La. Voters Deciding on Levee Boards

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Louisiana voters in early returns overwhelmingly supported consolidation of New Orleans area's levee boards, the government agencies whose politically appointed members took criticism after Hurricane Katrina for failing to maintain the area's levees and floodwalls.

A proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot would combine 10 southeast Louisiana boards into two — one for each bank of the Mississippi River — and require that their members have expertise in engineering, geology and hydrology.

With about 4 percent of precincts reporting, 77 percent of voters supported the measure, and 23 percent opposed it.

After Katrina breached New Orleans' levees last August, the boards were criticized as disjointed, full of cronyism and patronage, and badly lacking in technical knowledge.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061001/ap_on_el_st_lo/new_orleans_levees_9