LA WATCHDOG - Campaign Funding Union Bo$$ d’Arcy, the public be damned business manager of the IBEW, and his puppets on the City Council do not support an open and transparent DWP when it comes to matters involving the $250 million IBEW Labor Premium, very generous health care and pension benefits, overly restrictive and very costly work rules, significant levels of overstaffing, and the efficiency of DWP’s operations and work force.
According to Jack Dolan’s front page article in Thursday’s Los Angeles Times, DWP Union is a Big Donor in Mayor’s Race, Its Members Get Big Pay, DWP failed to turn over information on employee compensation that was requested over three months ago by The Times pursuant to the California Public Records Act. Underlying this stonewalling was the IBEW’s vehement opposition to this disclosure, even though this information has been determined in the past to be in the public domain.
Despite strenuous political pressure from the IBEW’s lackeys that occupy the Council Chambers, DWP, on advice from the City Attorney, determined that it was legally required to release the requested information. The IBEW then informed the City Attorney that it would ask a judge for a restraining order. But after that stunt failed because of steadfast opposition by Carmen Trutanich and his staff, the IBEW threaten future litigation. This is just not only another attempt to intimidate our fiscally stressed City, but to force any discussions to be held behind closed doors under the guise of legal confidentiality.
As of Thursday afternoon, The Times has yet to receive the requested information.
The IBEW has also impeded the release of actuarial information relating to DWP’s seriously underfunded $10 billion pension plan. In particular, the IBEW allies on the Board of the Water and Power Employees’ Retirement Plan refused until very recently to authorize its actuary to work with DWP and the Ratepayers Advocate to analyze the pension plan and numerous money saving alternatives.
The political swat of the IBEW and its cash was once again demonstrated in early April when the Energy and Environment Committee led by the politically ambitious Jose Huizar whitewashed the findings of the August 2012 PA Consulting report.
This detailed study discussed DWP’s excessive compensation levels and its very generous health care and pension benefits, its overly restrictive work rules and overstaffed support services, and the failure of DWP to benchmark its inefficient operations against other regional utilities.
Despite these clear cut findings, the bought and sold members of the Energy and Environment (Huizar, Zine, Alarcon, Koretz, and LaBonge), in cahoots with City Council President Herb Wesson, failed to follow up on any reforms that would save Ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
Campaign Funding Union Bo$$ d’Arcy is already lobbying for a nice fat increase in salaries and benefits before the current contract expires in October of 2014. He is also demanding even more restrictive work rules that would ensure that his union would have a monopoly on building, running, and maintaining all DWP’s renewable energy projects, not only in Los Angeles, but throughout California, regardless of the cost to Ratepayers of the notoriously inefficient IBEW construction crews.
This is reminiscent of Measure B, the Mayor’s Solar Initiative, which voters rejected in 2009 despite the millions spent in support of this blatant payback for IBEW campaign contributions.
Who said that money cannot buy friends and influence people, especially when all labor negotiations between Bo$$ d’Arcy and the City are conducted behind closed doors by the secretive EERC (the Executive Employee Relations Committee) whose five members are directly and indirectly beneficiaries of IBEW cash.
However, as our water and power rates double over the next ten years (and that is if we are lucky) and we continue to be fleeced by City Hall’s looting of DWP for over $1 billion a year (the 8% Power Transfer Fee/Tax, the 10% City Utility Tax, numerous pet projects, the dumping of surplus City employees and their unfunded pension liabilities on DWP, and the IBEW Labor Premium), Ratepayers will not only demand a more efficient and open and transparent DWP, but will join the ever growing chorus demanding that the City engage in budget, pension, and work place reform.
So when the City comes hat in hand spinning a tall tale about why we need to increase our real estate taxes by up to 6% a year to fund the repair of our lunar cratered streets that have been neglected in order to fund an increase over $1.4 billion in employee salaries, benefits, and pension contributions, DWP Ratepayers will join the parade in demanding reform.
It is very simple: No Reform. No Dough. And reform begins NOW at our Department of Water and Power.
(Jack Humphreville writes LA Watchdog for CityWatch. He is the President of the DWP Advocacy Committee, the Ratepayer Advocate for the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council, and a Neighborhood Council Budget Advocate. Humphreville is the publisher of the Recycler Classifieds -- www.recycler.com. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Hear Jack every Tuesday morning at 6:20 on McIntyre in the Morning, KABC Radio 790.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 36
Pub: May 3, 2013
