NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)- Right now, all eyes are on the Sewerage and Water Board yet again, for a controversial issue. After investigating some fraudulent behavior, a report by the New Orleans Inspector General’s Office is out.

It’s not a good morning for the Sewerage and Water Board. Allegedly the staff was misusing handicap parking tags to park near the SWB office on St. Joseph Street. The report detailing their misuse is now being released.

After investigating, the Office of Inspector General found that 26 vehicles that belonged to SWB employees or their relatives were using a handicap hangtag to park in a space close to the building. They also found that they were parking in metered parking spaces where the City of New Orleans would have been making money off of normal paying patrons.
In fact, these 26 SWB employees are depriving the City of about $132,957 per year.

The report says that 19 of the cars were not entitled to any handicap parking privilege and the other seven, who legitimately possessed a handicap hang-tag parked in the space more than the allotted three-hour free parking benefit.

So with these findings in mind, here’s what the inspector general is recommending.

All employees must pay the parking rate. If you don’t, you’ll get a ticket. Employees who are not handicapped and are using a hang tag to park closer to the building should be ticketed as well. Lastly, a car with a legit handicap hangtag that is parking in a space but, exceeds the three-hour free rate without paying for extra time, will get a ticket too.

This all happened between October 27, 2021, through November 4, 2021.
No response yet from the Sewerage and Water Board on this matter.
We will keep you posted on new details.