DWP HEAD: REPORT NOT CRUCIAL NOW WIGGS TAKES EXCEPTION TO CONTROLLER'S REMARKS.

Byline: James Nash Staff Writer

Responding to City Controller Laura Chick's charge that the DWP should implement cost-cutting recommendations before raising water rates, agency leaders insisted Tuesday that they've already made changes and they are unrelated to the rate hike.

DWP General Manager David Wiggs brushed aside Chick's criticism that the DWP should take up a consultant's recommendations on running the municipal utility more efficiently before seeking an 18 percent increase in water rates.

Wiggs insisted that the rate increase and consultant's recommendations had nothing to do with each other.

``These are helpful long-term suggestions,'' Wiggs said of ideas in the consultant's 400-page report. ``But it was not a document that was going to change what we need to do right now.''

The Department of Water and Power paid the consultant, the Barrington- Wellesley Group, $1 million to identify ways the municipal utility could operate more efficiently. The top-to-bottom report was released in October 2002 under a new city charter requirement that Los Angeles' airport, harbor and water and power departments be audited every five years.

Addressing the DWP's audit committee Tuesday, Wiggs said the two-year, 18 percent increase in water rates was needed to pay for measures to protect Los Angeles' water supply from terrorists and to improve overall water quality.

Chick said Wiggs had yet to make his case for the increase.

``I seriously doubt that the LADWP has implemented all the (audit) recommendations, but there's no way to know, because they haven't discussed it in public,'' Chick said Tuesday.

``They need to explain to the ratepayers why they need to pay more for their water when the DWP has not shown that they've done everything they can to fix what needs fixing.''

In a written report, Wiggs and other DWP administrators pointed to steps they've taken in response to the report. The DWP managers said they've worked to wean the utility from its reliance on natural gas, which fluctuates wildly in price. They also say they've stepped up workplace training to reduce accidents.

Wiggs wrote that he reorganized the DWP in September 2003 by combining two business units to improve efficiency and save money.

Barrington-Wellesley wrote that the DWP had jeopardized its water supply by entering into settlements to replenish groundwater at Owens Valley and Mono Lake and by putting the brakes on its controversial East Valley Recycling Project, sometimes dubbed ``toilet to tap.''

DWP Commission President Dominick Rubalcava attributed those decisions to political pressure on the City Council, which he said had hindered the DWP's ability to operate most efficiently.

``The City Council needs to realize that there are consequences to their political actions,'' Rubalcava said.

Councilman Tony Cardenas, the chair of a council committee that deals with the DWP, said the city-owned utility has ducked scrutiny by the public, elected officials and outside consultants.

``They need to be reminded that they need to answer to the public,'' Cardenas said. ``I'm not excited about the fact that some of the information we've been asking of them hasn't been made available to us.''

North Hollywood businessman Victor Viereck, who heard a report by Chick on Monday night in his capacity as treasurer of Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment, echoed the controller's comments about the proposed water rate increase.

``They've got to show that they really need the rate increase,'' Viereck said. ``They really need to show that they're efficient, that they're not wasting any money.''

James Nash, [phone]

james.nash(at)dailynews.com