I never did update y’all.
David Nahai, true to his word, has called me several times to confirm that he had followed up and all is well.
I found him to be kind, honest and diligent. I’ve managed to insult him both personally and professionally and he’s responded kindly and patiently.
The news today is that Mr. Nahai will be the new leader of the DWP replacing Ron Deaton.
I cannot imagine more capable hands. I’m thrilled and wish him all the success in the world.
I’ve been promised by David Nahai and now Mark Hollister from the DWP (who reports to Ron Deaton) that there will be an investigation and I will kept up to date.
I know y’all have seen my email to David and I see that I’m getting hits on a completely un-publicized webpage so my guess is that someone’s taking a look.
I appreciate the candor of Mr. Hollister. I found it beyond amusing that his phone went dead while we were talking and he had to call me from a cell phone.
I’m curious to see how the DWP handles the sleepers.
It’s stunning that our fair Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sent only the cursory auto reply and that Wendy Gruel’s office hasn’t even done that.
3 days without power doesn’t warrant an email back to a constituent?
The phone just rang.
It was David Nahai.
David is actually the president of an oversight committee for the DWP so when I said
“I also would wonder how one man could manage to work full time in a law office AND efficiently run the DWP?” I was wrong. And I’ll admit it.
He doesn’t run the DWP, he is part of an oversight council.
And I think he’s a straight shooter.
I say think because I don’t know. I had a 3 minute phone call with him where he apologized for the DWP’s failure, called it what it was, never raised his voice and never interrupted me.
He told me about two other committees he sits on and it was all pretty impressive. Not the committee sitting part of things but the fact that I completely insulted him (oops, this gal’s got a tendency to open mouth – insert foot) and he let it slide. Thank goodness because I felt kinda creepy being a little mean when he was being nice and responsive all bundled up as one.
There will be an investigation about the sleeping workers on my street and there’s a meeting tomorrow night of the oversight committee.
I sure hope no one snips my powerlines….
Who’d of thunk it? A chick with a phone and a keyboard just may affect change in this city we all love so much.
FYI Mr. Nahai doesn’t differentiate between The City and The Valley, he thinks of it all as being Los Angeles. That’s the only part of the conversation I don’t think I believe.
Even though I was wrong with my prior post I’m leaving it up.
Why? Because no one asked me to take it down and because every lawyer knows that you can’t unring the bell.
I’ve said it, it’s out there and it’s the sentiments of a woman without power for days on end.
It’s just what ya get around here.
And where there’s smoke there’s fire…
Because we had to light candles in Sherman oaks.
Read this:
In fact, all you need to do is go to the Civil Action Press and punch in DWP to find out about the mismanagement at the DWP.
Shame on you Wendy Gruel… you were warned many years ago.
From http://civilactionpress.blogspot.com/ 2006
I guess we should have seen this miserable failure coming.
The seventy or so employees who reported abuse, mismanagement, and retaliation to the Board of Water and Power Commissioners in January 2006 waited to hear the second installment of words describing the investigatory findings commissioned by the Board of Water and Power Commissioners.
On May 3, 2006, it was disheartening, but not unexpected, to hear David Nahai, Board President, sum up the investigations into management of Custodial Services, Landscaping, Fleet Services, Security, and Information Technology. He said management was found to be “woefully incompetent.” We can be assured those were carefully chosen words. Incompetence, most assuredly, is not, and most likely will never be, a violation at DWP.
In today’s Board meeting, David Nahai took another peddle back and seemed to say the personnel problems at DWP amounted to isolated instances of management miscommunication that were allowed to fester. Moreover, Nahai indicated that the problems were, in many cases, attributed to managers who had retired and were not there anymore. He suggested a little management training may be in order.
This, of course, flies in the face of recent and ongoing litigation, confidential personnel settlements, mismanaged contracts, power outages, a backlog of infrastructure maintenance, high overtime, low productivity, low morale, a number of poor performance audits, and increasing rates.
Spontaneous woeful incompetence must be the new paradigm at DWP. No one seemed surprised enough to ask, “Who is in charge of the woeful incompetence at DWP?”"
An open letter to David Nahai.
Mr. Nahai,
Yesterday I had the misfortune of needing to call the DWP because your workers (two trucks full!) were sleeping contentedly for three full hours on my street while I still had no power.
I called at approximately 2pm on Saturday the 14th. I spent over 40 minutes on the phone.
If you would like to talk to a Los Angeles resident who witnessed first hand the abominable failure of the DWP I would be happy to speak with you.
I also would wonder how one man could manage to work full time in a law office AND efficiently run the DWP?
Best,
Jessica Gottlieb
