DWP Commission vote is 4-0 for Villaraigosa's Rate Hike request.

And you thought they were concerned about the rate payer? Guess again.

"DWP board imposes first of four electricity rate hikes- The increases over the next year are planned to help the nation's largest municipal utility cover its financial commitments and continue Mayor Villaraigosa's plan for securing more renewable power," By David Zahniser, March 19, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dwp-rates19-2010mar19,0,2229372.story

The L.A. Times reports here on Thursday's meeting of the Commissioners of the DWP where we come up short again as the consumer. The DWP commission President Lee Kanon Alpert is the same guy who approved and defended the consultant's contract for S. David Nahai, the ex-General Manager of the DWP st full pay for 4 months. "Outgoing DWP chief Nahai would keep full salary as consultant under proposal," October 5, 2009, by David Zahniser, L.A. TIMES. Reported in that story - http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/10/outgoing-dwp-executive-nahai-would-keep-full-salary-as-consultant-under-proposal-.html

Villaraigosa spokesman Matt Szabo confirmed that Nahai will continue to earn his current salary, $326,686.

Under that scenario, Nahai would earn nearly $82,000 by Dec. 31 as a consultant. [Updated at 2:34 p.m.: The contract would end at the close of 2009.]

You would not think that Alpert would be taking us for fools with this deal last year that could have been an economically reasonable "hourly" arrangement to possibly SAVE us (Yes, that's a new concept for them) some money. On that deal, all that Nahai had to do on his end of the deal was to be accessible for consultation by phone or fax during "normal business hours." Who wouldn't want that kind of deal for their own work arrangement- and you still could be available for another job as I believe Nahai had, too. As a lawyer, Alpert is probably not any dummy in business, so the answer has to be it's HIS choice and HIS arrogance operating here as being a complete jackass when it comes to any compliance with a fiduciary duty to the rate payers of the city. It's like he is an extension of Mayor Villaraigosa here, who could not have appointed better puppets to this commission. Read the following from that October story and you see the absolute crap that's served up to the public as a reason that is supposed to justify the Nahai consultant deal, and a sweetheart of a deal it is for Nahai. (What are the secrets he must know about that makes this sucha a costly price for what they want him to keep quiet about?)

Alpert said Nahai's contract does not require a vote by the commission. Nevertheless, he said he wanted the matter on today’s agenda for transparency and described the contract as “a very normal type of business transaction when a general manager of an organization resigns.”

“He may have knowledge we want to pick his brain on,” Alpert said.

So, there's a little background on Alpert, as all the Commissioners, he is appointed by Antonio Villaraigosa, so there's another not-so-subtle clue that it's bad news for us. And in this story you see almost the identical B.S. that results in the score, DWP: 1, RATEPAYERS: 0.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's appointees at the Department of Water and Power took the first step Thursday toward imposing electric rate increases of up to 28%, despite complaints from neighborhood activists and business groups.

On a 4-0 vote, the board agreed to increase the cost of electricity by 0.8 of a cent per kilowatt hour, the first of four increases planned over the next year to help the nation's largest municipal utility cover its financial commitments and continue Villaraigosa's plan for securing more renewable power.

This is from the same DWP that's paying it's employees vastly higher wages than the rest of the city employess get for comparable jobs with 5 years of raises coming to them while there's 4,000 positions planned for city layoffs. There is so much wrong with this picture. And again we come to the Mayor who got the so-called "plan" he has to complet that's continuing to please "some" group, but definitely not the consumers.

The money generated by the increase would enable Villaraigosa to carry out a longtime political promise: securing 20% of the DWP's power from renewable
sources, such as solar and wind energy, by Dec. 31.

All this is something that Villaraigosa puts above the real-life impact this has on the rest of us, being committed to that obviouisly more than he ever was when it came to being an attentive and conscientious mayor for Los Angeles for all his nearly 5 years in office.

Once all of the increases are in place next year, residential customers would
see increases in their bills ranging from 8.8% to 28.4%, depending on where they
live and how much power they consume, according to data provided by the mayor's
office. Businesses are expected to receive increases of 21% to 22% over the same
time period.

Read the rest of this story that also notes the interests of the Sierra Club that entirely disregards the economic conditions that are becoming more strained for real people in the city compared to projected enviromental impact. These are people that will always blindly follow environmental interests no matter the costs and impact to people. There's a part here in the impact on the L.A. schools costs, as if their budget was not already deep into the red already.

Call the Council members to reinforce your opposition to higher bills and maybe the Mayor could back off of HIS goals for a change. L.A. City Council contact information list for 2010 Maybe Tony could start to think about people who don't happen to be getting paid like he is, and able to absorb the costs that he can. That is, those of the regular inhabitants of Los Angeles who are not like him. They are not paid for as part of the job benefits of the Mayor, like police bodyguards travelling everywhere with him, free transportation by car and air, and travel with the best lodging accommodations around. He is so unlike us, I suppose, and a lot of what's happening is for his goals, personal and political, with the general public mattering not a bit in the grand scheme of things.