WATCHDOG EXCLUSIVE-It has been almost nine months since Jack Dolan of The Los Angeles Times broke the story about the failure of the Joint Safety and Training Institutes to disclose what happened to over $40 million of DWP Ratepayer money that was funneled to these two nonprofit trusts since 2000.
Since that time, IBEW Union Bo$$ d’Arcy has stonewalled the DWP Board of Commissioners, gone to court to squash a subpoena issued by City Controller Ron Galperin, and has appealed a Superior Court ruling that he hand over the detailed financial records to the Controller’s office.
Now Union Bo$$ d’Arcy is planning a demonstration for June 17 in front of the Hope Street headquarters of our Department of Water and Power to protest his assertion that the “City leadership has declared war on workers.” He is also trying to recruit other City unions to join the demonstration to be held at the same time as the meeting of the DWP Board of Commissioners.
In a flyer, Union Bo$$ d’Arcy has singled out Mayor Eric Garcetti, Controller Ron Galperin, City Attorney Mike Feuer, and DWP Commission President Mel Levine as the culprits who want to “compromise” the safety, training and trust of the DWP employees.
Interestingly, members of the City Council are not targeted. But it is no surprise that the City Council is MIA (missing in action) since ten Council Members have received cash campaign contributions from slush funds controlled by Union Bo$$ d’Arcy.
Of course, this is the same City Council that will be asking us to trust City Hall so that two-thirds of the voters will approve a half cent increase in our sales tax to 9 ½ %, one of the highest rates in the country, designed to finance a poorly planned $4.5 billion program to repair our streets that have been shortchanged by the same City Council over the last decade.
This demonstration is just another lame attempt by campaign funding Union Bo$$ d’Arcy to intimidate City Hall and divert attention from our bulldog Controller’s quest to find out what happened to over $40 million of Ratepayer money.
The demand for the records of the Joint Institutes is not going to go away because of a demonstration based on false accusations, finger pointing, or political arm twisting. If anything, Union Bo$$ d’Arcy’s self-serving antics will scare away the City’s other unions and attract the attention of other more powerful government agencies such as the Los Angeles County District Attorney and the Internal Revenue Service.
Now is the time for Union Bo$$ d’Arcy quit screwing around and hand over the detailed financial information to Controller Galperin. If not, the reputation of the IBEW and other City union’s will be tarnished for years to come, a prospect that cannot be appealing to DWP employees or City workers.
Who knows, maybe it is time for the Ratepayers to join this rally to protest Union Bo$$ d’Arcy’s lack of transparency?
(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
Pub: June 4, 2014
