Where is the outrage?

The DWP union gets pay raises for its employees. Meanwhile 4,000 City employees providing constituent services at recreation centers, parks, libraries, day care, and art programs are laid off.  And the #1 and #2 administrators at DWP are crooks previously fired by Riordan yet rehired by Villaraigosa to get the deed done.

Can you simply absorb paying another 1/3 to 1/2 more on your DWP bill?

Do you even care?

Where is your outrage?


From D-Zahn at the Times.
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DWP plans 37% rate hike over four years to cover cost increases

The L.A. utility's managers unveiled the plan 
as the council's Energy and Environment Committee 
debated the mayor's proposal to boost rates to pay for renewable energy.

Transmission towers at the foothills of the Inyo Mountains near the Owens Valley town of Lone Pine. (Brian Vander Brug, Los Angeles Times / January 12, 2010)

By David Zahniser
March 26, 2010

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is planning to boost the electricity bills of its customers by 37% over the next four years as part of its effort to cover steadily rising costs.

Officials with the city utility divulged their plans Thursday as the City Council's Energy and Environment Committee debated Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's plan for boosting rates to help pay for renewable energy. Villaraigosa is seeking a 21% increase over the next year. That effort will be followed by other rate hikes by 2014, however.

"That's an extraordinary burden on our homeowners and businesses," said Councilman Paul Krekorian, who called the four-year plan "unacceptable."

The numbers were provided as the council committee reviewed the first of four rate hikes planned by Villaraigosa, which would increase residential electric bills by 9% to 28%. The panel postponed a vote until Tuesday, the same day that the full council is now scheduled to decide whether to uphold the first increase or send it back to the DWP board for revision.

Thursday's meeting took place an hour after former Vice President Al Gore appeared with Villaraigosa via satellite in support of the mayor's plan, which would help the mayor meet his goal of ensuring that the DWP secures at least 20% of its energy from renewable sources by Dec. 31.

Villaraigosa has warned that the DWP would renege on a promise to have the utility send $73 million to the city's troubled general fund, which pays for basic services, if the first increase is not approved by March 31. That money is enough to pay for 1,000 jobs in a year when the city is pondering layoffs.

Read the rest at the LA Times.