State revokes license of contractor tied to costly water main breaks, boil advisories

BATON ROUGE, La. — For years, JLJ Construction LLC has been a go-to contractor for the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans. But after a string of costly mistakes, state regulators revoked the company’s licenses and blamed it for some of the boil water advisories that have become a major nuisance for city residents and businesses.

The Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors stripped JLJ and owner James Jones of their licenses last month, citing a “pattern of gross deviation” from required standards. At the heart of its case, the licensing board alleged Jones and JLJ were responsible for a major water main break last December that left Little Woods residents under yet another boil water advisory.

Records show the contractor on the water-line repair project at Read and Hayne boulevards was not JLJ, but rather Andersen Design + Build. Photos of the project, however, show it was JLJ’s trucks out there doing the work when the busted line flooded a ditch along the curb on Read.

Jones blamed Andersen Design owner Jon Andersen, who was also charged with violations by the contractors’ licensing board, but quickly left the meeting after WWL’s camera videoed him, before his case was heard.

“Jon Andersen was the one who broke all that, and I came out there to straighten it out, and this is the appreciation I get,” Jones told WWL Louisiana in an interview.

Andersen did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

But the problems with Jones’ work for the Sewerage and Water Board go beyond the Dec. 4 incident. JLJ has been called in front of the state licensing board five other times. The Sewerage and Water Board found a pattern of work that failed to meet its specifications. And state officials blamed Jones’ company for multiple boil water advisories.

“The City of New Orleans has had several boil water advisories and had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to correct these,” said Kevin Landreneau, the licensing board’s prosecutor.

Jones has worked on Sewerage and Water Board projects for decades. But a recent internal agency audit of those projects found that 70 of 100 water-valve installation jobs completed by JLJ between 2017 and 2024 failed to meet the agency’s specifications.

The agency alleged that on most of those jobs, JLJ installed left-hand valves that could be purchased at supply shops for a fraction of the cost of the specialized right-hand valves and valve boxes the Sewerage and Water Board requires for its system.

“I use the valve that the supply house sells me,” Jones said in an interview with WWL after his licensing board hearing. “Any valve that Sewerage and Water Board (required), they got to inspect.”

What’s more, some of the valve boxes were not the right size and weren’t installed flush with the surrounding grade, the Sewerage and Water Board audit found.

“All those projects have to go out (for bid) again to be corrected,” said licensing board executive director Brad Hassert. “Which costs money, which costs time, which slows down other projects, and potentially could have some impact on projects further down the line that were done improperly.”

The problems extend beyond faulty valves and broken water mains. Jones was hired to install a sewer line on Elmira Avenue in Algiers in 2021. He told WWL he placed the line where property owners told him to, adding it was installed under the sidewalk. But the Sewerage and Water Board alleged the work was done under private property instead of under the public right-of-way, costing $175,000 to fix.

Jones denied wrongdoing and said the agency’s complaints are exaggerated. He also claimed he’s being unfairly targeted because of his race.

“I’m the only Black in this city that’s capable of doing this kind of work, because I got all the equipment,” Jones said.

Asked if he can be trusted to do the work correctly, Jones told WWL: “I’ve been doing it 20-something years. You know I can do it. I’ve done this work. It’s all I do.”

Jones maintains he did what was approved by the Sewerage and Water Board inspector on all his jobs and stands by his work.

“They had the inspector sitting out there all the time. If I did something wrong, what you got to inspector out there for?” he said.

Indeed, records show Sewerage and Water Board inspector Vincent Harris approved all of JLJ’s valve-installation jobs at the time they were completed. When asked about Harris’ role, the Sewerage and Water Board declined to make him available for an interview but said in a statement, “We have addressed the performance issues related to this employee and have taken appropriate corrective action.”

WWL Louisiana left separate messages for Harris to hear his side of the story, but didn’t hear back from him.

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