A former New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board employee has been indicted on theft charges. The Sewerage and Water Board confirmed James Arnold was terminated back in February 2022 after a federal investigation was launched into allegations of him stealing permit fees. Arnold was indicted in a bill of information earlier this week. The Sewerage and Water Board issued the following statement about Arnold’s indictment: “Mr. Arnold was placed on emergency suspension without pay on 11/02/2021. His employment was terminated on 2/03/2022. “The Sewerage and Water Board fully cooperated with a federal investigation and we trust justice will be served. “As Executive Director Ghassan Korban has said from the beginning, ‘The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans leadership condemns any illegal or unethical activity or behavior by any employee.'”SWBNO also reorganized the internal structure of the Plumbing Department. In October 2022, the utility moved the Plumbing Department into Customer Service to improve organizational structure with our priorities.”We revised our outside employment policy for the Plumbing Department to prohibit work on utility service inspections or connections of any kind within Orleans Parish. We have also updated our utility-wide policy to clarify outside work expectations across departments.”To safeguard against this happening in the future and increase transparency and accountability to the permitting process, SWBNO signed a CEA with the City of New Orleans at the end of 2022, which will shift the plumbing application and permitting process from an internal manual function, to NOLA One Stop online. “Final details of this project are in progress, and we expect full-roll out towards the end of June.”
A former New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board employee has been indicted on theft charges.
The Sewerage and Water Board confirmed James Arnold was terminated back in February 2022 after a federal investigation was launched into allegations of him stealing permit fees.
Arnold was indicted in a bill of information earlier this week.
The Sewerage and Water Board issued the following statement about Arnold’s indictment:
“Mr. Arnold was placed on emergency suspension without pay on 11/02/2021. His employment was terminated on 2/03/2022.
“The Sewerage and Water Board fully cooperated with a federal investigation and we trust justice will be served.
“As Executive Director Ghassan Korban has said from the beginning, ‘The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans leadership condemns any illegal or unethical activity or behavior by any employee.’
“SWBNO also reorganized the internal structure of the Plumbing Department. In October 2022, the utility moved the Plumbing Department into Customer Service to improve organizational structure with our priorities.
“We revised our outside employment policy for the Plumbing Department to prohibit work on utility service inspections or connections of any kind within Orleans Parish. We have also updated our utility-wide policy to clarify outside work expectations across departments.
“To safeguard against this happening in the future and increase transparency and accountability to the permitting process, SWBNO signed a CEA with the City of New Orleans at the end of 2022, which will shift the plumbing application and permitting process from an internal manual function, to NOLA One Stop online.
“Final details of this project are in progress, and we expect full-roll out towards the end of June.”