Tag Archives: Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

Why Your DWP Bills Keeping Going Up and Up — IBEW Salaries Keep Going Up and Up and Away

Posted on February 8, 2012 by

Carpenters: DWP $102,732; General Services 65,201; Airport  $82,999; National Average $43,890. Auto Painters: DWP $109,192; Fire Dept. $59,901. Cabinet Makers: DWP $101,840; LAPD $66,449. Garage Attendants: DWP $74,408; Airport $44,309; National Average $21,250. Land-surveying Assistants; DWP $123,433; Public Works $73,009′ … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Community Activists, DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , , | 15 Comments

EXCLUSIVE: Twice Fired DWP Exec Raman Raj Claims Disability, Getting Full $264,000 Salary Six Months Later

Posted on August 22, 2011 by

It started a little over a month ago with a tip that came from inside the Department of Water and Power: Raman Raj is still on DWP payroll. It was hard to believe. Raj was summarily fired as chief operating … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 48 Comments

Rate Payer Advocate at DWP: A Stark Example of Why City Hall Cannot Reform Itself

Posted on June 13, 2011 by

Three months after voters approved setting up a Ratepayer Advocate and independent watchdog agency on the Department of Water and Power, the City Council got around to taking the first tentative steps needed to bring it to life. The meeting … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Ain’t It a Shame What Passes for Our City Government?

Posted on December 16, 2010 by

The City Council achieved Wednesday what even its harshest critics might have thought impossible: They endorsed unanimously the lying, cheating, stealing and failings of the Department of Water and Power. They talked in high-minded terms of accountability but were as … Continue reading →

Posted in DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Antonio Takes a Stand — Vetoes Council DWP Power Grab

Posted on December 7, 2010 by

Antonio Villaraigosa, presumably after deep soul-searching, suddenly decided Tuesday afternoon to make a stand for good government — his LA Clean Sweep membership card is in the mail. The gift-taking absentee mayor got religion just hours after DWP Commission President … Continue reading →

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Killing Solar Energy Hopes for LA — The Battle to Reform the DWP

Posted on November 12, 2010 by

The problem seriously ignorant people like Tom LaBonge often have is they think everyone is as uninformed and ill-informed as they are and that no one is smart enough to understand what they’re really saying in their torrent of mostly … Continue reading →

Posted in Community Activists, DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles, Solar Energy | Tagged , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Antonio’s Pale Green Record: Why a Million Trees Don’t Grow In L.A.

Posted on October 31, 2010 by

“Each tree planted needs water and care for its entire life. It’s worth the work. Over its lifetime, that tree will pay you back in lower energy bills, higher property values, cleaner air and water. “ Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, May … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments

In City Hall’s Animal Farm, One Pig Is More Equal Than All the Others

Posted on October 26, 2010 by

It was a thing of beauty watching the City Council cower and weasel in the face of union bully Brian D’Arcy and a room filled with his IBEW Local 18.  At issue was whether new hires by the Department of … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , | 19 Comments

The $500,000 Job Nobody Wants and Nobody Can Do: DWP General Manager

Posted on October 15, 2010 by

You can trace the decline and fall of the nation’s largest municipal utility, our very own Department of Water and Power, back to October 1996 when the City Council in it all too finite wisdom vetoed a 10 percent raise … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , , , | 22 Comments

City Council vs. DWP — and the Unspeakable Name of Austin Beutner

Posted on October 14, 2010 by

Like the name of God that must remain unspoken, Austin Beutner’s name never was uttered during the lengthy City Council debate Wednesday on why the Department of Water and Power’s Board of Commissioners unilaterally cut the utility’ss ties to the … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , | 15 Comments