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"Eight months (after her appointment), the governor called me to his office and said, 'We don't want all those questions. We don't want to be on the front page of the paper. I know the place is corrupt, but I need Francis Heitmeier's four votes or five votes that he controls,'" Wilson alleged. "I said, 'Thank you, very much. I'll see you later.'"

Asked if such a conversation ever took place, Foster, now a former governor, told Cybercast News Service: "Of course not. That's a total fabrication.

"I put Peggy on (the levee board) because she had a reputation as a crusader," Foster explained. "But she was making personal attacks against all the board members, and they were all getting ready to quit en masse."

Heitmeier recalled the situation similarly.

"I didn't have anything to do with her getting kicked off the board. I think she brought it on herself, and what she's saying there is totally erroneous and wrong," Heitmeier said.

"I think she had made every member of that board mad," Heitmeier said in reference to Wilson. "I don't even remember who they all were at this time, but they all went to the governor and threatened to quit."

Foster, however, admitted that it "would not surprise me" if some of Wilson's charges of corruption on the levee board were true.

"Levee boards are notorious," Foster said, "If you don't watch them, they can very quickly drift into doing things that benefit the members and not the levee district. And, I've got to tell you, the Orleans Levee Board had that reputation for years."

As governor, Foster said he focused on cleaning up the board because of its reputation.

"Quite frankly, the Orleans Levee Board was always a thorn in my side, early on," Foster explained, "in that they really didn't spend as much time as I thought they should, taking care of business."

Foster said he tried to replace board members whose terms had expired with individuals he considered "above reproach," including a nun, a retired four-star general and a retired Corps of Engineers executive who had extensive experience with the management of levees.

Heitmeier, a Democrat, praised the former Republican governor's efforts.

"They went from a $6 million deficit to a surplus," Heitmeier said. "They brought the legislative auditor in to work with them every day to go over everything they did to make sure that they met all the rules and requirements."

Heitmeier also credited Jim Huey, the selection of Foster to be the new board president, for his dedication to integrity. Huey did not return calls to his office seeking comment. Calls to the levee board office were not answered.

Wilson and the many other critics of the levee board may not understand the group's purpose, Heitmeier said. "The levee board does not build the levees down here. The Corps of Engineers builds the levees. The Corps of Engineers inspects the levees. The levee board cuts the grass," Heitmeier said. "That's what they do. They cut the grass."

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