Save the Date
LADWP WORKSHOP ON THE COMPREHENSIVE SOLAR PLAN
LADWP John Ferraro Building
LA/Portland/San Francisco Conference Center
111 North Hope
Street (Free Parking)
You are receiving this notification under guidelines established by the LADWP-Neighborhood Council MOU. LADWP will provide notifications of significant matters or proposed actions by the Board of Water and Power Commission. Such actions include, but are not limited to, major policies or programs; changes in major policies or programs; significant projects, such as those requiring environmental impact documents; the upcoming fiscal year draft budget; and any proposed rate action.
Those are excerpts from the email notice that went out on Wednesday from Department of Water and Power notifying Neighborhood Council activists that General Manager Daviid Nahai would deign to fulfill his legal obligations to inform them about City Hall's dirty back room deal on a multi-billion-dollar solar energy scheme.
For the uninitiated, it shows how your city government works -- 36 hours notice to people who volunteer their time and energy and have a lot of other things going on in their lives to attend a meeting where they can learn about what's already a done deal..
The mayor cut thea deal with his long-time pal Brian D'Arcy -- the IBEW union boss who runs the publicly-owned utility behind the scenes -- to suddenly end 10 years of resistance to solar energy and embrace it as a city-wide mandate.
The price is that all the work must be done by IBEW workers on the DWP payroll -- humble workers who thanks to the mayor's generosity are enjoying 6 percent wage hikes in the nation's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, increases that come on top of their already inflated salaries.
In a matter of a few short weeks -- without public hearings of any consequence or any kind of coherent analysis or study or even the involvement of the public and DWP commissioners -- the City Council agreed to put this outrageous plan on the March 3 primary ballot "to let voters decide."
There's a lot reasons they want voters to decide something they could have decided themselves: They avoid accountability for what is likely to be a total fiasco that sends electricity rates soaring, costs billions of dollars and achieves far less than working with the private sector to create thousands -- not hundreds of DWP jobs -- and gives birth to an industry that has huge future potential.
Jill Stewart in an LA Weekly article today quotes Anthony Rubenstein of Californians for Clean Energy, which led the successful fight against Proposition 10, the failed "big wind" initiative, as saying this is "a 'staggering' undertaking so vast it could distort the already distorted global price of solar panels.
"I wish them the best, but only if we are prepared for real oversight.David Nahai has huge testicles, to bite this off. He didn't have to stick his neck on the line. Let's admire that. But if this is a boondoggle, he will have to answer for it -- because the L.A. City Council has chosen to punt this onto the voters. And to punt this onto voters is an invitation for disaster."
You can be sure the mayor will soon be offering some crumbs from the table of power to the green movement activists to keep them quiet while hauling in millions from the IBEW and other special interests to help himself and the council get re-elected and to try to put his obedient allies Jack Weiss and Wendy Greuel into office as City Attorney and City Controller.
This is how political machines work and that's what we now have in L.A. -- except it's a political machine that doesn't work for the benefit of the people or the city, only the insiders and special interests.
And so after this is a done deal, the machine decided to follow the legal procedures that it is required to follow before decisions are made and actions taken.
That's why people who have jobs and volunteer endless hours to be part of the DWP's Neighborhood Council oversight committee are given less than 48 hours to rearrange their lives to go down to the DWP building where a squadron of overpaid bureaucrats will cover their butts by briefing them on what they've already know and can do nothing about.
All I can say is I'm going to be there at 9 a.m. Friday for Nahai's little performance and I hope a lot of you will be too.
The same goes for the ad hoc DWP Committee meeting at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the Faculty Lounge at L.A. City College where these committed citizens -- the same ones who are on the DWP's Neigbhorhood Council committee -- will discuss the solar energy plan and strategies for dealing with it.
It follows a 9:30 a.m. meeting of the Citywide Alliance of Nieghborhood Councils at the same locatioon.
It's now or never.
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the National Enquirer.
Think any of our esteemed electeds or their staff read the City Charter?
"Whereas Article IX of the charter of the City of Los Angeles and the implementing Regulations as currently set forth in Ordinances nos. 174006 and 174975 provide that:
(1) Information from the City should be sent to certified Neighborhood Councils as soon as practical so that certified neighborhood councils are afforded as much opportunity as is practical to provide comment BEFORE decisions are made;
(2) Certified Neighborhood Councils may provide comment and feedback to the City Council, its committees, and to City boards and commissions by using the Early Nofification System. ..."
I'd say we are dealing with more than communication problems at DWP. After all, where do they take their lead from?
Oh yea, the LA City Council's assignees does send "information" to the Neighborhood Councils, in a timely fashion, "so that certified neighborhood councils are afforded as much opportunity as is practical to provide comment BEFORE decisions are made". But, the information that it sends is often LIES, MISINFORMATION, and PROPAGANDA.
Where is the verbage in the LA City Charter which says that the "information" must be truthful and correct? And more importantly, since the Neighborhood Councils are aware that they are lied to, why doesn't the Neighborhood Councils make an issue or legal challenge about being LIED TO by the LA City Council assignees? Make no mistake about it, Neighborhood Councils are being lied to.
WHY ARE WE SPENDING CITY MONEY ON THIS CRAP WHEN WE CURRENTLY HAVE A CITY BUDGET CRISIS?????
AGENDA
LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2008
10:00 A.M.
JOHN FERRARO COUNCIL CHAMBER
ROOM 340, CITY HALL
200 NORTH SPRING STREET, LOS ANGELES, CA 90012
ITEM NO. (43)
08-3066 CD 9 MOTION (PERRY - ROSENDAHL) relative to the purchase and installation of Zero and Ultra Low Flow Water Urinals for the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC). Recommendations for Council action, SUBJECT TO THE APPROVAL OF THE MAYOR:
1. AUTHORIZE the General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of the LACC, to: a. Accept funds in the amount of $124,685.78 from the Metropolitan Water District to purchase and install Zero and Ultra Low Flow Water Urinals throughout the LACC. b. Deposit the funds into the Convention Center Resource Revenue Fund No. 725/48, Revenue Source Code 4189. c. Appropriate those funds from Fund No. 725 as follows: 1) Fund No. 100/48, Account No. 9150 Building Additions and Modifications in the amount of $105,685.78 to be used for the purchase of the Zero and Ultra Low Flow Water Urinals. 2) Fund No. 100/48, Account No. 1090 Salaries Overtime in the amount of $19,000 to be used to fund the necessary LACC staff for the installation of the fixtures. 2. AUTHORIZE the City Administrative Officer to make any technical corrections or clarifications to effectuate the intent of the Motion and ensure proper compliance with the provisions of the incentive from the Metropolitan Water District.