As debris removal in East Baton Rouge Parish drags on nearly seven weeks after record-level flood waters inundated the area, the city-parish has lost its director of environmental services, the agency that heads up the debris removal process.
Karen Khonsari resigned earlier this month after a little more than one year on the job. Chief Administrative Officer William Daniel says Khonsari resigned for personal reasons and that she had been “doing a great job. … We will miss her.”
Khonsari could not be reached for comment today. Adam Smith has been named interim director of environmental services, and Daniel says he does not intend to fill the position permanently, as the current administration only has three months left in office.
“I don’t think I could hire anyone to take this position for just three months,” he says.
Khonsari was one of six administrators hired in August 2015 by the city-parish to head the newly created departments that were formerly the Department of Public Works. The city-parish broke up the cumbersome agency last year in an effort to streamline operations and increase efficiency. Khonsari, an environmental engineer, and her five fellow department heads were described at the time as “rock star” hires.
Daniel says Khonsari’s departure has not hampered debris removal efforts, which he says are on pace. As of Wednesday morning, contractors hired by the city-parish had removed 1.3 million cubic yards of debris from neighborhoods and streets in East Baton Rouge Parish and 164 debris removal trucks were on the street.
That’s not including some 270,000 cubic yards of debris that contractors for the state have removed from state-owned roadways like Perkins Road.
“It’s going well,” Daniel says. “But there is still a lot more to do, and we’re doing everything we can to get it off the streets.”
—Stephanie Riegel
