ANTONIO SEES RED ON DELAYS COMPANY COULD REDO SIGNALS IN A FLASH, MAYOR-ELECT SAYS.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

Bucking City Hall's past practices, Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa wants a private contractor to install energy-conservation traffic and pedestrian-crossing lights at L.A.'s 4,300 intersections, and to do it in less than half the time city workers could.

Villaraigosa is pushing the proposal after getting the Transportation Committee he chairs in April to recommend Republic Electric of Novato - which has performed similar work all over the country - for the two-year, $22.3 million contract over in-house proposals taking up to five years.

The project to replace the current incandescent lamps with the more efficient ones, known as light-emitting diodes or LEDs, will save the Department of Water and Power millions of dollars in energy costs annually.

``The longer we delay this project, the more it will cost DWP ratepayers,'' Villaraigosa said in a written response to questions, noting Los Angeles County and many other cities converted their traffic lights years ago.

``Our traffic lights are energy guzzlers that cost too much and burn out too fast. LED lights will save ratepayers money and we need to make this conversion as quickly as possible.''

The city's conversion efforts have been bungled from the start, four years ago.

A previous effort at privatizing the work proved to be a costly disaster. The city spent about $9.3 million with OptiSoft Inc., a suburban Dallas company, to install more energy-efficient pedestrian-crossing signals. After about half were installed, many malfunctioned, and the company since has gone out of business.

Deputy Mayor Doane Liu said Mayor James Hahn and the council decided it was more ``appropriate'' to budget the program over five years using city workers.

``It's all a matter of priorities. If they want to make cuts in other areas, they could fund this if this is a priority,'' Liu said.

Villaraigosa said he'll discuss with DWP how it might share in the costs.

``Retrofitting the lights saves ratepayers money, so it makes sense to look within our own budget, but also to ask the DWP to share the cost. I believe we can find an equitable solution to this matter that gets us to goal.''

California law doesn't require the signals to be replaced, but since March 1, 2003, it has mandated that any new traffic signal lamps conform to the California Energy Commission's efficiency standards, which is confined to the LED technology, said Jonathan Blees, the commission's assistant chief counsel.

``The commission doesn't have a position on how the department retrofits its streetlights ... We have made it clear in a number of letters (the city) is not required to replace. The incentive to change is that LED lamps use up to 90 percent less energy than the traditional incandescent, they last a much longer time ... and require less maintenance.

``We think there is a substantial economic and environmental penalty in not using LED bulbs, but no legal one.''

Next year's city budget includes just $3.7 million for the conversion, based on the Hahn administration's five-year plan. That leaves a gap of between $6 million and $7 million if the two-year program ultimately is adopted by the council, officials said.

``Did they say where the money would come from or just, 'You guys figure it out'?'' said Councilman Bernard Parks, who chairs the Budget and Finance Committee, where the proposal next will be discussed. ``The issue is what we can afford ... and not add to the structural deficit, not defeat the gains that have been made in the general fund.''

The DWP, at Hahn's direction last September, offered to make a $20 million loan to the Department of Transportation, which would save $1.6 million per year in energy costs when the conversion is completed, said DWP budget director Jeff Peltola.

``We haven't heard ... whether they need a loan right now,'' Peltola said. ``They'd have to pay it back like any other customer.''

DOT would get a $1.9 million energy-efficiency rebate as well from the utility.

Peltola said the DWP prefers the two-year option. ``We'd save more money ... because we'd burn less fuel.''

After the competitive request for proposals in late 2004 in which Republic Electric was the most responsive bidder, the Department of Transportation early this year submitted its own proposal to do the work, claiming it could do it cheaper.

DOT General Manager Wayne Tanda said the in-house recommendation for the five-year project was based on the cost - about $688,000 cheaper than the contractor's price, according to documents. Other reasons cited were the funding available and because the work could be done using existing staff and by filling up to seven vacant positions.

Republic Electric President Wade White said after DOT stepped in, he began to lobby City Hall, arguing his contract offered the city more savings than doing the work in-house. The company, he said, has redone traffic signals in about 100 cities, including Washington, D.C.

White contributed $1,000 to Hahn on Jan. 1 and said he attended a fundraiser where he spoke briefly with the mayor, then contributed another $1,000 to Villaraigosa on April 1, about three weeks after he made the mayoral runoff. White said he never talked directly to the mayor-elect.

``It's the first time I've ever done anything politically because they were going to do it in-house after we were selected. It was on, now it was off.

``I said, 'Oh my gosh, what do we do?' I started knocking on doors around there. I tried to interject myself into the process. I knocked on all the council doors,'' White said, adding neither the company nor other employees contributed to the candidates' campaigns.

After Villaraigosa and others began to focus on the two-year schedule, Tanda in an April 20 report said DOT still could do the work for less, but also noted it would require hiring 17 additional people.

DWP General Manager Ron Deaton in an April 26 memo questioned those assumptions, and asked for ``additional information'' on the two-year DOT proposal, including a detailed look at the scope of the project and schedule, costs for quality assurance, training costs, contingency plans and other costs.

Tanda said he was simply providing officials with options, and not lobbying for city workers to do the conversion.

In fact, he said if the two-year schedule is adopted it would make more sense to use a contractor because of the number of staff members who would have to be hired for two years, and then wouldn't be needed before the normal maintenance cycle three years after the installation.

``If it's over two years ... it makes sense to bring in contractors.''

Beth Barrett, [phone]

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com