DWP Board Criticizes Agency Expenditures

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is spending too much on lobbyists and on a fitness center and writing classes for its workers, board members complained Tuesday.

Board member Nicholas Patsaouras cited contracts totaling more than $2.2 million for lobbyists in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

His board colleague, H. David Nahai, questioned a $465,000 contract with Aquila Fitness Consulting Systems for the DWP’s fitness center covering two years and eight months of services. A vote on the contract was delayed.

Patsaouras said some lobbying is important, but that the DWP is spending too much.

“What are these people doing?” Patsaouras asked during a hearing on the issue Tuesday. Board members “have been here for three months. Has anybody been exposed to any legislation?” In comparison, Patsaouras said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where he previously was a board member, spends $485,000 annually on federal lobbying efforts and about $385,000 on state legislative lobbying.

In addition to in-house lobbyists, estimated by Patsaouras to cost about $300,000 to maintain, DWP General Manager Ron Deaton reported that the agency has a three-year contract for federal lobbying with the firm Patton Boggs for $1.3 million, or roughly $29,000 per month.

For state lobbying, the agency also has a one-year, $750,000 contract with Public Policy Advocates and the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, and a one-year $130,000 contract with Conservation Strategy Group.

Deaton and other DWP officials said some of the cost is for specialized legal services, such as seeking recovery of money owed to the agency and protecting its interests in dealing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

In arguing for a less expensive lobbying effort, however, Patsaouras cited testimony before the board from three developers who complained about a backlog in obtaining DWP approval for construction projects because of a lack of staffing.

“The recurring theme is we are short-staffed,” Patsaouras said. “I have a problem when I pay some attorney to have dinner with Willie Brown in Sacramento and I don’t have money for electrical engineers” to process development plans.

Nahai was equally put off by the contract with a fitness consultant for a gym used by about 140 of the department’s 9,000 employees each day.

“I took a look at this and I thought it was April Fools Day,” he said. “It just displays a kind of Marie Antoinette insensitivity that is difficult to support.”

The board members also criticized, but approved, a $180,000 contract with a consultant to provide employees with training in writing skills for 36 months.