“Can you believe it? We’re in the middle of a drought, and the water commissioner drowns. Only in L.A.” Chinatown
Except in our case, we’re in the middle of a drought and a budget crisis, and our fired—excuse me—recently resigned head of the DWP, David Nahai, is not drowning in the least. Instead he’s swimming happily in our public money.
Yes, Nahai is still leaving the job, David Zahniser reports at the LA Times, but he’s getting a big, yummyparty favor as he goes out the door in the form of a “consulting fee,” that happens, coincidentally, to be the exact same dollar amount as his former salary—namely $27,000 and change per month. He will receive said amount weekly until the end of the year. The only difference is that Nahai he no longer has the irksome task of actually running the DWP to earn his monthly $27,000.
“There’s nothing nefarious about it, nothing complex about it. This is a reasonable business decision, nothing more than that,” [DWP commission President Lee Kanon Alpert] said. “David’s resigned, and we need his institutional knowledge for the next few months.”
News flash, if you have to keep the departing head of a public agency on salary for a ridiculous rate because he’s the only guy who’s got the requisite “institutional memory” to know where to find the executive restroom keys, or whatever, what does that say about the former exec’s management style?
(HINT: Nothing good.)
Later on in the conversation with Zahniser, Alpert further clarified the reasons for shoveling money Nahai’s direction:
“He may have knowledge we want to pick his brain on,” Alpert said.
Oh, okay, well, now that explains everything!
Ron Kaye broke this story over the weekend, and is in high dudgeon about Nahai’s golden handshake—with good reason.
Meanwhile, on other priorities-challenged fronts, Meg “I-don’t-need-to-vote-in-elections-because-Sonny-Bono-didn’t-vote-either” Whitman, has announced plans to fire at least 40,000 “selfish and arrogant” state workers when she’s governor (excluding the prison guards, naturally). George Skelton has some choice words about that.
photo from the Jewish Journal
I’m sorry. Was this about excessive termination bonuses from Bank of America or from the government that supposed to have all the answers and be smarter than private enterprise?
ur right. he’s the only one with this knowledge. i’ll buy that for $1.
golden parachutes for everyone who already has money at the top. whereas the common folk continues to be deprived. the govt ain’t no better, they bailed out banks and corporations before helping the little people.
no wonder personal bankruptcy stats doubled from 2006 to 2008. cannot wait to see the number for 2009. who do we pay with special knowledge of how to fix that?
I saw the photo credit for David Nahai and realized I thought he looked Bluish. Not knowing a damned thing about LA’s DWP and really not caring other than to gaze from afar with wonder and astonishment at what the Colo River has given you,I can finish this lengthly sentence by saying: “I think this guy looks crooked as the day is long”..
You know what’s really disgusting about Nahai, it’s not just the arrogance of the man to think this $6,300 a week consultancy contract will escape the ire of the public, it’s the brass nerve this guy has. He resigned on Thursday, October 1 “with immediate effect,” to go and milk Bill Clinton’s green energy boondoggle. But on Saturday, at 4:24pm, Nahai was seen driving a city car
http://i794.photobucket.com/albums/yy229/grittrue/DSC_1707.jpg
to a Bel Air Starbucks so that his wife could get a cup of coffee.
This has already been reported on Kevin James radio show, Ron Kaye’s blog, and Mayor Sam’s blog, so it’s public knowledge now.
City cars are only supposed to be used for city business. Since when has driving to Starbucks on a Saturday been “city business?”
More importantly, Nahai was no longer employed by the City of Los Angeles, so why was he using a City car? If did not have permission to drive a city car, then that’s a crime; it’s a violation of Vehicle Code Section 10851.
If he DID have permission, then Celeste, will you please ask the DWP for the phone number or email address where we can all get a free city car for our personal use at the weekend.
You might think using a city car for personal business when you aren’t even working for the city is no big deal, but if you and I can’t do it, why should Nahai be allowed to do it?
Now all the liberal democrats are going to rush to the defense of this entitled elitist, after all, it’s only a car and while we’re moaning about abusing the privilege a few city employees have, it’s nothing compared to the war in Iraq or the Wendy Greuel controller issue, or the death of an innocent bystander to gang violence. This is the stereotypical liberal response; change the topic and add in a personal attack against the messenger.
Anyone who doubts that Nahai was using this city car for personal use after he resigned can call the DWP and ask if that car, the black Nissan Altima Hybrid with “CA EXEPMPT” plates was issued to David Nahai, and they can also check the EXIF data of the picture and confirm the date and time the photo was taken.
Now, do the right thing and call your elected representative and complain to them, and call your party and tell them to stop putting up these disgusting people as our representatives.
Los Angeles, the gang capital of the world, a world class city, which is run by a word traveling mayor. There should be a sequel of HBO’s “The Wire” based on the city of Los Angeles.
As a well know philosopher once said “You Can’t Make This Shit Up”
Wait a minute, I left my last job and they call occasionally to “pick my brain” because I have some “institutional memory”. In fact, that’s happened at every job I’ve had. Where’s my $27k per month consulting fee? I had no idea I could *charge* people for that advice! I’m gonna start sending invoices….