There's a Reason for Sky-High DWP Bills

By Steve Lopez, Points West

For two months of service recently, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power sent me a bill for $348.

Why so steep? It's not like they're pumping Perrier through the pipes.

The back of the bill said if I had questions, I could call and speak to a supervisor.

How about if I just ask the questions right here?

Any chance I can get a rebate?

The DWP has 23 people on its public relations staff, but the agency was paying $3 million a year to a private company for public relations.

No wonder my bill is sky-high.

I never heard of a public agency with a 23-person PR staff, by the way. What do they all do? A traveling circus has fewer people, and we don't even know if the DWP flacks can juggle.

At the very least, they could have been reviewing the billings from international PR giant Fleishman-Hillard, which has charged the DWP more than $20 million since 1998.

Twenty million dollars. And what did we customers get for that $20 million?

An 11% water rate increase.

Several ex-employees of Fleishman told my colleagues Ralph Frammolino and Ted Rohrlich that Fleishman encouraged them to treat the DWP as a cash cow. They say they were told to falsify time sheets and milk the public agency. If true, it had to be like stealing candy from a baby.

While the PR company investigates the allegations, Fleishman's local drill sergeant, Doug Dowie, has been sent home. Too bad for Fleishman, because at $425 an hour, Dowie certainly earned his keep.

On Jan. 3, 2003, he provided 2 1/2 hours of "strategic counsel" but didn't say to whom, and billed the DWP for $1,062. During that month, Dowie racked up $19,762.50 from the city's water and power agency, and had nine contacts with DWP executive Frank Salas.

You'd think that with so much strategic counsel and mentoring from Dowie, Salas would be sharp as a tack. But Salas, who oversaw the Fleishman contract, said allegations of overbilling were "a total surprise to me."

Well here's another surprise:

In e-mail exchanges two months ago between Dowie and L.A. Mayor Jim Hahn's staff, DWP acting General Manager Salas was treated as if he were the village idiot.

"Frank just got a call from somebody at the Dodgers," Dowie e-mailed Hahn Deputy Mayor Julie Wong. A reporter from The Times wanted to know how many Dodger tickets city officials had at public expense.

"He's returning the call," Dowie says of Salas, "but promised not to screw up. Anything new?"

"Not on my end," Hahn's deputy responds. She then asks if Salas seemed to understand his instructions from Dowie on what to say to the Dodgers.

"I had him write it down and read it back to me," Dowie writes back. "But if he does it correctly, I swear it will be the first time. Say a prayer."

I'm saying a prayer myself.

I'm thanking God for giving me a column in Los Angeles.

Is Dowie a blowhard, or did Salas, head honcho of a $3-billion-a-year public agency, really need someone to hold his hand while he talked to the Dodgers?

"He's only talking to the Dodgers, though," Wong worries in an e-mail to Dowie. "Not reporters, right?"

"Just the Dodgers," Dowie reassures. "He's not allowed to talk to reporters."

If Salas isn't allowed to talk to reporters, and he needs $3 million a year worth of strategic counsel and the like, why not get rid of him, the executive staff and the 23-person PR staff at DWP and let Dowie run the place? He's just sitting at home, right?

Speaking of sitting around, this whole mess forced L.A. Mayor Slim Jim Hahn out of his bunker. But what could he do? Form another commission to sort through another mess?

Not possible. Hahn doesn't know a single person that he hasn't already appointed to a commission.

Besides, Dowie and Fleishman-Hillard were big political donors. Two years ago, for instance, Fleishman-Hillard ponied up $10,000 for its brass to dine with Hahn at an anti-secession fundraiser.

In the week that followed, Fleishman nabbed a $400,000 contract with the Harbor Commission, a $500,000 contract with the airport department and an $800,000 extension on its DWP contract.

By the way, if Fleishman is looking for someone to fill Dowie's shoes, I'm available. Everywhere a private contractor turns in L.A., there's nothing but low-hanging fruit.

After last week's DWP blowup, L.A. City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo sued Fleishman, and L.A. County D.A. Steve Cooley said he would launch a criminal investigation.

And Slim Jim?

"It appears to me there were some lax controls" at DWP, Hahn said.

You think?

L.A. Controller Laura Chick, who was the first to raise questions about DWP's dealings with Fleishman-Hillard, wasn't surprised that when a long-ball hitter was needed, Slim Jim barely got the bat off his shoulder.

"He just sits there and appoints blue-ribbon commissions and hires consultants to do more studies, when instead, with one phone call … he can fix the problem," Chick said.

Can I get a rebate on my DWP bill? I asked.

"I keep telling people that if you're not indignant," Chick said, "you're not paying attention."

Forced into "action" five days after The Times story broke, Hahn said he wanted "a change of direction" at DWP, but didn't explain what he meant.

With millions of DWP customers being ripped off, you'd think heads would roll, right?

Not in this town.

Hahn dropped Salas as acting GM at DWP but kept him on the public dime. For now, Salas is chief administrative officer at DWP.

Say a prayer, indeed.

*

Steve Lopez writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at steve.lopez@latimes.com and read previous columns at latimes.com/lopez.

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