EDITORIAL WASTING ``GREEN'' POWER DWP MUST STOP THROWING AROUND MONEY.

THE Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's $27,000 party for 150 officials and their chums truly was a celebration of ``green power.''

That is, the power of your greenbacks in the hands of self-serving bureaucrats.

For $180 a head, including $16 in soft drinks for each guest, the DWP mucky-mucks know a thing or two about living high on the hog. No simple venue would do for this shindig - they held the event at the swanky Los Angeles Music Center.

Green power, indeed.

While invitations were limited to 150 well-connected VIPs, the cost belongs to all Angelenos, who subsidize the DWP's selndulgence through their taxes and monthly utility bills.

And the green power party is just the tip of the iceberg.

City Controller Laura Chick has identified dozens of cases in which the DWP has thrown around hundreds of thousands of dollars of the public's money without accountability.

Then there's the DWP's hefty contributions to various community groups. Last year, the utility dished out grants of $25,000 to the Magic Johnson Foundation and the California Community Foundation, plus gifts of $20,000 to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the American Lung Association.

These and some of the other beneficiaries of the DWP's largess might be worthwhile causes, but they hardly seem to have anything to do with the official purpose of the DWP, which is to provide cheap water and power to all of Los Angeles.

Moreover, the DWP has no process in place for determining who receives such grants - it's all done on the basis of favoritism and connections.

Likewise, the department has no fixed criteria for determining the appropriateness of its self-serving parties or their cost. It pays for its promotions out of ratepayer-financed trust funds, then passes along an invoice to the city, seeking a taxpayer-financed reimbursement. The DWP's governing board has a policy of not reviewing contracts for amounts less than $150,000.

By refusing to pay the bill for the green power party, and booting the check over to Mayor James Hahn's office for review, Chick has forced the issue of the DWP's unscrupulous spending practices. She raises questions that the DWP and, for that matter, the city itself, have too long ignored: What are the fiscal responsibilities of a publicly held utility, and is the DWP living up to them?

The public deserves answers to these questions. If the City Council had the backbone, it would hold hearings, demand further investigation and get to the bottom of the DWP's spending practices and set appropriate rules.

But don't count on it. The council's members are running on our ``green'' power, too.