DWP CHIEF TOO VISIONARY? FREEMAN SHOULD FOCUS MORE ON BUSINESS THAN SOCIAL ENGINEERING.

Byline: Richard Nemec Local View

I am not sure the L.A. city fathers knew what they were buying into when they brought in S. David Freeman two years ago to run the Department of Water and Power, the nation's largest local government-run utility.

And after he gets through launching his ``green power'' marketing effort and corresponding socioeconomic movement, introduced Thursday, some of our elected leaders may wonder what they've unleashed.

Freeman is unabashedly revealing ``dirty little secrets'' about the sometimes Byzantine city utility, which collects more than $2 billion in revenues annually and sends in excess of $100 million to the city's general fund each year.

And he's unofficially making the giant water and power infrastructure a catalyst for socioeconomic development spurred by two of his lifetime pet causes - environmentalism and renewable energy, or ``green power,'' such as solar, wind and biomass.

Working with a City Council member who shares his vision and interest in the energy arena, Ruth Galanter, Freeman called a DWP powwow with some of the city's leading community-based organizations earlier this month at Loyola Marymount University to kick off a massive grass-roots effort for getting L.A. residents and businesses to opt for designating that at least 20 percent of their electricity come from renewable sources.

It had all the look and feel and proselytizing of a political rally without the party placards. Freeman, 73, who has run some of America's major public sector water and power operations over the past four decades, used the meeting of L.A. CBOs to promote his vision of an environmentally clean future for still unborn generations of the 21st century.

It all starts with admitting DWP's not-so-well-kept ``dirty secret'' that 60 percent of the power used in Los Angeles is produced from the planet's most polluting fossil fuel, coal.

It's all done in Utah, so most of us aren't aware of it, although, as Freeman points out, coal-fired electricity in Utah still contributes to the so-called global warming effect that threatens all of planet Earth.

I'm personally impressed with Freeman's zeal and vision, two commodities in short supply in the L.A. political landscape.

But I can't help thinking that making DWP such an overt instrument of socioeconomic policy in a city that is still run by its 15-member City Council may not be the best approach. After all, Freeman - wearing his CEO hat, rather than his social activist T-shirt - is also on record as wanting to get the council next year to support a charter amendment that would make a semiautonomous nonprofit business out of the DWP, giving it more independence to operate free of its historic multiple levels of governance so it can compete in an increasingly competitive electricity industry.

Does this more independent city ``business'' still fall back into the realm of a social service agency when it comes to subjects such as renewable energy and energy efficiency, two areas that have always had to struggle economically without subsidization from the public and private sector utilities?

I don't think even Freeman, who has managed to maneuver politically at the White House and statehouse levels during his career, can have it both ways.

If the long-term need is to make DWP run as smoothly as its private sector counterparts, but with a broader emphasis on the common good, its leadership has to be focused on providing the most cost-effective, efficient utility service around. It must also be willing to give its customers choices of nonmonopoly energy services as its private sector utility counterparts are already doing.

By advocating that DWP keep a narrower focus, I am not making a value judgment about renewable energy and its green marketing advocates, such as Dave Freeman. My wife and I most likely will sign up for the DWP green power effort.

It is another painless way to make a small contribution to the environment and future generations, similar to recycling household trash, something I have done voluntarily for three decades.

I also am very supportive of something else Freeman told the community organization leaders last week: ``We (as a nation and local community) need to focus on a cause bigger than ourselves if we are ever going to become truly bigger (individually and collectively).''

He said today's ``Me/Now'' generation, although it may not admit it, is looking for that bigger cause. A perfect fit, he thinks, with green power.

Some us keep hoping that our political leaders will begin to give us that grander vision and calling. Unless Dave Freeman is willing to run for mayor, I think he needs to concentrate more on the business of DWP and let other parts of the city government focus on social engineering in which DWP can be a key player, but not the coach or captain. Freeman needs to pass the ball.

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PHOTO Wind turbines in the Tehachapi area producing clean energy.

Jeff Goldwater/Daily News