of equipment.

So if there was smaller outages with with minimal customers on a service point that required additional work during that time that uh they may have been out a little bit longer than this particular outage that we're talking about on the slide.

So I guess the thing that I noticed on all of these is that they were mostly due to equipment failures due to high winds, and I say that with with quotes because these winds are wind gusts, and due to our climate here, this is something that we are gonna see very common.

Um and and they're not even tropical storm force winds.

So our excuse me.

Our customers should not have to worry that power is gonna go out during a minor threat.

Um are these components rated for wind speeds of that New Orleans routinely experiences?

Yes, they they are, and you know, we these wind speeds were uh very very high for just a normal day.

Uh we didn't see widespread outages and and big long durations impact.

Our equipment is rated for this type of wind, but there's there's more work to do on our system as we harden it through number of different programs.

And I'm glad you mentioned that because so I'm new to the committee.

So uh I read through the third quarter uh reliability information, and I know the next one is coming out, uh Q4 will be on March 1st.

But according to this, it shows that majority is equipment related.

In fact, 2025, we had 120,000 outages due to equipment, and um I I can only imagine that this will continue to go up.

The previous council had uh authorized millions of dollars in reliability spending for you all uh in our grand Gulf victory.

Uh why is this getting worse?

And then what percentage of those upgrades are complete, and then when can the public start seeing these results from these investments that you're making?

Are you following that question?

That's a lot to um ask.

Yeah.

Because they're want to make sure we're making the delineation between reliability and resilience, and CRE, I think is what was being referenced.

But you may want to speak to reliability and also recognizing that we're not looking at whatever it is that you are referencing.

Yeah, so not having that directly in front of me at this time.

We have a many, many components on a pole.

Uh we have over 95,000 poles on our system.

We have um each pole could have roughly five on average crossarms and many miles of wire out there.

Uh that overpowers all of the different types of outage codes that we track, which will also lead to more of our outages being tied to uh equipment failure.

We are constantly investing in reliability.

Uh we are using outtage history to help drive where our work is performed based on how assets are performing uh routinely.

Uh, we do have to battle some of the weather uh and thunderstorms that often impact our system.

We also uh have other factors that you know, vegetation and and other components that up front, it may not seem to be the cause, but over time, our conductors rubbing against a tree limb, uh, that could actually cause the conductor to break.

At the time of the actual outage, the vegetation may not be the issue, so we have to log it of what we best see so we can use the proper data to build a reliability program.

So oftentimes what might have introduced the issue, uh similar to the event that I'm referred to earlier about um the car hit our pole uh about a week before another shield wire fell, those types of things uh affect our system, but they'll actually wound up being logged to equipment failure because that car situation is no longer visible as we investigate the most recent outage.

And Councilmember McCarron, I think it's worth noting that even when it comes to um you know a tree branch or some type of vegetation coming into contact with our um with our lines, unless the service person that goes out can see that there's a limb on the line than otherwise they're going to log it as a um as equipment, which is why that equipment number is always going to be skewed.

But there is, and you know, we are actively working on a better way to uh capture those things because I mean in some instances where you go and there's a tree and there's a line here and there's high wind, then this and there's a uh interruption, then you would imagine that they'll logically be able to assume that um that line that limb came into contact with the line, but we don't do it that way unless we see it.

So that's another reason that equipment number or percentage is what um what it is.

Yeah, but it's like significant for equipment.

So do you guys go back after the fact and adjust these numbers and kind of you know look at what happened and then adjust it because it's just like a significant portion.

I mean, we can this is your report.

And I understand we are constantly and aggressively scrubbing the data as um as we get it in and process it as you can imagine when folks out in the field, particularly during storm events, the main priority is getting the lights back on.

And then once that is done, then you know we go back as a team and make sure that we explore and understand what the causes were of the outages, the interruptions, and work our way through that process.

But in the example that I use around the the tree limb coming into contact with um with the line, then that's all I mean unless we do something different.

That is going to be the case based on the way that our um employees in the field are capturing those things.

Because again, if they don't see the line or the vegetation in direct contact with the line, then we just don't capture it that way right now.

So I guess back to my other question is is we have authorized millions of dollars of reliability spending.

So what are you guys proactively doing over the next year or two to invest in the reliability of our grid?

And you know, I'll certainly um defer to Dan as he's closer to this work than I am, but in terms of proactive inspections of uh of our system assets, that is something that's ongoing in terms of the technology that we use to inspect, whether it be substations, lines, transformers, what if like that's all stuff that's currently in play, and we've been aggressive on that, and certainly working in partnership with the uh the council to refine even more approach to you know that's that's kind of the that's the general approach that we take.

Each year we file a reliability plan with council to speak to the upgrades that we're planning and where the where we are in the progress of the reliability plan that we set probably back in 2018, 19 when we first had the reliability investigation.

Um that updated reliability plan is going to be filed at the end of the month for the next one.

Yeah, just for a point of clarification, what we passed previously was resilience spending.

Uh I think part of the issue that the ongoing issue I have generally with ENO is that we already pay for reliability because as our service provider, we count on you to have reliable service.

When you're talking about wind, when you're talking about prevention, that is resilience.

And so part of the issue is when you have a O-ring that fails, that is reliability, not resilience.

Because the O-ring is supposed to perform at a certain level.

If it performed appropriately, you would not have seen a failure, correct?

Yes.

So that's a reliability issue.

When you have climate change and you have winds that are unforeseeable for a certain period, that is the money we have allocated be spent to harden the grid.

The challenge is that part of the issue we had during that spending, uh, Councilmember McCarron was that we don't want to conflate reliability and resilience because we're already paying for reliability.

The money we authorized was for resilience.

So to that point, when we're talking about in District E with that failure with the sleeve, why did the sleeve fail?

Yeah, we're we're still investigating that one and to understand uh as if you know it was just two days ago, and we're we're still looking into that outage.

Yeah, because I mean the the challenge for us is insofar as going back to God, Hurricane Ida, if I'm correct, Aaron, you might have correct me if you're not.

Hurricane Ida, when the previous council, previous to the council I was on, um had the Hurricane Ida study.

The concern is that we don't have an updated inventory on equipment for energy generally speaking, as far as end of life.

Because the reality is that the challenge we have as a regulator, and what we will continue to press you on is you have to have an accurate inventory of your end of life equipment so that we are doing proactive preventive maintenance.

Because when something fails, when it's beyond its end of life, that is a reliability issue.

If you know that a lightning actuator, for example, we've dealt with those a lot, if it's beyond its useful life and it fails, that's on you because as the utility, you should have replaced that actuator at its end of life, however many times it's been stroke, because you will see a lightning actuator fail on a clear day, correct?

You could.

You could.

And so it is very difficult to justify to our ratepayers why on a clear day a lightning actuator failed and cut off power to businesses and residents for hours because there was no lightning.

So it wasn't the lightning actuator, lightning struck the actuator as it's supposed to, you know, do, and it tripped the grid.

It's that the actuator failed because it potentially was beyond its end of life, and that is something that with the proper inventory of end of life, you could preempt you could preemptively prevent by replacing it, correct?

You could.

And you know, in certain cases, yes.

So I mean, I know that's something that working with Aaron, working with the committee, our advisors are very on top of, and that that request for detailed equipment inventory goes back predating my time on the council.

Is that correct, Aaron?

Yes, Councilmember, that dates back to the reliability dock at UD 1704, I believe, that was initiated two councils ago and concluded in 2018 with well, Mayor Moreno was chair of the utilities committee.

Right.

So we had reached a position in 2018 that we would have this inventory that we don't have.

And so I think that it's reasonable and appropriate that ratepayers are getting very, very tired of having outages that are preventable and foreseeable, especially clear weather outages.

One thing during a high wind storm, that there is an inconvenience, and there is some definite room for commendation in that during some of these events, your teams were well positioned to minimize how long the outages were.

But what is unacceptable and what we've seen, I mean, there were what is beyond my understanding hard to explain is that we saw more outages during this winter storm than during the one where it snowed.

Like you could see how ratepayers would be like, wait, when it snowed, it was more reliable than when it didn't.

That's very difficult for our ratepayers and as regulators for us to wrap our heads around because that is that seems to defy predictability.

You would think that during a snow event, which this region does not see but once every 30 or 40 years, that the power would go out, but then when you have high winds but no snow, power does go out.

It's just the inconsistency really undermines public faith, not just in energy, but in the council and its ability to regulate you.

And the fact that this inventory is outstanding and it is from 2018 and we are in 2026, it is beyond problematic.

Uh, Council McCarry, you have your button pressed again, or is that your okay?

Does anyone else have any comments at this time?

Okay, we have oh, sorry.

Yeah, Mr.

Willard.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um first I want to thank you, your team for the real-time updates uh during the outages that was that was useful.

Um I want to talk about the outages you have listed on the page for winter storm fern.

Um my understanding is that the storm actually started a few days before the 31st, and we did have other outages that are not reported here.

Uh District D had one on the 26th, where about 1,500 customers were impacted.

Um that was due to a hotline clamp that was under stress.

District E had one on January 25th, impacting about 800 customers.

Most were restored within an hour, but you had about 12 customers who went about four hours before they were fully restored.

And then district E had another outage on the 26th.

And so I guess what I'm what do you have any data on power outages citywide year over year?

Like, are they increasing year after year?

Council Mill Boylan, I want to make sure I understand the question when you say increasing total total number of outages.

Are the people in New Orleans experiencing more power outages year over year?

Is there a trend that we're experiencing more outages year after year?

I don't know that I'm in a position to answer that question right now as we sit, but I can certainly get you um get with a team and um get information on that.

But in terms of our reliability and how we are tracking um Dan, how how are we relative this year to last year?

So in January of this year compared to January of last year, we have had actually about uh 6,000 additional outages tied to cars hitting our poles than what we had in in January of 2025.

We actually saw a reduction in equipment failures in January of 2026 compared to January of 2025.

So we have seen an improvement there.

Um those are on the distribution lines itself.

Uh, this does not uh count for the O-ring inside of the substation.

Okay.

Um I I would actually be interested in kind of a year-over-year comparison.

Um going back, you know, three to five years.

I think that would be useful for it for this council to have.

Um, so I would put that request in right now.

Okay, gotcha.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Jesse George, followed by Robin Miller.

Okay.

All right, Jesse George, on behalf of the Alliance for Affordable Energy.

Um, I would just like to note uh that the council did adopt reliability standards for entergy a few years ago, and yet entergy has been in compliance with those standards every year that they have been in place, despite ongoing reliability issues.

Um the alliance has repeatedly urged the council to strengthen those standards and put real penalties in place with teeth that make sure that entergy has some skin in the game when it comes to reliability and that uh they're not constantly pilfering the pockets of ratepayers.

Just before Christmas last year, at the end of uh December 2025, Entergy applied for 400 million dollars of ratepayer money uh for the next phase of its grid hardening plan.

The council should not consider this application until the results of its own investigation into entergy's reliability are complete.

Um we we know for a fact that entergy has collected money from ratepayers for maintenance that it does not spend on maintenance uh from their own reporting to their shareholders.

Uh that's unacceptable, and they cannot continue to use ratepayers as an ATM.

Thank you.

Robin Miller.

Um I have the same pretty much issue with introgy that I did with Delta.

Um had my mother on levelized billing, although she didn't need to use all of that.

Um when I got there to take care of her, I rearranged some of the things to make her bills exceptionally lower.

But um, when she passed away and I asked them to um put the energy in my name.

I also asked them to remove the meter that was there because it had been there for years.

Give me a new meter because I did not want confusion and nobody to say that I owed anything, which I was required to pay the balance that my mother had, which I did in order to get service in my name, which I do now.

Service has not been of the building, has been a wreck.

Um even my mother passed away in 24.

October of last year, I had a customer service agent argue with me and tell me that no, my mother still had a balance.

When I know that's impossible because they wouldn't have put it in my name unless the balance was paid.

Um I have several uh recordings transcript transcriptions from everybody that I spoke with.

It's always something different.

Um again, same argument.

I'm not here when I'm going back to my home in Fort Worth.

I'm still being billed.

Uh no one can answer me about that.

Uh they're trying to tell me that something is running when it's not.

Um I told them the whole unit, my whole unit was off, meaning it's broken.

The motherboard needs to be fixed since July of last year.

So why do I have two $300 energy bills?

I have no idea.

I'm not running any heat because I'll have a heater for myself in the room.

I don't need all of that, but I'm still getting billed.

It does not make sense.

I'm trying to talk to somebody.

They were supposed to call me, never got a call in at least the last six months.

So I have a problem with how do you doing things, and they are not very forthcoming, and they should be replaced.

I mean, just do regulate.

Thank you.

Uh who online comments.

No, okay.

All right.

Next up, I will turn the meet over to Councilmember Hughes for the sewage and waterboard presentation.

Thank you very much, Mr.

President.

Uh, we'll invite Swords and Waterboard to come up at this talk.

Uh good morning.

If you could identify yourselves for the record and um you may proceed.

Yes, uh Randy Heyman, executive director for the sewage and water board of New Orleans.

And with me is Caitlin Timmerick, the interim general superintendent.

We appreciate being able to speak with you today and share with the committee an update on the work that we're doing at the sewage and water board of New Orleans.

Uh Ms.

Timmerick, we'll start with a quick review of the January 31st water main break at 7900 block a penala.

All right, morning.

All right, we will start with Saturday, January 31st at about 5.30 p.m.

that evening.

Uh we received reports that there was a water main break, very large water main break in the 7900 block.

Can you just pull that mic a little bit closer?

I'm sorry, thank you for that.

I'm might move a little bit aside here from the is that better.

Okay, thank you.

So again, around 5 20 that that evening, we received reports of a large water main break in this area.

We did have crews already working in the area on unrelated items, and we're able to respond very quickly and close valves so we're able to isolate the break and stop the water around 6 p.m.

Uh when pressures were restored.

Unfortunately, due to uh this break, we needed to issue a precautionary boil water advisory to a large uh very large portion of town, uh, which was able to be lifted on Monday afternoon afternoon following receipt of sample sample results.

Uh the water, there was quite a bit of water on the street, as I'm sure everybody saw, uh, that did recede very quickly, and um our catch basins worked in this instance.

So, what you're seeing here is a photo uh of the water um the the area that was impacted the next morning.

We had contractors on sight very early the next morning, and this is what it looked like in the light of day.

Uh, this was a 48-inch, is still a 48-inch uh water main uh constructed of cast iron, and it is circa 1908.

So just a little progression of uh the repair after the debris was removed by our contractors.

Uh Sunday afternoon, the uh section of the broken pipe had been removed by Sunday evening.

We had the fur we had the section in place as you can see in the middle photo, and by Monday afternoon uh the area had been backfilled and it was passable again uh through temporary restoration.

The area has not yet been paved.

We are actually taking the opportunity to install a hydrant in this area while the street is already open.

So we realize that this is a continued inconvenience for for folks uh on that block with uh the lack of payment, but excuse me, pavement.

We failed to take the opportunity to install an hydrant and the permanent repair, sorry, paving will be done after Martin Ron.

Just a couple of do you have a drop data that you can tell the residents when this is gonna be complete because you're right, it is an inconvenience.

Yeah, and our intended is by the 27th.

So the hydrant materials will be in over this weekend since they're not uh in stock by the contractor, and we will be starting installing them after Mardi Ground, and then we'll come back and do restoration.

So we we do recognize that and kind of guys.

Okay.

Communication activities.

SWIPNO is making concentrated efforts to improve our communications in the net in the community.

As it pertains to specific situation, press releases regarding uh precautionary boil water alerts went out.

Individual communications were made to the mayor, city council staff, including on-site meetings on Sunday, social media posts with the mayor, council, and swimner went out.

We walked and met with residents in the affected block on Sunday.

We held media interviews on site on Monday, and individual customer communications went out by flyers and customer portals continued on Monday for affected blocks.

Now, if we look at the lead service line replacement program.

Oh.

Um Councilmember McCarran is recognized.

Thank you.

Um, I do want to say just uh how I appreciate the um efficiency that you all operated in that evening.

I know that you guys were on site in the neighborhood.

I was out on site, and then throughout the weekend and the next week, there was consistent and and very good communication with my office since this was in District A.

So I do appreciate that um activity and and keeping us updated.

And I I think I told you like Entergy and I, we have we all have the district council members have a text that we have for events like this, and and you've agreed to get one started as well.

So I appreciate that.

Um it was very helpful to me to get information out to residents, and and I really appreciated that.

So I just wanted to note that great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we'll talk about the lead service line replacement program.

The RFP, and I'm glad to report the RFP for the program management, uh, the advertisement posted on February 4th.

So that is moving forward.

Bids are due March 5th.

We'll have an accelerated review timeline with selection anticipated by May 2026.

We'll continue to pursue a legal path towards utilizing existing funding sources on private property, the ability to use public funds on private property, and then the 66 million dollars we're still working through the loan closure process on that.

And then the $66 million we're still working through the loan closure process on that.

I can say that four of the seven steps are complete to close on the $66 million.

Then to city council, then the board, and anticipate the end of March to close.

So this is a good movement being made, and we look forward to go as quickly as we can with this project.

All right.

I know we have some questions before you proceed.

Let me ask a couple questions and then some council members have some questions.

So EPA has already begun redistributing unused bipartisan infrastructure law funds to jurisdictions demonstrating readiness.

How does restarting the procurement demonstrate readiness rather than risk forfeiture?

Okay.

Well, the bottom line is that we've shown a commitment to going forward with this.

The bottom line, too, is that we had to do it in a way that we would receive the monies.

And so if we fail to follow our own RFP process, where there was an error in the RP process before I arrived, then we'd be in a situation we could do the work and at the end not be reimbursed, which would be just as bad and just as daunting as if the money was pulled back.

And so we went back and corrected the process.

I I think I'm well I'm very confident in the process that we went through and what we have done at this point, and it is I believe legally sturdy, even though I'm not giving a legal opinion.

Okay.

Uh, how does the board ensure that the rebid outcome is viewed as principal rather than political well?

We are will be as transparent as we can with the process.

I think we get developed more confidence in the fact that we did take the time to go back and correct an error that was made.

I think we're on much more sturdy ground at this point as far as again receiving the funding for it and to be reimbursed.

Uh and the bottom line is that it is an open process.

We will follow the procurement procedures for SWIBNO and for the state and city of New Orleans, and so we will do everything in line with what the laws and regulations prescribe that we must do.

Okay, and just in the spirit of transparency, um, you keep referring to an error in the previous uh RFP.

What what is that error that you're referring to?

What I'm pointing at is well, there was some complications.

One was the main one being the RFP itself said that there would be five reviewers.

One of them would be picked by the executive director that would be in line uh in a specialty of their of their desire of their determination.

Okay.

In that case, it was uh the medical field, and so they only that person was not able to attend, and so they only had four that could have been corrected by simply saying to the um two bidders, uh we have a change now in the RFP sign off that you agreed to have four.

Uh they could have selected a uh um uh replacement, and they could have continued until a later date when they would have had five.

So it was something that could have been corrected, and there were great concerns that by not following that, along with some things that dealt with the the best and final process that they went through and whether or not the best and final dollar amount they put up was a was a second rebid or a second uh price choice, uh we determined that it was best for us to go ahead and rebid the process, which we did.

Okay, so in that in that vein, who specifically made the decision not to issue a protest determination within the seven-day statutory window, and what internal justification was documented for exceeding that date line by several months.

Okay.

Repeat the question, please.

Yes.

Who specifically made the decision not to issue a protest determination within the seven-day statutory window, and what internal justification was documented for exceeding that deadline by several months?

Okay.

Is my understanding talking to council that we followed all of the deadlines and regulations associated with making a termination on the process?

Now, in the end, is for the executive director to review the bid protest and make a determination, and which I did.

Okay.

No.

Okay.

And we can certainly follow the process.

And I'll and I'll submit these questions to you in writing, and and you can maybe get me some uh written answers if you don't mind.

Okay.

Um my final question you stated publicly in December that sewage and water board was not adequately staffed to oversee this program, even if the original contract moved forward.

What specific staffing changes have occurred since then that now justify a rebid and expanded oversight responsibilities?

Which one hand?

Yeah, so in I was was not present at the December meeting, so I I don't recall that that statement just to be fair, but the work the 86 million that we already have in the 66 million, this is a lot of money that we do need project management firm to support us with, which is why we're going forward with this bid.

We are doing small work.

Can you get closer to the mic, please?

Thank you.

We are already doing some small uh construction contracts with our own staff, and we are looking internally to move folks around as needed to help us manage the project management contract.

So we are already just to skip forward managing a five million dollar construction contract, replacing uh lead service lines at uh schools and early learning centers.

So we are we are aware um of some of the staffing challenges and and working through that to make sure we're ready.

Okay, and and then uh I'm I'm gonna yield in in a second, but uh now I want to understand okay.

So selection anticipated by May 2026.

Number one is that finite, and then number two, if we have protests and challenges, how could that potentially drag out this process?

And the reason I'm asking, you know, the the the city, we we already have a reputation of just sitting on federal money and not getting federal money out the door.

And I'm very concerned that the longer that we drag this out, we risk losing a significant amount of federal dollars to replace these lead service lines.

Uh, you know, uh our our DA, for example, has so adequately uh made the connection between you know lead and our water and brain development and crime activity, for example.

We can give many examples on why this is absolutely critical for the health and safety of our residents to get this work moving.

So walk me through, you know, in May, if we run into some more challenges, how long could could this potentially be drug out?

Okay.

This is a very important issue.

Are we moving lead from the water system is paramount?

And we we take it as a very serious uh demand on the sewer and water board.

We are looking to have the selection appointed by May 2026.

Now you're asking me if what if unknowns happen, how long would that take?

I can't answer that specifically if I don't know the specific unknown.

What I mean to say is if there's a bid protest, we would have to go through that process, would would add a couple of months, would add months to the process.

Okay.

Uh we could expedite the review of the documents, but again, depending on if there's a bid protest and how many are there, if there's any other complications.

What I can say with certainty is that I agree with you that is imperative that we get led out of the system, is imperative that we are efficient and effective in what we do as the water utility, and that we're determined to do that and work as quickly as we can after the May 26th date.

Okay, so let me be a little bit more blunt because you're using words like anticipated.

So will this election be made by May or will it not?

Will it drag out beyond May?

Is made a drop dead deadline to make this selection.

So following back on the schedule, excuse me.

Um so the advertisement was posted on February 4th, bids are due in March 6th, and we reference an accelerated review timeline.

We have shortened a typical RFP response time by about five months by removing a short list and a best and final offer uh option.

So the bids that we receive, we'll review, seek presentations, and go forward as quickly as possible.

Okay.

Yeah.

So you're not guaranteeing that the selection will be made by May.

It is absolutely our intention to do so.

Okay.

Well, no worries, we'll track this.

Uh my staff, we're gonna be holding monthly public works meetings.

Um, we look forward to seeing you all every month so you can get those dates on your calendar with that.

Council President Morel is recognized.

Thank you.

I want to begin by saying I have expressed on the previous council significant concerns with the previous bidding process, and I am very disappointed that in this current RFP that there's not an effort to take into account previous work done by the responsive parties.

And by that I mean that it seems like the way the RFP is currently structured, if a large company says they're gonna do work within a certain timeline at a certain price, and nationally this larger company has performed that work more expensively and it's taken more time, they're essentially allowed to reinvent themselves.

I mean, why why wouldn't you in an RFP process look at a company's previous performance and lead line replacement and hold that for or against them?

And that is a missed opportunity because I'll tell you what's really bothers me, and we saw it with the road program is 66 million is a lot of money unless the company doing the work is over budget and over time.

Because what you saw with our with the JIR program is we had a lot of money in a lot of streets we promised to get fixed, and we ended up spending more money than we had and didn't get as many streets fixed because the companies doing the work were not competent and were over budget and did change orders.

And I can tell you going into this, I am very concerned that because we're not looking at companies prior performance at companies doing overruns that we're not looking at the fairy tale numbers they're giving you in New Orleans when in other municipalities they're running behind schedule and over budget.

Not doing that is gonna put us in a situation where even if you pick a company, we know going into it, they're gonna overspend on the project and take too long.

I and I I know I'm gonna have I'm giving myself PTSD by saying this.

It reminds me of the Road Home program in ICF.

And that we have this problem in Louisiana where we hire massive out-of-state companies because they're not from here, and then they pillage us with the money going elsewhere doing poor work, but just by virtue of not being from here, we think they're better.

And when I look at this RFP process, I see like we haven't learned that lesson.

And there's been a consolidation through the last mayoral term and last council term of one or two companies gain all the work without giving superior product.

And I know that you've had a uh a variety of companies that have responded.

I hope they all get a fair shake because the consolidation of work into essentially an engineering monopoly does not yield better outcomes.

So I know you've got a lot of responses, I know you're gonna look at them, but sticking all the work with one company does not lead to better outcomes, and that is history.

History across in this city, in this state, consolidating work with one company does not lead to an economy of scale.

So that's just my comments to you as you go look into it.

I know you've got your own RFP process, but as Councilman Hubers Hugh said, we're already tagged as a slow as a slow spender.

And as you know, Mr.

Executive, that being called a slow spender by the federal government is about the worst slur you can get because it makes them less inclined to give you more money.

And I know that you that the board felt like it needed to rebid this project, but it feeds that narrative that we can't get stuff right the first time, so we shouldn't get access to money down the line.

And I'm less concerned with you getting the 66 million out the door.

I'm more concerned that when the next pot of money becomes available, the 66 million won't be spent, or if it's spent, it will be spent badly.

And that's really more of a comment than a than a question, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh, Councilmember McCarron is working on us.

Um, I just want to talk about you know, if we do get this RFP out, how are you going to coordinate with DPW and the infrastructure coordinating council on how to execute these projects?

Because as many people across the area, we've seen streets torn up several times for different reasons, and we we can't keep having that done.

Uh it like JP said it, it costs more money, it it causes delays.

So when we have projects going forward, how are you working to make sure that if there's a street that's gonna be torn up by DPW for one of our new bond proposition projects, are you getting in there and replacing these lead lines and and how are you prioritizing this?

Okay, I would say routinely we have communications with DPW to do exactly what you're pointing at.

In that we don't want a situation where they tear up the street, fix something, then we come back the next week and do that.

That's routine.

And so um I respect that.

We will continue to work with them to make sure that we're doing it this at the same time working together as best we can to coordinate as best we can.

I'll let the superintendent add if you if you wish.

Yeah, and we make a great point about infrastructure coordination council, and that's exactly the intent of that body, and so I think there's a lot of opportunities there for that work when we get started.

Thank you.

May proceed.

Okay.

All right.

So we want to talk about uh meter leaks related to smart meter installation.

About three percent of all smart meter installations have had a leak reported related to the meter after the installation.

About 40 of those that have been reported to us represent actual leaks.

We've gone out, we've checked all of them, and about 40% are actual leaks at the meter.

Now, if it is a leak at the meter, it is our responsibility to fix that, and our average response to address a customer reported issue is about 12 days at this point.

There are two types of leaks, uh which we've reflected here on this graphic.

One is an inlet, I'm sorry, yes, an inlet leak where it would be coming from the city service into the meter.

That water is not registered by your meter, there's no billing impact to that.

We still need to fix that, of course.

The second type of leak would be an outlet leak.

This would be water that is registered by your smart meter and therefore reflected on a bill.

However, we will issue a bill adjustment when that is identified and corrected so that is not impact to the customer if it is in fact related to the meter.

One of the technology, one of the features of the smart meter technology is it does also allow us to identify leaks that are on the customer side, so that would not be related to the meter.

That is called a continuous leak alarm.

We send out about 350 leaks alerts per day to customers via the customer portal.

This will detect a leak of a toilet flapper, an irrigation system.

Maybe you have a faucet leaking, and we're getting really good responses with people responding to that, being able to take action at their home, and on average we're saving folks about 41 dollars on average through the um taking care of the leak that is on their property or in their home.

Any questions related to to meters?

No.

Okay.

All right.

Uh there's also an item regarding sewer discharge events.

Okay, so on this item we have two community members that's gonna join you at the table as part of this presentation, but you may you may continue.

Or maybe one.

I'm sorry.

Um Vice President Willard is recognized.

Just on the smart meters, um, have those been installed at all residential properties in the city?

Substantially at all residential properties.

We we do have the commercial meters yet to finish.

Okay.

And then I saw in your presentation it said an outward leak.

Um there's a credit that's applied to the bill.

Is that automatic or does the customer have to initiate that?

I I believe it's it's our intent.

We we're able to go and we know that there's been an issue and we'll work with the customer on that.

But if you know it's an issue, is the credit automatic or does the customer have to flag it?

I believe it is automatic, yeah.

Can you verify that and let us know?

So that's okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

Yes, no, we're um have recently uh met, and so we'll we'll go ahead and with our presentation on the the sewer discharge events.

So in general, uh, we are alerted to an issue of a sewer discharge event through a couple of different ways.

That would be a notification to 52 water, that could be an employee observation, that could be another observation that comes to us.

52 water is the the preferred method to uh to let us know of something so that we can respond uh 24-7 if we need to.

We will send an inspector out to respond and investigate the situation, and then we will take steps to determine the cause and take action to stop the leak if it hasn't already stopped.

Uh if there is oftentimes it's caused by a blockage in the sewer lateral line, we need to identify the location of that blockage, clear it, clean the line, and go ahead and take those steps.

There could also be a pump failure at a sewer pump station.

If that's the case, then we will stop pumping at that sewer pump station.

We will make steps to make make repairs to the pump.

We may have to put in a temporary pump at that station so we can keep pumping sewer uh while the permanent repairs are being made.

And another type of issue could be a sewer forcing break, similar to the the Pinola street leak that we saw.

Uh these are large 48 to 72 inch pipes.

Those sometimes can take a long time to repair.

We may need contractor work, uh, but that is that also uh is something that can happen.

And then, of course, you want to take steps to reduce the risk of the community by uh flushing in the impacted areas, is if this is in a stormwater canal, and also take steps to recover as much sewer uh as possible from the area.

So, madam superintendent, just in the interest of transparency, because the the verbiage in this presentation is just a little bit vague.

So, can you define the event that you were alerted?

What was the specific event, and can you give me the date in which the agency was alerted?

Um is there one in particular you're you're speaking of?

Well, it just says you're you're you're alerted to an event.

I guess you're giving us the okay, that's just a general overview.

The general overview.

All right.

So I know we're gonna get into Dwyer.

When when were you initially notified about Dwyer?

So there were there have been several issues along the Dwyer Canal starting in early December.

In early December, we had an issue at our Castle Manor pump station where there was a pump failure.

We went ahead and put in a temporary pump.

Um I think there was already a temporary pump actually there.

That was the there was an issue with that temporary pump, and so we did have a short-term discharge into the the Dwyer Canal at that location.

And I think that was reported to us in a couple of different ways through our employees as well as customers.

Okay.

So specific to more recent issues, um, we did meet with concerned residents and citizens, including members of your office, um, last Friday out along the Dwyer Canal.

We reviewed four locations of concern that were based on what we observed were continuous discharges from a stormwater drain.

Uh there's any there's numerous stormwater drains that go right into the Dwyer Canal, and uh under you know, no rain conditions, there was a continuous discharge.

Four of those locations were observed.

Uh these also are near sewer lines as well as potato water lines.

And so um we are investigating these areas to determine um if it is sewer and if where it could be the problem and take action to uh to to cease this and to be able to take any uh more permanent corrective actions and move on.

Okay.

Have you all started testing um this water and when did you start the testing?

Yeah, we collected samples on Saturday.

Okay.

What why why did it take so long to start the testing?

Um, you know, I before I was a council member, I was the state representative of District 100, and you know, uh many residents requested testing.

I chimed in and requested testing, but there seemed for whatever reason to be some reluctance.

Um I can go back and pull up the emails I had printed them out, but you all kept referring to employee observation.

So why did it take so long to test and and collect samples?

So in the in the previous instances, we we knew that it was a sewer discharge.

That was clear from a pump failure or from we were able to make that observation.

In these specific instances that we observed over the on Friday, it was it was less clear to us, and so we wanted to go ahead and do that.

Those were uh, to my knowledge, the first time that those have been reported to my knowledge.

So in this case, those were were new instances that we wanted to take action on.

And I just want to add that if we have a situation that requires testing, that we won't run away from that.

We will go ahead and do the testing and and uh be as transparent as we can with the public and do the things that we can with mediate things to can to uh correct the situation.

Yeah, no, I appreciate that.

And look, I appreciate you all coming out in February.

I wish it would have happened in December, and you know, obviously, my office had to push really hard at the behest of the residents, but uh I wish that that testing could have happened uh more proactively, but you may continue.

Okay.

So uh in terms of the the steps that we're presently taking and will be taking along this particular area, uh there is one area of concern around our series sewer pump station.

Uh the pumps at that location are not working, and so there is a temporary uh bypass pump, we call it at that location that pumps sewer from one manhole to another.

Uh we have had contractors making repairs, uh, and I'm hopeful that by the end of next week, we'll be able to uh pump back at that station.

We may need temporary pumps at the station, but the the bypass from a manhole to manhole should be able to be removed when the contractor is done.

Uh there was a valve work, there was some section of discharge discharge line work that needed to be done, and we needed a contractor for that work.

Uh we've also looked at the last time that the sewer laterals in this general area have been cleaned.

Uh under the consent decree, we are under a 10-year uh cleaning cycle.

Many of the lines in this area were last cleaned in 2017, so they are coming up on the end of their 10-year cycle, and we're going to work to prioritize uh getting those cleaned this year is said due to what appears to be some continuing problems in this area.

You know, we we really do appreciate um the support and collaboration with uh the neighbors and the citizens, but we acknowledge that it is our responsibility to to observe this.

So we will be increasing the monitoring of this canal uh and others as well uh by sewage and water board staff to make sure that that we're seeing this um sooner than later.

There's also some concerns around the uh vegetation growth in the canal that is not specific to this location, that is a problem that we see across the city, and we're looking at a couple different ways.

Um sometimes that is cleaning it out with uh an excavator, sometimes there's other methods to do that, but um we know it's it's an issue here as well as others, and certainly we will be following up with the team, uh, the community team on our actions and path forward, and we really look forward to working with them um in this area and in others in New Orleans East and developing uh a productive partnership and collaboration so that we can work on these uh these issues as a team.

Thank you.

And as part of this uh item, uh Mr.

Pelea is here.

Uh he first uh brought this issue to my attention and and the attention of several elected officials back in December.

So uh he has a brief presentation that he's gonna make.

Thank you.

Um I'm gonna say Miss Chastity Blackstone, who is a community member been advocating on this, had a family emergency.

She has to attend to, and she cannot be here.

She was watching online on the YouTube channel, but the YouTube City YouTube channel went down, so it's difficult for her to watch right now.

I do have her testimony, which I can submit for public record.

Thank you.

Um just before I start my presentation, I have a map with 16 different infrastructure occurrences along Dwight Canal.

I have that for information as well.

At a basic level, sewage management is the foundation of civilization.

Public health, environmental protections, economic stability, and quiet life all depend upon how waste is managed.

When sewer systems fail, it impacts our health, our quieter life and the environment.

For that reason, sewage discharges to the Dwyer Canal must remain a priority and treat it as an emergency.

Now, this is not a single incident.

It reflects ongoing reports from community members about sewage discharges and a rotten egg order air in the east throughout, known as hydrogen sulfide, air pollution.

In this case, being directly impacted, combined with subject matter expertise to identify patterns where other people might not see it, are documented to bring this issue forward for coordinated review and action.

From the community perspective, the sewage and waterboard LDQ is operating within the sewage consent decree framework.

At the same time, compliance alone is not bringing time to remedy for ongoing impacts.

This moment is about aligning focus effort with reasonable, measurable outcomes.

Sewage discharges have occurred in the Potamic River, St.

Petersburg, Houston, New Orleans, and in Elmanasta in New Orleans East on Almanaster.

These incidents together account for 300 million gallons of sewage discharge into waterways.

In New Orleans, repeated discharge at the fairgrounds resulted in 2.7 million dollars in fines by the EPA.

My recommendations, first require water quality testing in air quality monitoring for our community.

In public notification, like you do water bill advisors, not just my Instagram.

Second, established the public-private partnership pilot alone to Dwight Canal.

This pilot project established a coordinated framework among the necessary stakeholders and entities with defined authority to ensure implementation, enforcement, and accountability.

Together, this structure is supposed to coordinate repairs, improves emergency responses, and delivers practical solutions in one focus effort, New Orleans East.

Third, implement low-cost preventive measures now, including liners in those wet wells that could be in true and now stormwater canals and sealed bypass systems that you all just put those covers on to reduce leakage and while long-term repairs are being moved forward.

We understand it takes time.

But as we move forward, the community remains committed to collaboration.

We ask that in return, a clear next step, a commitment to reconvene, and try progress on these recommendations and other resulting messages from this meeting.

Moving forward, action is more and forward, is more effective than walking away with a thoughtful conversation.

Thank you.

I missed more information on this.

I have submitted a uh a Google photo with over one in 18 items of instances on this.

I have a map with all the instances that I observe along the Dwight Canal.

I'm ready for open any questions you all may have on the matter.

Thank you.

Thank you, uh Sage.

First of all, let me publicly thank you uh for your leadership on this issue uh and for always being an advocate for our community uh to sewage and water board.

I am gonna first of all thank you all for coming out uh to the community uh last week.

Uh I'm gonna ask that, you know, hopefully that's a great starting point of continued ongoing consistent collaboration uh with the community uh as you all gather uh the the results of the the testing.

Uh I I certainly want you to share that with my office, but you know, uh Mr.

Executive Director.

Um I've I've seen the social media uh and communications become more robust of sewage and water board.

I'd like you all to be very transparent uh about the results of these samples.

Uh and I'd like us to have you know uh ongoing updates on this issue.

This is critically important.

I think you all smelled the air in in certain areas out there.

It's it's horrific.

Uh and and our residents deserve better.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Uh you may um continue.

I think we're on.

Never mind, I'm sorry, Vice President Morel is recognized.

I'm sorry.

Vice President Willard is recognized.

I didn't have breakfast or lunch today, sorry.

Neither have I.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chairman Hughes.

Uh, is this discharge still actively occurring?

Yeah, it's my understanding it is.

What can we do to like stop it right now?

So our our teams are out there today um looking in in the area to see if there is a blocked manhole somewhere that needs to be cleaned.

So um that's our suspicion at this moment, and we're we're out there doing that now.

How long has it been actively leaking?

So again, um, in these four specific locations, that was the first time that I had been made aware of it.

So um cannot answer that at this point.

Mr.

Sage, you you when were you first informed of it?

Um did you first see it?

I guess.

December 2025.

December 25 where I started.

I have I have uh several discharges uh effects.

It has been a very inequitable process uh with some of the staff of sewing waterboard, but I'm built tough for this.

It's it's um Miss Chastity Blackstone is not here, but when Miss Chassity Blackstone um asked about the sewage discharge, they told her, let me come check your house for discharge for sewage male.

Our thing is we see sewage discharge as a point source of pollution in the canal next to her home.

Clean up your house before you come checking my house.

She felt disrespected, her mom felt disrespected.

Um, you know, so I have many comments on her.

Um, my thing is this.

They don't want to test it because they know what's going on.

If you don't test it, you have no liability.

If you see discharge coming out and you don't test it, then you don't want to know what it is.

The thing is they don't want to test it because they know what it is.

Once you know what it is, you have liability, sir.

And so once you do that, right?

I have my own water quiet testing kits on the way.

I have my own hydrogen oxide reader here.

See, I didn't want to get too dramatic here, but I wanted to bring a water quiet sample from there and actually wash their hands with it.

If they say it's okay, then wash your hands with it.

Because it's it's it's not okay for me to be living next to that.

It's not okay for Miss Chassis to be living next to that.

It's not okay for them having air quality affecting my skin, affecting their air, and they have no liability on it.

And even when they fabricated some covers over the manholes, it's some metal lids.

That air is still escaping.

This is a problem of bypass systems throughout.

They have no culpability of sewage spillage that goes into our waterways, no culpability of liability of the air that's polluting our waterways.

I mean, our airways.

They go home and we live there.

And when the conditions change, when it's falling outside, that compresses the conditions in my home and Miss Chastin Holmes.

Those existing health conditions get exacerbated and they have no liability.

This isn't this is compounded effects.

I have a Google photo of it going on since December.

It's horrific.

It's nasty.

Listen, y'all know before working on Lincoln Beach, everything stops.

Uptown getting reported with sewage in the street.

We have sewage in the waterways.

That's a federal crime.

Everything stops.

Nothing mattered to me since I discovered this.

Civilization won't happen with sewage in my backyard.

Y'all, nothing matters in my life right now, but stopping sewage in our backyards.

And I'm not gonna stop to I get justice of my community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Haman, I mean, I've seen I've seen the videos.

I mean, it it doesn't take an engineer to determine that that's sewage being that's leaking.

Uh if it's been leaking for two months, uh, or close to two months, that sounds like a crisis to me.

Um, so is there no standard procedure to expedite this to have this turned off or or stopped?

I mean well, I want to say in fairness, I don't know exactly what staff saw in December.

I know that we're saying today there's some things that we saw last Friday.

It's the first time we've seen it, and we are testing, and we have a crew out there at this time.

So we we have to do that.

So you were alerted.

You were alerted to it last week.

I'm saying that was some of the items that the general superintendent said that we didn't know of until last week, some of the of the uh releases that we looked at.

But but these videos and pictures had been circulating on social media for probably at least a month.

I have documented this well beyond since December.

I call all political power on this.

Troy caught up, Mr.

I do want to chime in on this because Mr.

Vice President, and I think that's the most concerning part of this for me.

There's a lit a lengthy pay per trail dating back to when I was the state representative.

Um, you know, many people were copied.

So sewage and water board for a fact was alerted back in December.

Okay.

Um many of us chimed in requesting that samples be collected and that testing commenced.

And that did not happen.

That was refused.

The response that we kept getting is they they they were looking at at sight and they were making determinations based upon site.

And while I appreciate that, you all came out in February.

That was two months later than the initial alert.

And and and I think you know, had my office not not really pushed, and I think, you know, respectfully, had this meeting not been scheduled for today, uh I'm a little leery if if we would have gotten the the response that we did.

Direct question when can the residents in New Orleans East and along the Dura Canal expect for this to come to an end.

We have crews out there, we're evaluating the situation, we're doing the proper testing, and the engineers will look at it and analyze what's the next step.

Have have either one of you been out there?

Well, we were out there just last Friday.

Can you smell it?

My nose doesn't work that good.

I smelled some.

My question is, what what are you testing and evaluating to determine whether you need to put an end to it?

Oh no, no, I'm saying they're looking at what's the best way to address the situation.

Okay.

Now, also, too, granted, there may be uh overc overflows taking place, but also in some of those situations, we don't know what it is.

So that's what the testing is involved.

Once we have that information, we can make a determination what the next steps are.

We are dedicated, and I said that when we were out there talking, we are dedicated to addressing it.

Listen, I'm gonna be honest with you.

This is the fourth city I I've worked in, and we've had to address problems of every city.

I do not have a reputation of running away from the problem.

You deserve the best, just like anyone else in the city does.

And I'm dedicated, and the sewer and water board is dedicated in addressing this issue, but I want to be clear, it is an engineering and chemical chemistry issue that has to take place.

We have to evaluate it and then go in with the limited funds we have and address the problem.

I am dedicated to doing that.

I also said that I was dedicated in continuing communications and meeting uh at a time span that we think is the right rate to do it, so that you have information just like anyone else does.

So you deserve that.

Mr.

Heyman, I'm not commu um accusing you of anything nefarious.

What I'm saying is that the residents who are impacted have been in impacted for two months.

This needs to come to an end.

You're testing your evaluation.

Of course, we need that, right?

We need to know what are the impacts to the vegetation.

What's the mitigation plan if it becomes if it comes back that it's toxic?

If this is entering the waterways, I mean, I think it was last year there were news reports about illegal dumping of sewerage into uh the canal along Almanaster.

What what are those impacts to the quality of life, the safety of New Orleanians?

I understand you have to go through a thorough and and rigorous testing procedure to determine all of that.

Hopefully, at the end of that, there's a mitigation plan to make sure that everybody is safe and protected uh and that the environment around the area is is safe and protected because people walk their dogs along the canal.

I mean, there's real-world implications, but what we need ASAP, like today is too late, is to have this come to an end.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh th thank you, uh Mr.

Vice President, and I know we're gonna move on to um uh our final two um items, but you know, Mr.

Executive Director, let me let me just say this with respect and and humility, and I look forward to working with you and Madam General Superintendent.

I've enjoyed working with you and congratulations uh uh on your current position.

Um, you know, uh from my perspective, look, resources are limited all across government.

Law knows resources are limited right here in City Hall.

Um but I don't have the luxury of telling my constituents um, you know, what we can't do.

My philosophy is let's find solutions and let's find solutions as soon as possible.

And my staff will tell you I drive them nuts.

Because for me, everything is urgent.

And I want there to be a greater sense of urgency within sewage and water board.

I realize you're your family knew Mr.

Executive Director, but you raised your hand to do this job.

Much like I raised my hand to do this job.

And so you and I get everything that comes along with it.

And so I my frustration, and I'm I'm trying to be be calm in this meeting, but as we have these monthly meetings, um, you know, I have a lot of grace.

What I don't have a lot of is patience, and I don't want to keep hearing month after month, we're working on it, we're looking into it.

You know, your board pays you quite handsomely, Mr.

Executive Director.

And so I want solutions.

Because that's what our residents deserve.

This canal issue is just one item of many.

My staff will tell you we get more calls about sewage and water board than almost anything.

Fire hydrants have been taking up so much of my time, leaks have been taken up so much of my time, and the list goes on.

And so I want you to know I'm here to be a partner.

We're all here to be partners, but we gotta come up with plans and solutions.

As we work to restore faith in sewage and waterboard, we have to show our residents progress.

And so moving forward, when when when the community flags an issue, when they're pleaing that the air quality smells horrible and there's visible sewage discharge, waiting two months to come out at the behest of an elected official, it's just too late.

There must be a greater sense of urgency moving forward.

Councilmember King is recognized.

Thank you, Chair Hughes.

Um, just to chime in on this dwire issue.

I fully believe if if this was in a different part of the city, um, that two months would not this would be done in two days.

Um it always seems to be the East and Algiers get the short end of the stick and money always the issue.

And I'm not trying to be the dead horse, but I'll be talking about like raw feces or feces coming out into the water, is what we're talking about here.

So I I want to make two points of clarification.

Um there were two incidences in one incident in December and then one in January, which we did respond to very specifically and took specific action related to a pump station as well as the sewer blockage, and we are now looking into these specific.

And so um what can happen is if the the sewer laterals um are full, uh sometimes that can get into a stormwater.

So it would be uh sewer from people's homes.

So it could be.

Okay.

I have no doubt, and this is something that I've I'm very passionate about.

I'm not trying to you know get my shine on here, but I that this was in a neighborhood that was not primarily black.

I strongly believe that this would have been solved a long time ago.

That's that's my two cents on that.

Um let's move on to I have a question about the French quarter project and the street construction.

It's been going on for some time.

I know it's something that has to be done.

It's gonna take about a year to get completed.

Where are we on the French quarter street construction?

Yes, so there has been a lot of work on that recently.

Uh we recently completed uh one of the last tie-ins on the water maintainment area.

Uh unfortunately, uh the city the the sections of the street are still uh impacted here during Mardi Gras.

Uh, but we're working uh towards getting that uh worked up and the street completed um in for French Quarter Fest.

That's our intent.

Okay, so we're on a timeline, you're on the timeline and get this completed.

That's originally the plan.

I think the original date was shifted due to other reasons, but our our current timeline is.

The current timeline is not been any changes in that at this point.

We were slightly delayed because of the weather.

Sure.

Of course, in the freeze event.

All right, and my last comment is we we talked about the um panola street water main break and different larger issues, French quarter, street repairs.

My main concern and my uh one of my pet peeves of sewage of waterboard, Mr.

Hamley by this conversation is the big things get done, and everyone does the big things, and we pay attention to that, but the small things seems to often get overlooked.

What I mean is a sidewalk is repaired, and well, sidewalk is open enough for a street for pipe repair, and it's just left there with gravel in this in the sidewalk.

Or yesterday I received a picture, a video of a contractor who did a sidewalk repair and didn't put a cone and alerted the people the residents that this is wet cement, and as a video of somebody walking down the street down a sidewalk and stepping in the cement.

Um also received an email about someone's front yard was partially dug up, never repaired.

It was partially dug up.

Never repaired.

So when what is the focus on getting the small things, right?

Like everyone has talent.

Use a support analogy, but it's everyone can run and jump and throw fast or throw hard.

But who's gonna do the small things right that really really matters at the end of the day?

And I see that being overlooked too much.

Not just by um sewage and water board, but but by DPW, at least the old administration is the small things that we keep overlooking, and that makes a big difference.

So what's the effort to that?

I agree with you that the small things that are sometimes more important than the big things when they're added up.

Um one thing that we're doing, we're starting a quality of life program that we're gonna we're gonna be working with our contractors and really kind of lighting the fire under them that they understand that when you do a project, when you finish it, it should look as good as it did or better than when you got there.

So don't leave your lunch papers, don't leave gravel, don't leave wood, don't leave a hole that isn't filled in or leave dirt to the side.

And so we're gonna be pushing to get that done better.

We're also gonna make sure that there's better communications into the organization so we know uh where those items are, where those small items are, so we can address them and all, and so that's on our radar, and we are working on again with developing a quality of life program to allow us to do that.

Well, also as we used in the TREMA area, as you're aware, had a um strike team go in and work on a specific issue, and we're gonna be do we're developing protocols and procedures for that.

So as issues come up and we go to a community meeting, and like we did with Tremay, I thought that was an excellent example, and we found about the the inlets and all, we were able to send out a concentrated group to address that, and we're gonna be developing that and doing that in different areas of the town.

Now we have to be careful because at the same time we have the work of the work to do across the entire city.

But what I want to do is make sure we have a way to lift those items that the community is aware of that we need to address quickly, that we're able to send in the strike team that is very concentrated in addressing that.

But I agree with you that the small things, you know, it's not a small thing if it's in front of your yard.

Correct.

It's not a small hole, it's not small lunch papers to someone left left.

It's disrespect, and it's not something that you want in front of your home.

So we're stressing to the contractors that we want them to leave the home, the area is if they lived right there.

Well, I appreciate it.

Um to a gentleman sent me a photo of a project that was done six months ago.

Sidewalk and partial the sidewalk was just was torn up and uh some of the front yard was torn up.

Six months, and it's still there, as if it happened yesterday.

What am I supposed to say?

I don't work with sewage and waterboard, but I take the brunt of that, you know, uh that hit in those calls.

Um something else.

But oh, my last thing, I uh I don't want to keep hitting you with emails and and your team with emails, but I will continue to send those those small things because I think we need to see how they they like you say they add up.

So a sidewalk here, a cone left there, piece of wood there, it it adds up and it becomes a big issue because it's not taken care of in the at the beginning.

Okay.

Yeah, and and you know, your office is uh excellent about sharing uh those challenges with us that are maybe not making it to us other than other ways, and and um thank you for continuing to do that, and and we're taking those seriously.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Whoops.

I'm sorry, were you thinking?

No, okay.

We we have a maintenance.

I'm sorry.

We have a maintenance escalation process, which we're referring to, and and that's how we escalate that internally.

Thank you, Councilmember King.

Uh Councilmember Harris is recognized, and then Councilmember Green will be recognized.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, following up on uh council member king's line of questioning, you know, there are several service cuts that were not documented by you all that our office had to report in Central City.

What is the process for documenting uh needed repairs that when you make a service kite, you know that you are going to have to come back and pay them because it's not something that we should be keeping track of, it's something that you all should be keeping track of.

Yes, and and I agree, and that's a process we're looking at to make sure that when there is something done that that the follow-on work is done.

So it well, it appeared when Steve Nelson was in your position that he got the time for service cut repayment down significantly.

Are you following the process that he put in place?

We were able to apply some uh additional funding sources to that to that effort, uh, which is why we're able to to knock that down, uh, the backlog down.

Unfortunately, it has grown, and so we'll be looking at uh if we can apply additional resources to that.

I I hope that you can because it was as Councilmember King said a quality of life issue where a service cut is made, you all put down pebbles.

I I hope that you can because it was as council member king said, a quality of life issue where a service cut is made, you all put down pebbles, those pebbles get washed away, or they get impacted by traffic and people lose their tires, which means they lose access to transportation, which sometimes impacts child care, education, etc.

etc.

This is something that I talked about in my first term, and I thought we had a path forward for ensuring that that time to pavement uh was significantly lessened.

So can you apply any funds to get these service cuts, especially when they're related to lead replacement?

Because that's what these were right.

Our at this point we have our internal crews who are doing this work, and I'm I'm absolutely hearing you, and um, we'll be looking in our budget to see what we if we can increase that through contract work.

Are you prioritizing fire hydrants?

We have had a fire hydrant um along South Clark Street that has been leaking for a very very long time.

What how are you prioritizing fire hydrant repairs?

Yeah, there uh there was a nationwide uh fire hydrant equipment back order issue um that we were impacted by, but we since have that equipment, and uh we will be revamping some of our crews to focus on hydrant specifically.

So we recognize that that's a problem across the city right now and uh want to take those steps now that we have the equipment by what is your what is your inspection process for fire hydrants?

Would be um similar to to receiving uh an issue from any constituent.

So you don't do regular inspections of fire hydrants scheduled?

Uh the fire department does those and those reports.

And then if there's an issue with water leaking, it's because a constituent complains or you come across it.

Correct.

All right.

Finally, you were talking about this quality of life program where you're asking your contractors basically to self-police their work.

Do you have inspectors that go out to look at the work, look at the site once it's done to make sure that there aren't sandwich papers as you said left that the job is actually complete so that we are not stepping into wet concrete, um that there aren't holes in people's lawns, etc.

etc.

Yes, we we do have construction inspectors uh that we'll be making sure are aware of these new expectations and they shouldn't be new, but will you know be formally documented and we'll be uh taking action.

And how regularly will they inspect these areas of work?

Um I would say it we list at least weekly, if not daily, depending on the work that's being done.

Okay, well, we look forward to continuing to work with you.

Um in your capacity in this new position.

We had a great relationship with uh Steve Nelson, and I hope that you will continue the progress that he made at Zarin Waterboard.

I'm sorry.

She's so low.

Miss Summer.

Yeah, she I understand.

She needs to we will make sure when she we will make sure when she appears in the future.

Sorry to take over your meeting that she I want to hear about the file to the file because I have a question a lot.

Okay.

Hang on one second.

We're gonna get the public comment shortly.

All right.

Let's let's let council member Harris finish.

And I'm finished, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Council Lady.

Um Councilmember Green is recognized, and then we're gonna go ahead and shift the public comment.

We've had several members of the public wait impatiently, ladies and gentlemen.

We appreciate your patience.

It's been alluded to, but it can't be said enough that it's frustrating in a community when you go by certain sites and there's grass and trees growing into the sites because it's been that long.

So if there are inspectors, I presume that there are inspectors going around.

I have a general question.

How do they miss that?

And then what happens once it's brought to our attention?

I can give you some very specific locations, for example, Vienna at uh um at say rock, for example, where there's grass growing into an area that was repaired by the sewage and water board.

It may be on the department of public works to finish it.

But can you tell the public and tell us what's the process of absolutely finishing a job that involves the sewage and water board that then gets passed on to public works?

So if there is if there is uh restoration that will either be done by ourselves or contractor depending on on the work and there I'm and I'm sorry, uh, then there should be uh complete and complete inspection of that work.

So I I'm sorry, I can't speak specifically to that location, but I appreciate you bringing that up and we'll have to look into it.

But you've seen those locations where there's grass growing into a repair that was done by the sewage and water board.

Yeah, yeah.

And then it's confusing to the public and sometimes to me, even as a council member when I call and get the answer.

When it's when the sewage and water board's work is done.

How's the determination made as to who was responsible for filling in with asphalt or cement?

And then who is responsible for saying this job is complete?

Do you have a dashboard?

That would be following our our work order process, uh completing the repair and then putting in the work order to complete the restoration.

So you can assume that there's a lot of that that's not being done.

From what I'm hearing you say, that sounds right, we need to look into that.

All right, well, that was a good answer.

I want to ask you to look into it because it's not just in District D, but it's in other places.

But it is very confusing as to um to the public as to why it takes so long between the process when that leak has been addressed when that line has been replaced and that street is actually paved over.

And if there needs to be some additional communications, or maybe there needs to be an additional work with the state since the state has changed certain things, um, and now the sewage and water board is responsible for maintenance of all of the storm drains.

Maybe something needs to happen such that the there is no separation between the completion of the sewage and waterboard work and the paving of the area that was disrupted.

If it has to be done that way, let's get to the point where we can talk about how we can get that done better.

Okay.

Thank you, Councilmember Green.

Um, what we're gonna do now, let's shift to public comment.

The members of the public have been uh waiting patiently, and then after public comment, we'll let you all make any closing uh thoughts that you have.

Thank you.

Uh, first up, Robin Miller, uh, followed by Jesse Perkins.

Oh, good morning, uh good afternoon.

Um, same problem, different utility.

Um, you all may have to start looking into hiring someone who's in dermatology because using the water here, since you all have lead in it, um, it's wrecked my skin.

I have to take a bath or a shower, and people have to brush their teeth and everything else, so they're being affected every day by your delays.

So you need to hire medical staff.

I will be contacting either one of you because I need to see a dermatologist because my skin is changing colors because of using this water.

I was asked randomly, just a call, I don't even know who the woman was months ago.

Well, we're doing this uh test for lead because in the Algiers area there's lead in the pipes.

Well, why wasn't this on the news?

I don't know who you are, ma'am.

You have to do better than that.

It's very unprofessional.

You're just a different person, just like entry, y'all keep switching the people, the the CEOs, but it's the same foolishness.

It seems to be a lot of greed.

And if you know there's lead in the pipes, how do you feel comfortable asking people to pay you when they need to get medical help?

That does not make sense.

None of that equals up.

You have a lot of stuff undone, unfinished, communication with you all, all but sucks.

And today y'all are here and y'all have no answers professionally for anybody.

So I know as a person going through all of this foolishness with you all, y'all want to change stuff.

I don't want an electric water meter.

I want the old kind.

Stop being lazy, walk around, read what you have to read.

Because again, if I'm not physically at my home here, and I'm in Fort Worth, Texas, I don't expect to have a hundred dollar bills.

I I don't.

It's just me in the house by myself.

So I can regulate any utility.

So anything over $50, $100, sounds like theft.

And so I will be talking to you all legally.

Oh, y'all can meet with me and send something to me because I don't.

Thank you.

Uh Jesse Perkins, followed by Edward Parker.

I'm disrespectfully gonna ask for more than two minutes because I couldn't hear what she was saying, and I do have a question as it relates to the fire hydrants.

Um my question is how do you address fire hydrants when you're not ordering fire hydrants?

So let's do this.

Um if you This is an important question.

Uh let's pause this time, please.

If you can just ask your questions and make your comment, and I will give them the opportunity to.

Okay, I would like that question answered.

Are we ordering fire hydrants now?

They'll they'll respond at the end of your comment period.

Okay.

All right.

Can you reset the gentleman's time?

So yeah, thank you.

So first of all, what I want to say is shout out to the sewage and water board employees, the men and women that went out to address the panola street job.

When you have a main trunk line, a trunk line is a main feeder, which all the other lines feed off of.

When these lines go out, it takes some skill to know how to go out there and isolate that stuff to to to be able to work on it, okay?

How do I know?

Some of you already know.

35-year employee of the sewage and waterboard zone manager, okay, retired 10 years.

Okay, so I just want to say a shout out to them.

We always attacking them, but nobody wants to give them credit.

They talk to what's yellow and sleep sick stuff.

Okay, but these guys out there doing a wonderful job.

So I want to speak to Council Member Willich uh question.

When there's a leak and it's established that it's on the sewage and waterboard side, which is called the outlet service.

That's between the meter and where the property line, the uh the the owner's property line meets the sewage and waterboard line.

Once they send in a work order and establish that the outlet service was leaking, yes, in a sense it's supposed to be automatic, but it's not automatic, and I I caution people to not take it as an automatic.

Stay on sewage and waterboards, but because you'll be paying you, you'll be sitting there dealing with that stuff for an entire year longer.

Okay, another situation is when it comes to the smart meters, they're not so smart.

How do I know?

I go out and I examine them because people call me because they know that my knowledge of this stuff, right?

And I've established that these things are not smart.

They have people going out spending unnecessary money on plumbers and plumbers telling them that, hey, it's gonna cost you two thousand dollars to replace a line.

I go out there and I find out they don't have a problem.

Surgeon Waterboard Smart Meter told them that they have a leak when they don't have a leak.

And then I say, get on that phone and I'll be right there with you while you're talking to them because I have the knowledge.

They don't have leaks, and then they come back and oh, oh, you don't have a leak.

So they're not so smart.

No, you need to give me some more lines with this because I have more to talk about.

Two minutes is not enough for me to say what I need to say.

Thank you, Mr.

I I understand and I apologize for giving everybody two minutes.

Thanks to these lab lines?

Yes, sir.

And and I'll certainly be happy to come visit with you.

Now talk to you, man.

Look, I'll I'll take the time out with you and share this with you.

One-on-one.

I'll personally I'll bring you to my house.

I'll personally come visit with you.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Um, and at the end uh of the public comment, uh, if you can respond to Mr.

Perkins' question, I appreciate it.

Edward Parker, followed by Christopher Merrick.

Uh Edward Parker, uh, 7802 Henley Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, 7012.

Uh communication and fire hydrants.

What's the protocol when sewage and waterboard is gonna come out and cut water off in your area?

The reason I ask that is because in my area, we've had sewage and waterboard come out numerous times, cut the water off, even on a Sunday, and we were not notified, had to go out and find the truck and the crew and whoever was uh over the crew and get in an argument about why didn't someone come around and at least let us know that they were gonna cut the water off.

All right, that's a problem, and this happened in our area numerous times.

Uh broken or leaking fire hydrant.

This is in the at the corner of Wales and Lamb Road.

That particular uh hydrant has been broken at least twice.

It's leaking now, and it's gonna cause the same problem it caused about three months ago when it was leaking, and here we had a big pothole.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Uh Christopher Merritt, followed by Rhonda Oliver.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Uh, my name is Christopher Merritt, uh, resident of New Orleans East, as well as uh business owner, uh, also representing some of the business owners in New Orleans East, um, as well as the uh a lot of the parents in New Orleans East as well.

Um, my question, uh first off, thank you all for your time.

Um, my question to sewage and waterboard, how transparent can you be in the process of work that needs to happen along the the wire uh canal way?

Uh secondly, what is the timeline?

Uh because we're not affected by MydiGrad directly, um, I think that we we should have a round the clock uh work to be done in that area.

Um, um, can we get a public outline of site managers?

Point of contact.

Is there any information that we can get on that?

Who is overseeing this the scope of work that needs to happen?

Also, um the when will the tests take place or have they taken place?

When will the results come in?

Will those results be public?

When can we expect those?

Um, I use Dwyer on a daily basis.

I live and work in New Orleans East.

My children notice the smell.

Okay.

My um my daughter goes to Lake Forest Charter.

It's one of the highest performing schools in the state.

So how I see it is if our neighborhood is housing one of the highest performing schools in the state, why can't our why can't our city reflect and and and model that same thing?

What are we what are we showing our children?

Okay, in in particular in New Orleans East, as well as the other high schools that are along uh that canal way.

Uh Livingston, Abersome, you have New Orleans East Hospital, uh, all of the other Joe Brown Park, where our children go to play, but ultimately, can they go there and play?

Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much for being here.

Uh, Rhonda Oliver.

Hello, I worked at Sword and Water Board for um about three years, and I found that um the supervisors um enable a culture of incompetence um while leadership turns a blind eye to the crippling operational failures.

Ms.

Linda on Terps Accord Street, she approached me the other day and she told me her water was of.

I advocated for people like Ms.

Linda, she's an 82-year-old woman who lives at 2020 2222 Terpsaccore.

Ms.

Linda's water was Ms.

Linda was paying the water bill for both sides of her double.

When I spoke to the management at Sewage and Waterboard, they said that, oh, she has a slum landlord and hits it's his fault.

Now this landlord went to Ms.

Linda and said, hey, we're not paying the water bill anymore.

She has one meter.

So usually the landlord pays the bill.

So maybe he was wrong for going to this old lady and said, you need to go get the water in your name.

She did that.

She went to Sword and Waterboard.

When she approached me, because I was always advocating for the people, I looked into the system.

I researched, I saw Ms.

Linda came in with her lease with one unit on it, 2222 Terps Accord, and this lady was forced to pay both sides.

She will come in and pay five dollars.

And I advocated for Ms.

Linda, and these executives didn't do anything.

Mr.

Kallahead, gosign at that time, did nothing.

I was one of their best workers in that toxic environment.

And Ms.

Linda now told me her water was off.

I told her I didn't work there anymore, but if I had to call the news, I told her I was gonna help her.

So sewage and water board is it's just a horrible place to work for somebody with great work ethic, and especially the billing department and the customer service department.

So you have a computer software where I can change your note, you can change mine, you can edit my note, it's horrible.

Thank you very much, ma'am.

Um that is all the public comment that is present.

We do have uh some online comments, we'll submit those into the record.

Um I will allow uh you all to give any closing remarks you'd like to give.

Okay.

If I may say I heard the comments that were made today.

Um, and actually, in many ways, I believe the comments that were made are in line with what we're trying to do at the sewer and water board.

I know that I work with a thousand four hundred individuals who are dedicated to protecting the health and safety of this community.

Um, but we can do better.

We can do better with communications, we can do better in making sure that we're uh going out and designing the plans and maybe be more efficient and quicker with and giving a response to the community.

When it's a whole, if it's a small hole in front of your home, it's a major issue because it's your home and you deserve a situation that you're you're happy with the appearance of your home and that we've done a clean job.

When you talk about the overflow situations, uh, we are not minimizing that at all.

I want you to know it's very important to me uh professionally, because that's an area that I worked in for a long time.

It's important to me as executive director.

The things we have to do to improve, and so we will we will do those things.

But I continue to say with you that I will make sure that we are present.

We will develop a time span for what the plan of action is, uh, and we will also communicate and be able to meet as we go forward.

I think that's what everybody, and I think that's what every district deserves.

And so we're committed to doing that, evaluating the problem, coming up with a solution.

But I want to be clear that often we are not able to just snap our fingers and come up with the answer.

Sometimes it takes engineering time for them to analyze it and come forward with it.

But I will say that we are dedicated in making sure that we put that we push ourselves as hard as we can to develop that answer and to effectuate change for you when it's important.

When it's your neighborhood, when it's your home, when it's your backyard, is extremely important, and we respect that.

Thank you, Mr.

Executive Director.

First of all, thank you again.

Uh and and Madam Superintendent, thank you both for being here.

Uh on next month's agenda, uh, I'm gonna put on the agenda these fire hydrants, and I'd like us to discuss what's the comprehensive plan, council district by council district, uh, to start uh addressing these fire hydrants.

I'll tell you, Mr.

Executive Director, you know, if we can show our residents steady incremental progress, we don't expect you to solve everything overnight.

When our residents can see tangible, steady progress, then slowly but surely people begin to have faith in the system.

But when the constant response to everything is, oh, it's gonna take a hundred days or 200 days.

Well, that's just not good enough.

So we do have to push ourselves to do better.

Uh and last thing I'll say urgency, transparency, communication, results.

That's what I want Sewage and Water Board to focus on.

With that, uh Councilmember Green moves that we adjourn, second by Vice President Willard.

All in favor, all right, opposed.

We'll stand adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.