LA WATCHDOG-Over the last eight years, Mayor Villaraigosa, the beneficiary of $400,000 in campaign donations from IBEW Union Bo$$ Brian d’Arcy in 2005, and key members of the City Council (also beneficiaries of the Bo$$’s generosity) told the General Managers of our Department of Water and Power in no uncertain terms that any investigation of how over $40 million of hard earned Ratepayer money was spent by the Joint Safety and Training Institutes was off bounds.
But this scam was blown wide open on September 20 when Jack Dolan’s well-researched article appeared on the front page of The Los Angeles Times, essentially asking where all the Ratepayers’ money had gone.
After four months, the defiant Bo$$ has “stiffed” the DWP, its management, its Board of Commissioners, and Controller Ron Galperin by failing to provide any of the requested financial or operating information about these two nonprofit trusts. The Bo$$ has even had the unmitigated gall to go to court to quash Galperin’s subpoena demanding information on how our money was spent.
But the legal battle has escalated as prosecutors and criminal investigators from the District Attorney’s office are now working with the City “to obtain the records and determine whether a crime has been committed.”
So what is Union Bo$$ d’Arcy trying to hide?
Are salaries to union officials for no show jobs? Are Reimbursed Administrative Expenses of $1.2 million justifiable? Is there any empirical data supporting the efficiency of these two nonprofits? And why do these two nonprofits have a $12 million slush fund?
There is also considerable speculation whether money was spent on unauthorized activities, including those with RePower LA, a “coalition of environmentalists, labor unions, and economic justice activists” that is affiliated with the Los Angles Alliance for a New Economy.
Or was any of our money diverted directly or indirectly to political campaigns favored by the IBEW?
And is Union Bo$$ d’Arcy’s refusal to cooperate a bargaining chip or part of an overall strategy that is designed to maintain his political clout, especially with the City Council where his ability to finance political campaigns carries more weight than the Council’s concern for Ratepayers’ hard earned cash?
Whatever the game plan, the DWP should halt any future payments to the Joint Training and Safety Institutes and use its power to stop any future expenditures unless approved by both the Department and the IBEW.
To protect the Ratepayers from the self-serving interests of campaign funding Union Bo$$ d’Arcy, Mayor Garcetti and the Herb Wesson led City Council need to limit the power of the IBEW by eliminating its ability to strike since any work stoppage puts the whole City and its economy at risk.
There should also be limitations on the number of members that any DWP union can represent and confine that membership to either the Water or Power Systems.
The IBEW should be required to disclose all of its financial statements (including footnotes), including those of its affiliates, the Defense League and the Health and Welfare Trust that have never seen the light of day.
The IBEW should also prepare a complete list of its campaign contributions over the last ten years, including those of Working Californians, a major contributor to Wendy Greuel’s recent campaign for Mayor.
DWP also needs to establish a centralized clearing house for all communications between the Department and City Hall so that requests for information, services, and pet projects will be transparent to the Ratepayers, the Ratepayers, and all the voters.
At the same time, the DWP must proceed with the benchmarking of its operations and compensation arrangements demanded by Mayor Garcetti and the analysis of its many work rules that impact the efficiency of its operations.
As Rahm Emanuel said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
Union Bo$$ d’Arcy’s arrogance and his unwillingness to disclose how our money is being spent is a fantastic opportunity for the Ratepayers to demand change in the operations and finances of our Department of Water and Power.
It is time for the City Council to recognize that the interests of the Ratepayers are paramount to those of Union Bo$$ d’Arcy and his campaign cash.
This is our Department of Water and Power, not an ATM machine for City Hall or the IBEW.
Finally, what a nice way to greet our new General Manager, Marcie Edwards.
(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 12 Issue 9
Pub: Jan 31, 2014