For the second time this year, the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority board of commissioners does not have the legally required number of members to conduct business.
The issue follows the passage of two new laws that changed how the agency is governed. Act 402 created a path for local governments to pull out of the RTA. And Act 474 shrank the board from eight members to seven and changed how commissioners are selected.
The new laws were passed after revelations of a contracting scandal early this year that left the board short of a legal quorum — the minimum number of members to conduct business — for nearly two months .
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In February, The Times-Picayune reported on an internal RTA investigation that found a top agency official had approved about $1 million in payments to a contractor without the required board approval. Shortly after the report was published, all three members representing Jefferson Parish resigned from the board. Former New Orleans City Attorney Sunni LeBeouf, one of the city’s representatives, also resigned. The resignations left the board short of a quorum and unable to conduct public business. Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng appointed replacements for the resigned members in March, but she indicated those appointments would be short-lived as she planned to pull the parish out of the board. But at the time, state law did not provide a mechanism for her to do so. A state House bill, sponsored during the spring by Rep. Joe Stagni, R-Kenner, provided that mechanism. The bill passed and took effect in late May.