LA WATCHDOG
By Jack Humphreville
You need to be a Phi Beta Kappa from Cal Tech in order to understand your bimonthly DWP bill.
But homeowners do not have to be light bulbs to know that something is
very, very wrong when their DWP bills have increased by many thousands
of dollars a year.
Mr. Mayor, those increases are not, to use your own words, “relatively modest.”
Our current DWP has lines for Energy Services and Water Services, DWP Services, the Sewer Charge, a Low Income Service Charge, the 10% City Utility Tax, the Solid Resources Fee, the State Energy Surcharge, a subtotal for LA Municipal Service, and the Total, all interspersed with grimly little, hard to understand details relating to the meters.
What you don’t see is all the money going over to City Hall: The 8% Transfer Fee, Public Benefits, the costs associated with pet projects like Griffith Park and the LA River, the IBEW Labor Premium, including the recent 11¼% to 19¼% raise, and the costs of employing numerous City workers, to say nothing of the new IBEW Solar Premium associated with the Utility Owned Solar assets.
During th e last two years, Ratepayers, especially homeowners, have been smacked with an awesome array of increases, all enthusiastically endorsed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in the name of the infrastructure, the environment, and higher IBEW salaries.
Electricity Base Rates were increased by about 15% over a two-year period beginning on July 1, 2008. The Rate Restructuring Plan (Tiered Rates) were put into effect on July 1, 2009. And the Energy Cost Adjustment Factor has doubled to almost $1.5 billion over the last three years.
Water Base Rates were also increased by about 14% over a two-year period beginning on July 1, 2008. Furthermore, Shortage Year Water Rates were implemented which caused water charges to escalate. And, DWP has had to purchase more water because of environmental issues in the Owens Valley and Delta. At the same time, the Metropolitan Water District increased prices by about 20%.
These increases, along with the Sewer Charge, the 10% City Utility Tax, and the tripling of the Solid Resources Fee, have cost homeowners a guesstimated $1,200 to $3,600, and sometimes more.
The assault continues! Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is considering a Carbon Surcharge. DWP is also considering a further increase in the Rate Restructuring Plan (Tiered Rates) where Tier 2 and Tier 3 Rates will exceed Tier 1 Rates by 44% and 128%. DWP is also considering an 18%, $248 million increase in the Base Rate for July 1, 2011.
Add to that the 2.9¢ proposed increase in the Energy Cost Adjustment Factor, an increase of about $700 million (not including the 10% City Utility Tax). The electricity portion of our bill will increase over 20% on this factor alone! Who knows, the magnitude of the increase given the revelations of Independent Fiscal Report by PA Consulting.
Perhaps the politically appointed Board of Commissioners will spend a few weeks considering this massive increase.
When all these increases are factored in, Ratepayers are seeing increases of 70% or more, representing an increase $3,000 to $4,000 to $5,000 a year assuming the same level of consumption. If consumption is cut 20%, the increases are only about 50%. Talk about destroying the family budget in tough times.
Unfortunately, the Ratepayers are being assaulted by the spinmeisters from City Hall. Already, Jay Carson, the friend of Bill Clinton who is now the Chief Deputy Mayor, is working overtime. He snookered New York Times reporter Jennifer Steinhauer [LINK] into writing that the DWP was losing $6 million a week or an estimated $500 million in 2011. However, last year DWP had an operating profit before depreciation and interest of $940 million. She must have confused the City with DWP, the City’s cash cow to the tune of around $600 million, not including the payoff to the IBEW.
Jay Carson is also spinning the yarn that solar energy will cost less, contrary to all available evidence. The solar energy plan will also create jobs, but, in reality, the jobs are confined to DWP and the IBEW and do little to create a burgeoning solar industry that can serve the rest of the world.
To the contrary, the failure to bid out the In Basin Solar Voltaic Plan will cost Ratepayers billions extra because the DWP management has little experience and the IBEW construction work crews are notoriously inefficient because of the high wages and restrictive work rules, especially compared to private industry.
The Environmentalist community is rumored to be upset with City Hall, having stormed out when their demands for more alternative energy were not accepted on the spot. Of course, this politically powerful and vocal group does not really concern itself with the ever-increasing burden on the Ratepayers.
But this Friday the 12th, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has scheduled a press conference at an appropriate location to set the record straight, or as some might say, to begin the spin.
Ratepayers understand that rates are going to increase. But they deserve to know why. And that is why the proposed decomposition of the Energy Cost Adjustment Factor and the proposed rate increases needs to be examined in detail (including the costs of In Basin Solar Voltaic Plan and its impact on job creation in the private sector), pursuant to the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Neighborhood Council and DWP.
375 days ago, 50.5% of voters of Los Angeles rejected Measure B, despite millions spent by the IBEW, the Mayor, and his buddies. Now that the budget busting DWP bills are escalating by thousands of dollars a year, how would Measure B fare today at the polls? The over and under is 62.5%.
(Jack Humphreville is the President of the DWP Advocacy Committee and the Ratepayer Advocate for the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council. Humphreville is the publisher of the Recycler -- www.recycler.com He can be reached at
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
) -cw
CityWatch
Vol 8 Issue 20
Pub: Mar 12, 2010
|
