Villaraigosa vetoes measure that would give council power to fire DWP leadership

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday vetoed a measure that would have asked voters to give the City Council power to fire the top executive at the Department of Water and Power.

The mayor issued his veto message a few hours after the Council voted 10 to 1 to put the proposal on the March 8 municipal election ballot. In his veto message, Villaraigosa said that if the council wants to change the city commission system, it should look at every agency, not just the DWP.

“I am disapproving the proposed ballot language inasmuch as it seems to reform the governance of one city department before we have had an opportunity to take a comprehensive assessment of all city departments,” he wrote.

The council voted on the plan, which would allow the council by a two-thirds vote to fire the DWP general manager. The proposal would also have allowed council members to remove any of the five DWP commissioners, who are also chosen by the mayor.

The election ballot will be prepared early next month, said Julie Wong, spokeswoman for Council President Eric Garcetti. That means that if the council wants to override the mayor’s veto, an action that would require 10 votes, they would need to do so by Jan. 7, Wong said.

Critics have warned that the ballot measure, one of three dealing with the DWP, could complicate the effort to hire a new general manager, the utility’s sixth in three and a half years. Several council members disagreed, saying the proposal would enable the public to exert more leverage over the utility.

“The more accountability we have at the Department of Water and Power, the better for the ratepayers and the better for the people,” Councilman Tony Cardenas said.

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-- David Zahniser and Patrick McDonnell at Los Angeles City Hall

Comments

[former USC Professor]

Lame excuse Mayor, very lame.

[mv]

what los angeles taxpayer fee payers spect from a crook and liar democrat mayor
god help us

[Nero's Fiddle]

Like two hyenas fighting over a bull elephant. Except that this pachyderm provides our water and electricity and is still pretty healthy. What is going on here? I thought DWP was supposed to be independent from all of this silly stuff. I am beginning to like this Beutner guy strangely.

[Tam]

The city council needs to do the job they were elected to do, and that is looking out for the citizens of LA. I hope the city council has the guts to over ride the Pint Size Mayor's veto.

[PRECIGIL]

WHO IS HE WORKING FOR???//

[DWP Watcher]

Is the City Council insane? Instead of being grateful for the hundreds of millions of dollars the DWP hands over annually, it is doing everything it can to disrupt its business. Instead of trying to weaken it, they should say THANK YOU and let the DWP do what it does best - bring us reliable water and power at a reasonable price.

[Erwin]

From the story it seems the mayor is shielding his appointee cronies at the DWP. Wouldn't it be nice if the rest of us had this kind of protection in the workplace?

[Teri]

I say get rid of the DWP and bring in cheaper workers. I can hardly afford my bill.

[A. Green]

Whoever is suggesting that LADWP is healthy and working functionally is misleading the public. This lie is coming from one of three sources: Austin Beutner's team, since Beutner is running for Mayor and needs to avoid controversial issues; the Mayor's office, namely, chief of staff Jeff Carr, who failed in his attempt to use strong arm tactics to raise rates earlier this year but was stopped by the city council; or Brian D'Arcy, the head of the IBEW, who runs the show over at LADWP.

This dysfunctional institution can't get solar power because the union demands to do all the installation and operations. Until they get their way, there's no solar in this city. They can't move to smart grid solutions because they're stymied in bureaucracy and red tape, preventing them from finding the starting line. The union runs the place and dictates to the mayor what it wants to see . . . .

The council needs more control over LADWP.