As expected, the L.A. City Council approved the changes requested by the DWP that will cost you if you don't conserve, according to their formula.
"L.A. City Council approves DWP rate changes; In an effort to cut the city's water use by 15%, the base water allocation will decrease by 15% and the cost for usage above that will increase by 44%," by Bettina Boxall 5:24 pm PDT, April 17, 2009, L.A. Times.
There was some spirited discussion on this and only Council Members Janice Hahn and Dennis Zine voted against it. For some reason, I just don't happen to trust the presentation made by the DWP and David Nahai, the general manager.
There was another story under "Environment" in the L.A. TIMES this morning by the same reporter, Bettina Boxall, "California water deliveries creeping up, " http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2009/04/water-deliveries-.html that told of the state being less strict on the amount of water that would be allotted to Los Angeles, and one of the council members asked David Nahai if he was taking that into account in coming up with the measures that were requested. I only heard a part of the meeting but I did not hear if there was a direct answer to that question. Those guys are always squirming out of getting caught by their own lies and mistakes, so maybe there was no direct answer. That change was too recent to have been taken into account by the current proposal submitted.
But the Council appears to have bought the whole thing like I predicted that they would the last time it came before them. Janice Hahn was not as angry as last time but still stuck to her guns on how everyone waited until there was such an urgency until acting and then they add in a rate increase. I don't know if Hahn could have done more in spite of not being supported in her concern over the water shortage looming, and I am just giving her the benefit of a doubt and say she did all she could. Otherwise, why should she complain about no one acting earlier?
Read the two articles and you will see where this puts us all. Some council members, starting with Zine, said that the DWP bills just don't tell you clearly with all the symbols and codes how much you can use or what the limit is before it will be past the limit. That was what he wanted made clear and was not pleased with the way they present bills that cannot easily be deciphered.
The answer there for DWP is "because they don't care- they don't have to." And that's paraphrasing actress and comedienne Lily Tomlin's telephone operator character on the old, very old, "Laugh-In" television show as she explained the telephone company's customer service. Truer words were never spoken.
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