The former top New Orleans plumbing official pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing more than $100,000 from the Sewerage & Water Board by pocketing the fees plumbers had to pay for work permits.
Jay Arnold was suspended in November 2021 after WWL-TV reported that he and one of the inspectors at his office engaged in a web of self-negotiation with local plumbers to issue permits and inspect each other’s work.
The FBI searched Arnold’s office at S&WB and confiscated all outstanding plumbing permits and inspection records, which then existed only on paper and index cards.
At the time, there was no computerized record in S&WB’s plumbing department, not even a database of what records existed. This appeared to help Arnold keep his alleged arrangement with plumbers a secret.
He was indicted by the government in May.
“Arnold would direct plumbers to make him payments for the fees required to obtain plumbing permits,” the federal fee documents state. “Arnold would keep the payments for his personal use and then have S&WB issue the permits without S&WB receiving the required fees.”
For more than a decade, Arnold, a Harahan resident, ran the Sanitary Inspections and Permissions Department of the City of New Orleans like a fief. It was the only building permit office housed at the Sewerage & Water Board rather than at City Hall. And Arnold was responsible for all city sanitation inspections, though he hasn’t had a license to inspect in Louisiana since at least 2016.
www.nola.com
https://www.nola.com/news/former-top-s-wb-plumbing-official-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-100-000/article_4d682646-16c8-11ee-af10-4f0ba871438d.html
