Recall Mayor Villaraigosa? Not So Fast. Think about what that means.

Well, in case you haven't noticed, the Mayor is not having too good a time lately. First he scolded the City Council with a warning about the need to approve the request for the DWP rate hikes or that would be creating a very direct path to bankruptcy. That was in a report to the Council and it did not sit well with Ed Reyes for one, so the messenger got a bit of a dressing down on that topic.

Then the Mayor said that bankruptcy was not what he meant and it was ony a report for the Council- but it was freely distributed to the press, too. And by the way, did Tony mean that the Council gets one version and the public receives something different? Not a good outcome no matter how he tried to spin it.

Then the Council shut down that DWP rate hike (the first of a schedule of 4 increases) and proposed some lower increases until they got a better explanation of what exactly is the need attached to the charge. Then DWP's commissioners got to it during a late afternoon session, decided to bump their request back up and pass over what City Council had approved.

Next, on that same evening well after the sun had set, the Council saw the reply and shut the DWP down flat. Even Council Member Herb Wesson, usually trying to appear as the more wise and calm, collected member of the Council was angry, saying, "We are pissed," in remarking to the Council how the DWP had acted and what was to come.

So City Council held firm, rejected the counter-proposal and NO rate hike for DWP customers can happen until the next quarter, July. It was clearly a showdown that the Mayor gambled on and lost. So even the Council-approved, reduced-level rate hike vanished as a result of the DWP trying to make the big grab and losing.

All of this was from the direction of the Mayor- he appoints each of the DWP commission members and you can be certain that the Mayor's office was calling the shots during the breaks- much like major league baseball managers relay their instructions after being ejected from games. Everybody at DWP management is a puppet of someone, either the union or the mayor or both when there is agreement. The only ones coming up short are the DWP customers- us.

Then Tony ordered a 2-day closing for non-public safety work done in the City. That sounded like there was a super emergency that just came up that called for such drastic and sudden action. But there was a problem. Tony has no authority to make that order. At least to make the order that would be "enforceable." The City Charter often gets ignored in these moments of excitement. The Charter is to the City what the Constitution is to the U.S. government.

And don't forget that the unions had some contract provisions that were set up which were made to insulate them from losing days and losing pay. But then, Tony is not a man to let such details get in his way.

The closings were announced in the next day's Council meeting to be unenforceable. Not looking very good for the Mayor's choice of decisions.

So then somehow over $20 million dollars was found in some account or some re-calculation and the closings that were planned turned out not to be needed. Good one.

I forgot that Tony also made a sort of tactical error when the Council denied the DWP's requested rate hikes. The DWP (in another shady but regularly used deal) was supposed to transfer "surplus funds" to the city for the "general funds" that pay bills and payroll. Tony and the DWP said that the transfer was not able to happen now that the rate hikes were denied.

Sounds right? It's not. Tony's hikes were really for Tony's plan to make himself look good as a mayor in getting L.A. to go "green" in a big way and do it ahead of other cities. That cost money but who cares? Tony doesn't pay for it, we do. So the rate hikes and the transfer of a balance of $73 million dollars were not supposed to depend on each other to come through for all to happen.

But Tony said it did and his DWP man, Mr. Freeman, the real salesman or "hired gun" on DWP deals, as the case may be, said, "Can't do the money transfere because the rate hike did not go through." Of course somebody was lying and really, not just one person but entire sides, with Tony one of the usual suspects.

So it's all about retribution and picking up one's marbles to end the game and go home. Speakinf of marbles, have you noticed that the Mayor is making more and more conflicting announcements. Either he's got instant amnesia and figures everyone else is shaking the old Etch-a-Sketch, too, so we all start over with the plans he keeps changing on the fly, or he's losing a grip on reality for some chemical or organic related reason.

I don't know which, but there's something going on with the "ahhs, uuhhs and eehs punctuating his spoken communtications that are not written down. Reading is not to bad for him, but there's a lot of stalling in flight as he speaks off the cuff. Maybe that's why he never takes questions or he'd really be nailed to the wall very quicky, and I draw no parallels to any Jesus-like images or sacrifices Tony's made. Clearly, all that Tony has sacrificed during his time in office has been the well-being of the city and its people.


WHO WOULD REPLACE TONY FOR MAYOR? PROBABLY ANOTHER VERSION OF BAD NEWS.

City Council members are planning in their own minds some career climbs that include running for mayor when Tony is out of office in 3 years. Recalling him now would just give us more bad choices to push into a premature Mayoral race. We need time to build up some honest and helpful candidates. That goes for council members, too. Any current council member - and even Wendy Greuel, Controller- would like to try a shot at being the mayor and they don't cut it at all.

We need new CMs in the March 2011 election for the even numbered districts to replace these career ones now. In two more years after that, the odd numbered districts come u for election and a major change can happen.

Tony, as others have remarked, might welcome being recalled just to be done with the city problems that he never was dedicated to solving despite hiring enough aides and deputy mayors to run a few small countries. Sorry, we all will be suffering. A recall and special election campaign will waste money that's not there and give us inferior choices- maybe even worse ones.

That's L.A. and all you need to do is some lightweight Google searches to see that chaos is the order of the day. Meanwhile, the city council is busy trying to give away a fire engine to a worthy organization of local firefighers for a training function, but fire engines, at least as described in council meetings of the past few weeks, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to be fully equipped. Selling this for ONE DOLLAR is pure waste upon the tax payers- we can't afford this now. eBay is a place council members have remarked about when one city put up something of an expensive vehicle to get money in. LOS ANGELES is ALSO in such need and here's a perfect opportunity to get cash.

That was from yesterday's Budget and Finance Committee hearing and I don't know the outcome and have little expectation for them to do "what right" and that means "what makes sense" since that's a foreign concept in City Council chambers, practiced ever so infrequently so as to make news when the do so.

Well, enough meandering through topics. It's all pretty gloomy- and I wish I had a little time to write about Wendy Greuel, City Controller, and her interview on a news network. Just too wacky to believe, but they still talk as if we are trusting children. Not anymore we aren't.

So the DWP tried to run the ball into the end zone and came away empty.

That action that the DWP took in reponse to the City Council's rate hike determination left the DWP holding an empty bag. They tried to run the ball across the goal line for a "win" instead of a field goal to "tie," but were turned back by a firmly insistent City Council. There will be no DWP rate hikes for at least three months when July 1st is the earliest any increase could happen.

And aside from the "next time" that's coming, this action showed that there's some real backroom dealing going on here. There was a time yesterday when, through all the public comment of people saying how much of a burden the proposed hikes would be, especially on the business, that the contacted the Mayor's office for some refreshing of what the game plan would be. Apparently, the instructions were to go for the whole enchiliada and not settle for the side order that the Council presented to them.

The decision of the DWP Board just hit members of the Council wrong last night after the DWP decision came back to have the Council act on the change. CM Herb Wesson said, "We are pissed" and that about sums it up. Council heard public comment and really, they know this is all Antonio's sloppy management that's got no "plan" no matter how many times he refers to it.

The Mayor had gone through a lot of position changes, and I mean they only showed that somebody's not telling the accurate story, maybe even lying. The real thing that Tony wants is to make a name for himself and he already has done that, but it's on the extremely negative side of the scale. All this need to go green for requirments of the law in converting to cleaner power generations is HIS plan as far as timetables go. There is not any set progression of steps they have to follow at this time.

And by the way, the DWP has a BILLION dollars in reserve. Sounds like "a million" doesn't it? but a "billion dollars" is one THOUSAND million dollar bills (if there were such bills) a very big number. Imagine 1,000 persons going into Dodger Stadium or maybe Staples Center and each one has a million dollars on their person. That would be the ONE BILLION dollars dimension we speak of. Quite a lot of change, and the only chump around is the one who wants to have us believe the DWP is teetering on poverty. Hey, take a look at the "rate-payers" if you want to see people who feel wrongly relieved of their cash.

Well I have to say Ron Kaye (blog: http://ronkayela.com/ ) comes out again to put a lot of what I have thought all along. He's added lots more to fill us in on DWP numbers, labels, interpretations and real motives here. The fact that the Mayor is losing his grip on things should be nothing new.

He had a chance to do right, even as he was sworn in to his second term as July began. What happened? A suprise trip (to us) to South Africa with Lu Parker of KTLA news, and then Michael Jackson dies. There began the steady decline in the story of the Mayor's leadership. Add in another trip to Iceland and then a needless trip to Copenhagen where nothing was accomplished, nor even required to be attemped.

And every day the budget is going into the red at roughly $350,000 each day that nothing happens to stop it. So is it any surprise he has little credibility and is only what you might call the spotter to identify money for chums to collect as he lines up his "green energy" plan. And that benefit to be bestowed on his selections would be all that represents any plan, I would say.

Again, this situaton we have now is summed up well in today's posting from Ron Kaye:
"This April Fool's Joke Is No Laughing Matter," By Ron Kaye on April 1, 2010 5:04 AM. http://ronkayela.com/2010/04/this-april-fools-joke-is-no-la.html

L.A. Times reports DWP rate hike as 37% over four years.

"DWP plans 37% rate hike over four years to cover cost increases - The L.A. utility's managers unveiled the plan as the council's Energy and Environment Committee debated the mayor's proposal to boost rates to pay for renewable energy." By David Zahniser, March 26, 2010, L.A. TIMES,
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dwp-rates26-2010mar26,0,787576.story This story was from late on Thursday. On Friday, the city council voted 13-1 to reject the DWP's request for the first of 4 rate hikes so that they could look at it more carefully. The rate hikes may come, and from what I see from people in the know, the first one may be a reasonable result, but the others need to be checked and dissassembled to see what is there breakdown on the components. Lumping in all the ECAF into one mix covers up what's going on and prevents any analysis to see what kind of job the DWP is doing.

This was another example of the city council beginning to step back from the mayor more and more. The Mayor's influence is weakening as the council appears to recognize the mayor as a political liability these days, as more people see the results that the city's top elected official let happen.

Council members chastised the mayor for saying in a 14-page briefing paper that a rejection of the rate hike would force the city into bankruptcy since the utility would no longer be able to afford to make the general fund contribution. On Thursday, Villaraigosa disavowed use of the word "bankruptcy" yet continued to warn that unless his plan is approved, the city would run out of money by June 30.

Villaraigosa criticized foes of the rate hike for using his briefing paper as part of the debate, saying the report was meant for city staffers only. "That was another example of the kind of [political] opportunism I've seen in the last few days," he said

The problem with the mayor is that he tells so many different stories to so many different people he losses track of it all. The report that carried the bankruptcy reference that caused so much commotion was distributed to media and if it was supposed to be a restricted access document, it wasn't handled as such. Besides, this just shows the mayor's speaking with, and I use that "Lone Ranger" dialogue, a "forked tongue" and not being forthright. The last time I remember he said something about erroneous refrences to documents was when his "11% Mayor" L.A. Weekly story used his own calendar for the basis of calculation of his activity. The Mayor said, "They used the wrong calendar." Tsk, tsk, you are not supposed to have what sounds like a "real" book and the "other real book." Matt Szabo tried to cover up with another, "He misspoke, there's only one book," attempt to save the day.

The Mayor in one of his changes of personality, said he would never even USE the word, (bankruptcy). He sad that he would never allow that to happen." Well, if you run out of money to pay all the expenses that are due, it is going to happen. There is a lot going on in City Hall with the budget balancing attempts continuing while the DWP wants to slide in the requests for rate hikes that would keep raising your DWP bill.

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.

More on L.A. DWP rate hikes announced by Villaraigosa

There is a lot happening at City Hall and there's a lot of things that don't make sense there, more than usual, as the budget planning is moving along in terms of passage of time, though not much is happening in terms of actual action.

The DWP rate hikes that represent who-know-what were announced by the Mayor. Knowing the tendency for the Mayor to be the "All about me" Mayor, this rate hike seems more what HE wants to achieve more than what really needs to happen. You have to remember in all this that HE wants to come out looking good, even though his run here as Mayor should prove that he should not be elected to any other office again. But we are stuck with what we have and have to work thru it.

The DWP operates at a profit, or at least most people would call it that when they regularly have $200 million a year sent over to the city's General Fund. Whenever there's complaints of the expenses DWP runs up for it's employees, they say, it's covered by the rate payers. And on and on this condition goes, with money bled from the DWP over to the city and then, like now, the Mayor says "We need the rate hikes to pay for [ fill in the expense]."

Oh, one more thing that tells you something just doesn't sound right here. The DWP got the Council's approval of their raised for the next 5 years at a crucial time when other employees are wondering if they will be laid off. The Council is using DWP like a life boat, sending over employees to keep them from being laid off. Meanwhile, some executive sorts got raises of assorted amounts, 16% in one case, just because they now work for the DWP.

DWP at the council meeting today is reported to be able to take something like 440 more employees and they will have a total of 880 that they can take by June. This doesn't sound like DWP needs rate hikes - maybe some better management, like a new mayor is what's really needed, but we are stuck with what we have.

The real stories here that will tell you all the crap that goes on with DWP can be found in http://www.ronkayela.com/ That where there's a continued inquiry of the facts and revelations that the DWP or other city folks will not be giving to you, at least voluntarily.

The latest article is exactly on this topic, and Brian D'Arcy, the IBEW local union head there, will be interviewed on KCET Ch. 28 Thursday at 8 p.m. This has to be something to see if you persist in believing the city version of anything. The DWP, from the way it is run, really shows that the IBEW is in charge. The Mayor is not so much a victim as he is an accomplice. The union has so much power that they could shut the city down if they so decided, giving them lots of leverage in bargaining negotiations. You see the benefits they received, including the raises, so what do you think.

Don't forget that the DWP employees are paid anywhere from 20% t0 40% more than other city employees in comparable positions. So could some of this apparent access to money have been handled differently so the rate payers, i.e. residents and businesses, don't have to keep getting gouged for every dollar that can be found?

From RonKayeLA.com today:

"IBEW Union Boss Brian D'Arcy Talks About DWP Rate and Wakes on KCET, 8 p.m. Thursday,"
By Ron Kaye on March 17, 2010 2:45 PM
"Catch Brian D'Arcy and a Hard-hitting DWP Story on KCET's SoCal Connected, 8 p.m. Thursday, Channel 28"
http://ronkayela.com/2010/03/catch-brian-darcy-on-kcet-8-pm.html
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There are some ealier postings that are worth checking to make clear what is going on in a more realistic interpretation presented to you.

The local nonsensical happenings you might not have been aware of are noted here:

Fearmongering, Failure and the Politics of Change
By Ron Kaye on March 17, 2010 7:49 AM
http://ronkayela.com/2010/03/crime-sells-thats-the.html


But I like this one as really nailing down some blame for many or most of the problems.

There's Only One Word For Antonio's DWP Rate Hike Plan
By Ron Kaye on March 16, 2010 8:24 AM
http://ronkayela.com/2010/03/bullshiti-dont-know-how-to.html

The rate hikes have to be opposed and let your council members know. At the moment, the City Council have not approved the changes and it's their NO votes you want to see to shut this down.

There is a contact list for Council members in the sidebar under "City" items, but here is another link to make it easier on you:
http://lincolnquicknotes.blogspot.com/2010/02/la-city-council-contact-information.html Call any an all except Dennis Zine who said on a radio show last night that he was voting NO on this hike, so you don't have to convince him. He said Greig Smith also is voting NO. But the others need to hear the public's view.

More on Mayor Villaraigosa's DWP rate increase

The Mayor sure has no trouble presenting more charges to city residents via their DWP bills. More on that announcement from Monday by the Mayor.

"DWP rates may rise between 8% and 28% to pay for mayor's green initiatives - The hike would pay for more aggressive conservation programs and a solar plan designed to create 16,000 jobs as well as cover the fluctuating price of coal and natural gas." By David Zahniser and Phil Willon, March 15, 2010 11:21 p.m. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dwp-rates16-2010mar16,0,7870063.story The Mayor is going all out on this, just like he did for the police department hirings and it cost us a triple-trash fee hike in September 2008, yet the money STILL did not go to enable the promised police hiring and MORE money was needed. All this was happening in the face of a recession, and Tony knew it, but it's "all about the Mayor" again, not about the city's well-being.

From the story:

The mayor also warned that more increases would be needed to reach his next goal: securing 40% of the DWP's power from renewable sources by 2020.

"We could have raised our fees even more to address the long-term goal of taking us to 40% renewables by 2020 and coal-free," he said. "We knew we had to do this incrementally."

So you can see that it is the Mayor who is pushing all this since the increases are needed "to reach his next goal..."

And the next sentence shows what? T hat maybe we should be thankful to the Mayor? "We could have raised our fees even more..."
Well, thanks a lot, Tony. You are just too kind.

There is still the City Council approval needed after this goes to a DWP Board meeting coming on Thursday,

The DWP board, whose members are appointed by the mayor, must approve the plan for the increases to go into effect; the proposal goes before the board Thursday. The City Council will review the plan in upcoming weeks and can affirm it or send it back for more work.

You can't really count on them to do much for you since they haven't before, with their loyalty swinging over to the Mayor's side. The Council members need to hear from you and they are being more attentive to the constituents as their actions are being more closely watched in these budget adjusting days, especially for those running for reelection in March 2011 (the even-numbered council districts).

One union leader said residents would support the increases once they knew how the money would be spent.

"When they see that there is a clear-cut plan to do what we need to do in this city -- which is to be more green, to create jobs -- then I think that most people . . . are willing to go along with that," said Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the L.A. County Federation of Labor.

Well, the "create jobs" is the main part of that sentence from Durazo, a heavyweight in terms of union influence. And it's not just "jobs" they mean, it's "union jobs," which will give them even more clout in calling the shots- as if they already don't have a lot of clout. Politicians are the ones that fit in this old saying that fits here with a little adjustment: "When the union says 'jump,' the politicians answer, 'How high?'" This is the way it is with special interests with money and votes.

If you are against making these increases in the DWP bills, let your council member know- let them all know. They use the DWP at your expense. The DWP continues to make profits to ship over to the City's General Fund help cover their expenses INSTEAD OF KEEPING IT WITH DWP. So we are supposes to pay MORE as they continue to have profits and keep employees with sweet salaries and benefits at the same time?

That's city government- and they expect us to have faith in what they do. Many did and look where we are. Faith in their decisions is misplaced and not needed. They need to do the right thing and it's not gouging the rate payers (us).

Mayor has another DWP charge for you, of course.

"Mayor Announces Carbon Reduction Surcharge to Promote Alternative Energy." Written by Press Office - Mayor of Los Angeles, Monday, 15 March 2010
http://ourla.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1706&Itemid=3233

Don't worry, the average bill will rise only about $2.50 per month- he says. "The average bill" and "about $2.50" gives them too much wiggle room for my tastes. Unless there is a guarantee that this is what MY bill will be, I don't fall for this one bit. The Mayor is a man who has left a trail of broken promises in his quest for higher office, still will an itching to move on, I suspect, if the opportunity arises. That opportunity seems highly unlikely given the serious mess he's got us into. But he's still lining up things at our expense to make himself look good, even if it's only in relation to the rest of the circus performers at city hall. If the mayor would step in and cover the bill if it were to rise above the stated amount here, then maybe I'd be a little more receptive to his story. For now, it's just a story- the benefit, that is. I do believe there will be another charge coming and that it will exceed the numbers claimed now by many times and continue to increase over a short span of time.

I believe that we stil have a lot of DWP and IBEW influence here with a lot of unstated agendas persisting after the Solar Energy Measure B was defeated last year at the polls. You might recall that the proponents of Measure B vowed to continue with the plan anyway, as they would be able to do so without any need for voter approval as the Measure would have allowed.

No matter what they say here, it's seems that the cause is the shortsightedness of the "leaders" of the city. They allowed the budget conditions to fester until finally reaching these huge proportions. Now they must deal with it by continuing to saddle the public, the "rate payer" with any and all expenses that are called for. The DWP is just to slimy in it's operations along with the City Council.

How can you shift over almost $150 million from DWP (which is from the equivalent of "profit") last week, giving it to the City general fund AND THEN say to the "rate payers" "We need more money to pay for all these things"? Maybe keeping the money IN the DWP might cut the need for sucking more dollars out of the public- do you think? Or does that make too much sense? Stand by on that since the Mayor has said paying MORE will SAVE you money. That will need a separate examination.

And again consider that the DWP pays it's IBEW union workers 20 to 40 percent higher salaries than comparable jobs within the city workforce paid by the "general fund." Consider further that the DWP tends to be overly generous with money to its employees. One example, spending a reported $50,000.00 for "lactation classes" for its employees. Is this even needed when they also have a first-class health plan that already provides for that benefit anyway? The "Because they can" may just be the answer. You can add in the rest, "and the public be damned."

And this is the same DWP that several years hired an outside public relations firm for a tidy sum to do work when it had it's own in-house function. AND, add to that the simple fact that you also have the DWP operating this public utility that is a MONOPOLY, so no one is going anywhere else for electricity or water in the city. So advertising due to competition does not appear reasonably necessary- as is the case with lots of DWP spending.

There is a lot to cause some healthy skepticism here and the more you look, the more reasons you find that were not disclosed before by DWP. What else are you not being told?

More to come.