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JUST A THOUGHT - The avowed mission of the Bureau of Street Lighting is “light the way for Los Angeles.”
To do so, the agency maintains some 223,000 streetlights with hundreds of aesthetically chosen styles that run from modern to historic to ornate. But artistic imagination becomes negligible when almost ten percent of the lights do not work, blackening residential and commercial neighborhoods and fanning fears of safety and crime.
A darkness looms that denigrates the city and diminishes its valued historic fabric. And sadly, the existing gloom will not change. The bureau’s goal is to inspect lights once every 10 years, but it can take over a year or longer to get one fixed. It claims that its maintenance division responds to over 45,000 light outages each year. And it lacks staff.
Streetlight maintenance requires money, and the streetlight bureau does not have it, although property owners have been paying $44 million per year for this purpose.
The city’s upcoming budget year will reflect a staggering $1 billion shortfall, according to the City Administrative Officer, and revenues will come in even less than expected. Layoffs in the thousands are expected—all troublesome news spawned by flawed planning and administrative incompetence.
Therefore, with fewer city dollars to work with, the fate of the street lighting dilemma remains murky. For years, in fact, the city did not budget enough money to adequately maintain streets, lights, sidewalks, and public infrastructure.
Moreover, the bureau has a long history of not paying its bills to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for electricity used by its street lighting system.
Currently, LADWP records show the bureau’s outstanding balance is over $78 million dating back to 2016. Without doubt, those bills will also remain unpaid since the city was broke even before the costly wildfires, now necessitating hundreds of millions for recovery. As a result, the ratepayer once again will be asked to bail out the city. Because of green energy, under the best scenario, LADWP will double the rates by 2035. Added on top of that will be the BSL costs.
An earlier issue involved charges for electric veicles where the bureau was billing customers directly while taking electricity from LADWP. As a result the BSL has an outstanding balance of $3.8 million
Street lights have faced maintenance issues over many years with outages resulting from burned out bulbs and rusted materials.
In 2020 a liability expert testified that after reviewing thousands of documents no records were found for inspecting the lights on a regualr basis, and that light poles had caps that were loose or missing, indicating that some had fallen off.
A 2-pound metal cap had fallen on a man in Van Nuys fracturing his skull, causing brain trauma and a condition worseninbg over time. Earlier this year, the city of Los Angeles agreed to pay $21 million to settle the case.
Liability payouts is one reason the city budget skyrockets. Lawsuits and claims for injuries and other incidents on city public property, such as tripping on broken sidewalks, falling trees or branches, and other mishaps, required $47 million for resolution.
The streetlighting issue, like so many vital challenges of our time, cannot be addressed by aimless drifting. Only effective leadership that can initiate action and achieve goals is urgently needed. In The Making of Modern Los Angeles, I detail the studies undertaken under the leadership of mayor Richard Riordan in 1998, whereby it was recommended LADWP to take over the BSL coming to the conclusion that the city does not need two utilities doing street light work. The city attorney ruled that the City Charter does not prevent LADWP from taking over the Bureau of Street Lighting to provide improved services which are economical and effective.
Now it is the most fitting time for the City Council to stand up and make changes to escape city bankruptcy and genuinely benefit the community. A partial definite answer for the budget predicament would be the immediate shifting of street lighting responsibilities to the department of water and power which already maintains most of the city’s ornamental lights.
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(Nick Patsaouras is the former president of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power board.)
