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DWP has managed to soak Los Angeles ... yet again
By Doug McIntyre
Updated: 11/10/2009 04:30:29 PM PST
DAILY NEWS
I was hoping to load the kids and the wife in the car and buzz out to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful. But one of the kids is 29 and working, the other is a college freshman and would rather eat his weight in gravel than make a car trip with his parents, so the kids were out. Then gas being as pricey as it is and my income having recently flat-lined, the wife suggested this may not be the ideal time for a sightseeing trip. So much for Yellowstone and Old Faithful.
However, once I get an itch it must be scratched. Having heard so much about "staycations," the hip new recession-friendly way to enjoy leisure time, I pulled the car off Ventura Boulevard with a cooler of drinks and sandwiches, my field glasses and SPF 15 smeared on my nose, and waited for a water main break. If you can't go to the geyser, you can always count on the DWP to bring the geyser to you.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is a remarkable organization. Not only does it deliver fresh drinking water and electricity to millions, it also puts on a show! With pipes popping from the Hollywood Hills to the 118 Freeway, who needs Yellowstone? L.A.'s neglected infrastructure has made San Fernando Valley geysers the nation's newest tourist destination - New Faithful - with the added excitement of never actually knowing where the next geyser will erupt. It could even be your home or business that gets washed away in a tsunami of incompetence and neglect!
Of course, pipes don't neglect themselves. The DWP needs workers to ignore routine maintenance and the workers need a union, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 18, and a union needs a leader, in this case Brian D'Arcy. Or should we call him Mayor D'Arcy since he seems to be running the show?
As business manager for the IBEW, D'Arcy has created an impregnable fortress of power funded by the union dues of his members. This rich source of cash and votes has made D'Arcy the kingmaker in L.A.
In the age of "shared sacrifice," where even the cops don't get a raise, D'Arcy waved his magic wand and produced hikes of 2 percent to 4 percent not just this year, but each of the next five years. If you're a Local 18 member you should have a D'Arcy poster over your bed - he's a union rock star.
Too bad his empire of water and electricity is funded out of our pockets. It's not just the skyrocketing water bills, which would be bad enough, but the lopsided clout wielded by the IBEW over DWP policy and countless other city issues is a threat to the very process of government.
When one interest group becomes as influential as D'Arcy's union, it can dictate public policy for private purposes. It took an act of near miraculous grass-roots activism to defeat the outrageous cash and power grab represented by the D'Arcy-authored "Measure B," the so-called solar power initiative, during the March 3 primary.
Nearly every elected official endorsed Measure B without knowing what it would cost to the nearest billion. People who should have known better, like council members Wendy Greuel and Greig Smith, cheered it on. Eventually, Smith feebly backpedaled, saying had he known the real costs he wouldn't have voted to put Measure B on the ballot. That's leadership.
Workers in Los Angeles continue to get hammered by job-killing corporate and governmental policies. The private sector gets soaked in every direction.
The majority of the job losses have come from private industry, plus the taxpayers are on the hook for higher everything largely to preserve government jobs. The final insult is the City Council handing out raises to the DWP workers at the same time we can't even water our lawns. And did I mention the Valley geysers?
Police Protective League President Paul Webber nailed it when he said of the DWP's raises: "Management has the option of increasing the utility bills. We don't have that ability." Police did not get raises.
If only we all could vote ourselves a raise and make someone else pay the bill.
Millions and millions have been siphoned from DWP infrastructure projects so the mayor and City Council could plug holes in the general fund budget. This encouraged reckless spending by politicians and emboldened D'Arcy who understands he has the power to shut off more than water and electricity. He controls the real juice in L.A., the source of all real power - money.
Doug McIntyre is a former radio host at KABC in Los Angeles. Readers can contact him at Doug@RadioGasBag.com.
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