HOW CITY HALL WORKS … OR, NOT - After the Los Angeles Times published the results of its investigation into the existence of an unlimited sick-pay policy at the Department of Water and Power, members of the City Council fell over each other to express outrage.
The motion that was submitted a heartbeat later stated that the policy “permits abuse and lack of accountability, with the city and the city’s ratepayers all at risk.”
One councilmember added, “These are exactly the kinds of things that have to be rooted out for the DWP to be the transparent, honest and effective organization we want it to be.”
It can’t be a surprise to anyone that problems like this exist at the mammoth independent department. It’s been going on for decades.
The bigger, systemic, and still unaddressed problem is why city officials didn’t know about this policy long ago.
The answer may be that a perfect day for an elected official is when there is no bad news or time-consuming work. So there isn’t a motivation for tough questions to be asked.
Another reason may be that by waiting for a problem to explode, there are publicity opportunities for those who respond to it first. If the problem were to be solved before it became a scandal, the chances for publicity would be minimal.
In Los Angeles, voters elect 15 City Council members, a mayor, city attorney, and controller. Each one has the ability to sit down with department general managers and ask them to think hard about potential scandals and wasteful policies that could end up on the front page of a major newspaper.
Every year, during deliberations over the city’s forthcoming budget, general managers parade before the Budget and Finance Committee and the full City Council to answer questions.
Sadly, most of the questions are limited to the council members’ pet projects. It would be exceeding simple to forewarn each agency head that they will be asked the “scandals” question.
The mayor usually meets monthly with general managers, and more often if you include communication through the deputy mayors.
The city’s commission system was established in the 1920s to give citizen volunteers a formal role in the operations of departments. At a minimum, their role is to hold the bureaucrats accountable on behalf of the public.
It appears that either the commission never asked about the sick-pay policy, or they knew about it and said nothing. Either way, that won’t look good on their resumes. Hopefully, the new members nominated by Mayor Garcetti will adopt a new approach.
The City Charter doesn’t expect neighborhood councils to perform many specific duties, but one of them is the vague requirement to oversee the delivery of city services.
There is nothing, other than the will to do so, that prevents neighborhood council representatives from meeting face-to-face with general managers on a regular basis and ask questions until there are no more to be asked.
If we maintain the status quo, we will have to rely on the media to do the work entrusted to city officials.
(Greg Nelson is a former general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, was instrumental in the creation of the LA Neighborhood Council System, served as chief of staff for former LA City Councilman Joel Wachs … and occasionally writes for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected])
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 67
Pub: Aug 20, 2013