DWP Ratepayers and Janice Hahn: Where’s the Love?

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LA WATCHDOG - Janice Hahn, a candidate for the Congressional seat recently vacated by Jane Harman, is not a friend of the Ratepayers of our Department of Water and Power. 

Just this last fall, Hahn was a member of the IBEW Eight (which includes LA City Councilmembers Wesson, Alarcon, Reyes, wannabe Controller Zine, Garcetti, and Huizar) that watered down the Ratepayers Advocate ballot measure in response to Union Bo$$ Brian D’Arcy’s fear of increased transparency and accountability in the operations and finances of DWP. 

Yet, during the citywide forums on the proposed ballot measures, Hahn supported the Ratepayers Advocate Term Sheet that called for a well funded, empowered, and truly independent Ratepayers Advocate to oversee the operations, finances, and management of DWP on a timely and continuous basis.

Hahn and the other members of the IBEW Eight also supported Mayor Villaraigosa and Union Bo$$ D’Arcy by voting not to place on the ballot a measure that would have permitted the City Council to remove the DWP General Manager or a Commissioner with a two-thirds vote.

In the spring of 2010, Hahn was closely involved in Mayor Villaraigosa’s effort to increase our electricity rates by a breath taking 28%. She and Alarcon were the only Council Members to vote against the City Council asserting jurisdiction over the DWP Board of Commissioners action to implement these massive rate increases. 

She and her co-conspirator Richard Alarcon, with the support of Mayor Villaraigosa, also introduced a poorly conceived motion that called for affirming the 28% increase and a “Compromise Plan” that would have increased the exposure of Ratepayers to the Energy Cost Adjustment Factor.  This motion received only two votes.

As a result, the Mayor created the ECAF Fiasco as he tried to extort the City Council into approving the 28% increase by threatening to withhold $73.5 million of the DWP transfer to the City’s cash starved General Fund.

In 2009, Hahn was also one of the leading proponents of Measure B, the Solar Initiative that was a payback to campaign funding Union Bo$$ D’Arcy, the public-be-damned business manager of the IBEW, the DWP’s dominant union. But the blonde Hahn was clueless as to the financial impact of this Solar Initiative on Ratepayers.

Hahn was also a leading proponent of the 2008 increases in our water and power base rates, once again not understanding the impact on ratepayers. She was a strong supporter of the Power System’s Rate Restructuring Plan and the Water System’s Shortage Year Water Rates, both of which resulted in huge increases in the bimonthly bills of homeowners.

Hahn has also demonstrated that she is unwilling to make the tough decisions that are needed to solve the City’s structural budget deficit.  While she is good at giving lip service to balancing the budget, she is unwilling to take the necessary actions out of fear of offending her campaign funding Partners in Labor, putting her own political interests and those of the City Family ahead of the fiscal integrity of the City and the best interests of Citizens of Los Angeles.

On May 17, many Ratepayers will have the opportunity to vote for their next Congressional representative.  And in making that decision, Ratepayers may want to consider Hahn’s failure to watch out for their wallets. 

(Jack Humphreville writes LA Watchdog for CityWatch He is the President of the DWP Advocacy Committee and the Ratepayer Advocate for the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council. Humphreville is the publisher of the Recycler -- www.recycler.com. He can be reached at: [email protected])             -cw




CityWatch
Vol 9 Issue 35
Pub: May 3, 2011