<b>Times investigation: </b>Controversy at the L.A. Department of Water & Power

For more than two years, union leaders at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power have fought a bitter legal battle to keep secret how two utility-affiliated nonprofits have spent more than $40 million in public money.

The legal fight over bloated bills from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will stretch into fall, after a Superior Court judge held off Friday on giving preliminary approval to a settlement that would credit or refund tens of millions of dollars to customers.

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Attorneys representing several Los Angeles residents who sued the Department of Water and Power over the disastrous rollout of its new billing system are balking at a proposed settlement that the utility reached in a separate lawsuit over inflated and erroneous bills, calling it “half-baked.”

Two controversial Department of Water and Power nonprofit trusts have decided to keep more than $11 million as a “rainy day” fund, despite a city auditor’s recommendation that they spend the cash before receiving any more ratepayer money.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti took office claiming a “clear mandate to reform” the city’s Department of Water and Power, a little-loved bureaucracy that Garcetti bashed time after time on the 2013 campaign trail.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has scored a legal victory in its case against a large consulting firm hired to rollout a multimillion-dollar billing system that produced thousands of erroneous bills.

Lawyers are feuding over a proposed deal to settle lawsuits over the bungled rollout of a new billing system at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is asking customers to pay significantly higher rates over the next five years — from 13% to 34% more — to meet a crush of environmental regulations and fund long-delayed infrastructure upgrades and renewable energy projects.

It was hailed as a modern makeover of an aging, inefficient way to bill customers.

The Department of Water and Power has proposed a rate increase to pay for its shift to renewable energy, and to replace such things as power poles and transformers in its crumbling infrastructure.

Nearly two years after the Department of Water and Power rolled out a flawed computer system that produced wildly inaccurate bills and cost ratepayers tens of millions of dollars in overcharges and unmerited penalties, the utility agreed this week to settle several class-action lawsuits by paying refunds to every affected customer.

Officials have argued that a series of increases in Los Angeles water and power rates are needed to improve the city’s crumbling water pipes and aging utility poles and to boost water conservation.

Months after promising swift reforms, leaders of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power have done little to change practices at two utility nonprofit trusts accused by auditors of “cavalier” spending after receiving more than $40 million in ratepayer money, records show.

Since it was created more than 100 years ago, the Department of Water and Power has been a titan of Los Angeles, controlling not just the city’s access to vital resources but billions of dollars in revenue that has helped gain influence at City Hall.

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power officials are seeking an increase in rates over the next five years in a bid to boost water conservation amid California’s drought and expand repairs of crumbling water mains and electricity infrastructure.

On another day with too little water in California, Marty Adams, senior assistant general manager with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and the California section’s Matt Stevens sat in the cafeteria at DWP headquarters and discussed Adams’ decades helping to design and operate the Gordian knot of pipes that pump 500 million gallons of water a day beneath the city.

In the wake of the botched rollout of a new billing system at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power that sent inaccurate bills to many customers, a new report by a watchdog agency says the city must make a host of changes to speed up hiring and contracting to prevent similar problems in the future.

A former Los Angeles Department of Water and Power audio-visual technician pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of misappropriating more than $4 million in public funds.

A Los Angeles Department of Water and Power audio-visual technician was charged Thursday with misappropriating more than $4 million in public funds, creating another financial scandal for a city-owned utility that is about to request permission to raise rates.

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The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power took a first step Tuesday toward possible rate increases as it tries to address aging infrastructure that has resulted in spectacular water pipe breaks and other problems.

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The head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power offered an unusual public apology to Mayor Eric Garcetti and other officials Tuesday, saying her comments assailing an audit of two controversial nonprofit groups linked to the city-owned utility were “not appropriate.”

After a year and a half of political fights, lawsuits and protests, City Controller Ron Galperin was finally able to open the books of two nonprofit trusts associated with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and reveal, at least partially, how managers spent millions of dollars in ratepayer funds.

Two nonprofit trusts created by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and financed with more than $40 million from ratepayers paid millions to vendors without competitive bids, overpaid top managers and let them charge personal travel, gasoline and other items without filing expense reports, city audits released Thursday showed.

To the editor: Los Angeles Department of Water and Power General Manager Marcie Edwards’ response to the city audit, asserting that it was “littered with accusatory innuendo and peppered with contradictory statements,” was a slough-off job and not a rebuttal of the innuendo and contradictory statements.

Ratepayers have had reason to gripe in recent months about the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, whose fumbled rollout of a new billing system in 2013 produced some breathtakingly inaccurate charges for customers.

A state audit released last week details how Los Angeles Department of Water and Power managers ignored and downplayed repeated warnings that a new customer billing system — the lifeline of the utility and how it collects its revenue — was not ready and would not work as promised.

Angelenos could be looking at higher water and energy bills again.

Lois Gass didn’t realize it at the time, but when she and thousands of other Los Angeles residents saw their utility bills suddenly rocket out of control, her anger helped set off one of the biggest scandals to befall the Department of Water and Power.

At least four Los Angeles residents have sued the Department of Water and Power, alleging that the utility overcharged them and made other errors during the rollout of a new computer billing system.

An on-again, off-again audit of two controversial Los Angeles Department of Water and Power nonprofit trusts is set to resume, City Controller Ron Galperin announced Friday.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power wrote off up to $88 million in commercial billings because it couldn’t figure out what it was owed during a botched rollout of a new computer system, city lawyers said Friday.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power failed to collect more than $245 million in consumer payments due to the botched rollout of a new billing system, a state audit has found.

Last week, an 89-year-old pipe burst in the Hollywood Hills, releasing at least 100,000 gallons of water that flooded the streets, cracked sidewalks and submerged cars.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power lost up to $88 million in commercial billings because of the botched rollout of a computer billing system, city lawyers said Friday.

A long-awaited examination of how two controversial Los Angeles Department of Water and Power nonprofit trusts spent millions of ratepayer dollars stalled over a concern that auditors were taking too many notes, according to City Hall sources.

A long-awaited examination of how two controversial Los Angeles Department of Water and Power nonprofit trusts spent millions of ratepayer dollars stalled over a concern that auditors were taking too many notes, according to City Hall sources.

An audit heralded last year by L.A. city leaders as a breakthrough in efforts to determine what two controversial Department of Water and Power nonprofit trusts did with tens of millions of ratepayer dollars has ground to a halt, The Times has learned.

A Los Angeles judge made a preliminary ruling Tuesday that Department of Water and Power union chief Brian D’Arcy must turn over financial information that shows how two nonprofit groups he co-directs with the utility’s general manager used $40 million in ratepayer money.

Poor management and an unprepared work force hampered the rollout of a new billing system by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, a new report says, resulting in thousands of incorrect billings and customer telephone hold times of up to two hours.

After a series of drawn-out political and legal battles, Los Angeles leaders approved a deal with the powerful Department of Water and Power union that promises the city its first detailed look at how two controversial nonprofits affiliated with the utility spent millions of ratepayer dollars.

After more than a year of bitter legal battles, Los Angeles city leaders have approved a deal with the powerful Department of Water and Power union that promises the first detailed, public look at how two controversial nonprofits affiliated with the utility spent tens of millions of ratepayer dollars.

Hundreds of managers in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power are agreeing to formal, annual evaluations as part of a new pact with the utility — a groundbreaking move for an agency long targeted for reform.

Los Angeles lawmakers are pressing ahead with a plan that could end the legal battles over two controversial trusts affiliated with the Department of Water and Power.

Nearly a year after the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power installed a faulty new computer billing system, customers are still plagued with billing issues and lengthy wait times when they call with problems, utility executives said Wednesday.

For nearly a year, Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Controller Ron Galperin have been trying to learn the details of how two secretive nonprofit trusts, established to advise Department of Water and Power utility managers on safety and training, have spent $40 million in ratepayer funds.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to demand that city auditors get “unfettered access” to records for two controversial nonprofits affiliated with the Department of Water and Power, one of a string of conditions they want to impose to end the city’s legal battles with the leaders of a powerful DWP union.

Los Angeles lawmakers Wednesday approved a plan meant to end a drawn-out legal and political battle over financial records at two Department of Water and Power-affiliated nonprofits, adopting a laundry list of conditions that would have to be met before additional ratepayer money is provided to the groups.

Five Los Angeles lawmakers are proposing that the city provide a $4-million payment that is due to two controversial nonprofits affiliated with the Department of Water and Power only after city auditors are given “unfettered access” to their records and a long list of other conditions are met.

Los Angeles City Controller Ron Galperin disclosed Wednesday that he will refuse to pay nearly $4 million the city owes two controversial nonprofits affiliated with the Department of Water and Power, saying he can’t write the checks in “good conscience” because the groups have refused to show what they’ve done with more than $40 million in previous payments.

Los Angeles lawmakers want to hitch more than a dozen conditions to a planned $4-million payment to two controversial nonprofits affiliated with the Department of Water and Power, including giving city auditors “unfettered access” to their records and abandoning the courtroom battles raging over the trusts.

For months now the Los Angeles City Council has been able to sit on the sidelines while Mayor Eric Garcetti, Controller Ron Galperin and City Atty.

A Superior Court judge is ordering two Los Angeles Department of Water and Power nonprofits to recognize trustees allied with Mayor Eric Garcetti, the latest twist in an enduring saga over the details of their spending.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ordered union appointees at two L.A.

A judge has signaled his intention to order two controversial Los Angeles Department of Water and Power nonprofits to hold long-delayed meetings with trustees allied with Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Los Angeles city leaders are suing to have a court-appointed receiver take control of two controversial nonprofits affiliated with the Department of Water and Power whose managers have refused to show what they’ve done with more than $40 million of public money.

The dispute between top Los Angeles officials and one of the city’s most powerful labor leaders intensified Tuesday when Department of Water and Power union boss Brian D’Arcy warned that the city was asking for “trouble” if money is withheld from two controversial nonprofits he co-manages.

Kudos to L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, Controller Ron Galperin and City Atty.

As an annual deadline looms for Los Angeles to pay nearly $4 million to a controversial pair of Department of Water and Power affiliates, one city leader announced his refusal to sign the checks and another sued to have a court-appointed receiver take over the nonprofits.

On Tuesday, some of Los Angeles County’s most prominent labor and community leaders were out demonstrating in support of a troubling idea: that the public has no right to know how public money is spent.

Flanked by a passel of labor leaders, Department of Water and Power union chief Brian D’Arcy warned Los Angeles officials Tuesday not to halt a scheduled payment to two DWP-affiliated nonprofits, arguing it would break a bargaining agreement with the city.

Hundreds of union workers flooded a section of downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday to protest what they characterized as a threat by city leaders to withhold an upcoming payment to two nonprofit training organizations affiliated with the Department of Water and Power.

After its new billing system accidentally overcharged customers, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is refunding all 2014 late payment charges to customers who pay off their outstanding bills in June.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will resume automated collections this month on residential customers who are delinquent on their water and power bills -- and could shut off services to those who don’t pay up as soon as June.

Brian D’Arcy, head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s largest union, has won a last-minute reprieve from a court-ordered deadline to show how a pair of controversial DWP nonprofit trusts spent more than $40 million in ratepayer money.

Brian D’Arcy, head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s largest union, won a last minute reprieve from a Tuesday deadline to show how a pair of controversial DWP nonprofit trusts spent more than $40 million in ratepayer money.

A credit rating service gave an unfavorable review this week to a recently released proposal for reworking oversight of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

From the beginning, the five-month standoff between city officials and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s largest public employees union has been all about politics.

Brian D’Arcy, head of the largest union at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, says he will appeal a newly finalized court order requiring him to turn over financial records for two nonprofit trusts that have received more than $40 million from ratepayers.

A cooling system outage Monday shut down the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power website, crimped the capacity of its customer call center and prevented people from using a new feature to leave their number and get a call back.

When the Department of Water and Power tried to prevent City Hall from filling the utility’s payroll and burdening its retirement fund with about 1,400 uninvited workers, was it standing up against securities fraud?

A judge is correct: Ratepayers have a right to know how two trusts spent their money.

The fight over transparency at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is only escalating, with yet another lawsuit filed this week over two secretive nonprofits that have received $40 million in ratepayer money.

DWP union boss Brian D’Arcy had his day in court Tuesday and lost.

A Los Angeles judge signaled Tuesday that he intends to order Department of Water and Power union chief Brian D’Arcy to turn over financial information showing how two nonprofit trusts he co-directs used $40 million in ratepayer money.

The two trusts have collected $40 million in ratepayer funds, but union chief Brian D’Arcy is fighting a subpoena demanding files on expenditures.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Tuesday that he was bent on writing “a new chapter” for the Department of Water and Power with the help of its new leader Marcie Edwards -– a task that goes beyond cleaning up its woebegone billing system, he argued.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will undergo a state audit of its troubled computer billing system after a committee of state lawmakers voted Wednesday to examine what went wrong.

Mayor says reforms will go beyond fixing the billing system and that rate increases would be hard to sell unless public confidence is restored.

A utility website shows that callers wait an average of 29 minutes for customer service, an improvement of two minutes over November, when officials promised to fix the system.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power resumed sending out automatic notices to customers who are short on their bills this week, months after halting the practice amid alarm over erroneous charges.

The Los Angeles City Council confirmed Marcie Edwards as the new general manager of the Department of Water and Power on Friday, tapping the Anaheim city manager to take the helm of the municipal utility as it grapples with multiple controversies.

Marcie Edwards, an insider and an outsider, appears to be a good choice as general manager.

It’s both fitting and surprising that union chief Brian D’Arcy would use an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times to publicly weigh in for the first time on how two nonprofit trusts jointly run by his union and the Department of Water and Power spent $40 million in ratepayer funds.

On Thursday, in the last line of the press release announcing Mayor Eric Garcetti’s pick for general manager of the Department of Water and Power, was news of another hire: David Wiggs, it said, would return to the agency to serve as assistant general manager of its power system.

An audit shows no wrongdoing whatsoever, the IBEW Local 18 business manager says.

A Los Angeles-area lawmaker is pressing for a state audit to determine how a new billing system beset with errors was rolled out at the city Department of Water and Power, a week after the agency acknowledged a $200-million shortfall in collections.

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Officials say records showing how training and safety institutes spent $40 million leave questions unanswered.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Thursday continued his effort to overhaul the leadership of the city’s much-criticized municipal utility and curb the influence of its powerful employees union by nominating a new agency boss and dismissing a top-ranking executive.

The mayor appoints Anaheim City Manager Marcie Edwards to lead the agency and announces administrative leave for Aram Benyamin, a close ally of IBEW executive Brian D’Arcy.

Prosecutors and criminal investigators are joining a Los Angeles City Hall effort to determine how two controversial Department of Water and Power nonprofits have spent more than $40 million in ratepayer money, The Times has learned.

An official said the agency is ‘participating in an effort to obtain the records and determine whether a crime has been committed.’

Los Angeles police served the leader of the biggest union at the city Department of Water and Power with a subpoena on Friday for records on the spending of millions of dollars in ratepayer money by two secretive nonprofits that he co-manages.

He orders a lawyer for the largest DWP employees union to return with a smaller exempt list, but adds: ‘The odds are nobody is going to be excused from having their name disclosed.’

Unable to account for trusts’ spending of $40 million and enmeshed in a flap over billing errors, general manager Ron Nichols is stepping aside.

The Dept. of Water and Power now requires a doctor’s note for three or more sick days. Mayor’s office calls DWP’s recently disclosed tally of paid absences ‘simply outrageous.’

Overtime clause hikes the department’s costs for hiring contractors.

Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti urge the L.A. Department of Water and Power to release names and salaries of workers -- and blame each other for high pay levels.

Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel trade accusations over blame for raises at the utility, whose union has given $1.45 million on Greuel’s behalf.

Ron Nichols announced his resignation Thursday as general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which is struggling through a pair of public-relations debacles.

City Controller Ron Galperin aims to compel Brian D’Arcy, leader of the utility’s largest employee union, to show where $40 million has gone.

Brian D’Arcy, leader of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s largest union, failed to appear at a meeting Wednesday morning to begin explaining how more than $40 million in ratepayer money was spent by two nonprofits he co-manages.

DWP union chief Brian D’Arcy refuses to help auditors determine how two nonprofits spent $40 million in ratepayer money.

The Department of Water and Power also says it will not initiate new collections on unpaid bills through the end of the year as it works on problems with new customer software.

Two Department of Water and Power nonprofits — the Joint Training Institute and the Joint Safety Institute — have yet to account for how more than $40 million of ratepayers’ money was spent.

Chuck Kokoska had a role in the Joint Training Institute and the Joint Safety Institute, which spent over $40 million since 2000.

Two groups managed by the DWP and its biggest union have a month to account for the expenditure of more than $40 million in ratepayer funds.

New DWP commission, four of whose members were named by L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, wants to know where millions of dollars went.

What’s become of more than $40 million in ratepayer funds paid to two nonprofits? City controller says his audit will examine travel expenditures and more. Two councilmen also seek answers.

Los Angeles City Controller Ron Galperin announced Friday evening that he will audit an estimated $40 million the Department of Water and Power paid to two nonprofit groups created to improve relations between the utility’s managers and its largest employee union.

DWP ratepayer funds flow to two groups run by agency managers and union leaders, with little accountability.

In the first six months of this year, Department of Water & Power employees earned $77.3 million in extra pay for such things as overtime, laying cement or working in bad weather, according to an analysis released Thursday by Los Angeles City Controller Ron Galperin.

Overtime clause hikes the department’s costs for hiring contractors.

The Dept. of Water and Power now requires a doctor’s note for three or more sick days. Mayor’s office calls DWP’s recently disclosed tally of paid absences ‘simply outrageous.’

The L.A. utility has paid $35.5 million since 2010 for extra days off that aren’t covered by the agency’s 10-day cap.

He orders a lawyer for the largest DWP employees union to return with a smaller exempt list, but adds: ‘The odds are nobody is going to be excused from having their name disclosed.’

The union representing Los Angeles Department of Water and Power employees won a temporary restraining order Tuesday, preventing the release of workers’ names with their salaries until each employee has had more time to argue that the identity disclosure could pose a safety risk.

Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel trade accusations over blame for raises at the utility, whose union has given $1.45 million on Greuel’s behalf.

After a nearly four-month delay in the release of the information, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power made public five years of payroll data without workers names on Tuesday.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power employees union on Friday demanded that agency officials sit at the bargaining table with them before publicly releasing workers’ names and salaries.

As lawyers for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power employees’ union fine-tune a proposed lawsuit to delay release of their members’ names and salaries, both candidates for mayor are calling on the department to make the information public as soon as possible.

Employees at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power earned average total pay of nearly $100,000 in 2011 -- more than 50% higher than the average total pay of all other city employees, a Times analysis of payroll data found.

Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti urge the L.A. Department of Water and Power to release names and salaries of workers -- and blame each other for high pay levels.

The electrical workers union has given $1.45 million to an independent effort to elect Wendy Greuel. Its members’ pay is 50% higher than the average pay of other city employees.