DWP defends withholding $73.5 million from L.A.
Posted in Health, News, Politics, what on July 21st, 2010 by admin – Comments Off
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.
Judge rejects pay cuts for California state workers
Posted in Celeb, Education, News, Politics on July 17th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffMore than 200,000 state employees will receive their full wages in July and August after a state judge on Friday denied an injunction sought by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to cut their pay.
The Schwarzenegger administration had asked the court to order that the employees’ pay immediately be reduced to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour because there is no state budget in place.
The governor has maintained, and two courts have agreed, that state law requires the reductions as California enters the third week of the fiscal year without a spending plan. But state Controller John Chiang, who prints the paychecks, has insisted that he cannot implement the order because of the state’s outdated computer system.
