By Kerry
Cavanaugh
Los Angeles Daily News
February 9, 2008
On Friday, just a few days after voters upheld a citywide
telephone users tax, the Los Angeles Department of Water and
Power renewed a proposal to raise its water and electricity
rates.
In early December, the City Council sent the rate proposal
back to the DWP for two months so utility managers could
provide assurances that the increase was needed and would be
spent on infrastructure upgrades.
On Friday, the DWP Board of Water and Power Commissioners
voted again to raise electric rates by 9 percent over three
years and water rates by 6 percent over two years.
In response to City Council concerns, the DWP increased the
average low-income customer discount from 15 percent to 20
percent and rearranged power infrastructure projects to
replace the worst-performing equipment first.
Otherwise, after responding to questions and meeting with
neighborhood councils, the DWP made the same rate proposal,
General Manager H. David Nahai said.
"I think of this as an exercise in building trust with
the people of Los Angeles, and with the City Council and with
neighborhood councils," he said.
But Nahai reiterated the need to begin a long-delayed
program of infrastructure upgrades and said rate increases for
that are required soon. During recent rainstorms, the utility
spent $1 million over three days responding to power outages.
"We cannot continue that way," he said. "We
have to make City Council members and the people of Los
Angeles understand that if we don't make the investments to deal
with the deteriorating infrastructure now, we're going to
continue to have a worsening situation."
A spokeswoman for council President Eric Garcetti said he
appreciated the utility's responses to the council's concerns.
"Now what we really need is to hear a commitment from
department leadership to meeting these goals and providing
reliable power to our customers," said Garcetti
spokeswoman Julie Wong.
But Councilwoman Jan Perry, who heads the council's energy
and environment committee, said she was concerned that the DWP
board voted on the rates again without first meeting with the
council to address concerns publicly.
"We have to make a justification to the public as to
why we need to raise the rates, and they need to be reasonably
comfortable," said Perry, who will hold a town-hall
meeting on the rate increases next week.
"I would have preferred to have them come back to the
committee first. It would have allowed them to build more
support from the committee."
Soledad Garcia, who heads the Neighborhood Council/DWP
Oversight Committee, said her panel met with Nahai to discuss
how the utility was sharing information.
Her group opposed the rate increases last fall and still is
concerned about whether they are needed now.
"The DWP hasn't had its five-year study," Garcia
said, referring to a mandated report that evaluates whether
the utility is operating efficiently and economically.
"We are saying we would like the City Council to hold
off any judgment until they receive the full picture of what
is really needed," Garcia said.
DWP officials have defended the need for the hikes and say
high demand and staffing shortages have left the utility
unable to keep up with replacing faulty and aging
transformers, old poles and worn cable in a system mostly 40
years to 70 years old.
As initially proposed, the first power rate increase would
have taken effect Jan. 1. Until it does, the city budget loses
about $35,500 a day in revenue from the electrical utility
users tax and power revenue transfer, DWP officials said. That
adds up to $1.1 million lost in January.
WANT TO GO?
Council members Jan Perry and Bernard Parks will hold a
town-hall meeting on the Department of Water and Power's
proposed rate increases from 10 a.m. to noon Feb.16 at the
Constituent Service Center, 8475 S. Vermont Ave., South Los
Angeles.
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