New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board: Hey! We investigated the payroll and sex room thing

Oh, NOLA – never change. GAWD, I love that place.

In a city legendary for raising graft and corruption to a high art form, New Orleans is lucky enough to have its own independent news organization, Verite News, besides some really hard working mainstream outlets. Dang lucky thing, too, as the local culture keeps them busy, really busy. Many times without even having to dig – often, it’s so shamelessly blatant it’ll take your breath away. That’s how good times roll.

So, here’s the set-up on this kind of unusual headline for something as mundane as a sewerage and water board.

Back in 2019, a major scandal erupted when the board discovered big time payroll fraud at their Carrollton Water Treatment facility. Employees were falsifying premiums paid for handling chemicals, awarding themselves overtime they hadn’t worked – all sorts of verifiable graft. An investigation supposedly identified the culprits responsible.

…Officials at the highest level of the agency were informed that employees appeared to be working in concert with their managers to improperly, and perhaps illegally, gift themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars by abusing overtime and “chemical pay,” a special pay rate for the handling of hazardous chemicals such as chlorine.

At least initially, there appeared to be broad agreement that there was clear misconduct and the agency needed to take swift action to stop it.

…Following an extensive internal investigation in 2019, the Sewerage & Water Board’s chief of security recommended immediately firing three employees over the payroll fraud allegations, and potentially referring the evidence to the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office for criminal prosecution. (Evidence indicated that more than three employees may have been involved).

That was four years ago and one would suppose, at a minimum, that the three employees identified as being prime offenders in what one inspector called “pretty blatant” criminal activity would have been out of a job stat.

And you would be wrong.

…Nearly four years later, no criminal charges have been filed, and only one of the three employees has faced serious discipline. Shortly after the investigation concluded, filter gallery employee Gregg Herbert was fired for payroll fraud, theft and falsification of records. But last month the Sewerage and Water Board agreed to reverse the termination, allow Herbert to retire with full benefits and give him $39,000 in back pay. It also agreed not to seek criminal prosecution.

Of the two others, one retired earlier this year without facing discipline, New Orleans personnel records show. And the third, a manager named Steven Ware, is still working and has since been promoted twice. None of the three accused employees responded to multiple requests for comment.

…The issues within the Carrollton Plant’s filter gallery first became public almost four years ago when media outlets on high levels of overtime being paid to Sewerage & Water Board employees. Herbert, a 37-year employee at the agency, was one of the employees highlighted in the story. Herbert had a base salary of $49,000, but took home roughly $136,000 with overtime.

HOLY SMOKES, CHER

What do these guys have on management?

In their defense, it’s not like the entire water/waste apparatus of New Orleans isn’t completely crooked anyway. While these guy were boosting their paychecks, other employees have been fixin’ bills for friends and family, and lots of people in the city don’t ever bother to pay them, period. The water district could sure use the change, because it’s adding up to quite a bit of cha-ching.

With millions of dollars in the red, an investigation is underway to see if some people are getting around high, unpaid, Sewerage and Water Board bills in the city of New Orleans.

According to Sewerage and Water Board data WDSU Investigates obtained, more than $133 million is owed in unpaid dues. It’s a problem some city leaders say is a result of incorrect bills and possible wrongdoings by employees.

“Possible wrongdoing” by employees. These people are hilarious. They’re always hedging their bets in that town, because they never know when they might need that guy or a relative of his to fix something for them.

…WDSU Investigates requested to see how many Sewerage and Water Board employees still owe.

…”Apparently there looks like there may be issues with inside dealing with fixing bills for people,” Giarrusso said. “That really shouldn’t be, which of course if this is the case it is going to inflame the public as it absolutely should.”

…According to investigation records obtained from Sewerage and Water Board, an employee of several years was found inappropriately adjusting and voiding bills for her service account, her husband service account, and her mother’s service account resulting in transactions for services worth over $6300 that were mishandled. According to the records, that employee resigned.

In response to the employee violations we found, Sewerage and Water Board sent us this statement:

“Consistent with our response to any allegation of wrongdoing, when we were alerted about some suspicious activity within our billing department, we immediately launched an investigation.

“Upon our investigation, we found two employees were tampering with accounts. We also collaborated with the Office of the Inspector General, and that office reached the same conclusion as our internal SWBNO investigation, emphasizing these were isolated incidents.

“Upon launching the investigation, the employees’ access to the billing system were immediately revoked. As a result of our investigation, both employees were separated from the utility last year.

Say this in your best Cajun accent: Dey gonna ahdit da place

That’ll work.

We’ll acknowledge it as a given that the entire water system is thoroughly corrupted, but the Carrollton Treatment Facility seems to stand alone in the ingenuity of its employees. Not only were they busy enriching themselves, they allegedly made sure those tedious hours spent at the plant collecting unearned taxpayer dollars were spent in more worthy pursuits than keeping up with scheduled chlorine treatments.

Yeah, buddy.

…In 2021, a filter gallery employee filed a public whistleblower complaint that accused managers of using taxpayer dollars to build a “secret room” inside the Carrollton plant where a select number of employees would bring people to sleep with both on and off their shift.

Verite interviewed two current employees and one former worker from the Carrollton Plant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. In their interviews with Verite, they confirmed the existence of what one employee described as a “secret sex room.” One employee provided a video of it, showing couches, a refrigerator, a microwave, a TV and a shelf full of framed photos of nude women.

The anonymous workers said that more baffling than the allegations is the lack of a strong response from the Sewerage & Water Board.

“Ain’t nothing being done about it,” one current employee said. “And if you do report anything, they tell you that you need to worry about yourself, don’t worry about nobody else.”

There’s a video of the rooms at the facility in the article. The names mentioned most in the complaints as instigators are the same Ware and Herbert as above, neither of whom who have never been remotely sanctioned for the payroll scandal.

What do these guys have on the board?

The whistleblower complaint makes no bones about what was there and what was going on.

That took some guts in that town, as deeply entrenched as all these cretins seem to be.

The Verite staff who did the deep dive into the records for the story seemed to have struck a nerve with the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board. Their report came out day before yesterday, and the board responded today.

Say it in your best Cajun accent: We tuk care a’ dat, ya couyon*

(*Cajun slang for dumbass)

…“The recent article mixes multiple situations, individuals, and timelines, which has unfortunately resulted in a misleading story and headline. All allegations highlighted in the story were thoroughly investigated and appropriate actions were taken.

The health, wellbeing, and safety of our employees and customers are of utmost importance to the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans and we are committed to providing a safe and respectful work environment.”

1) That is not a denial

2) “Appropriate actions”?

The board must think we just fell off a pirogue into the swamp yesterday.

I’ll bet everyone still has jobs, they’ve freshened up the cushions in the room and changed the locks.

New Orleans will NEVER change.