OT FLOWS LIKE WATER AT DWP HABITUAL USE COSTS MILLIONS AT UTILITY.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power workers racked up more than $51 million in overtime in the last six months of 2005, accounting for more than 30 percent of some divisions' payroll, the Daily News has learned.

Records show more than half of the public utility's 8,100 workers took home a chunk of the lucrative pay, with nine out of 10 working overtime in some divisions.

For some electrical and mechanical engineers, overtime added 50 percent or more to their base salaries of $74,000 to $100,000, according to records.

And even as the utility has raised water rates sharply and sought an additional $23 million annual hike, overtime pay on the water-side alone is on pace to hit more than $20 million this fiscal year. Overall, overtime accounted for nearly 14 percent of DWP's payroll during the last half of 2005.

``There's no doubt it's a tremendous problem,'' said DWP commission vice president David Nahai, part of the new board charged by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa with reforming the mammoth utility.

``It's very tempting for an employee to do things at overtime rates, rather than within the allocated work hours.''

DWP officials defended the overtime as necessary in a complex organization that operates 24-7.

``You have emergencies, people take time off ... overtime is just a given in the business,'' said Robert Rozanski, DWP chief administrative officer.

Rozanski said he reviews every division in which overtime exceeds 10 percent of payroll - something that occurred in more than a dozen divisions during the six-month period - to see if it's warranted and whether staffing is appropriate.

He said efforts are under way to find ways to reduce OT - including looking at work shifts, deployment patterns and hot spots.

But he said it's often cheaper to pay existing employees overtime than to hire additional employees that would also need health care and other benefits.

``Typically it's cheaper to work OT than hire additional personnel ... But if it's a high level of overtime on a persistent basis, then you look at it differently to make sure there aren't other ways to do it.''

DWP commissioner Nick Patsaouras said the OT is a major concern.

``Overtime is for an on-needed basis, and I appreciate it when the lights go out, but not on a chronic basis,'' he said.

Patsaouras said he's particularly concerned about potential OT abuses in divisions already being audited in connection with complaints about discrimination, retaliation and cronyism. And he said he wants to see if there's any connection between divisions that have high overtime pay and absenteeism and moonlighting rates.

Rozanski said delays in filling vacancies in the work force, more power outages, and increased security requirements have added to OT costs.

Records show the bulk of DWP overtime was in the aging power distribution system, where electrical trouble combined with a shortage of linemen - a national phenomena - resulted in more than $27 million in OT payments during the six months.

``We've had a lot of outages, and there's more overtime when that occurs,'' Rozanski said.

``In looking at reliability over the years it's been fairly good, but when you look at the forward trend the reliability has gone down a little. The warning signs are there.''

The DWP's 424 power support services personnel, as well as employees responding to ``electric trouble,'' bumped up their pay by more than a quarter as the result of OT - over $8 million during the six months.

Overtime for security drove about $3 million in overtime, including 225 DWP guards, and 118 under contract.

DWP is hiring additional guards to fill a shortage, but in the short-term as current employees train them, the utility must rely on overtime to get the regular work done, Rozanski said.

``Part of it is when (the department) goes on national alerts. Some guys work seven days a week, 12 hours a day. It may be a day or two, or until the alert goes away,'' he said. ``When there's extreme concern, (DWP) may double our efforts.''

Clerical and other employees in top administrative offices pulled down $118,778 in OT during the six months, including about $21,000 for three clerical employees in the office of General Manager Ron Deaton.

Deaton, who is not paid for overtime, earns an annual salary of $316,000.

Rozanski said most of the OT in those offices is the result of paperwork including putting out requests for proposals on projects and responding to California Public Records Act requests from lawyers and others.

The Customer Service Business Unit, which handles customers' billing and service calls, has been short as many as 40 employees, driving OT costs to more than $2.5 million for the six months. Many of those vacancies now are being filled.

Rozanski said the high OT payments partly are the legacy of DWP downsizing from 11,600 employees in the early 1990s to as low as 6,700 near the end of the decade.

``Because the program was unfocused and across-the-board, so many people left who were people we didn't want to leave,'' he said. ``We had to backfill a lot of positions.''

Beth Barrett, [phone]

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com

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SOURCE: Department of Water and Power

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