VIDALIA &8212; The special session of the Louisiana Legislature saw a whole lot of barking recently and a pretty good bite as well.

And while opinion is mixed on the lawmakers&8217; performance, the passage of a bill to unify the Southeast Louisiana levee boards, mostly, tells Sen. Noble Ellington, D-Winnsoboro, the session was a success.

&8220;I was very pleased,&8221; he said. &8220;That&8217;s what we needed to get done.&8221;

At stake was $12 million in federally appropriated funds conditioned on the boards&8217; consolidation.

The bill, which ultimately created two levee boards &8212; one for the east bank of the Mississippi River and another for the west bank &8212; was written by Sen. Walter Boasso, R-Arabi. The original draft called for a single board to oversee all levees in greater New Orleans and all of Southeast Louisiana.

The people of the state must vote on a constitutional amendment before the bill takes effect.

This came under attack from several sides, most vocally the New Orleans west bank Legislative delegation, which vowed to torpedo any bill that didn&8217;t grant the west bank autonomy.

Ellington said Boasso did well to keep the spirit of the bill intact.

&8220;They worked it very hard, and after

it made it through the Senate in the house,&8221; he said. &8220;He was able to keep most of the amendments off&8230; it had a pretty good run.&8221;

And while measures to reduce the size of the New Orleans government failed, as did a housing initiative Gov. Kathleen Blanco had been pushing, Ellington pointed to some other successes he considered important.

&8220;I think the election (bill) was very important,&8221; he said. &8220;My friend did a great job of managing to the get the legislation passed&8230; under very trying circumstances.&8221;

The friend he referred to is Secretary of State Al Ater, who help engineer bills that allow New Orleans area voters to participate in the April city elections without having to be home.

The election measures all expire in July.

Ellington said it has taken him a couple of days to recover from the frenetic pace of the special session.

&8220;I got home Friday night and was home Saturday, yesterday and today,&8221; he said. &8220;So that&8217;s a pretty good break. But I was exhausted.&8221;