Mayor Karen Bass’ decide to guide the Los Angeles Division of Water and Energy will earn $750,000 a yr — almost twice as a lot as her predecessor.
The Board of Water and Energy Commissioners on Tuesday voted to approve a wage for Bass nominee Janisse Quiñones that’s considerably increased than the $447,082 at the moment earned by Common Supervisor Marty Adams.
Quiñones, former senior vice chairman of electrical operations at Pacific Gasoline & Electrical Co., was picked by Bass after a nationwide search. Adams is retiring in June after 4 a long time on the head of the troubled company, the place turnover is especially excessive within the high ranks.
The Metropolis Council final yr permitted a brand new wage vary — $435,034.80 to $751,011.84 — for the final managers of the town’s utility, port and airport, which went into impact in December after Adams introduced his retirement.
High executives at investor-owned utilities, reminiscent of PG&E, usually earn multimillion-dollar salaries, whereas these at public utilities take residence a lot much less.
Quiñones’ wage is in step with high executives’ salaries on the Omaha Public Energy District in Nebraska and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, based on public data.
Adams obtained a small collection of backdated wage changes this yr, which boosted his wage by about $50,000, based on the division. Earlier than that, he hadn’t gotten a elevate since he was employed as basic supervisor in 2019, data present.
Quiñones, in a short look at Tuesday’s DWP board assembly, thanked the commissioners for supporting her nomination.
“The division has so many nice issues going for themselves and loads of new challenges that we have to deal with,” she stated, including that “collaboration” with “stakeholders and the neighborhood and others within the trade” can be key.
Along with PG&E, Quiñones labored at San Diego Gasoline & Electrical and at Cobra Acquisitions, the place she helped restore Puerto Rico’s electrical system after Hurricane Maria in 2017, based on Bass’ workplace.
Quiñones can be a commander within the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve who spent 5 years on energetic obligation, according to a 2021 interview that appeared in a PG&E publication.
“Little or no rattles me,” Quiñones instructed the publication, describing how her Coast Guard background helped her put together for working within the power trade.
Bass’ workplace, in a press release asserting Quiñones’ nomination, stated the chief “has the talent set and management expertise to advance the division into 100% clear power by 2035.”
The DWP’s subsequent chief is predicted to play a serious position in reaching the climate-friendly power objectives laid out by metropolis leaders and environmentalists.
Scientists on the Nationwide Renewable Vitality Laboratory say that such goals are possible to attain however that metropolis officers have huge hurdles to beat, reminiscent of ensuring they will maintain the lights on with out burning pure fuel, a fossil gas, at four local power plants.
Members of the Worldwide Brotherhood of Electrical Staff Native 18, which represents DWP employees, workers native fuel crops and have fought to keep them open.
IBEW Native 18 declined final week to touch upon Quiñones’ nomination.
The union was extensively seen as backing one other candidate, DWP Chief Working Officer Aram Benyamin, for the place.
The DWP board on Tuesday additionally permitted $30,000 in relocation prices and a six-month housing allowance of $45,000 for Quiñones.
Quiñones is predicted to be confirmed subsequent month by the Metropolis Council.
The DWP’s basic supervisor should reply to unions, the mayor, the Metropolis Council and the utility’s board. That creates rigidity, and a number of other current basic managers have lasted just a few years.
Adams, the outgoing basic supervisor, was promoted to the place 5 years in the past — a comparatively lengthy tenure. Adams took over after then-manager David Wright stepped down amid a large federal prison investigation.
Wright later pleaded guilty to bribery and was sentenced to six years in jail.
Onetime DWP board President Cynthia McClain-Hill stepped down in January following questions on a non-public telephone name she had with a contractor and a lawsuit by four former and current DWP employees alleging that she retaliated towards them. McClain-Hill denies wrongdoing.
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