EDITORIAL END DWP NONSENSE HOW BAD DOES IT HAVE TO GET BEFORE MAYOR CLEANS UP THE MESS?WHAT'S it going to take before Mayor James Hahn finally wakes up and takes action to end the mismanagement mis·man·age tr.v. mis·man·aged, mis·man·ag·ing, mis·man·ag·es To manage badly or carelessly. mis·man  age·ment n. that has derailed the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal utility in the United States, serving 3.9 million residents in 2006. It was founded in 1902 to deliver water and electricity supplies to residents and businesses in Los Angeles. and cost ratepayers millions? For a year, disclosure after disclosure has revealed that the city's most valuable asset - its monopoly on public utilities - is a rudderless agency running out of control. Even as the mayor and City Council jack up water rates and plan for more in both water and power rate increases, the DWP DWP Department of Work and Pensions (UK) DWP Drinking Water Program DWP Dynamic Weapon Pricing (gamin, Counter-Strike: Source) DWP Department of Water & Power DWP Drinking Water Protection continues to squander squan·der tr.v. squan·dered, squan·der·ing, squan·ders 1. To spend wastefully or extravagantly; dissipate. See Synonyms at waste. 2. millions of dollars without anyone being held accountable. And the Hahn-appointed commission that's supposed to protect the public interest does nothing but rubber-stamp the incompetence. Just consider the latest blatant example, the case of the temporary water-testing lab that the DWP set up in Pasadena. The city was set to sell the Anthony Building in Sun Valley to the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. when it discovered the site was infested in·fest tr.v. in·fest·ed, in·fest·ing, in·fests 1. To inhabit or overrun in numbers or quantities large enough to be harmful, threatening, or obnoxious: with mold - which had long been ignored, despite complaints from dozens of workers who had become ill In an effort to salvage the deal at half the $70 million cost of the building, the DWP spent millions to try to fix the building, but to no avail - it had to be demolished. At that point, the DWP had to relocate its Anthony Building workers, including setting up a new water-testing lab that had been housed there. It was supposed to cost $6.3 million to buy and upgrade the Pasadena facility for the temporary lab. But nothing ever goes as planned in the hands of the DWP's honchos, so the price tag soared to $20.1 million, a $13.8 million error in estimation. It's starting to seem that the reason the DWP needs to steal $60 million from Angelenos through a water rate increase is to cover up all the bad decisions made by its management. No more. The scandalous waste must end. The department and the commission that oversees it need a thorough housecleaning house·clean·ing n. 1. The cleaning and tidying of a house and its contents. 2. Informal Removal of unwanted personnel, methods, or policies in an effort at reform or improvement. . And the only one who can do it is Hahn. He wanted his job and he wants to keep it. Let him earn his pay for a change by getting to work cleaning up the DWP. |
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