Root Cause Analysis?

Audits and Governmental Efficiency Committee

COUNCILMEMBER WENDY GREUEL, CHAIR (greuel@council.lacity.org)
COUNCILMEMBER JACK WEISS (weiss@council.lacity.org)
COUNCILMEMBER JANICE HAHN (hahn@council.lacity.org)
LEGISLATIVE ASSISTANT ILENE SHAPIRO (ishapiro@clerk.lacity.org)
Room 1060, City Hall
200 North Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
November 27, 2004

Re: AUDITS AND GOVERNMENTAL EFFICIENCY COMMITTEE
Special Meeting, 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, December 1, 2004

Honorable Council Members:

No amount of rules and enforcement can be as effective in changing a culture as having leadership that is relentless in its pursuit of the greater long-term public good. The methods used by the DWP, Airports, and Harbor departments should be as straight-forward as the services themselves. The methods should be simple, consistent, predictable, and easily understood throughout the organization. They are not. This is a management problem and should not be blamed on individuals. These systemic problems are management's responsibility. Without doubt, the duplicitous nature of management’s influence on the methods of doing business has degraded the products and services provided, as well as creating personnel issues within these departments.

My letter published in the August 13, 2004 issue of LA Weekly entitled "Whistleblowing," continues to express my concerns:

"Without exposure and widespread public support, the culture at the LADWP will not change. Sure, laws protect individual employees, but individuals do not stand a chance against the juggernaut of attorney-trained bureaucrats, unlimited time and access to the City Attorney’s Office, PR spin masters, contracted legal services, fact-finding committees, and union stalwarts — all accomplished defenders of the status quo. Consequently, employees are highly motivated to compromise their responsibility to act in the public’s best interest to avoid repercussion and loss of promotional opportunity."

Addressing waste, fraud, and abuse looks like a good start. But these are merely symptoms and do not address the fundamental issue, which is mismanagement. The mismanagement is due to the influence of outside interests and secret agendas which overshadows delivering the services in a manner consistent with the public’s best interests.

Bogus internal investigations and the use of rubber-stamp committees to reframe the spin on management’s methods are savvy political tools to maintain the status quo and to protect incumbents steeped in cronyism. The leaders at the DWP are purported experienced professionals; many of them, such as Thomas Hokinson and Hal D. Lindsey, are accomplished attorneys. To suggest retraining as a remedy to mismanagement is a diversion. Management knows the laws, and they know their responsibilities. They have chosen to use their high-level positions, talents and influence to skirt them. Their leadership has reflected negatively in the merit systems established, on the culture within the department, and on the actions of some 8,000 employees preoccupied with intimidation and retaliation for whistle-blowing.

Further, the Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources Committee, made up of Tony Cardenas, Janice Hahn , and Cindy Miscikowski, made it very clear to acting General Manager Henry Martinez that management behavior reflected poorly on and threatened the integrity of the Department, its employees, and the entire city.

These managers need to be held accountable. Not to take definitive action ensnares this committee in the same mire of complacency that surrounds the offices of the City Controller and the City Attorney.

Many employees have found it necessary to bring their first-hand experiences to the attention of boards and committees outside the influence of DWP management. This, too, is symptomatic of the same problem. The fact that the union is not representing these individuals and that employees are not using traditional in-house resolution avenues is alarming. It means that the union has found it can better influence the terms and conditions of labor through appointments and political and managerial maneuvering than through the traditional representation of employees. The employees have realized that in-house resolution processes are no longer effective.

Union influence on boards and in management can be seen in the union's recent entry and control of safety administration, retirement system administration, engineers and architects, exempt employees, and healthcare, etc. In each of these areas, ask, "Can the union be held accountable for a failed or substandard performance?" The resounding answer is "no." Legitimate management should know that accountability for these areas cannot be transferred. Under the current law, if an employee is hurt or killed on the job, management is culpable. Consequently, in each of these instances, management has given the union a risk-free benefit.

Career employees that have voiced their concerns at various city boards and council meetings have found themselves facing the Civil Service Commission and/or the Employee Relations Board. These management-orchestrated personnel actions illustrate dysfunctional management behavior, and intimidation of the workforce and result in degraded services and the waste of city time, resources, and talent.

The nexus of management methods, personnel actions, and union influence falls clearly under management control. Therefore, management is solely responsible and should be held accountable.

I am a 20-year career DWP employee familiar with the culture, politics, and players; a professor of management at CSULA; and a motivated change agent. I have a vested interest in seeking long-lasting reform and improvement. I have plenty to contribute to this committee and to the city of Los Angeles, and I have a vision for a successful reformation plan. If you are interested in system and process improvement, I would welcome the opportunity to participate in your efforts.

I am unable to attend this particular meeting as it is in conflict with a pending case of alleged management-orchestrated retaliation being heard at the Employee Relations Board. However, I would be extremely happy to meet with you at your convenience.

Please let me know how I can best participate. I would like to post your reply at http://www.civilactionpress.blogspot.com/. I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,


Daniel N. Shrader, M.B.A.

Attachment:
Shrader, Daniel N. August 13, 2004. Letters: WHISTLEBLOWING. LA Weekly. http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/38/letters.php.

WHISTLEBLOWING

Jeffrey Anderson’s article "The Black Avenger" [July 23–29] cites the City Attorney’s Office’s use of secret settlements and confidentiality clauses to hide systemic discrimination, harassment and retaliation as an alternative to management reform at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). LADWP Assistant General Manager Thomas Hokinson was unable to recall burying mismanagement allegations while he was chief assistant city attorney — no surprise considering workplace bullying has gotten sophisticated and management retaliation is the leading claim at the utility.

The LADWP plays musical chairs to mask these increasing claims. Although responsibility over Human Resources and Labor Relations passed from Raman Raj to Thomas Hokinson, and then to Hal D. Lindsey (retired from Edison) — all of whom were eventually promoted to assistant general managers — tactics to thwart employee claims remain paramount.

Without exposure and widespread public support, the culture at the LADWP will not change. Sure, laws protect individual employees, but individuals do not stand a chance against the juggernaut of attorney-trained bureaucrats, unlimited time and access to the City Attorney’s Office, PR spin masters, contracted legal services, fact-finding committees, and union stalwarts — all accomplished defenders of the status quo. Consequently, employees are highly motivated to compromise their responsibility to act in the public’s best interest to avoid repercussion and loss of promotional opportunity.

Since 1981, every grievance, arbitration, lawsuit and contract for legal services, including every one of the high-dollar settlements covered in "The Black Avenger," has crossed the Board of Water and Power Commissioners for approval. The Board, having recently mandated "Mutual Respect" and "Workplace Violence" seminars for each employee, cannot claim to be unaware of the rift between enlisted cronies and career civil servants. The real question is: Did they turn a blind eye to it or did they mandate these seminars in an effort to re-frame executive-orchestrated retaliation and bullying as a supervisory issue?

Charter reform and manipulation of civil-service classification and selection processes have exacerbated the problem by increasing the latitude and number of non-civil-service employees serving at the pleasure of management and beholden to their closely held personal and political agendas.

Is the situation out of control? Civil service is characterized by low turnover designed to prevent spoils-system graft and corruption. A monopoly, too, is characterized by low turnover. The LADWP is both a civil-service organization and a monopoly. But the high turnover at the management level indicates that the organizational focus has shifted from public service to opportunists jockeying for personal power. Strife in the workplace, reduced output and higher costs are a result of a preoccupied, self-serving leadership.

By their rhetoric, city administrators lay blame on contractors and understudies. City leaders and their blindly following minions seem to have forgotten that they are charged with a higher standard of behavior, embodied in the city oath, to provide and ensure continuous, ethical, uncompromised, cost-effective service to the citizens of Los Angeles. For their public service, Angelinos entrust them with uncompromised authority, good salaries, benefits and civic honors.

There is a consequence to violating and spinning away the public trust. Therein lies the crux of the problem. The regulatory agencies of this administration — the Board, Controller’s Office, Ethics Commission, Civil Service Commission, City Attorney’s Office and Mayor’s Office — continue to support the status quo, a derelict and dysfunctional culture. Consequently, these internal policing agencies must be the first priority for reform.

I hope that the recent exposure and awareness of widespread city mismanagement, specifically at the LADWP, will result in a recall of the public’s trust.

DWP Lions, tigers, and bears... Oh my!

Management claims Dorothy and company are disgruntled

It seems Dorothy and the rest of the employees are getting pretty damned fed up with the smoke, mirrors, intimidation, and bullying at DWP.

Management mis-labels them disgruntled workers and sends them packing. But they’re tenacious and keep coming back. Will Deaton set them free and bestow a heart upon the tin man, a diploma upon the scarecrow, and m-m-mettle upon the lion?

Deaton could throw water on a couple of witches and goblins plaguing high places and set free some brains, heart, and courage to reform and influence the rest. Things just might get a whole lot better.

Unlikely perhaps, but wouldn't that be something?

The Great and Powerful Deaton

Deaton behind the curtain at the Energy Control Center (ECC).

In response to James Nash’s article in the Daily News, “Power broker Deaton approved as DWP head.” (http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2557009,00.html#)

The great and powerful Deaton behind the curtain at the Energy Control Center (ECC).

I, for one, hope more than anything that Deaton can straighten things out at DWP. However, we know that no amount of marketing perfume can mask the rot that is eating away at the gut of this organization and its employees.

I anticipate that Deaton will have the usual entourage of Deatonites and cronies that GMs bring in. We hope that he will change that ugly minion custom and appoint just a few good-old-fashioned change-agents (like us) to bring about reform from the inside out. It would be like Gadfly maggots on gangrene (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1220130.htm ).

I hope that Deaton with an understanding of civil service and a spirit of getting things done through others will demonstrate to existing ex-Edison and attorney-minded despots, that it is much easier to lead through empowering creative employees rather than to drive them into submission with intimidation and bullying.

It would not take much to bring about reform. We are so sick of being sick. Union-led self-centered management is a bottleneck. DWP culture is so far off course with special interest that 8,000 employees take no chances making decisions. They send everything up the chain of command to make sure they won’t be held responsible. It reduces output of 8,000 employees to the manipulations of a few unscrupulous cronies and their minions preoccupied with spinning tales, personnel issues, legal battles, and stomping out whistlers.

If Deaton is truly a powerful guy, he will waste no time in getting the 8,000 employees back on track and producing again. Maybe that one year golden parachute is the license and freedom to can a few unnecessary General Managers and appoint some real Civil Servants. Now, that wouldn't that be a grand turn of events for us all, wouldn't it?

Maybe Deaton, like the Wizard of OZ, will empower us to use what we already have to get us back where we belong. Don't go getting all blurry-eyed. There is absolutely no precedent for this kind of optimism.

Your thoughts?

Do you doubt Deaton will bring reform?

Ron Deaton

With few exceptions, the LADWP is packed with cronies and their minions from the Board down through many levels of management. They come and stay and invite their friends in droves.

The ability of leadership to convey a clear, logical, unifying call to action, seems to be a thing of the past. Now they can be heaped into two big piles, those that are featherbedding for themselves and those that are featherbedding for somebody else. It would be no surprise that the city's other two proprietary [non-tax based revenue generating] agencies have been infiltrated in much the same manner.

The epicenter of the political machine in Los Angeles is this administration and organized labor. The decisions and actions only “secondarily” benefit the citizens of Los Angeles. The decisions primarily benefit this administration's biggest supporters: the Longshoremen, Local 18, Local 347, and the construction trades – those that pay – to name a few. The number of self-represented employee claims against the LADWP management demonstrates that the union has found political influence a more effective way to get appointments and to control the terms and conditions of labor. More rewarding than the representation of its own membership.

No one can claim partisan politics for failures in this town. The control of Los Angeles is far and wide and deep. Ever wonder why business friendly leaders are not in the LA Times? As far back as September 1909, the Los Angeles Times had a run in with the union and has never since been the same. The scary part is that with very few exceptions our situation has been the result of almost a century of single party politics and oligarchic control. Remember the old street cars we buried? Did you see the movie Chinatown?

It doesn't matter whether you choose Hahn or Villaraigosa or any of the City Council members, the end result seems to be the same. The examples of cronyism are obvious – quantity not quality. Raman Raj, former AGM at LADWP, is rumored to be Villaraigosa's guy. Thomas Hokinson, present AGM, is rumored to be Hahn's guy. S. David Freeman, David Wiggs and Henry Martinez, former and standing GMs, have demonstrated their allegiance in savvy ways. In the wings -- Ed Miller, Hal Lindsey, and a host of others...

If they would appoint true leaders, they would not need so many consultants or personal services contracts to keep these ex officios on the payroll, now would they? Larry Keller of the Harbor Department and Raman Raj and soon to be David Wiggs at LADWP seem to be indicative of the practice.

Did Hahn finally pick a peach from the lemon tree? Albeit I have never met the man, I have no evidence to support Hahn's latest recommendation of Ron Deaton or the Board's big rubber stamp will mean anything different than maintaining the status quo. We must assume like Laura Chick and the rest, Mr. Deaton, top Chief Legislative Analyst and most powerful official, is aware of the pandering that is going on at citizens expense. In the absence of any obvious action on his part to have stopped the behavior, we have to assume his appointment will not be any different from any other of Hahn's appointments. We don’t see Deaton accepting the position at the pre-Wiggs rate, do we? The Board is already pushing for Wiggs as a consultant. How long has he been out? Change starts at the top. So far all we have seen is musical chairs. Consequently, there is no probity to support legitimate reform. Until these illegitimate bureaucrats are removed, nothing will change.

The city's recent big financially encumbering decisions and transfers into city coffers indicate that the other proprietary organizations have experienced the same debilitating influences.

If this city is not business friendly, efforts to expand the harbor and airport are superfluous. If we make special concessions to the movie industry, without reducing the overall cost of commerce to everyone in this city, it will transfer increased costs to the rest. And then more will leave. It is a death spiral.

This city's renowned committee-sanctioned gerrymandered decision-making process is the reason businesses are leaving. The exodus of the movie industry is just another above the radar. I see more and more vacant buildings and empty store fronts, don't you? The city redevelopment efforts discussed in news articles are attempts to keep abandoned property from being so noticeable.

In the long-term, establishing a business friendly environment for big growth oriented higher-tier employers rather than bringing in residents and lower-tier employers would have been the appropriate revitalizing choice. However, I think the council knew there would be no higher-tier takers. Holding out "undesirable" employers because they are non-union stifles competition. The action sends a clear message to other employers – Los Angeles is not a business friendly place and it does not support an openly competitive marketplace. The actions drive up overall living costs for every single citizen. Supporting residential building, retail, and restaurants without establishing and supporting a strong base of globally-competitive employers is the same as flushing out the last of an empty oil well with salt water. When oil riggers do that, it clearly signals the end of a run.

Compare the economic growth of Los Angeles to our local competitors: San Diego, Ventura, and Orange County. Do you remember when these bedroom communities used to commute to Los Angeles to do business? Look who has the bedroom communities and the lower-tier businesses now. It is obvious our representatives have not been supporting a Los Angeles revival. Then again, if the big three proprietary organizations don't shape up we won't be able to support a revitalization anyway.

Hahn, brinkmanship, and recovery

Ships in queue

The Mayor is the highest authority. And rightfully so, he is “elected by” and “held accountable to” the citizens. No doubt, the citizens will take care of the Mayor. However, if we fail to hold EVERY city official accountable, we will propagate the same problems again and again.

Recall the new city Charter that expanded mayoral power to make exempt appointments and to transfer loyalists into strategic positions, all of whom serve at the pleasure of their appointee. Each mayoral appointment makes decisions in the Mayor's interest. Of course, there is a Board review and approval process – of more mayoral appointees. It is easy to see this elaborate rubber-stamping process is to obscure what most know as a simple quid pro quo arrangement. In the old days, we found this arrangement led to corruption. We called it the “spoils system” and responsible civic leaders developed the “Civil Service System” to combat it.

Civil Service has been eroding for years. The changes to the Charter made them official. The changes enacted during the previous administration were exploited in this administration. The spoils system was reestablished through minion-minded appointments to the city’s oversight and policy-making bodies. The fruits of this administration in this environment (vesting too much authority in the mayor) have led to a brinkmanship pursuit of special interests – to the point of corruption and chaos.

It would be a mistake for citizens to focus only on the mayor. There is an old axiom in business: “First rate managers, hire first rate managers. Second rate managers hire third rate minions.” The truth of this axiom can be seen throughout the city in ineffective boondoggle political marketing efforts at DWP: Nobody uses the electric vehicle charging stations. Did they finally get Lopez Canyon landfill generation system to work? How about the high-visibility photo-voltaic system that has to be plugged in to line power in order to function? Anthony Office Building condemned for mold and donated to the school district. Pasadena Test Lab project is way over budget. These examples can be seen in airports and harbor, too.

Running electricity to power cargo ships waiting to be unloaded to reduce pollution is not a solution. It merely addresses a symptom of mismanagement and mayoral attempts at diversion. Yes, ships pollute. However, the real problem is the ships are taking too long to unload and their engines plume tons of smoke waiting to be unloaded. We don’t need to pay for high-voltage water-proof extension cords. In case you don’t know, water and electricity are not a good mix.

Notwithstanding mayoral serfs have paid millions to spin-masters and consultants to say otherwise, harbor managers need to eliminate one very big bottleneck. The bottleneck is not technology or infrastructure – we rebuilt the harbor, remember? The real problem is a conflict of interest. And here is how it works: The union objective is to control the terms and conditions of labor. The mayor and his minions are a reflection of that conflicted interest. Artificially constrained labor creates the bottleneck. The bottleneck justifies outrageous wages, benefits, control, and influence for union gate keepers. Mayoral homage justifies efforts to keep it that way – protect the concession. Ultimately, the price of this boondoggle is borne by the consumer and the citizens alike.

The simple solution, of course, would be to employ labor resources required to meet the average harbor demand. Recognize that labor is a market-driven supply-vs.-demand commodity. Hold overall total labor expense constant – no net change. Propose an across the board top-to-bottom percentage-based wage and/or benefit cut to pay for the additional labor necessary to maximize utilization of recent investment in harbor infrastructure and technology. Of course labor is not going to like this proposal at all. In response, focus employees on the solution by inviting them to minimize the cuts through viable innovation and changes in existing policies that accomplish the same end.

Just to give you some idea of how out of whack we are here. The average annual wage in Los Angeles is $44,000 (derived from the 2nd quarter 2004 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports for Los Angeles – http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cewqtr.toc.html). Notwithstanding the wages of harbor supervision and management, an “entry-level” dockworker wage is 33 percent higher than the average wage earner in Los Angeles. August 2004 Iww.org reported that there were over 250,000 applicants for 3,000 casual entry level dockworker jobs paying $28.00 an hour (http://lists.iww.org/pipermail/iww-news/2004-August/006095.html). We could have double the amount of employees at half the wage ($14 per hour) and still have a 40 to 1 applicant to job ratio. It would surely put a dent in unemployment. I’d venture to say it would reduce crime too.

Our present course of idling ships, containers, cranes, railcars and trucks is literally watching our investment and resources go up in smoke. Our port should be a first choice among other developing west coast ports. Ships are already rerouting through other U.S. ports. It is just a matter of time before NAFTA permits viable competitive alternatives around Los Angeles and through U.S. borders. If Mexico can unload a ship in three days and truckers can get those containers to destination in one or two days, no shipper will wait in the harbor for eight. Work transferred to other ports is the same as handing over revenue streams to our competitors forever. If we fail to improve the present situation, our competitors will use the revenues to pay for further development, improvement, and growth. Our services have grown so self-serving, costly, and inefficient that we are fostering our own extinction.

If it were just a matter of clearing the smoke, a viable solution would be to start dismantling the piers and cranes and shipping them to Mexico. At least we will recoup some of our harbor infrastructure development investment. Shippers will find more cost-efficient avenues to unload their ships. Transporters will get goods to market faster. Consumers will pay less. And consequently the ships will not be waiting in the harbor spewing tons of pollutants.

Of course there is a lot of revenue coming through the port, airports and DWP and it is in our best community interest to keep it that way. The longer-sighted solution should focus on keeping the business here through efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and focus on the citizens (the stockholders and customers).

The interim transition is likened to dealing with any infestation of weeds, pests, or vermin, we need to be thorough and resolute else they grow back. Hold officials accountable from the mayor on down through his minions. The results of illegitimate management appointments demonstrates the old union adage “a manger is a manager is a manager” is not true. Hold these illegitimate managers accountable. Remove officials that have mismanaged city resources and have not acted in a manner serving in the public best interest. Re-establish the safeguards in the Charter, and ultimately establish a new cost-effective mutually-beneficial equilibrium for labor, management, and the citizens at large with a focus on the greater public good.

Your thoughts?

At long last - Hahn the nexus

What crack?
It was just a matter of time...

"All the way to the top"
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20951~2541662,00.html#

Wrongdoing in DWP's P.R. scandal goes to Mayor's Office and other city officials
The $4.2 million in overbilling that City Controller Laura Chick has found in the Department of Water and Power's contract with the Fleishman-Hillard public relations firm raises serious questions about the leadership of Mayor James Hahn.
The $3 million-a-year contract was initiated in 1998 by then-Mayor Richard Riordan and then-DWP chief David Freeman for advice in deregulating the city's utility and competing for electricity customers in the open market.
It was a waste of money then, and when deregulation was abandoned, it should have been terminated. But that isn't what Hahn and the bosses at the DWP did. They found that $3 million to Fleishman-Hillard and $2 million through it to another friendly firm, the Lee Andrews Group, bought them a lot of favors at taxpayers' expense.
Chick's seven-month, $175,000 audit has cut a trail right to the heart of the scandal that threatens to bring down Hahn. It also offers the chance for real reform of the DWP, which has squandered untold millions of dollars of the public's money in inappropriate if not outright dishonest ways over the years.
In picking up on Chick's audit, county and federal investigators - already hot on the trail of pay-to-play contracting practices in the Hahn administration - need only follow the trail of this betrayal of the public interest to Room 303 in City Hall, the office of the mayor.
Chick called this "the worst tomfoolery I've ever seen," and urged Fleishman-Hillard to pay back the money. The management of this international P.R. giant should waste no time in doing so.
But the audit's real value is that auditors sketched the outline of collusion between the Mayor's Office and top DWP officials to use Fleishman-Hillard's expertise to cover up their own failings, their own misconduct - and stick the public with the bill
There is nothing in the audit or anywhere else in the record that suggests that the P.R. firm was doing anything but the bidding of city officials. Ostensibly, the firm was paid to promote the utility's services and policies. Why a monopoly with its own huge P.R. staff needed such costly advice has never been explained. That's because the explanation would be unacceptable.
The simple truth is that Fleishman-Hillard was there to help the mayor and the DWP look good - even if they were up to no good. Sometimes the advice came as free pro-bono help, such as throwing the mayor's annual media holiday party or sponsoring his "One Book, One City L.A." campaign. Sometimes it was billed at up to $350-an-hour, as when Chick first challenged the contract in 2002 and the firm provided damage control.
This scandal isn't about a greedy contractor bilking the city. DWP officials signed off on every bill. They were getting what they wanted. So was the mayor.
What's so extraordinary about Hahn is that he's so shameless. He actually wanted to share in the limelight of Chick's audit and had the brass to send a letter to the city attorney expressing his outrage over Fleishman-Hillard's billing practices.
"Sorry isn't good enough," the mayor said. No, it isn't, but it would still be nice to hear people say it when they've done wrong.

Why couldn't City officials just say no?

http://ktla.trb.com/news/local/ktla-111604dwp_lat,0,6860657,print.story?coll=ktla-news-1

Fleishman-Hillard is in business to make money. That's what businesses do, right? City officials are supposed to use the lowest cost responsible bidder. City officials can cancel a contract or award away from the lowest cost responsible bidder.

City officials wrote the contract. City officials administered the contract. City officials used the services for years. City officials approved the purchases. The Controller's Office paid for the services rendered for years.

After six years of abuse, Laura Chick and City officials (contract users) get the idea to blame Fleishman-Hillard for not managing the City's money...

Why aren't the city officials held responsible? Aren't they responsible for prudent use of city resources in the best interests of the citizens?

Do we need a contractor to monitor our City officials? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?

Should we question the use of the City Attorney's office attempt to tansfer blame to Fleishman-Hillard?

Isn't this like blaming the government for minting the stolen money?

What do you think?

What do you think about LA politics?

So many articles about corruption and mismanagement... They can't be all wrong. Does it seem strange that it is all about investigations, committees, and appointments and never about holding city managers and officials accountable?

There seems to be one set of priorities for citizens and businesses -- clammering for education, jobs, hospitals, less traffic conjestion, city costs too high, and pot holes too deep.

And a completely different set of priorities from the Mayor and City Council: Build a new harbor! Get more police officers! Build a new airport! Rebuild a new river! Let's put my guy on the Board, and, uh, my guy can replace my former guy, and, uh, my guy can run DWP...

Well, we are not all longshoremen, policemen, pilots, builders, or friends with connections. How are these things going to provide education for our kids, jobs for our citizens, access to hospitals, trauma centers, and transportation?

In their defense, City Council did give Hahn a little static over the additional tax for more police. By golly, it must be election time!

This coming city election, are you seriously considering a total turnover? Walter Moore might be in the right place at the right time. What do you think?

Tapping DWP Retirement Funds

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/51/news-anderson.php

LA WEEKLY
NOVEMBER 12 - 18, 2004
Tapping Pension Funds: DWP may end up giving less to workers’ retirement plan
by Jeffrey Anderson

A CRITICAL VOTE next Wednesday by the Department of Water and Power’s Retirement Board could reduce the DWP’s contribution to its pension fund and threaten long-term retirement benefits.

The board’s two elected members were surprised to learn of the proposal last week, and how the DWP is dealing with a drain on resources caused by payouts to management-level employees and financial assistance to Mayor Jim Hahn’s administration to help pay off the city’s debt. ...

The Rise of Empire

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/50/features-anderson.php

The DWP has hired private eyes to follow janitors who complain about shoddy cleaning supplies — and a $25 million monopoly contract by Jeffrey Anderson

Sandra Miranda remembers the little warehouse on Lamar Street, near the San Antonio Winery in downtown Los Angeles. Empire Cleaning Supply started there as a mom-and-pop operation that sold floor stripper and mops and the like to the city since the Great Depression. As a custodian at the Department of Water and Power since 1985, Miranda was familiar with Empire. To Miranda, and others who cleaned for a living, Empire products were nothing special and maybe even less than average

Deny, Deny, Deny, ...

Crack? What crack? Prove it.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with City Hall...

"I think people are smart enough to look at the facts," Hahn said. "They know me. They know what I stand for, that what I do is in the best interest of the city. " Anyone who alleges otherwise has to prove that and I don't think they can."

Another Call For Reform

With few exceptions, the LADWP is packed with cronies and their minions from the Board down through many levels of management. They come and stay and invite their friends in droves. The ability of leadership to convey a clear, logical, unifying call to action, seems to be a thing of the past. Now they can be heaped into two big piles, those that are featherbedding for themselves and those that are featherbedding for somebody else. It would be no surprise that the city's other two proprietary [non-tax based revenue generating] agencies have been infiltrated in much the same manner.

The epicenter of the political machine in Los Angeles is this administration and organized labor. The decisions and actions only “secondarily” benefit the citizens of Los Angeles. The decisions primarily benefit this administration's biggest supporters: the Longshoremen, Local 18, Local 347, and the construction trades – those that pay – to name a few. The number of self-represented employee claims against the LADWP management demonstrates that the union has found political influence a more effective way to get appointments and to control the terms and conditions of labor. More rewarding than the representation of its own membership.

No one can claim partisan politics for failures in this town. The control of Los Angeles is far and wide and deep. Ever wonder why business friendly leaders are not in the LA Times? As far back as September 1909, the Los Angeles Times had a run in with the union and has never since been the same. The scary part is that with very few exceptions our situation has been the result of almost a century of single party politics and oligarchic control. Remember the old street cars we buried? Did you see the movie Chinatown?

It doesn't matter whether you choose Hahn or Villaraigosa or any of the City Council members, the end result seems to be the same. The examples of cronyism are obvious – quantity not quality. Raman Raj, former AGM at LADWP, is rumored to be Villaraigosa's guy. Thomas Hokinson, present AGM, is rumored to be Hahn's guy. S. David Freeman, David Wiggs and Henry Martinez, former and standing GMs, have demonstrated their allegiance in savvy ways. In the wings -- Ed Miller, Hal Lindsey, and a host of others... If they would appoint true leaders, they would not need so many consultants or personal services contracts to keep these ex officios on the payroll, now would they? Larry Keller of the Harbor Department and Raman Raj and soon to be David Wiggs at LADWP seem to be indicative of the practice.

Did Hahn finally pick a peach from the lemon tree? Albeit I have never met the man, I have no evidence to support Hahn's latest recommendation of Ron Deaton or the Board's big rubber stamp will mean anything different than maintaining the status quo. We must assume like Laura Chick and the rest, Mr. Deaton, top Chief Legislative Analyst and most powerful official, is aware of the pandering that is going on at citizens expense. In the absence of any obvious action on his part to have stopped the behavior, we have to assume his appointment will not be any different from any other of Hahn's appointments. We don’t see Deaton accepting the position at the pre-Wiggs rate, do we? The Board is already pushing for Wiggs as a consultant. How long has he been out? Change starts at the top. So far all we have seen is musical chairs. Consequently, there is no probity to support legitimate reform. Until these illegitimate bureaucrats are removed, nothing will change. The city's recent big financially encumbering decisions and transfers into city coffers indicate that the other proprietary organizations have experienced the same debilitating influences.

If this city is not business friendly, efforts to expand the harbor and airport are superfluous. If we make special concessions to the movie industry, without reducing the overall cost of commerce to everyone in this city, it will transfer increased costs to the rest. And then more will leave. It is a death spiral.

This city's renowned committee-sanctioned gerrymandered decision-making process is the reason businesses are leaving. The exodus of the movie industry is just another above the radar. I see more and more vacant buildings and empty store fronts, don't you? The city redevelopment efforts discussed in news articles are attempts to keep abandoned property from being so noticeable. In the long-term, establishing a business friendly environment for big growth oriented higher-tier employers rather than bringing in residents and lower-tier employers would have been the appropriate revitalizing choice. However, I think the council knew there would be no higher-tier takers. Holding out "undesirable" employers because they are non-union stifles competition. The action sends a clear message to other employers – Los Angeles is not a business friendly place and it does not support an openly competitive marketplace. The actions drive up overall living costs for every single citizen. Supporting residential building, retail, and restaurants without establishing and supporting a strong base of globally-competitive employers is the same as flushing out the last of an empty oil well with salt water. When oil riggers do that, it clearly signals the end of a run.

Compare the economic growth of Los Angeles to our local competitors: San Diego, Ventura, and Orange County. Do you remember when these bedroom communities used to commute to Los Angeles to do business? Look who has the bedroom communities and the lower-tier businesses now. It is obvious our representatives have not been supporting a Los Angeles revival. Then again, if the big three proprietary organizations don't shape up we won't be able to support a revitalization anyway.