Chief Financial Officer Jeff Peltola was on vacation when he got a call to attend a
special Wednesday morning meeting of top DWP officials.
When he got to the DWP headquarters, he was told to go see Chief Operating Officer Raman Raj, the No. 2 to Austin Beutner and one of the most controversial figures ever to hold a top job in the nation’s largest municipal utility.
It wasn’t a good meeting for Peltola, who for months has been rumored to have his head on the chopping block for refusing to tell the mayor and his staff what they wanted to hear.
After meeting with Raj, Peltola called his top people into a conference room and announced he was being “reassigned”;
and that Mario Ignacio, his underling. would be interim CFO. Peltola then packed up his stuff and went back to enjoying his vacation.
Here’s what Raj told the staff in a memo headlined “CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER BULLETIN”
“Jeffery l. Peltola has stepped down from his position as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He is doing so for health reasons and his resignation as CFO has been accepted. Jeff has been a valued member of our senior management team for the last 18 months and it has been a pleasure working with him.
“Mr. Peltola will serve as manager of the Power System’s External Division, an area where major decisions are being made on the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s long-term procurement of renewable energy projects and management of major plants (Intermountain Power Plant, Navajo, Mojave, and Palo Verde).among others. This requires a deep knowledge of the issues as well as business and financial expertise which Jeff brings to the table.”
In other words, Peltola was demoted because of what in the heyday of the Soviet Union’s Politburo was known as the “Russian Flu.” He’s lucky he wasn’t killed, sent to the gulag or booted out entirely.
Now the word coming out of the DWP Kremlin is that Interim GM Austin Beutner will replace Peltola as CFO with Brett Messing, who is listed as “senior managing partner” for “economic and business policy” under Beutner in his other life as first deputy mayor or for all intents and purposes de facto of mayor of Los Angeles.
Messing, a 44-year-old avid skier and contributor of $13,000 to Jerry Brown’s campaign for governor, comes out of the world of high finance, including a stint as co-head of Goldman Sachs’ restricted equities group.
Googling him, you will find he was a partner in Oscar Capital Management LLC, a registered investment adviser based in New York and Los Angeles with approximately $1 billion in assets. He began his career with the private client services division of Goldman Sachs and from 1997 to 1999 was a senior vice president at Merrill Lynch in charge of investing more than $3 billion in assets. He later became CEO of InterPacket Networks, which he sold to American Tower Corp. in December 2000.
Welcome to the DWP Monkey House, Mr. Messing!
Now the Mayor’s office controls the books. The asset shuffling begins in earnest. Vintage Wall Street.
Its important that Cooley be elected Attorney General. If Kammala Harris wins, all the crooks like our Mayor Tony, will never be investigated.
She is very close to Tony and he is supporting her fully.
Isnt’ the DA’s Public Integrity Div. already investigating the DWP and city council over the DWP rate hikes? Cooley better get off his butt and go after these corrupt BASTARDS. Do they really think we’re that naive not to know the bullshit, corrupt crap Beutner is now doing bringing in his friends? The FEDS need to go after the Mayor and DA’s office needs to start cleaning house of all these scoundrels. Damn, I’ve never seen this blatant type of corruption ever in Los Angeles. You can be sure this will start to filter to national web sites. If Cooley wants my vote he better go after them
Kamala Harris is not close to Antonio. What is she going to do. Turn down an endorsement from the Mayor of LA. Let Cooley prove himself before he is is promoted to AG.
Hi Ron
Are any of these positions dependent on City Council ratification? Can the council pull the appointment for a vote analogous to a “245″ motion?
It seems to me that whatever authority the council has, it should assert as part of the necessary cleanup of this department.
And then, any failure to assert oversight should be carefully documented and publicized, including specifying exactly which council members voted in which way.
I’m not as yet overly optimistic about the Clean Sweep movement, but things like this can begin to add up if people are told about them.
What`s the deal between Villaraigosa and Beutner? Do we have to wait till 2013 to find out? The going-ons in City Hall and DWP are strange,irrational, suspicious and unethical to say the least. Antonio you are under a microscope, finally.
It’s always amazing to read these guys resumes; they hold down a job for more that a year or two at a time.
“I am honored to have the endorsement of Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa,” said DA Harris. “As Mayor of California’s largest city and a longtime respected leader in our state, Mayor Villaraigosa knows what we need to ensure California is on track for the future. Mayor Villaraigosa’s leadership serves as an example of bringing people together to tackle big problems – most notably in job creation, the environment and transportation — and he is a national leader in decreasing the crime rate for his community.”
Kammala and Antonio 4ever
Beutner and Messing are vary dangerous for the future of the City of Los Angeles – they are take over artist and the 21st Century successors of the Junk Bond deal makers of the 80′s.
Now they will sell off the most valuable assets of the City for cheap to their rich friends and the working class and their children will be paying the price for generations.
What is sad is that so much is being done in the open without any repercussions. Just imagine what is going on behind closed doors.
DWP uses things like gas reserves to hedge the cost of fuel (the most expensive part of power generation). But Beutner wants to sell that.
And Beutner only agreed to be questioned by City Council under his terms. What I would like to see is a Grand Jury Subpoena where Beutner will have to answer questions without the benefit of a lawyer by his side. (Although he will still have an advantage because he is not only a good takeover artist, he is a good BS artist.
Mr. Beutner gave a fine budget report during the June meeting with DWP Board President and Members. I saw no support by City Council in support of such presentation; not even the mayor. LADWP Board Members indicated they would consider a Rate Payer Advocate-but under no obligation.
How much does it cost to provide electricity-using coal to residents, commercial/Industry, and “other” segments? We want to properly track these detailed cost from day one to the end of the fiscal period/2020.
When we do this we and offset Coal use and costs with alternative sources–we can prove to the State and Federal Government we are meeting our goals
Mr. Beutner gave a fine budget report during the June meeting with DWP Board President and Members. I saw no support by City Council in support of such presentation; not even the mayor. LADWP Board Members indicated they would consider a Rate Payer Advocate-but under no obligation.
How much does it cost to provide electricity-using coal to residents, commercial/Industry, and “other” segments? We want to properly track these detailed cost from day one to the end of the fiscal period/2020.
When we do this we and offset Coal use and costs with alternative sources–we can prove to the State and Federal Government we are meeting our goals
Mr. Beutner gave a fine budget report during the June meeting with DWP Board President and Members. I saw no support by City Council in support of such presentation; not even the mayor. LADWP Board Members indicated they would consider a Rate Payer Advocate-but under no obligation.
How much does it cost to provide electricity-using coal to residents, commercial/Industry, and “other” segments? We want to properly track these detailed cost from day one to the end of the fiscal period/2020.
When we do this we and offset Coal use and costs with alternative sources–we can prove to the State and Federal Government we are meeting our goals
Lezlyee, you had enough.
There is no way I am voting for Cooley in November if there is not an indictment of Villaraigosa or his inner circle of crooks before the election.
The crimes of malfeasance in office scream in front of Cooley and he does nothing. Absolutely nothing. Malfeasance in office is not restricted to actions that financially benefit someone’s bank account or assets. It also includes gross mismanagement of a public office. There is gross mismanagement all over the DWP, the Mayor’s Office, and the Council in the form of violating fundamental laws: restrictions on use of funds, Brown Act game playing, and refusals to turn over public records.
Indict. Indict. Indict.
I’ll never vote for a Democrat again. Guilty by association. That goes for Republicans too. “Happy Days Are Here Again”…HOGWASH!
I agree. Been Democrat my whole life but the way our city and country are going down the toliet thanks to Democrats I may just go independent. COOLEY can make it or break it by going hard after Villaraigosa. Its no secret he doesn’t like him. COOLEY also needs to know and not be afraid of that stupid bullshit “Latino vote” Latinos all over the STATE are fed up with Latino politicians and their corruption. They are waiting for them to go down and stop embarrassing them just like Alarcon, Reyes, Huizar, Cardenas, Cedillo, and THE MAYOR
Why do you wait for a guy to get into office and then bitch about him? So what he went to a fews games; hockey, soccer, baseball, football ect., that’s right L.A. has a summer league football player.. You’re chasing your tail–Until the day when you give people HOPE and explode at the voting booth.
Come on guys, stop pulling on your dicks. You going after on charges of ticket attendenance and its personal. I’m sure if you could take back the City you would. But you’re problem is once you do you fight amoung yourselves until we get fed up with you. In the end, you’re better-off separated from the City and now is the time to accomplish that. But no, you have too many important things to do. right?
Kamala Harris is not “good friends” with Antonio. Do you people just seriously make things up? Maybe Ace Smith, her campaign manager asked the mayor of LA to endorse her? That doesn’t make them good friends. It does mean that the mayor has made the right choice for that election, I’ll give him that.
12:38pm I AM PROUD TO SAY I CAMPAIGNED FOR MAYOR HAHN. Al Capone got indicted for tax invasion when a lot of people thought that was a joke and wouldn’t stick. I say Cooley should start investigating Richard Alatorre who is always in the Mayor’s office at city hall. He’s the biggest crook of all and got in trouble with the Feds.
When everything is said and done and all the corrupt heads fall, let’s hope the city crawls to Jeff Peltola to apologize and ask his help in getting DWP back on track.
http://ens.lacity.org/dwp/agendas/dwpagendas20268542_10052010.pdf
Please check above website, listing many contracts “recommended by chief operating officer Raman Raj, approved by general manager. Watch the label”no need for discussion” How could these monsters take up almost 40 big dollar value contracts altogether, simultaneously, rushing it to avoid and evade closer scrutiny through due care and diligent review and study? Intentional!
Ask them if they could rush contracts if it were their own money? Off course no!! Rush makes big mistake. In big dollar contracts, they have to be closely scrutinized.
Raman Raj was the consultant to vendor Convergent Group valued at $53 million to automate DWP substations. This project covers around175 substations. Each substations had cost overruns averaging $55,000 allowed as change order by its audit director, James Tan. Also,the contract cleary said test and inspection fee totalling at the time $1.25 million should be taken cared by Convergent but audit director passed it as change order.