Who's running LADWP?!?

Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn has been silent in response to a memo suggesting that the insane are running the assylum at the City's Department of Water and Power.

In the six-page memo obtained by the Weekly under the state Public Records Act, DWP Assistant General Manager Mahmud Chaudhry warns Hahn that those who would stop the pillaging of the nation’s largest public utility are powerless to act in the face of "the union’s ability to affect the lives and careers of top managers, the implicit threat of strike and Local 18’s influence on politicians running for office or re-election." Since last summer, DWP’s problems have been the subject of ongoing City Council reviews.

"The DWP has become a fox-run henhouse of epic proportion," Chaudhry writes. "The union now runs the department. They blur the line between . . . bargaining and criminal extortion."

The memo describes Local 18, which represents 98 percent of the DWP’s 8,000 workers, as a relentless bully, prone to manipulating the selection and decision-making of top managers and punishing those who resist, while extracting vast concessions for its members, who already earn more than other unionized city workers. It points to pay raises far exceeding the rate of inflation, "outlandish applications of benefits that spring up overnight" and contracting entities funded with public dollars but controlled by the union with no public accountability.

"By choosing union peace at any price, DWP leadership finds itself paying an exorbitant price," writes Chaudhry, formerly in charge of DWP’s largest power unit and now director of customer service. "Anxious to avoid conflict, management finally relinquished the duty — and with it the power — to exert control. With no one minding the store, it may be a matter of time before the union’s extreme bargaining advantage begins to impact the annual [revenue] transfer to the city."

Chaudhry, in the September 16 memo, urges the mayor to amend the City Charter to restore executive positions to civil-service status, institute mandatory annual performance evaluations and take steps to protect the city’s water and power supply against a strike. He claims that former general manager David Wiggs and acting general manager at the time, Henry Martinez, were beholden to Local 18, which had secured appointments for them based on union preference unrelated to performance or ability. "Favorite sons are protected from the consequences of their misdeeds, while rank and file see how well union cronies are treated," Chaudhry writes. "Conscientious managers are despised by the union, and tormented daily with false accusations, ridicule and personal attack. Those who associate with them can expect the same fate. Others soon equate ethical management with relentless retribution that can only be alleviated by vowing allegiance to Local 18." Wiggs and Martinez could not be reached for comment.