Finally, three months after voters demanded total transparency in all aspects fo the Department of Water and Power operations and a Ratepayer Advocate to protect the public interest, the City Council will start to consider this mandate for action.
Councilwoman Jan Perry’s Energy and Environment Committee is considering reports today from the City Attorney’s office and the CAO/CLA about following through on creation of the Office of Public Accountability on the DWP and appointment of the Ratepayer Advocate.
That doesn’t mean anything will actually happen any time soon because the mayor and Council President Eric Garcetti — one of Perry’s main rivals in the 2013 mayoral sweepstakes — connived to water down the Charter Amendment voters approved on March 8 to the point it could easily become meaningless.
Charter Amendment I provided that the measure “become operative on July 1, 2011″ but in City Hall’s brave new world language of deceit that doesn’t mean what voters thought they meant.
In a letter to Perry’s committee Monday (OPA-CityAttorney.pdf), Chief Assistant City Attorney Pedro Echeverria ruled the Council could not even begin to consider appointing a citizens committee before July 1 and can take more or less as long as it likes to slowly “phase in” the OPA by appointing an executive director, adopting ordinances, developing a budget. He wrote:
“The measure did not prescribe that Office of Public Accountability (OPA) operations were to begin by that date. A phased in implementation is inherent and unavoidable to some extent anyway, since the citizens committee could not be formed before that date, the Executive Director could not be appointed for lack of the citizens committee, and the other OPA staff could not be appointed for lack of of their appointing authority, the Executive Director.”
For their part, the City Administrative Officer and Chief Legislative Analyst sent Perry a memo Friday (OPA-CAO-CLA.pdf)recommending the very people who watered down the OPA/Ratepayer Advocate measure — the mayor and Council President — should name the five members of the citizens committee who will appoint the OPA executive director.
Control is name of City Hall’s game — not reform, transparency or accountability — and despite the public’s demand for large doses of all three at the DWP, we are not likely much of anything except massive rate hikes, continued back room deals with favored contractors, more unjustified wage increases for IBEW workers and more transfers of city workers to the DWP payroll.
DWP watchdog Jack Humphreville took a charitable look at DWP General Manager Ron Nichols 51-page presentation Saturday to Perry’s committee and tallied up all the proposals for borrowing to fund improvements to the aging water and power systems and came up a total debt figure of $14.4 billion — nearly double the current debt burden.
DWP needs to regain the trust and confidence of the Ratepayers,” he concludes. “But the
longer DWP plays games, the more unpopular DWP will be with Angelenos,
not dissimilar to Pacific Gas & Electric’s relationship with its
constituency.
“And to add to the lack of credible information, we
need to ask Eric Garcetti, the City Council President, ‘Where is our
well funded, empowered and truly independent Ratepayers Advocate to
oversee the operations, finances, and management of our Department of
Water and Power?’ “
The answer to that question is becoming clearer: The OPA/Ratepayer Advocate will be put in place well after the decisions are made on borrowing, rate hikes and everything else and they will be fully under control of the mayor and council.
There is one ray of hope for reform, transparency and accountability and that’s Proposition 26, the statewide “stop hidden taxes” measure voters approved in November.
It makes many government fees and charges subject to the same two-thirds approval of voters that taxes are.
Just as they have spun Charter Amendment I to preserve the mayor and councils power in the face of demands for reform, the CAO, CLA, City Attorney and DWP are working overtime to find ways to protect the nearly $300 million in ratepayer’s money that is transferred annually from electricity charges to the general fund as “surplus” revenue.
If it’s surplus, it’s not a charge based on the cost of providing service. It’s a tax hidden as a fee so it is subject to a vote of the public with a super-majority required for approval.
Let’s see City Attorney Carmen Trutanich restore his reputation as the people’s attorney by taking a public stand on that — or do we have to sue City Hall to get a small measure of justice.
Ron:
Nuch sold out when, in exchange for a budget to his liking, he decided to give the Councilmembers the legal opinion they need to hide behind on the Ratepayer Advocate. . . . . .
Pete’s opinion is a disgrace and a sell-out to the people. . . whom, I continue to contend, are the clients of the City Attorney’s office (as opposed to the Councilmembers).
We have here again a circumstance where the City Attorney (who represents the DWP) is rendering an opinion under the auspices of representing ‘the Council’. . . a clear conflict of interest. Both the DWP and the City Council should waive the conflict as a precondition to receipt of any opinion from the City Attorney on this issue.
The City Attorney should not be representing the DWP. . . It can afford its own counsel.
The City of Los Angeles is a ‘public trust’. . . The Councilmembers are ‘trustees’ who owe a fiduciary duty to the public. . .the beneficiaries of the public trust. The City Attorney is chosen by the people and paid by the people. . . . Nuch has abdicated a core campaign promise to the people to represent their interests on public policy issues. . . . (as he does on criminal matters. . .except, of course, where there is fraud, abuse, or waste within the City. .. . . where he feels (wrongly I contend) effectively neutered). . . Attorneys who represent ‘trusts’ and ‘trustees’ owe fiduciary duties to the trust beneficiaries. . . That is separate and distinct from the legal duties and responsibilities owned by attorneys to the shareholders of a ‘corporation’.
This is another reason why we need an office of ‘Public Advocate/Inspector General’ with an independent protected (Charter-Protected) Budget because the people are not getting the representation to which they are entitled.
As with land use, Nuch as gone ‘Rocky’ Rogue. . . Rocky-II. . . Atty for the special interests and the political interests of the Councilmembers. . .
Eric Garcetti and Jan Perry have also been incredibly duplicitous throughout this entire process. With any luck, both of their political careers will end when their term of office on the City Council expires.
Noel Weiss
Noel Weiss – I have noticed that Nuch is not your favorite. We have been trying to fix city hall for some three or four years and they have managed to change the city charter so much that they and their minions (unions) , have all the power and we the people are now ALL WORKING FOR THEM. That is why I voted for him in the first place. But once he was in office he found every-
thing he proposed was against the charter.
That is our problem, the odds are stacked against
us. Have you any suggestions on how we can regain control over the mayopr and the city council, the unions, the DWP. etc ? Please
tell us what we need to do. Thank you. TH
As usual, Noel hits the nail on the head. Bravo!
It will take many law suits, including some by the Feds, to get any measure of justice, big or small.
And…why do we bother voting protections for ourselves and our wallets when the mayor and the council don’t seem to have any problem ignoring them?
Of course we are all right, arn’t we? We agree
we need lots of change – different officials,
different rules. Now is the time to call in
the FBI so that there will be progresd before
the next election. We are dealing with Al Capone type crooks – and they know exactly how to get their way.
Of course we are all right, arn’t we? We agree
we need lots of change – different officials,
different rules. Now is the time to call in
the FBI so that there will be progress before
the next election. We are dealing with Al Capone type crooks – and they know exactly how to get their way.
Noel, Ron. Kevin…do any of you know how to get the courts to accept the FBI? We cannot do this
ourselves. The laws aare our defense and we have
to have help.
Villaraigosa and Garcetti are too cute by one. Their maneuvering to neuter the Ratepayers Advocate will prevent the DWP from getting a rate increase that is supported by the public since there is no Ratepayers Advocate. And Jan Perry has said if there is no ratepayers advocate, there is no bump in rates.
Question on the 2/3 vote and rate increases:
It seems the fully burdened costs of employees is factored in to the justification of rate increases. Shouldn’t such increase in wages, perks and benefits be part of that vote as well as any advocacy on the rate payers’ part?
Independent budget aside-who appoints these advocates?
Jan Perry is trying to garner support for her run for Mayor any way she can, like sponsoring with Parks the Council motion today to make it voluntary to join the feds in sending fingerprints of illegals arrested to a central data bank, UNLESS they are CONVICTED of a “major crime.”
These two black CM’s are trying to win support of the Latino vote by being out front pro-illegals, but they’re getting slammed in the L A Times opinion section and here too Jan Perry has it wrong. WHO does she think she’s supporting here?
Noel has it right about Nuch selling out, he was a sell-out before he started, as bad as the other guy he defeated, just more a phony with the “people’s lawyer” populist pugilist garbage. He’s as much an elitist and couldn’t care less about the “small people.”
The City Attorney’s office has become watered-down and meaningless when they collude with the City Council and Mayor AGAINST the people of Los Angeles.
I think we had enough of ‘Nuch’
This City Attorney has become the Devil.
The worst City Attorney in land use matters.