Joint Meeting on Utility, Cable, and Public Works – July 22, 2026
Joint Meeting on Utility, Cable, and Public Works – July 22, 2026
The joint meeting of the Utility, Cable, Telecommunication, and Technology Committee and the Public Works, Sanitation, and Environment Committee convened on July 22, 2026. The meeting covered updates on Lincoln Beach restoration, hurricane preparedness and reliability reports from Entergy New Orleans, a review of the July 11 flooding incident by the Sewerage and Water Board (S&WB), and two resolutions regarding electric reliability standards and a rate plan extension.
Consent Calendar
- The minutes from the March 18, 2026 joint meeting were approved unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Ed Parker requested a meeting with Chief Sustainability Officer Megan Williams to discuss community matters related to Lincoln Beach; coordination was initiated.
- Eva Washington (online) expressed appreciation for Entergy's community support, including a payment center in New Orleans East and school supply donations.
- William Stout (Executive Director, Rebuilding Together New Orleans) spoke in support of Entergy, citing their long-term investment in critical home repairs for low-income homeowners.
- An anonymous online comment thanked Entergy for its partnership with Einstein Charter Schools.
Discussion Items
Lincoln Beach Restoration Update (Agenda Item #3)
- Chief Sustainability Officer Megan Williams presented the Phase 1 status. The project uses a Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) approach with three construction packages: parking lot, bridge/tunnel/utilities, and beach/shoreline restoration. The 90% design for the parking lot and 60% design for the bridge and utilities have been received. All previously communicated funding (congressional, bond, and grant) remains in the budget and has not been reallocated. The first shovel is expected in the ground by the end of 2026, with completion targeted for fall–winter 2027, weather permitting. Councilmember Hughes commended the team's transparency and urged adherence to the schedule.
Entergy Hurricane Preparedness (Agenda Item #4)
- Entergy representatives (Sharonda Williams, Dan Calamari, Jessica Williams) outlined storm preparation: all-year training, incident command structure, third-party weather monitoring, damage prediction models, and pre-storm patrols of critical infrastructure. The restoration sequence prioritizes generation, transmission, then distribution, with a goal of restoring 70% of customers within a specified timeframe (depending on damage). 14 of 32 Phase 1 resilience projects have been completed, seven are under construction, and all are scheduled for completion by the end of 2026. During Tropical Storm Arthur, no resilience-upgraded structures were damaged. Councilmember King requested details on lightning resilience; Entergy noted that direct strikes can still cause failures but design standards include insulation levels. Councilmember Willard asked about the rate of return on storm recovery costs; Entergy will provide the information. Customer communication plans include pre-storm outreach, 72-hour and 24-hour check-ins, and post-storm updates via NOLA Ready, text, and social media.
Entergy Reliability – French Quarter and North Kenilworth (Agenda Item #6)
- Entergy CEO Deanna Rodriguez and team provided updates on the French Quarter underground fire incident and repeated outages in North Kenilworth. For the French Quarter: two end-to-end vault inspections are performed annually, and new transformers will include real-time monitoring for pump operation, oil temperature, and pressure. For North Kenilworth: 30,000 feet of conduit and new cable have been installed; the project is 94% complete. Councilmember Hughes criticized Entergy for not acting on its own outage data sooner, emphasizing the health impacts on elderly constituents. Entergy apologized, acknowledged they should have responded earlier based on repeated small outages, and committed to a customer-outage-based approach rather than only equipment-based triggers. Customer communication included door hangers, a dedicated hotline, and a project website. Multiple council members thanked the linemen and field crews for their work under extreme conditions.
Sewerage and Water Board – July 11 Flooding and Infrastructure Issues
- S&WB officials addressed the July 11 flood event. At DPS 7, operator confusion and communication delays led to a late start in pumping, contributing to flooding. The operator is being retrained and procedures simplified with visual cues. At the unmanned Pritchard station, an automatic pump went offline due to a power surge (likely lightning); it took 75 minutes to restart. S&WB is adding notification systems for pump status. Catch basin cleaning has been slower than the previous year (2,506 basins cleaned, 3.5 million pounds of debris removed, vs. 4,320 basins and 10.6 million pounds by this time in 2025). Councilmember McCarron pressed for improved workforce development and higher pay for pump operators. Councilmember Harris recommended screens on catch basins to reduce debris ingress. S&WB acknowledged an aging workforce and plans to partner with trade schools. Use of retired employees is limited by civil service rules to 17.5 hours per week; Councilmember Green suggested exploring changes to allow more experienced retirees during emergencies.
Static Frequency Controller (SFC) and Substation Issues
- A consultant report noted that the SFC's under-voltage trip was set to trip instantaneously at a 20% voltage drop, which is uncommon and contributed to reliability issues. S&WB has lowered the setting to allow a 72% voltage drop but the instantaneous trip remains because the manufacturer has not provided a time-delay option. S&WB is working with Entergy and MISO on parallel operation to reduce voltage sags. Council President Morel questioned why S&WB did not account for Entergy's known frequency variations when designing the plant, noting that Entergy publishes voltage variance standards for commercial customers. He urged S&WB to consider litigation if the manufacturer is at fault.
Resolutions (Agenda Items #7 and #8)
- Resolution on Reliability Standards: Sets a procedural schedule to revise reliability standards established in Docket UD 17-04, reexamine the 2018 Quant report, and require Entergy to report feeder-level performance using IEEE standards (including major event days). An amendment was added directing Entergy to include such analysis in its annual compliance filing and resubmit the 2025 reliability report. The amended resolution was approved and sent to the full council for the August 6 meeting.
- Resolution on Entergy Electric Formula Rate Plan Extension: Establishes a procedural schedule to consider Entergy's motion for extending the electric formula rate plan rider. Approved and sent to the full council.
Key Outcomes
- Minutes from March 18, 2026, approved.
- Lincoln Beach Phase 1 on schedule and fully funded; construction begins end of 2026, completion by end of 2027.
- Entergy to provide data on storm recovery cost return rate and to implement feeder-level reporting as amended in the reliability resolution.
- Entergy will continue underground cable replacement in North Kenilworth and install monitoring technology in new French Quarter transformers.
- S&WB will increase staffing at pump stations during storm events, improve automatic pump off-line notifications, and explore workforce development partnerships.
- The Static Frequency Controller issue is under investigation with the manufacturer; S&WB will evaluate potential legal action.
- Two resolutions (reliability standards and rate plan extension) approved for consideration by the full council on August 6, 2026.
Meeting Transcript
All right, good morning, everyone. Can we ask everyone to please take their seats? Uh today is Wednesday, July twenty second. This is the joint meeting of utility cable telecommunication and technology, as well as public work, sanitation, and environment. Um, can I ask that we please call the role? Good morning, Council members. Councilmember He is present, Councilmember Morrell present, Councilmember Willard, present, Councilmember Green's in the back, but I can see him. Uh, Councilmember Harris present, Council Member McCarron present. We have a quorum. All right, thank you very much. Uh Director Spears, agenda item number two, approval of the minutes, March eighteenth. Uh, joint uh utilities, public works. Um, President Morrell moves adoption of the minute, second by Vice President Willard. Is there any objection? Uh five years. Six years, no nays. All right, agenda item number three presentation, uh, Lincoln Beach from our Chief Sustainability Sustainability Officer, uh, Miss Megan Williams. She'll provide a very quick update uh on the status of Lincoln Beach. Don't think there's been much changes since our last meeting, but I'll turn it over to you, or Chief, rather, I'll turn it over. Um, just to give you a lot of things. Um, in conjunction with our design consultant renegade, our digital engineering, and our construction management at risk contractor um renegade. So I'd like to I'm going to try and roll through this as quickly as possible, but before getting into the technical updates, I do want to uh just start with some of the guiding principles of the project. So our three commitments to this project are uh safe to safely restore access to the beach, to be transparent about the progress, the challenges, and the timelines, and to move forward with urgency without compromising the uh the quality of safety of the beach. We recognize that this is more than an infrastructure project, that it's a historic and cultural landmark, and we recognize the significance of opening the beach and every decision every decision that we make is focused on delivering a safe, sustainable, and lasting restoration. So, this is what directly shapes what we're prioritizing during phase one. Um I won't run through everything on this slide, but just to give you a quick overview of uh the elements of the infrastructure in this phase. Uh, we're increasing access and parking improvements to the beach. We're uh installing pedestrian safety utilities such as a bridge and including utility access through water sewer and drainage and electrical. We'll be adding restrooms and conducting some beach and shoreline restoration and waterfront repairs on unsafe uh structures that exist on the beach, and then we'll be restoring the two historic signs on the beach as well. Um to give you uh uh to back up a little bit on where we are and how we selected the contractor renegade because of the complex infrastructure involved in this project. We decided to go with the CMAR route, which we got approval through the state to do. And unlike traditional project delivery where we do design bid build, this process brings the contractor into the design process very early and allows us to evaluate the constructability, review costs throughout the design, and it allows us to identify uh value engineering opportunities and establish a guaranteed maximum price with the contractor on board. So it improves our cost certainty, uh, reduces the risk and positions the project for a much smoother construction phase. Uh one of the biggest things that we have uh achieved in this project is the agency coordination because of the multiple agencies involved in this. Uh, it's been quite an effort to make sure that all agencies are on board. We've met with Norfolk Southern, the Army Corps, DOTD, the Flood Plain Authority, uh, the Department of Conservation and Energy. We've also met with Sewage and Water Board, NOFD, and Safety and Permits, and based on the guidance that each of these agencies have given us, we restructured the project into three construction packages. All will still be happening under phase one. So rather than submitting each permit simultaneously, this will allow us to break it up and advance the project much quicker through different phases of construction. So our first project package will be the parking lot. This is the uh easiest and most straightforward of the infrastructure. The second will be the bridge tunnels and the utilities, and then the third will be the uh restoration of the beach and the waterfront structures. Uh some major milestones completed. Um we've received the 60% design package for the parking lot in April. In May, we conducted a cost modeling workshop with the design team and the uh contractor. Um this allowed us to refine those costs and find some significant cost savings in the first phase. And then in at the beginning of June, we also received the 60% design package for the bridge, the utilities, and the tunnel. Um, and then we completed some technical reviews with our city agencies as well, uh, DPW, sewage and water board, uh, city planning, and a few other and capital projects as well. Um, and then as of uh last week or two weeks ago, I believe, we also received the 90% design package for the parking lot as well. Uh this week we'll be conducting our cost modeling workshop to continue refining those costs as well.
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