Dwp Commission

Mayor Bradley has nominated another black to the DWP Commission, selected strictly because she is black, after the City Council rightly rejected Lomax (Aug. 14). If that isn't the most blatant example of racism and bigotry, I don't know what is. What about choosing the best qualified individual, regardless of color? I'm sick and tired of this race issue being a one-way street. AL FERGUSON, Caliente

A divided Los Angeles City Council threw up a last-minute roadblock to a planned ballot measure that would give council members the power to fire the top executive at the Department of Water and Power. The 15-member council failed to get the eight votes required to put the proposal on the March 8 ballot after Councilman Jose Huizar said officials were "overreacting" to recent frustrations with the DWP. Under the City Charter, the mayor nominates a general manager to run the DWP. Although the council has the power to confirm or reject that nominee, it lacks the ability to remove the person after he or she has the job. "Giving the council more say over that general manager is going to make the situation even more political," Huizar said.

Officials at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power plan to give a consulting contract to the agency's outgoing general manager that would pay him the same salary he earned as its top executive. Days after he resigned, H. David Nahai is slated to receive nearly $6,300 per week as a consultant to the utility. The DWP commission, whose five members are appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, is scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss the plan. DWP commission President Lee Kanon Alpert said he asked Nahai to stay on as a consultant for the rest of the year.

The union that represents thousands of employees at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has come out against a plan to ask city voters to create an independent watchdog at the nation's largest municipally owned utility. Working Californians, a campaign committee that pushes issues on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, ran full-page newspaper advertisements this week accusing the City Council of rushing a so-called ratepayer advocate onto the March 8 ballot.

The union that represents thousands of employees at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has come out against a plan to ask city voters to create an independent watchdog at the nation's largest municipally owned utility. Working Californians, a campaign committee that pushes issues on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, ran full-page newspaper advertisements this week accusing the City Council of rushing a so-called ratepayer advocate onto the March 8 ballot.

Re "Greenhouse gasbags," editorial, May 16 Your editorial fails to accurately portray Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's stellar environmental record and the transformation already underway under his leadership. While others looked for loopholes in last year's state law to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, L.A. decided to end its reliance on dirty coal from Utah's Intermountain Power Plant by 2027. We've tripled our usage of renewable energy over the last one and half years, and we're on track to reach 20% clean energy by 2010.

A key City Council committee voted Tuesday to restructure electrical rates at the Department of Water and Power so that families who live in higher-temperature neighborhoods pay less for power. On a 4-1 vote, the Energy and Environment Committee recommended that the council approve the plan, which would give a break to portions of the San Fernando Valley, the Eastside and South Los Angeles. Councilwoman Wendy Greuel voted against the plan, saying it relied on a study that was commissioned 14 years ago. "I want the DWP to provide me with the information, or the data, that indicates that they've had some review done since that study was issued in 1994," she said.

Now that the heated rhetoric surrounding the DWP rate hike has cooled, it's time to discuss the urgent need to hire a permanent general manager for the Department of Water and Power. As the recently appointed interim DWP leader, Austin Beutner, has observed, having nine managers in a 10-year period has not been a recipe for success for the agency. No one would dispute this statement. I was DWP's general manager and DWP commission president; I know that without longevity and continuity in this post, the agency cannot hope to make progress in achieving essential transformations.

A divided Los Angeles City Council threw up a last-minute roadblock to a planned ballot measure that would give council members the power to fire the top executive at the Department of Water and Power. The 15-member council failed to get the eight votes required to put the proposal on the March 8 ballot after Councilman Jose Huizar said officials were "overreacting" to recent frustrations with the DWP. Under the City Charter, the mayor nominates a general manager to run the DWP. Although the council has the power to confirm or reject that nominee, it lacks the ability to remove the person after he or she has the job. "Giving the council more say over that general manager is going to make the situation even more political," Huizar said.

With hot-weather months drawing near, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is scheduled to move ahead today with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's crackdown on excessive water use, boosting fines for those who violate city water laws and imposing new restrictions on anyone with a garden hose. The proposed "drought busters" law, which comes up for a vote by the five-member DWP commission, would double water-usage fines for residential customers and quadruple them for businesses and apartment building owners.

Now that the heated rhetoric surrounding the DWP rate hike has cooled, it's time to discuss the urgent need to hire a permanent general manager for the Department of Water and Power. As the recently appointed interim DWP leader, Austin Beutner, has observed, having nine managers in a 10-year period has not been a recipe for success for the agency. No one would dispute this statement. I was DWP's general manager and DWP commission president; I know that without longevity and continuity in this post, the agency cannot hope to make progress in achieving essential transformations.

Officials at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power plan to give a consulting contract to the agency's outgoing general manager that would pay him the same salary he earned as its top executive. Days after he resigned, H. David Nahai is slated to receive nearly $6,300 per week as a consultant to the utility. The DWP commission, whose five members are appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, is scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss the plan. DWP commission President Lee Kanon Alpert said he asked Nahai to stay on as a consultant for the rest of the year.

A key City Council committee voted Tuesday to restructure electrical rates at the Department of Water and Power so that families who live in higher-temperature neighborhoods pay less for power. On a 4-1 vote, the Energy and Environment Committee recommended that the council approve the plan, which would give a break to portions of the San Fernando Valley, the Eastside and South Los Angeles. Councilwoman Wendy Greuel voted against the plan, saying it relied on a study that was commissioned 14 years ago. "I want the DWP to provide me with the information, or the data, that indicates that they've had some review done since that study was issued in 1994," she said.

With hot-weather months drawing near, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is scheduled to move ahead today with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's crackdown on excessive water use, boosting fines for those who violate city water laws and imposing new restrictions on anyone with a garden hose. The proposed "drought busters" law, which comes up for a vote by the five-member DWP commission, would double water-usage fines for residential customers and quadruple them for businesses and apartment building owners.

Re "Greenhouse gasbags," editorial, May 16 Your editorial fails to accurately portray Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's stellar environmental record and the transformation already underway under his leadership. While others looked for loopholes in last year's state law to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, L.A. decided to end its reliance on dirty coal from Utah's Intermountain Power Plant by 2027. We've tripled our usage of renewable energy over the last one and half years, and we're on track to reach 20% clean energy by 2010.

It could take decades for officials to fully upgrade the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's sagging electrical system, opening the possibility of a reprise of the massive outages that deprived more than 79,000 customers of service last summer, according to two recent reports obtained by The Times.

It could take decades for officials to fully upgrade the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's sagging electrical system, opening the possibility of a reprise of the massive outages that deprived more than 79,000 customers of service last summer, according to two recent reports obtained by The Times.

LOS ANGELES Mayor James K. Hahn on Friday appointed Police Commissioner and lawyer Silvia Saucedo to the city commission overseeing the Department of Water and Power to replace Leland Wong. Wong, a prolific political fundraiser and former director of government relations for Kaiser Permanente, resigned from the water and power commission in January after Kaiser officials said an investigation showed he had misused HMO funds for political purposes.

Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn appointed his nominees to three of the city's most important commissions Friday, stocking the boards that govern the airport, the harbor and the Department of Water and Power with many appointees who served under the last two administrations. The 17 nominees have at least 16 previous commission appointments among them, reflecting Hahn's comfort with City Hall insiders.