LA WATCHDOG-Over the last decade, our Department of Water and Power has funneled over $40 million of Ratepayer money to the Joint Safety Institute and the Joint Training Institute, two non-profit organizations that are essentially controlled by the Union Bo$$ Brian d’Arcy, the business manager of IBEW 18, the union represents over 90% of the Department’s employees.
But according to a revealing front page article by Jack Dolan in Friday’s Los Angeles Times, nobody knows what is going on at these two DWP funded organizations other than a select few in the inner circle of the IBEW. But that is not surprising given the stranglehold that Union Bo$$ d’Arcy has on the City Council and, as a result, the DWP and its management.
Over the years, there have been many attempts by DWP management to get a better understanding of the JSI and JTI, but they were all stymied by the politically wired IBEW that relies on a portion of the $4 million a year from the Ratepayers to cover the salaries and expenses of IBEW employees and friends. This was particularly true in the period after 1998 when the IBEW membership and dues were hit by DWP’s reduction of 2,000 employees in connection with the Department’s $350 million Staff Reduction Program ($175,000 per employee).
But now that this rip off of Ratepayer funds is front page news, the Mayor and the Controller are calling for full and complete audits of the JSI and JTI, a move no doubt supported by the DWP Board of Commissioners, the Ratepayers Advocate, and Ratepayers. However, we should not expect the enthusiastic cooperation of the City Council since at least ten members have been beneficiaries of campaign contributions from Union Bo$$ d’Arcy.
While the forensic audit is the first step in the process of reforming the JSI and JTI, the Department and the City should eliminate these two redundant entities and fold their responsibilities into DWP’s well respected Corporate Safety and Training & Development Departments.
Once this audit is completed, the Department and the City need to do a comprehensive and transparent review of all agreements between the IBEW, the DWP, and the City. This would include side agreements, work rules, staffing levels, the healthcare plan, and any other agreements that impact the efficiency and economics of the Department.
We also need a greater level of transparency with respect to affairs of the very powerful IBEW that has revenues of $10 million a year. Local 18 should be required by the City to make a full and complete disclosure of its financial statements and tax returns as well as detailed information on all of its affiliates, including the JSI and JTI, its Defense League, and its Health and Welfare Trust. Any disclosure would also include a complete listing of all campaign contributions over the last ten years.
The Department also needs to formalize its relationship with the City Council and the Mayor to prevent meddling officials and their staffs from interfering with the efficient operations of the nation’s largest municipal utility. This would involve establishing a centralized clearing house so that requests for information, services, and pet projects can be catalogued and prioritized by management and transparent to the Ratepayers, the Ratepayers Advocate, and all Angelenos.
Finally, the City needs to protect its citizens and fragile economy against a strike by the public workers, an action that has been threatened on numerous occasions by Bo$$ d’Arcy, scaring the hell out of the spineless City Council. This would require new laws that would limit strikes by public workers and prohibit the IBEW from representing more than 50% of a Department’s employees.
Ratepayers are already being fleeced for over $1 billion a year: the questionably legal $250 million transfer fee, the $300 million 10% City Utility Tax, the $250 million IBEW Labor Premium, numerous pet projects, and the costs associated with the dumping of surplus City employees (and their unfunded pension obligations) on the DWP.
Now we have to read about an over the top sick pay policy, the scam associated with the JSI and JTI, unreasonable overtime premiums, free Cadillac healthcare plans, overstaffing, and antiquated work rules, all of which are being paid for by the Ratepayers.
DWP’s problem is not Ron Nichols and his management team. They have done an excellent job in making our Department of Water and Power more transparent even as they have raised rates. Rather, it is the City Council that is beholden to campaign funding Union Bo$$ d’Arcy.
It is time for real reform, for the City Council to clean up its act and represent the interests of the Ratepayers who vote, not the IBEW who are trying to buy our elected officials.
And without real reform, good luck trying to pass the $3 billion Street Repair Tax!
(Jack Humphreville writes LA Watchdog for CityWatch. He is the President of the DWP Advocacy Committee, the Ratepayer Advocate for the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council, and a Neighborhood Council Budget Advocate. Humphreville is the publisher of the Recycler Classifieds -- www.recycler.com. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Hear Jack every Tuesday morning at 6:20 on McIntyre in the Morning, KABC Radio 790.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 77
Pub: Sept 24, 2013
