-
DWP’s Top Shooter and his oversized eight balls at Ivanhoe Reservoir
David Nahai should be a more open guy. As general manager of the very powerful Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, he’s embraced a noble cause – forcing customers to cut back on their water use this summer. But he’s failing in basic leadership: He won’t step forward and show the people of Los Angeles whether he’s a good role model.
Nahai, a.k.a. The Water King, lives in a $4.6 million mansion in Benedict Canyon. It’s no architectural gem, particularly with the obtrusive three-car garage, but it’s comfortable enough: six bedrooms, seven bathrooms and a swimming pool on a third of an acre.
I’m not ordering him to downsize, but he does have a duty as a public servant to tell us how much of our precious resources he and his wife and three children consume in their 6,012-square-foot palace. And, more important, what they’re doing to conserve like he wants the rest of us to do. His practices could inspire us all.
Last month, I asked the Water King to disclose his water bill. He seemed amused at the time, but now he’s turned prickly and acts like I’m prying into deep family secrets. He welcomes my questions as much as he must like receiving orders from the mayor or DWP’s union boss about who to hire or fire at the influence-charged utility. My hunch is that he wants to avoid the embarrassment of telling the world that what he pays for water and electricity could feed and clothe a small family in Pacoima for a year.
My pursuit of his water bill led me to visit his house and ultimately to file a request under the California Public Records Act, a state law that gives agencies 10 days at the most to respond one way or another.
On Day 15 of my long wait for any word from Nahai’s office, I called a staff meeting here at L.A. Sniper headquarters to develop a strategy. It seemed time for a personal visit to the Water King to make sure he had a current calendar. I caught up with him in Silver Lake later that morning where he had gathered reporters and community members at Ivanhoe Reservoir to release 400,000 black plastic softball-sized balls to float on the surface of the water to keep light from interacting with chemicals and creating cancer-causing bromate.
It’s a delight hearing him talk about the science of water; he’s far less astute grasping the politics of water. I suspect that he’s in way over his head at DWP and is barely treading water. I mean, do you think the Water King ever would have hired Cindy Montanez as a special advisor at $12,500 a month without an order from the mayor? And it goes on and on.
Nahai’s a sharp guy who left his native Iran for boarding school in London. He’s got a degree from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law and shouldn’t need a lecture from me on public records law. But that’s what our conversation turned into, as DWP crews and community members tossed the balls in the water. At one point, Councilman Tom LaBonge told us to get out of the way of TV crews filming the action.
I laid out the problem for the Water King: “I filed a public records request for your water and electric bills 15 days ago. I haven’t heard word one from your department.”
Water King: “You should talk to public affairs about it.”
Sniper: “I have. They haven’t returned my calls.”
Water King: “It’ll go through its…”
Sniper, interrupting: “You’re breaking the law. The public records act gives you 10 days at the most to respond to a request. The 10 days have gone by.
Water King: “I don’t know anything about it. That’s handled by public affairs and the City Attorney’s Office.”
Sniper: “Why don’t you simply release your water and power bill on your own?”
Water King: “As I said, you filed a public records request and it’ll go through its process.”
Sniper: “You’re telling the people of Los Angeles to conserve. Don’t they have a right to know how the guy who’s making that request of them handles water at his own home?”
Water King: “You filed a public records request.”
Sniper: “Come on, Mr. Nahai. It’s been more than 10 days. You’re a law-abiding guy. Why are you breaking the law when it comes to your water bill?
Water King: “I don’t want to talk to you anymore. You’re harassing me.”
Right after our testy exchange, the water king huddled with DWP’s public affairs director, a.k.a. Water Boy Joe Ramallo. Moments later, Water Boy was on his cellphone talking about the matter with someone.
He and I had this little go-around:
Water Boy: “ I got your message and I will respond to you.”
Sniper: “When?”
Water Boy: “I will respond to you.”
Sniper: “You guys are breaking the law. When will I get a response?”
Water Boy: “I will respond to you.”
By the end of the day, a nice guy named Bryan Woolf, a management assistant at DWP, called to say that the matter was being researched and that I would hear back in a day or so. He called again Tuesday morning to say that I would get a written response in the next day or two. Even Water Boy emailed me Tuesday afternoon to say I would be hearing a verdict on my request by the end of the week.
Over here at L.A. Sniper headquarters, I don’t take confrontations with Water King and Water Boy personally. In fact, I can’t help but think that is generally the way they treat the public. To test that theory, I told the Water King I would be filing a request for a year’s worth of all public-records requests, along with copies of the initial letters the DWP sent in response to the inquiring public. Said the Water King: “Do whatever you think is your legal rights to do.”
I take that as one of those coded messages that hostages inside a bank might make to someone who could help them escape. Yes, deep down the Water King wants me to help him turn around his troubled agency.
Yes, Water King, help is on the way.
Here’s a little video of the event. Are you one of the guys releasing the balls or the one trying to push David Nahai into the water? That “solution” is one of the more nuts way to handle the matter.
Good luck on the information request. If you broke the law, you would be personally fined. If Nahai breaks the law by ignoring your request, only the agency could be fined–which it won’t. Something is wrong with that.
It would be interesting to compare his water usage to that of Sea World.
Alan, you don’t mention here as you did in CityBeat, that you showed up at his home unannounced one day (which is how you’ve got such a good description of his ugly garage), and rang the bell to surprise the wife and teen son by the same request. Probably freaked the woman out and made Water King see a pattern of harassment here. Gotta admit, I wouldn’t like reporters or paparazzi showing up at my home — fact that he doesn’t have a gate means they’re unusually open. So far. Was this little visit before or after the scene at the Reservoir?
The Times did get the DWP bills of the Councilmembers, Mayor and Controller a year or so ago, and the wags there made fun of some of them and their excuses for wasting water, from animals chewing up drip systems, to huge families to Zine’s west valley water-hungry green lawns that he maintained “to set a good example.” (Maybe his trip to conservation- smart Israel will give him some good ideas for replanting his own lawn with drought-resistant plants.)
So Nihai has good reason you’re going to “snipe” at his bill — also, exactly what constitutes grounds for receiving such info? Now that you’re not on staff at CityBeat, what’s your publication? Does blogging count? Can any flake with a computer (not meaning you, but you know they’re the majority out there) demand such info under the “public’s right to know?” I’m really concerned by the media’s invasions of privacy under this guise. (E.g., Sunday, the formerly respectable L A Times ran an “investigation” of traffic jams and their emotional toll, by stationing someone to sit at a freeway interchange, take down license plates and then run them through DMV’s database to track down owners at their private homes and addresses. Isn’t that illegal, unless it’s done by law enforcement with a legitimate reason?) So I understand Water King’s erring on the side of prudence.
OK, I see you include the link to visiting his house and later filing the request for info… Yup, I’ll bet the wife got mad. Can imagine a conversation like “You didn’t tell me that if you took this job, we’d have nutty reporters showing up out of the blue to see my bills! Make sure they don’t come back, or you’re going back to your higher-paid law job! We need gates, too!”
WBC,
I’ve got little sympathy for Nahai — it’s not possible that he is ignorant of the California Public Records Act. His previous public service job was serving on the LA regional water board, which was subject to a wide variety of records requests (including some that I made).
If you’re interested, please read the law for yourself. It’s a powerful tool to keep our elected and appointed officials in line, and it’s one of the prices you pay for serving the public. No one forced Nahai to accept this powerful and well-paid position.
Here’s a brief primer on the records act:
http://www.thefirstamendment.org/capra.html
Mittelstaedt is doing a great job putting Nahai’s feet to the fire — the citizens of Los Angeles deserve nothing less.
I, too, was a bit disturbed by the fact the LA Times was able to use the DMV database to track personal information from license plates. That just seems wrong.
You don’t have to be a member of any anointed media outlet to file a public records act request, WBC. You only have to be a member of the public. Hence the word “public” in the title.
I’ve admired Nahai’s work in this city and he’s always been a forthcoming source for me in the past. I’ve learned a lot from him. But I think the DWP has secrecy embedded in its DNA. The people over there haven’t responded to my PRA either, and it wasn’t that complicated.
Hey Al, wanna go in on a lawyer?
(You really should stay away from Nahai’s house in the future, though. It’s kind of creepy.)
Nahai is such a goober. I’m a member of the press, and several years back, when I wrote a blurb on some award he was getting by some organization, and I riffed a pun off of the title of Gina Nahai’s first book as my hed, he got all upset. He wound up phoning my editor and whining about it after he saw it in print. Guess he couldn’t take the reference to his then-more famous wife. A macho male ego thing and something cultural, I’m guessing. That spoke worlds about him at the time. What a wuss.
YEAH!!!! FOR CELESTE. THANKS FROM THE TAX PAYERS OF LOS ANGELES. THIS JERK MAKES OVER $300,000 AND KNOWS NOTHING. HIS TOP STAFF MAKE OVER $200,000 AND SOME AIDES MAKE OVER $100,000 YET THEY WANT TO RAISE OUR RATES. GO GET HIM CELESTE AND PLS POST THOSE RECORDS FOR ALL TO SEE. GOOD LUCK
Judith and Member, it’s natural for elected officials to want to protect their spouses and families from the kind of insults and crap they face regularly. Even Obama was furious when some press criticized his wife, and that was for comments she made. McCain seems to feel the same about his wife, and CNN has an online poll right now asking viewers if they feel spouses are out of bounds. Hillary and Bill were understandably upset when Chelsea was asked an intentionally upsetting question about her parents’ sex lives. And these people were presidential candidates, whose spouses were apparently not subjected to this stuff even as Senators and Governors.
Nahai is new to this political game, and local bloggers get very personal and nasty, so I’m a lot more sympathetic than some. His personal water bill and habits, like Zine’s and the rest, are arguably pertinent when these people are telling us to conserve, but I firmly feel family members and privacy of officials at this level are out of bounds. I’ll even argue that Nahai deserves his salary — like the Times argued in an earlier editorial supporting Council salaries which are half his, these people take a lot of rude shit and the lawyers among them could be paid a lot more outside. I’ll agree with Janet that the dozens of managers making over $200,000 plus cars is way too high compared to elected officials who spend a fortune running for their jobs. Although I’d hate to see Celeste sink to posting those records “for all to see,” the deliberate embarrassing of public employees for prurient reasons. That’s for the lowbrow Daily News and gossip blogs.
Issues involving DWP are another matter, like Nahai’s struggle against the powerful union head, his differences with volunteer Commission head and financial watchdog Nick Patsouris, or his agreeing to the patronage job of Cindy Montanez that’s all the news — how she got a $150,000/ one day a week gig with DWP, while she’s allowed to keep another part-time Commission gig paying $130,000. Patsouris argues that as our Sacramento lobbyist, seeing this as a p/t job shorts us of representation in getting our fair share.
All because she’d agreed not to challenge Richard Alarcon for Council or Felipe Fuentes for Assembly (the seat Alarcon just vacated after barely swearing in), playing ball with the Padilla/ Alarcon/ Cardenas/ Nunez etc. Eastside Machine. The same Felipe Fuentes who just pulled stealth bill AB212, designed to circumvent L A Councilmembers (especially Wendy Greuel) and communities opposed to mega-developments like Verdugo Hills and dense affordable housing schemes, after Greuel got wind of it and alerted her colleagues. Other than the same Alarcon/ Cardenas and Reyes, that is, who’d been secretly behind it and hoped Assembly would pass it before the City Council realized their powers over local development were stripped away. Historically DWP’s been used for patronage jobs, and I hope Patsouris makes headway in ending these salaries for part-time jobs.
Thanks, Janet, but it’s not me. It’s my esteemed colleague, Alan Mittelstaed. I’m out of town. So you’ll be seeing a lot more great stuff from Alan up here.
This city has become so corrupt its pathetic. Candidates can’t even run anymore without the intrusion of the Mayor and all his croonies pulling out people and promising them other positions to get their people in. Neighborhood Councils have become just as corrupt with council members having “their” people run to get on the boards and helping to campaign on our city dime. LA has gone down the toliet and I agree with Alan that those records need to be posted for the taxpayers to see. Its our money paying these fools their large salaries. Nahai has no experience to be in that position and his arrogant attitude needs to be put in check. Go get him Alan.
In case anyone is interested, the LA Times has a lengthy discussion on how they tracked down those drivers for their recent article:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/readers/2008/06/dmv-records.html
Short answer is, the DMV will give you a name if presented with a license plate number, and they looked up each name via directory assistance and other public records. They spent forty hours on the project, and got eight people to speak on the record.
Oh, and just for clarification, Montanez’ appointment to the unemployment appears insurance board is for one day of work a month, not one day of work a week. That’s a nice job, even nicer than Nahai’s!
Thanks, Bode — Christopher Goffard’s article says, that after finding a spot on the freeway to view gridlock, “We then tracked down as many drivers as we could — running their plates through the Department of Motor Vehicles — to find out what their stories might say…”
So maybe it was just sloppy writing, because “running through” doesn’t mean calling and getting a name. “What their stories might say” is also awkward. Maybe this is the result of Zell’s brilliant new policy of axing experienced writers for cheaper inexperienced ones.
As for Montanez’ jobs, it’s the DWP job (paying $12,500/ month or upto $150,000/yr) which is one day a week. Guess the token job on the Unemployment Insurance Board (a traditional patronage position) is even better at one day a month for almost the same money. So the woman works 5 days a week, for about $280,000/yr. Why would anyone want to run for office or head a Dept., actually have to show up for work and take the crap.
Has anyone ever thought about the effect of the plastic balls in the water? Recent research has shown that certain chemicals in plastic are bad for our health. They have suggested that plastic baby bottles are bad for babies because they release cancer causing chemicals. Plastic does break down, especially in the sun floating on water. Has there been any long term research on the decay of the balls and if chemicals are released into the water? My fear is that the balls may cause more harm than the alternative.
Also, do the balls affect the plants or animals in and around the lake?