DWP defends withholding $73.5 million from L.A.
Executives with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on Tuesday issued a sharply worded defense of their decision to withhold $73.5 million from city coffers in the middle of a recent fight over electricity rates, saying they did so to protect the utility’s credit rating and its customers.
During a lively exchange with City Council members, several of whom made no effort to disguise their disdain for the DWP, current and former managers of the nation’s largest municipally owned utility responded to a report that accused them of misleading both the council and the public about the agency’s financial health.
After a lengthy standoff between the council and DWP over proposed rate increases, City Controller Wendy Greuel reviewed the utility’s records and concluded that, contrary to its claim, the utility could have made the promised transfer to the cash-strapped city budget without first being granted the increase.
But DWP Interim Chief Financial Officer Mario C. Ignacio said Greuel’s report contained “material misstatements of fact” and wrongly concluded that the utility could have dipped into an $800-million cash balance to make the transfer.
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