LA WATCHDOG - Herb Wesson, Paul Krekorian, and Felipe Fuentes all claim that they are acting in the best interests of the Ratepayers of the Department of Water and Power. But that is news to anybody who attended or listened to the four hour joint meeting of the Energy & Environment and Budget & Finance Committees at City Hall on Friday.
This hastily conceived meeting was the City Council’s attempt at transparency as it attempts to ramrod the proposed four year contract between DWP and the IBEW through the City Council by August 30. This is despite the objections of Mayor Eric Garcetti who is demanding greater reform of DWP’s work rules, salary structure, healthcare benefits, and pensions.
This meeting was nothing but an orchestrated charade as proponents of this deal droned on about the merits of the new contract without providing any specific details on the $464 million in savings that would be achieved over the next four years or the $6 billion in savings over the next 30 years.
Once again, Ratepayers are getting the bum’s rush as the City Council is attempting to approve this deal in two short weeks despite the fact that negotiations have been ongoing for the past 18 months.
This rush to judgment is reminiscent of Proposition A, the permanent half cent increase in our sales tax which was placed on the March 2013 ballot in less than two weeks without providing voters with adequate information. No wonder, because after this proposition was rejected by the voters, the City revealed (surprise, surprise) that it was the beneficiary of $375 million in additional revenue and pension savings and would not have to lay off 500 cops.
So much for the credibility of the City Council President Herb Wesson, Budget and Finance Chair Paul Krekorian, and their fellow co-conspirators on the City Council!
If Wesson, Krekorian, and Fuentes are acting in the best interests of the Ratepayers, why are they forcing the DWP pension plan to absorb $200 million in unfunded pension liabilities that were associated with the dumping of 1,600 surplus employees on DWP as part of the budget balancing efforts of then Mayor Villaraigosa? This settlement will cost Ratepayers $25 million a year for the next 15 years, a total of $375 million.
This is the equivalent of a tax increase, but one that has not been approved by the voters.
Wesson, Krekorian, and Fuentes are also patting themselves on the back for holding a precedent setting council meeting involving the City’s labor negotiations. Yet, since 2000, City Hall has given away the store to the campaign funding union leadership. This includes not only the 25% wage increase in 2007 for the City’s civilian workers that almost tanked the City, but numerous contracts with the IBEW, including very generous contracts in 2005 and 2009 that resulted in compensation levels significantly higher than other comparable utility employees and a Cadillac health care plan (close to $17,000 a year) which requires no contributions by most DWP employees.
No wonder the Ratepayers and voters want transparency since they are right not to trust the City Council when it comes to labor negotiations with the likes of campaign funding IBEW Union Bo$$ d’Arcy.
Ratepayers and Neighborhood Councils are being treated like mushrooms: in the dark and covered with manure. We do not have a basic understanding the proposed deal as the Chief Legislative Analyst’s report does not give the Ratepayers a concise summary of terms of the contract, analyze the advertised savings, or the impact on rates.
We do not adequate knowledge of the basic agreements between the DWP and the IBEW, including numerous side agreements that are not even available to the City. Nor do we have the expertise to analyze these many side deals and their impact on the Department’s efficiency and our rates.
Wesson, Krekorian, and Fuentes are urging the City Council to approve this proposed contract within the next two weeks, using undocumented numbers and scare tactics to reinforce their position. But the City Council, the Mayor, their agents, Ratepayers, and voters are all flying blind, unaware of all the nuances of the all the many side agreements and the millions of dollars being left on the table as a result of failing to reform the Department’s overly restrictive work rules and to implement a comprehensive benchmarking program.
The IBEW contract is also bad precedent for future negotiations with the City’s civilian unions who are being asked to forego a 5% raise in January and contribute 10% of the cost of their health care plan. This compares to the DWP employees deferring their contracted COLAs and not contributing to the cost of their much more expensive Cadillac health care plans.
Furthermore, all civilian and sworn City employees will be “zeroed out” (no raises) over the next four years.
If the City is unable to negotiate favorable deals with the City’s civilian and sworn workers, the budget deficit will soar to $800 million over the next four years.
Rather than deferring action for 90 days so that Ratepayers and voters can get a better understanding of the proposed contract, we can expect Wesson, Krekorian, Fuentes and their gang to railroad the new deal through the City Council even though it is not in the best interests of the Ratepayers and ultimately the City’s fragile finances. But that is the result of selling your soul to campaign funding IBEW Union Bo$$ d’Arcy.
Do you smell a mischief of rats occupying City Hall?
(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 67
Pub: Aug 20, 2013
