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 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).