DWP Employee exercises two minutes of free speech at the Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources Committee

A part time management professor and DWP employee spoke to the Commerce, Energy, and Natural Resources Committee today. Subsequently, Councilwoman Janice Hahn and Committee Chair Tony Cardenas made no comment and took no action other than to adjourn the meeting.

“My name is Daniel N. Shrader, I am an employee of the Department of Water and Power.

I can see the motivation for allowing the Empire contract and more importantly employee retaliation issues to slip under the rug. I am here to ask you to keep them on the agenda and to expand the scope of the motion.

With the exception of one manager, Mahmud Chaudhry, the management of Department of Water and Power has two policies: One, to do nothing and to hold on until their retirement. And two, to actively support Union interests at employee and citizen expense.

If you will notice, employees that speak out against mis-management and conflicts of interest are subject to management-orchestrated retaliation. I have submitted reports reflecting my findings to the Board of Water and Power Commissioners. Assistant General Manager, Henry Martinez, told the Board that he would conduct an investigation and provide his findings in November of 2004. There was no legitimate investigation. Not one person other than the perpetrators cited in the report was contacted. The findings were swept under the rug and the perpetrators were promoted.

On November 9, 2004, I submitted the report and these issues to this committee. Your review of the Empire contract revealed that the Department did not tell you the truth about the matter. You admonished Henry Martinez on integrity. Your talk to Henry Martinez has had no noticeable effect to improve the situation at DWP. Employees are being retaliated against. The public is not best served by these conflicted interests.

You place considerable faith in General Manager, Ronald Deaton. He has been at the DWP for five months – One month less than James Hahn claims to have given Bernard Parks to clean up the LAPD before firing him. In that time, Mr. Deaton has not spoken to the employees, not presented a vision, not stopped management-orchestrated retaliation, nor directed employees in a new direction.

I will tell you that it takes considerable wherewithal to speak up about the problems at DWP. I would think that you would at least pursue the matter fully. The problem is so bad at DWP that only one single Assistant General Manager has shown the backbone to speak to the Mayor. His letter to the Mayor was reported in LA Weekly. It is no surprise that even he is met with silence from the Mayor and the City Council. Your silence and willingness to ignore what is happening at DWP speaks volumes about the conflicts of interest you too suffer.

The management, the Board of Water and Power Commissioners, the City Council, the Mayor, and this committee are the persons charged with steering the events unraveling before us. The main topic of the Mayoral debate was integrity and trust. You found them lacking in Henry Martinez. I find that, too.

Managing a company is a lot like driving a car. You have to look out the windshield and adjust for what you see ahead, and here is the key, you need to take appropriate action to avoid the obstacles or suffer the inevitable collision. The DWP is definitely in trouble. Outside of Mahmud Chaudhry, I don’t see the management, the Board at DWP, the City Council or the Mayor taking appropriate action to address what we all see when we look out the windshield. Los Angeles cannot afford more corruption, mismanagement, and ineffectiveness.

Please do not shelve the motion to investigate the DWP conflict of interests, contract issues, and management-orchestrated
retaliation against employees.”