re: Nola gonna Nola: SW&B "tried to draft $31,000 from my bank account"

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The letter largely focuses on a changes passed in 2014 that altered the make-up of the S&WB. That measure removed council members from the board, but required the utility to provide quarterly reports to council members to keep them updated.

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But that requirement was ignored for years. The first report did not come until after the flood of Aug. 5, 2017, when public trust in the utility had been shattered both by the failures of the S&WB's systems and the misleading statements made by its top officials.

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interim legal counsel (Zurik had an investigative report on her too today).

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Caught that this morning. Making 160k and looked incompetent as all frick. The shots of her sitting in the chair made me laugh for some reason.

She's also a lobbyist for the city, Harrah's and the Conv Center. All competing parties. We are fricked.

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Jade Russell is the general counsel for New Orleans' Sewerage and Water Board; she oversees the law department. The SWB pays her $165,000 a year, taxpayer money.

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But multiple sources tell FOX 8 News that, at one point, she was both working for SWB and lobbying on behalf of Harrah's. Those sources, close to City Hall, say Russell met with council members, trying to get them on board with the Harrah's extension.

"I don't know the general counsel," Kennedy tells us. "But the Sewerage and Water Board is clearly related to New Orleans, the Sewerage and Water Board is going to go to the city, and they're going to be coming to the federal government, through Senator Cassidy and I, asking for extra money to help them fix the system. Well, maybe they could start by negotiating a deal that's fair to the people of New Orleans with Harrah's."

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The report also had some classic Kennedy quotes.

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I would never give those frickers my account and routing number

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The only things I have on auto-draft are amounts that never change.

Sharon W Broome needs to be removed from office!

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My councilman got involved yesterday.

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Take a look at the letter Joe G sent to them... it's embedded in this article

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LINK

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It's been a long time, perhaps never, since we had a councilperson who could write that intelligent and direct of a beatdown letter. Maybe things will be looking up soon. Maybe we will at least have a competent council.

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I was overcharged for five years by getting a bill for the house next door which had a pool and sprinkler system. It was consistently around $175 a month. Because it was always that amount, I just thought water was insanely high in Baton Rouge. Discovered the meter issue when I renovated my kitchen. Now my bill is consistently $80 every month. Asked Water Board for a billing audit and their response was that I actually probably owed them money but they would let it go. I overpaid for five years (60 mos) about $100 a month so $6,000 overpaid and they say I owe them money?

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Back when I lived in Katy, TX (i.e. one of the places of nirvana according to this board) I had a similar issue. We built a house and moved in. Centerpoint Energy handles natural gas. Every month, I got a bill, I paid it. It was probably twice as much as the cost of gas service from Atmos when I lived in LA... but I was new to the area, so I just assumed it cost more there.

About 2 years after we moved in, I get a certified letter from Centerpoint. They had some kind of audit done and realized my account was set up as a commercial account (their error) instead of a residential account.

Now, this is where it differs from BR and NOLA.

They re-calculated all of my monthly bills with the new rate and determined the amount they overcharged me. They offered me two options.

1) They would cut a check for the amount

2) They could apply it as a credit to my account, and if I chose this option, they would increase the amount of the credit by 25% as basically an "I'm sorry" move.

I chose the credit. Didn't pay a gas bill for a couple of years.

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Take a look at the letter Joe G sent to them... it's embedded in this article

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I posted it. Good read. He's not playing.

Thanks Uptown and Lakeview.

Gretna has gps meters. Very effficient and no meter readers needed

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I've also seen the reverse. Getting signed up for service and not getting a bill for over a year. They are so fricked up.

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We finished renovating November 2016 and did not receive our first bill until the following June or July.

That's ok, I'm sure our new Mayor will address it at the next SWB meeting.

Hopefully she's there, unless she can't be bothered to attend like her first one as mayor.