Former DWP chief to earn up to $82,000 over three months as consultant to agency
Los Angeles city officials today released the terms of the controversial consulting contract for the former general manager of the Department of Water and Power, H. David Nahai, who resigned this month.
Under the three-month contract, Nahai can earn a maximum of $82,000 to “provide consulting services and provide knowledge transfer relating to issues that arose during his tenure as chief executive officer and general manager."
Nahai is required to make himself available by phone or e-mail during normal work hours. The DWP’s interim general manager, Deputy Mayor S. David Freeman, provided copies of Nahai’s contract to the City Council this morning.
Councilman Dennis Zine last week said it was "absolutely absurd" for the utility to pay two executive salaries in these difficult economic times.
The contract began Oct. 7 and ends Dec. 31.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa instructed Freeman on Tuesday to conduct a “cost-cutting’’ review of the DWP budget before requesting any water or power rate increases and asked him to accelerate the replacement of aging water pipelines after a rash of recent ruptures.
Freeman today withdrew a proposal before the Council that could have increased tiered water rates.
-- Phil Willon at City Hall
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EDITOR'S PICKS:
The IRS should thank the LA Times for ensuring this guy can't cheat on his taxes. The Times should also cover other politicians as well.
Posted by: kooo | October 14, 2009 at 01:18 PM
Why does anybody trust these guys? They are all crooks, eating at the same doughnut shop and smoking each others cigars (if you catch my drift). Each and every one of them should be out of a job (at the least) and/or in jail.
What's missing from this article? Any expressed outrage by a single city council person about this deal.
Posted by: Ruby Jackson | October 14, 2009 at 02:03 PM
This is a typical political payoff that should result in the firing of several people, including Nahai. Like many other giveaways of public money, it likely would have passed unnoticed as are most of these "consulting" contracts so prevalent nowadays. Where's the outrage from City Hall and Mr. Villaraigosa? Just another way to shovel money into one anothers pockets while services go down and rates go up. Maybe the $5 "fee" that LADWP charges to pay a bill on line or through an automated system goes in to the slush fund that'll make the payoff to Nahai. Shameful.
Posted by: jeff finney | October 14, 2009 at 03:35 PM
$27,333.33 per month to be available BY PHONE OR EMAIL, 9-5 M-F. Of course ratepayers are footing the bill for the Blackberry Nahai will be using while "consulting" from a beach on the French Riviera. Must be nice.
Posted by: jeff finney | October 14, 2009 at 03:41 PM
What a disgrace. Cronyism at its worst. What does the Mayor have to say about this?
Posted by: Daniel | October 14, 2009 at 04:26 PM
This is how the City run. First pay a person so much that they can retire within a month. When issues gets hot and demanded their service they resign because they cannot handle the situation. WHAT ARE WE PAYING THEM FOR???
Next we hire them as a Consultant and pay them as much. WE MIGHT AS WELL HIRE PART-TIME CONSULTANT IN THE FIRST PLACE AND SAVE THE CITY SALAY, PENSION ETC.
If your city management is run this way I am really not surprise why the city is going bankrupt.
Posted by: Josh Ooi | October 15, 2009 at 10:27 AM