A City Council committee Friday held the first in a series of discussions about a potential ballot measure aimed at restructuring how the Department of Water and Power is governed, and would potentially expand the authority of the utility’s board.
City leaders pushing for the measure say the proposal is geared toward improving DWP’s efficiency and the public’s trust in the utility, which recently stumbled in its roll-out of a new customer information system, leading to long customer call wait times and inaccurate bills being sent out.
“The proposal hopefully will begin to increase oversight and transparency at the utility,” Councilman Felipe Fuentes, who put forth the ballot measure idea, told the council’s Rules, Elections, Intergovernmental Relations and Neighbors Committee today.
Fuentes’ motion calls for reducing “interference from the City Council and mayor in board decisions” and calls for the volunteer Board of Water and Power Commissioners to be switched to a panel of professionals who would work full-time and have their own legal and analytical staff to review the operations of the DWP.
He is also calling for eliminating the civil service structure for DWP workers.
Fuentes said the civil service process, used for hiring city workers, slows down the hiring of qualified employees at the utility. He also wants a cap on the annual transfer of funds from the DWP to the city, which he said would allow the utility to retain more funding to invest in the water and power infrastructure.
Mayor Eric Garcetti weighed in on Thursday, saying he supports a ballot proposal that retains the existing process of giving the mayor the ability to appoint board members and the DWP general manager, with the City Council confirming the appointments.
Council President Herb Wesson, who chairs the committee that heard the proposal today, said the City Council will need to make a decision by June in order for the measure to qualify for the November ballot.
Before then, he plans to hold three regional meetings hosted with neighborhood councils. The issue will also continue to be heard by the City Council committee.
“The time has come for us to have a serious conversation where it relates to reform of the Department of Water and Power and trying to make a department run more efficiently,” Wesson said.
–City News Service