May 05--The head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power made a public apology Tuesday for harshly criticizing a city audit that found loose spending controls at two controversial nonprofits that have received tens of millions of dollars in ratepayer funds.
Marcie Edwards, the utility's general manager, had co-signed a letter assailing the audit by City Controller Ron Galperin as "littered with accusatory innuendo and peppered with contradictory statements." The audit was demanded by, among others, Mayor Eric Garcetti, who appointed Edwards to her job. Garcetti said he did not agree with the letter and that Edwards did not consult with him before sending it.
At a DWP Commission meeting Tuesday, Edwards reversed course, saying she would implement Galperin's recommendations and apologizing to Galperin, the mayor and the commission.
"I regret allowing my own frustrations with the audit process overall to lead me to agree to some characterizations which were not appropriate," Edwards said of her critique, which was co-written with Brian D'Arcy, head of the utility's largest employee union.
The unusual action came as members of the oversight commission strongly condemned the lack of financial controls for the groups. The issues were brought to light in audits released last week by City Controller Ron Galperin and City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana, who conducted a separate audit.
"There seems to be an utter contempt for ratepayers, and an utter contempt for transparency," DWP Commissioner Jill Barad said of the nonprofits, which receive $4 million annually in public money.
The commission instructed Edwards to report back monthly on the implementation of financial reforms at the trusts, which had been at the center of a drawn legal and political battle over access to spending records that pitted union leaders against the mayor and other City Hall elected officials.
The audits followed Times reports that the DWP had little information on how the two organizations, the Joint Training Institute and the Joint Safety Institute, had spent ratepayer money. The groups were formed more than a decade ago after a round of union job losses to, among other things, improve management and labor relations.
They found, among other things, that a handful of the employees at the organizations used the nonprofits' credit cards for $660,000 in expenses including steak dinners and trips to Las Vegas and Hawaii, Galperin reported.
Galperin told the DWP commissioners Tuesday that his review found a "general culture of excess" -- including six-figure salaries in excess of $200,000 and large travel and dining expenses -- even if the abuses didn't rise to the level of criminality.
