I don’t know about you but this is the last straw for me.
The guy who oversaw the highest water and power rate hikes in DWP history, who talked big about environmental concerns but kowtowed to his political and union bosses, who tried to bilk the public out of billions for a solar energy boondoggle, who dismissed the breakdowns in the power and water supply as routine, who alienated his underlings as much as the public he saw as nothing but cash cows — that man who was paid well over $300,000 a year is going to get even more money from a consultant’s contract?
Give me a break.
They fired David Nahai and left him the dignity of saying he resigned. Fair enough. But he was forced out by the mayor and no one more so than the back-stabbing David Freeman who not long ago declared Nahai the “white knight” who the people could trust to do the right thing.
If the people of this city don’t rise up and demand a blue-ribbon commission that includes citizen activists who have worked long and hard to end the corruption in the DWP, then they deserve to see their rates double and triple and insiders make fortunes by profiteering.
If the people of this city don’t rise up and demand a seat on the DWP commission for someone of their own choosing and an independent Ratepayer Advocate to protect their interests, they deserve what’s coming.
Billions of ratepayer dollars have gone into the pockets of contractors, consultants and the overpaid DWP workers while the water and power infrastructure has been allowed to rot, while LA has become the least green big city in California.
And now David Freeman whose only achievements as General Manager of the overstaffed DWP a decade ago was to squander hundreds of millions of dollars in a sweetened early retirement deal for a few thousand workers and create a series of scandals before he was shown the door — he’s come back to run the DWP again?
And Nahai’s going to get a golden handshake and a face-saving appointment as an adviser to Bill Clinton’s global climate foundation?
That’s the same Bill Cliinton who has his clutches deep into Antonio Vlllaraigosa in LA and the overly ambitious Gavin Newsom in San Francisco. With those two in his pocket, Clinton might as well run for Governor or the Senate and treat us to a real political theater.
Who’s kidding who?
All I can tell you is the mayor and City Council have failed you. City Hall has failed you. Moral corruption has so deeply infected City Hall, it defies all logic not to believe it has turned criminal.
I’m just an old guy with a blog and a dream of creating a news and information platform that will help create a more democratic and just society.
I’m probably wrong about a lot of things. But I’m not wrong about this: David Nahai doesn’t deserve a DWP consulting contract, not even one for a dollar a year.
OMG!!!! It’s too bad we didn’t know about this before the NC Summit meeting today. But, it’s not too late to get a group together to protest on Tuesday! I’ll be there. They can’t get away with this!!!! He did a bad job while on the payroll, why should he be rewarded with a consulting tract, We need the money to fix all the lines that are going to continue to erupt!
To even think about hiring Nahi is outrageous!
The DA should investigate . How Nahai was ousted and with what means, what promises were made and by whom , what meetings took place, where , when and who attended. It is public funds and the public deserves honest and independent answers.
Of course he’ll get a “consulting contract” — just like the wretched refuse from the California legislature who get contracts to advise the DWP on how to circumvent the “green” legislation they enacted.
The difference between these people and armed robbers in ski masks is that the latter at least have the integrity to acknowledge, if only tacitly, that they are stealing from you.
P.S. Great work, Ron. Thanks for digging this up and revealing it.
Ron,you found the smoking gun. You are great!!!
You resign and you get rewarded. Is this not an oxymoron? I guess not at DWP, where you reduce consumption and you pay higher bill. I don`t know whether to LOL or scream.
This is a SCANDAL!!!
This is not just a scandal, but is standard operating procedure at City Hall. I’ve connected some dots for you over at my blog, and by “dots” I mean Montanez and Nunez. Visit http://WalterMooreSays.com.
Enough Corporate Welfare for the Rich! Nahai owned a Century City Law firm and lives in a mansion, we don’t need to subsidize his wealth.
This is an area were Progressives and Libertarian’s should unite on common ground.
Nahai is an exempt manager and doesn’t have rights, but the City of LA has been paying managers beyond their required payments both at the City and DWP for many years over many Mayors.
Please put pressure on elected officials, embarrass them in the press. Nahai is no servant to the people–if he had any class he would not accept this.
But apparently Nahai is a petty person who puts his own financial interest ahead of any Environmental or social issues. If he cared, he would have protected the working class taxpayers.
This is just a payoff from Mayor Tony to get Nahai out of the way. Now Mayor Tony and Cowboy Dave Freeman can collect their millions of dollars from the back door deal in Bakersfield with the purchase of the Rudnick parcel for wind turbines. Freeman who is the mayors front man is an investor in the deal. Next will be the purchase of part or all of the parcel back to the city for a huge profit for Freeman his special interest partners and the mayor. Where is our State Attorney General or Justice Department when we need them.
What is the matter with you people? I never heard any of you, besides Ron, calling for David Nahai’s head. You’ve asked for a ratepayer’s advocate, an MOU, some NC input, but not for Nahai to resign. Especially knowing that these weren’t his own ideas being implemented.
I never hear you complain about the commissioners by name.
If you want to bitch about Freeman, that’s a different thing. I kind of like him though myself.
Can’t the mayor ever do anything to please you?
How do you really feel? Is Nahai the fall guy for bad decisions by others or did he run out because of the built in problems? How you say you feel doesn’t always match up.
It’s no wonder you under-dressed neighborhood council “activists” aren’t taken seriously half the time. Or most of the time. Even when you have good ideas or have struck on the right problematic downtown chord, you just don’t always get it.
Mr. Ron Kaye – You are very honorable in the work that you do here. I think that we, the ratepayers and customers of DWP deserve much better at the very minimum.
11:46 PM You are a smug idiot. What makes you think you are to special. Your use of “you people” tells me you’re not one of us, which is why you cop an “attitude”, so cares what you think.
This money is a “pay off”. What does Nahai know that he had to be bought in order to keep quiet? He was after all working at will, with NO contract. Obviously they are not buying his contract. What are they buying??
11:46 PM .You are a pontificating ASS. No brains.
You also need to look up (public records) Mr. Nahai’s most recent contract. He may have time left in his contract and that is why they are “buying” him out. But usually the “consulting” contract goes beyond what his original contract is. That is why you need to see the most recent contract to check its ending period.
A phone call to DWP as a reporter should do the trick.
Aren’t such consulting contracts the result of one, or all, of the following?
-be a fall guy and we’ll give you xyz
-do not expose what happened and what’s going on and we’ll give you xyz
-don’t sue us and we’ll give you xyz?
Meterman mentions the Rudnick parcel for wind turbines. He missed one point though. The parcel was purchased by the Mayor’s cronies for $48MM and an attempt was made to sell it to DWP for $60MM and Nahai told them to go jump in a lake. Now Nahai is “resigning”?
5:47 AM: I choose Door #3: “don’t sue us and we’ll give you xyz”
The City and DWP has been doing that for at least 15 years. Now there is a precedent.
They did it for then Police Chief Bernard Parks, they did it for the Animal Control Head, they did it for the Dept. of Aging. They also did it for several DWP managers when S. David Freeman was still the head of DWP. I wonder if Freeman got any “buyout” when he went to the State.
But in any case a big spotlight should be put into the radio and TV news coverage about this. Already several news stations are “spinning” the Nahai story as to why he left and all the never ending Water Main breakages.
You can easily send web links to articles showing Nahai’s mansion (when he had the worst water usage) and to Nahai’s background of owning a law firm (which was later put into a trust or sold).
Most very wealthy people who take on elected or appointed seats take a $1-a-year token salary. Examples include Richard Riordan, NY Mayor Mike Bloomberg, CA Governor Schwarzenegger, etc.
Nahai got approx $345,000 a year which was just under the $365,000 a year departing DWP Manager Ron Deaton (another golden chute) received.
The important focus is giving public funds to wealthy individuals like Nahai – that should rile up every side of the political spectrum.
I don’t know why he has no shame, but I did hear when he first got the job as Manager of DWP, before he got his “company car,” Nahai tried to get an employee fill up his personal car, a Mercedes Benz, with fuel at a DWP fuel pump at the Downtown Headquarters. The DWP employee told Nahai that it couldn’t be done since he was required to enter a DWP Vehicle number before fueling.
This shows his mentality, talking about doing good (knowing better than “us”) for the environment without any understanding of the true hardship of the massive rate increases imposed by him without a blink of his eye.
Was something done in closed session before Friday’s resignation that was agendized on a previous meeting or was a deal made between the Mayor and others without a public or even a closed session?
Obviously this was worked out in a backroom deal. But since this is about public/taxpayer funds, the whole story needs to be exposed for possible prosecution.
These are important questions that an investigative reporter can find out.
What about double-dipping and conflicts of interest? How can Nahai really be working for DWP under contract if he is immediately starting with the Clinton job?
There are only 8 to 10 hours in an average work day. Is Nahai getting a blanket amount irregardless of billable hours? Is he going to submit time slips or invoices to show how many hours he spent on DWP business?
Ron: I’m so frustrated by what is happening in my beloved city that I’m getting verklempt. Please talk among yourselves.
Since he was forced to resign for incompetence, loss of confidence etc, as outlined in the Times story ,what could they possibly say with straight face that he will contribute. It`s a pay-off that needs to be investigated.
DWP Commissioners??????
Who are these people who bought and paid for their misbegotten wisdom?
Has anyone a list of these names? I want to know their names. th
8:51AM. Don`t blame the Commissioners. They are just puppets with their strings pulled from City Hall.
Excellent piece as always, but I am bothered by the Clinton references. National politics have gotten extremely hardlined and parties are taking shots, not to solve problem, but to gain political advantage.
With all the real problems we have a city, we don’t need to confuse the issues by laying the toxic national politics on top of it. Leave Clinton and all national figures out of these local discussions. It will only dilute our efforts to speak in one voice: and identfying that voice as right wing or republican will only hurt that effort.
11:54 am. He signed on with Clinton when he left. How can that be omitted? why shouldn’t we know where he went? That’s not political. I really don’t care where he went or why. I just don’t want him to have a contract with the DWP or any other organization if our city. That’s not politics, that’s the simple truth! We deserve better!
1:57: Yes, that is exactly the point. We aren’t thrilled that Nahai is getting a DWP contract. How tightly the ex president is involved with the mayor isn’t the issue and Clinton is the kind of politician who is hated by some and loved by others.
If you are only interested in speaking for and to other republicans, then it doesn’t matter. Just remember, GOP is distinctly the minority party here in LA LA land. If you want independent and democratic citizens of LA on board, then the partisanship is self defeating.
Nahai was just an employee. Direct your anger towards the Mayor and Council who have caused the mess at DWP, long before Nahai came on board.
5:08 PM – Are you nuts? Nahai was not just an employee. He was the CEO of the largest Municipal Utility in the Nation. An organization that generates literally Billions of dollars of revenues annually with millions of customers.
Nahai was responsible for delivering services and projects such as renewable energy as promised. If there were problems on not delivering, he was required to bring it up to the Board. Even though you can’t directly blame him for all of the recent Water main breaks, he is, as the CEO answerable. Was he paying more attention to getting a new Measure B out or keeping an eye on the day-to-day operations?
5:08 PM, You ARE nuts! Nahai was receiving over $350,000 in salary plus fringe benefits, plus car, plus trips around the world etc etc. He was the CEO. The buck stopped on his desk. He failed on all fronts. He failed the City, the Mayor, the Council, the Commission. And he is rewarded for these failures with a sweetheart deal? Get some sense. This is ratepayers` money!
There is plenty of blame to go around, shared rightfully among Nahai, the City Council members, and Mayor Tony. Don’t forget his role- and that’s very often found to be “everywhere.”
Remember that Nahai’s appointment had to be approved by the Council and that Nahai was the Mayor’s own selection. Until recently, the CMs rarely showed much real opposition to the Mayor’s wishes, and even now, it’s not much of a resistance as they bumble like balls in a pinball machine, bouncing from one position to any of several other random positions, really unable to manage their jobs decisively- maybe decisively, but with poor decisions aplenty, I should say.
With the CMs, the many changes usually are connected to behind-the-scenes discussions and hoped-for improvements of their political angles.
CMs, like the Mayor, yield too often to union pressures, especially recently shown with the public employee unions.
You just can’t trust anyone these days, so it’s best to try to make all lay their cards on the table and assume that “fiduciary obligations” are completely unknown terms to their vocabularies. They could stand a refresher course, all of them.
Why is it that, more often than not, the real losers are the taxpayers? Even getting fired in L.A. results in a nice payday for politicians; they don’t even have the money payouts to represent a trade-off for any SHAME they bear in how they do/have done their jobs since they DON’T SHOW OR HAVE any shame WHATSOEVER.
Nahai is just the most recent in a long string of these “public servants,” courtesy too often of Tony’s own agenda. And, like I said to begin with, there’s plenty of blame to spread among Nahai AND the City Council members, AND the Mayor for the DWP problems and the rest of the city hall dealings.
Well, we`ll find out if Trutanich has any teeth or he is all bark.
You shouldn’t focus on Trutanich. The political pressure and focus of embarrassment needs to focus through the press and on the City Council and Mayor. The heat needs to stay high.
Trutanich, while a good man with good intentions admitted that his clients are the Mayor, Council, and Departments. So he can’t help you on this one.
I agree with you Eagle Rock. There is plenty of blame to go around right now.
11:46 DEFINITELY A COUNCIL STAFFER OR ANTONIO GROUPIE. Nahai made over $300,000 and DWP got millions from the residents of LA. But DWP didnt’ fix the infrastructure with that money and transferred millions into the general fund to help the morons who have been irresponsible with our tax dollars. To bash neighborhood council activists is showing your ignorance. They are the ones who stopped Measure B without any money. Continue to be in denial that they aren’t a force to be reckoned with. I think it scares the hell out of every council member they are a big force and getting angrier and louder.
11:46 DEFINITELY A COUNCIL STAFFER OR ANTONIO GROUPIE. Nahai made over $300,000 and DWP got millions from the residents of LA. But DWP didnt’ fix the infrastructure with that money and transferred millions into the general fund to help the morons who have been irresponsible with our tax dollars. To bash neighborhood council activists is showing your ignorance. They are the ones who stopped Measure B without any money. Continue to be in denial that they aren’t a force to be reckoned with. I think it scares the hell out of every council member they are a big force and getting angrier and louder.
“All I can tell you is the mayor and City Council have failed you. City Hall has failed you. Moral corruption has so deeply infected City Hall, it defies all logic not to believe it has turned criminal”.
Just what will it take to put people behind bars. Is it so normal what goes on here, that it is accepted practice. That is what they thought in New Jersey till they were caught. We are all baffled.
To bash neighborhood council activists is showing your ignorance. They are the ones who stopped Measure B without any money. Continue to be in denial that they aren’t a force to be reckoned with. I think it scares the hell out of every council member they are a big force and getting angrier and louder.
YOU ARE A MORON. THE NC activists are an inept group of fools who can only pat themselves on the back. Truth be told, Measure B was stopped by some sinister machinations of the billionaire boys, behind the scenes butt kicking. The NC activists can’t do anything right.
11:46-2:28…
By golly, he/she has uncovered the vast green wing conspiracy! Could it be that the real greensters who covet the untapped commercial solar square footage in L.A. hope to sweep in with their clandestinely owned New-Sustainable-Technology companies of the burgeoning-bubble-to- be to pull out the shovel-ready projects from under the redundant electricians who were going to lean around waiting to wire, instead of other union’s laborers doing the roof work?
Or do you think these are merely flat earthers who aren’t confident that Perfessor Chicken B. Little knows human induced climate change from an an ice age…balking because they want to keep their heads in the sand, drilling for ostrich ancestors’ gooey remains, so as to return to the 50′s.
Yes, we’ve heard it all before, but are amazed at your new twist.
NC’s delegates should dust off their Power ties, whiten their teeth so that they can smile back at the Mayor on Saturday, and give notice as they take up your gauntlet to produce a genuine, sunshine-loving consensus approach to bring L.A. DWP out of the dark ages regarding solar power.
Maybe, just maybe, the rank and file amongst the DWP’s finest will see an opportunity to earnestly fulfill their highest calling to truly bring Success to their Mission, if only by recognizing in the shirt sleeved activists the leadership so thoroughly lacking in the appointed and beholden stuffed suits.
October 5, 2009 2:28 PM:
Either you are the “joker” or you are a “nut case” saying that Measure B wasn’t stopped by NC activist.
Whatever their power is today, there is no doubt that the “NC activist” lead by Ron Kaye, Jack Humphreville (Greater Wilshire NC), Soledad Garcia (Coastal San Pedro NC), and others pulled nothing short of a miracle overturning the resources of truckloads of money, celebrities, and politicians.
The Pro Measure B tapped into Fort Knox for their media coverage and had Mayor Villaraigosa, City Council President/Billboard King Eric Garcetti, and most major Environmental groups backing it.
As one of the original NC activists who signed the first MOU with the DWP – many years ago in a room upstairs in the Farmer’s Market – Soledad Garcia and Jack Humphreville have definitely earned my respect.
Years ago I adopted a beautiful baby girl, who is the light and joy of my life. However, I knew the day would come, when she would start asking questions on where she came from. Well that day is here, and my daughter wants to locate her birth mother. To save time, I told her to do an online search with the words: san bernardino county ca public records. She took my recommendation, and within six weeks, my daughter was able to get in contact with her birth mother. They are planning a meeting for the very first time in the next few weeks.
I lost 10 pounds of fat working out with kettlebells.
Hey there! I’ve been following your web site for a while now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Dallas Texas! Just wanted to say keep up the excellent work!
Pingback: WitnessLA.com » Blog Archive » Forget it, Jake. It’s the DWP.
It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d definitely donate to this superb blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will share this website with my Facebook group. Talk soon!Grapevine Roofing & Construction, 3155 Stone Creek Lane, Grapevine, TX 76051 – (817) 442-3229