“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — George Santayana.
Oft-quoted paraphrases:
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember their past are condemned to repeat their
mistakes.
Those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it.
Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors are
destined to repeat them.
Austin Beutner’s response to critical audit of DWP officials misleading the mayor, City Council and the public to withhold $73 million from general fund:
“Since my appointment just weeks ago as General Manager of the Department of Water and Power, I have made it clear we are moving forward, not looking back.”
I got
news for Austin Beutner, he cannot move the DWP forward without restoring its
credibility and he can’t restore its credibility without a full accounting of
where all those billions have gone, why the pipes and power system are old and
rotting, why we’ve got the dirtiest power system in America, why its wages are out of whack with reality, why it’s overstaffed, why its culture has been corrupted by a union bully and a long succession of incompetent general managers.
And that’s just for starters.
In a matter of just a few months, Beutner for all his brilliance has fallen into the trap of believing the old rules of City Hall still apply and that he can get away with treating the public like a bunch of dummies unworthy of the slightest respect.
Maybe he should stop listening the second-raters and sycophants at City Hall and start listening to the public that has been robbed blind for so long and isn’t going to take it any longer.
Even recent history ought to give him some insight into what he’s facing like the cash flow report in April when the DWP was pleading poverty and the Commission was at war with the Council. The DWP was sitting on $1 billion in cash, $60 million more than a month earlier (dwpcashflow.pdf
).
The Council didn’t stand up to the lies of the DWP because they actually give a damn about the public interest. They stood up to the DWP out of self interest because they know that the people in their communities are fed up with rotten customer service, soaring bills that hit homeowners and local businesses unfairly, secrecy, dishonesty, incompetence and failure.
Controller Wendy Greuel’s report Thursday — timid as it was — was a bill of indictment of the DWP for “misleading” everyone about why it was refusing to turn over the $73 million promised to the city general fund from “surplus” power revenue. (Read Beutner’s full statement
In fact, it was nothing but money gained from overcharging its customers and amounted to blackmail to get up to 28 percent rate hikes so it can continue to pay outrageous salaries to its workers and cut deals with insiders who just happen to be gift-giving pals of the mayor for green energy.
You can read Greuel’s report and watch videos of her news conference outside the DWP at OurLA.org.
In typical fashion, Greuel did her job as if she was the auditor assigned to do no more than determine the facts but failed to exercise her authority as the public’s elected watchdog on city government by offering solutions so DWP officials never tell another lie — a word she refused to use or demanding reforms or accountability.
Those, she said, are the responsibility of the DWP Commission which signed off on everything David Freeman and Raman Raj and their team did and said without asking question one — even when the public, the press, Councilwoman Jan Perry knew exactly what was going on was nothing but extortion.
That’s precisely what’s wrong with not examining, remembering, learning from the past. The DWP is exposed and we will not be condemned to repeat the past.
But that’s exactly what Beutner is up to by insisting “we are moving forward, not looking back.” He is proposing a 3 percent water rate hike for Tier 1 which is paid by all DWP customers — revenue that at best will cover only the wage and benefit hikes granted in the middle of the recession and budget crisis to DWP employees.
Everyone who uses more water than that — nearly every homeowner and business but not most apartment dwellers — will be hit with an 8 percent rate hike for Tier 2 water use, although just a few months ago DWP managers said there would be no base rate hike for water in 2010-11.
The reality is that many customers have been slugged with massive rate hikes, with bills of $1,000 a month or more because of the way DWP sets the rates to squeeze the middle and upper middle class and captive businesses while tripling the number of household getting 30 percent discounts.
When these people complain about damage caused by DWP bungling or water pressure surges, they are treated like criminals.
While Beutner talks big about transparency, DWP officials continues to offer dog-and-pony shows intended to obscure what is going on as they did in a meeting with Neighborhood Council leaders earlier this week.
We are not fools or criminals. We are the ratepayers, the taxpayers, the voters., and we demand a full accounting of where and how the DWP went wrong and how it is going to be fixed. Otherwise, the uproar of the spring will be repeated over and over.
Mistakes of the past that go unexamined have a way of doing that.
So….DWP (Raj and David F.)…lied. What a lame response from A. Beutner.
Of course it is in his self-interest to “look ahead” in order to advance new transparency at DWP. So far transparency consists of 1) improving the DWP bill layout from its current unreadable state; and 2) setting the framework for a Ratepayer’s Advocate. As a temporary employee, Beutner will only be able to make superficial changes. No staff protected by civil service or IBEW wants to make meaningful changes when they know the guy in charge will only be there for awhile; and whoever the next guy or gal is will have different ideas.
First Deputy Mayor/Interim DWP General Manager Beutner needs to own up to the DWP lies revealed by Greuel’s Audit. Now that would be refreshing.
U nder S uspicion of C heating
Ron, when Buetner first came on the scene, he was hailed as the ‘Job Czar’. Who knew that meant DWP and other City jobs.
What do you expect. He got his training in Wall Street. Lie, cheat, screw the little guy, obfuscate, postpone answers, and ignore facts. But again, look who appointed him. Birds of a feather.
Hey guys. He is protecting Tony. Do you think for a second the stooges at DWP, Commission and executives, acted on their own?
We remember the past when DWP operations manager Ramin Raj extorted the City of Los Angeles while interim GM David Freeman was on vacation in Israel. Why has he not been held accountable and fired? Mr. Bunter your head up in the clouds. Face the past and remove the cancer of dishonesty that has infected DWP. Dishonesty, secrecy, no transparency, back room deals, union bully GM D’Arcy, double dipping employees, kick backs, useless programs like lactation classes, over paid sub contractors, drinking while driving, going to strip clubs on company time are just some of the reasons to remember the past. Until you go into surgery and remove this dishonest cancer the ratepayers of Los Angeles will never believe or trust the DWP.
Ron’s right – Wendy’s press release was gutless – nothing like what Laura Chick would have said after she discovered these actions through an audit.
So we can keep talking and talking about what the DWP says and doesn’t do, but the fact is the only way we can be heard is to start playing hardball. Hire the best attorneys in town to find the legal way to put our DWP payments in a trust until the DWP starts talking. What are they going to do? Shut down power and water to hundreds of thousands of people?
Wow! Daily News headline.” Liar! DWP fibbed for rate hikes” I wonder what`s Villaraigosa`s response. I remember telling Jimmy Hahn ” The buck stops here “. He appointed the Commission. Or were they not consulted? Hmm
I guess Nick Patsaouras knew the money was there all along, when he sued DWP for the $ 73 million. Villaraigosa, either did not believe him or did not want to believe him.
The trail of DWP lies will lead to the Mayor’s office.
Here’s the problem:
There are what, maybe, 234 people in L.A. who pay attention to local politics? We keep documenting, for one another, how terrible local government is.
But that’s not going to change anything.
To fire the career politicians place in office by special interests, we have to wake up the million voters who ignore local politics. We have to reach out and, metaphorically, slap ‘em in the face to pay attention. Think of Cher slapping Nicholas Cage in “Moonstruck,” telling him to “Snap out of it!”
If we don’t get more people to start paying attention to the public policies where they live, we’ll stay stuck in this Groundhog Day.
Typo: “place in office” should be “placed in office.”
Walter is right 100%. LA is going downhill & nobody care. Can you believe that more than 55,000 voted YES for Measure E? This city is populated by mindless, gullible, naive idiots. This is how Villar got re-elected.
Enjoy this 3rd world hell hole. No middle class jobs, hordes of illegals, over development, traffic congestion, corrupt politicos, gated enclaves.
The two problems with the reporting and interpretation of the Controller Greuel’s report:
1. If the Mayor’s office was really “mislead,” then the Civil Service Exempt DWP managers (CFO, CEO, etc) should be fired and possibly indited. This isn’t the job of the Controller, but she is making assumptions that aren’t based on fact. Now its up to a law enforcement agency outside of the City.
2. Was the Mayor and his staff part of the deception and not a victim?
3. Where members of the City Council also culpable?
Its the old line from Watergate – What did you know and when did you know it?
PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY?
I skimmed the audit yesterday. I ONLY skimmed it, so allow me to weasel out of the following statement if it turns out to be wrong:
I don’t think it shows the DWP lied. I think it shows at most a difference of opinion.
The DWP said other companies with the same bond rating have about 180 days’ worth of operating expenses lying around in cash on any day; that rating agencies do indeed look at how much cash on hand a company has; and that the DWP wanted to maintain that amount.
The private auditors Gruel spent our tax dollars to hire, rather than using her actual staff, said that cash on hand is only one factor in bond rating.
So what? Isn’t it a valid exercise of business judgment to keep enough cash on hand to avoid higher interest rates? It’s not like the City’s irresponsible practice of living paycheck to paycheck — remember Greuel’s “were almost out of money” memo? — is a model of cash management.
Anyhow, ALL of this money comes from US, and I’d just as soon we lower rates, stop transferring any money to City Hall from the DWP, and make the City stop overspending on welfare for the rich and “ex” gang members.
Of real concern, is why Wendy Greul went before the press yesterday and wouldn’t come out and say they are hiding hunderds of millions.
Would all this extra funding, collected by overcharging the taxpayers for unnamed future utility projects, be unlawful and refundable?
Or could this funding be transfered to the General Fund, thereby eliminating the budget crisis, thereby foiling the Council and Mayor’s plan to lower the wages artificially by claiming a fiscal emergency.
Don’t trust Wendy, once a slimy Councilmember, always walking with slime on her shoes.
What I thought very odd at the time is a council member stated way before the rate hikes and bullshit DWP was saying in their commission meetings was the DWP has something like $1 BILLION in reserves. Wedny’s report didn’t lay out the salaries of all the top management who are making over $135,000. Every city dept. is hurting yet DWP is the only dept. that is actually hiring. We can’t just sit around and bitch and complain. The NC’s need to get off their butt and organize against this bullshit. Can you imagine if 2 reps per 91 NC’s went to a city council meeting and demanded accountability and sanctions. Then the people of LA into politics take another 2 people each. Unfortunately, people in this city bitch more then they actually get into action mode
7:23AM , Wendy got $250,000 from DWP in her last race. She has to be very careful………..
Wendy is grandstanding. But no solutions. Just tlike with the pensions.
COO, Raman Raj, and the President of the Board of Commissioners, Lee Alpert, should offer to resign. If not, usher them out the door.
And don’t forget that the mayor and his three stooges were up to their necks in this affair. No deal they can’t improve.
Beutner states in his remarks that he wants Wendy as DWP rate payer advocate. That’s like having a drug dealer watch over the heroin. Hell no…we need to have someone I say like Jack be the eyes and ears for the people. Anyone inside the political machine will not work. Let’s see which Council members come out strong against the DWP commissioners and ask for those resignations. I find it funny Garcetti is saying “deception” and Perry is saying its what they thought would happen and why they want transparency. IDIOTS!!!! They VOTED for the rate hikes almost behind closed doors and didn’t tell anyone so talk about deception and transparency. These losers need to go!!@
AB – Mr. Mayor, I’m not sure what you want me to do.
AV – Austin, buddy, we’re winging it. Right now I need you to meet those IBEW raises.
AB – Aren’t the tax watch dogs right that past monies should have addressed the infrastructure? Don’t we still owe the rate payers a rebate?
AV – Austin, the first rule of running this city is that the public has nothing to do with it. They are irrelevant. You need to learn City lingo and stick to that. Cost recovery, green, transparency, accountability, infrastructure, nexus, pending lay offs and jobs programs are the key words to use. Just jumble them around in your paragraphs and you’ll be fine.
AB – Mr Mayor, we don’t have any jobs program.
AV – Austin, that’s what the transfers are and that’s why you need to raise the rates. In the meantime, we can look for a scapegoat, maybe even the president. When’s the next election?
AB – In a few years Mr Mayor. What about accountability and the rate payer advocate?
AV – Now we’re talking. I forgot to throw in “rate payer advocate.” Good call. ‘Not to worry, Wendy will cover for us. You did good on that one.
AB – What about green technology?
AV – Austin, now that we’ve altered the water schedule, folks won’t know the rate raise has nothing to do with infrastructure or green technology, except for that monopoly we need to nab on the sun. We’ll just station a few hundred IBEW workers on various streets and make the ones not napping look busy. The infrastructure fixes are much like those highway bond measures, they have nothing to do with the reasons we give the public.
AB – Do you think Council will pass it?
AV – Of course they will. They need to meet the payroll to meet their campaign war chests too. They will raise a fuss to the press and say it ain’t fair. But, that’s all part of their show. We’re a team and this is your rite of passage. Once the rates hikes pass, we’ll put in Raj. Then,you can go back to running the City so Lu, Monkey and I can go to the next topless hotel, I mean, um, uh, green conference for a couple of months.
AB – Okay, but you promised I could start a rabbit farm here.
AV – In due time, my friend; in due time.
Wendy is part of the Villaraigosa, D`Arcy, Maria Elena Durazo corrupt machine. Everything she says is to be viewed under this lens.
Lee Alpert must resign or Tony ask for his resignation.
Lee Alpert was just following the Mayor’s orders.
11:16PM, I thought the Commission is independent.
Raj Raman is D`Arcy`s boy. That`s the reason of Wendy`s lame and timid conclusions.
June 12, 2010 4:00 AM – You’re joking, right?
To June 12, 2010 4:00 AM: In theory, the DWP Board is comprised of “Citizen Commissioners.” In reality they are appointed by the Mayor and are very political.
You guys are stupid. Just a year ago Ron was anti “DWP being used as a cashcow” and Humphreville was all up in arms about the power transfer fee (AKA the $73 million) being a potentially illegal double tax that should not have gone to the General Fund in the first place.
But since Patsaouras is Ron’s hero and since anything anti-DWP is automatically good on this board, Gruel is suddenly a hero.
You guys have now established it’s a good thing for LA ratepayers to be doubletaxed on rheir utility bill and for DWP to be used as a cash cow to bail out the city council. Idiots