[0:00] Good morning, and welcome to the regular meeting of the Board of Water and Power Commissioners. Today's Tuesday, February 24,

[0:07] 2020. This proceeding is being podcasted on Channel 35. The exact broadcast times can be found by contacting

[0:15] Channel 35. Board of Water and Power Commissioners, please stay present for roll call. President

[0:24] Marks, forgive me. President Marks would you repeat that for the record. I didn't have the mic on.

[0:29] Yes, I'm President.

[0:30] Vice President Katz, President, Commissioner Ortega.

[0:34] President, Commissioner Pinder, President, Commissioner Tran.

[0:38] There's a five board members of President, Mr. President.

[0:42] Thank you.

[0:43] I think the first thing to do is to call out Commissioner Ortega,

[0:47] because we have a new member, the newest member,

[0:49] and finally four or five seats up here on the commission.

[0:53] So I'd like to say to you officially, Rudy Ortega, Jr.

[1:00] And congratulations, I've become a commissioner of the Board of Water and Power Commissioner.

[1:05] Join me, please, and I applause for that.

[1:09] In fact, you apply, say, more about the world.

[1:12] I want to give you a chance to say a few remarks if you'd like.

[1:15] Sure, thank you very much.

[1:17] It's an honor to serve the Board of the Department of Water and Power.

[1:21] It's a privilege and as a tribal leader from Los Angeles,

[1:24] We have a long history with the department and it

[1:30] gates back from the founding probably of the

[1:32] Department of the South, but that would water

[1:35] rights and water itself.

[1:36] We know the importance of water and it's an honor for me to

[1:40] serve the native communities as a member of this board.

[1:44] I'm going to also to bring the

[1:45] insight of the residents of Los Angeles who we

[1:49] serve as our power and water to.

[1:51] It's a really great honor to be part of the

[1:53] Department here, be part of the board, and join so many folks who gracefully onboarded me

[2:00] on really wonderful people all around.

[2:02] I just got to say that from the start, it's been pleasure.

[2:07] Yeah, good.

[2:07] Thank you.

[2:08] And we also welcome your experience from other commissions.

[2:10] I know you're on the L.A. City County, Native American Indian Commission, and on the

[2:15] Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Board and have done a lot for public service for the community.

[2:20] So thank you for giving back.

[2:22] Thank you.

[2:22] We really appreciate it.

[2:24] Thank you.

[2:25] For those of you who have not had the pleasure of attending, by the way, the Tribal

[2:31] ceremony that is hosted at the D.D.U.P.'s Nature Preserve of Open Chat Swords, which is where

[2:36] you and I first met when we, in the winter solstice, the next event is open to the public.

[2:42] It is on March 28th at the Chat Swords.

[2:45] Reservoir Nature Preserve, you want me hosted by the Department, and by the Fanadhenio Thosavian

[2:52] Band of Mission Indians, and we look forward to having you there if you can do that. That's

[2:57] for the Spring Equinox. Thank you. Good. And I'll point out, you know, in the world right now,

[3:04] there's troubles, but there's a lot to bring together, our very diverse community in Los Angeles,

[3:10] and mindful of constitutional limits, not establishing anything, but in a sense of inclusivity,

[3:16] I just wanted to note that last week, many people around the world celebrated Lunar New Year.

[3:23] And for the first time in about 30 years, given how calendars work, Ramadan and Lent,

[3:29] overlapped in both started last week. I point out that a week from now, the Jewish holiday

[3:34] Purim will be celebrated, and the Hindu holiday of Holy will also start next Tuesday night

[3:40] and be continuing with the festival of colors on Wednesday.

[3:43] There is a lot to be set before in the broader world, and the planets and the moons and the

[3:48] way they circle around us and how we note those facts seasonally and weekly so I think

[3:52] it's, we've probably going to be meeting this one dimension that we're all here together as part

[3:57] of something bigger than ourselves, and it's a pleasure to be with you doing this, doing this

[4:01] for the community. The other thing I'd like to mention before we start is the congratulations

[4:06] of shoutout to North Hollywood High School and their students who have won the Science

[4:13] Bowl that was hosted here at the Department of Water and Power this past weekend. Terrific

[4:18] accomplishment for them. They have a long legacy of success notwithstanding the fact that

[4:22] Vice President Katz is in a loom of North Hollywood High. So anything you want to comment

[4:28] on the science.

[4:29] Sure.

[4:30] Yeah.

[4:30] You can see by my mascara was sick this weekend and couldn't be there in person, but I

[4:35] was there last year and it's just such an amazing event and opportunity to see our young

[4:41] people from across LAUSD really dedicating themselves to learning science and competing.

[4:50] So definitely made me very proud as a Husky but congratulations to all the teams who participated

[4:55] than I'm sorry that I couldn't be there to congratulate you in person.

[5:00] I'd also like to just take a moment to second President Marx's remarks, welcoming Commissioner

[5:08] Ortega. We are really so fortunate. Can you guys hear okay with the message? Okay. We're

[5:15] really so fortunate to have a leader of your caliber to have a tribal president actually join us

[5:20] here on the day as all of the expertise that you bring from your other service and leadership positions.

[5:27] and I'm really looking forward especially in working together on tribal engagement and learning

[5:32] from you as we engage both tribes in the Owens Valley and also across Los Angeles and anywhere

[5:37] else that DWP is working. So just really thank you for your leadership and for stepping up to

[5:44] serve and we're really excited to welcome you.

[5:47] Thank you.

[5:49] Just like any other commissioners have any comments that like to me?

[5:53] Yes.

[5:53] I'm aware of all of the new commissioners have great background and all the potential he brings.

[6:00] I'm not a very practical matter.

[6:02] Now that you're here, some of the vacation plans, I have it.

[6:06] I don't have to worry about it.

[6:08] Because you will be here, I will be gone, and we will still have Quorum.

[6:12] So I just want to really thank you from the bottom of my heart for finally joining us.

[6:18] We've been waiting for you in waiting for you.

[6:21] I have an application.

[6:23] I have an application.

[6:24] So I have to welcome you.

[6:26] Thank you.

[6:27] Thank you, sir.

[6:28] Yes.

[6:29] I don't have any vacation plans yet.

[6:32] But can we share a welcome to the board?

[6:34] Got to have you.

[6:35] As well.

[6:36] We just started also a couple months ago.

[6:38] But it's exciting work.

[6:39] Great work.

[6:40] I'm happy to work with you and the rest of the board.

[6:43] Thank you.

[6:44] Thank you.

[6:45] Any other comments from commissioners?

[6:48] Fine.

[6:48] And this next bill I'd like to approve the minutes before we then get the public comment.

[6:55] The minutes for the previous meeting, which was February 10, 2026, had been distributed to the commissioners.

[7:01] Are there any corrections to the minutes?

[7:04] I'm for me, thank you.

[7:06] Good night.

[7:07] There are being no corrections. I entertain a motion to approve.

[7:10] Item D1, the minutes from the last meeting.

[7:12] Motion to approve D1?

[7:13] Second.

[7:15] Madam Secretary, please call the roll.

[7:16] President Marks.

[7:17] Vice President Katz, Commissioner Ortega, Commissioner Pinder, Commissioner Tran, five

[7:27] ice-motion adopted,

[7:31] and now we can move to public comment.

[7:34] Public comment is open at this time during general public comment members of the public

[7:39] may speak to any of the items and anything else within LAWP subject matter jurisdiction.

[7:45] You have two minutes for item but no more than five minutes total if you are speaking

[7:49] on a specific item you must stay on topic, otherwise your time will be forfeited.

[7:54] You will be verbally notified when your time-alotment has expired.

[7:58] We have one speaker.

[8:01] The first speaker is former DWP Vice President Cynthia Ruise.

[8:08] I am hopeful.

[8:13] Good morning.

[8:16] Board President Marx commissioners as was indicated.

[8:21] My name is Cynthia Ruiz and as was noted, I previously served as Vice President of the commission.

[8:28] I understand the amount of responsibility that you have and the complexity of the department.

[8:35] So commissioners, thank you for your service.

[8:38] I also want to take a moment and give a shout out to all the hardworking men and women of

[8:45] L.A.D.W.P. that work hard on a daily basis.

[8:50] So I come to you this morning with a happy heart.

[8:54] I'm here to help welcome Commissioner Rudy Ortega.

[9:00] Rudy Ortega and I have known each other for many years and when I think of Commissioner

[9:05] or Tega, I think of a man with integrity, a man of intelligence, and a true servant leader.

[9:16] As Board President Marx noted, he served as a commissioner for many years and our parents,

[9:22] his father, my mother, served together on the Native American Indian Commission for many

[9:27] years. So commissioner or Tega, I am so proud of you. I know our parents who are in the

[9:34] physical world are so proud of you. I want you to know as you go into this role, you're not alone,

[9:41] the communities behind you, Los Angeles behind you. I'm behind you and I wish you nothing but the best

[9:48] in your new role. I am so proud of you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[9:59] Thank you, former Vice

[10:00] President Reese, we had the honor of serving together when I began on the commission and it's good to see you in person. And thank you for taking the time to come and speak and honor this important moment.

[10:11] Thank you so much, Cynthia.

[10:14] Thank you very much.

[10:16] And now we can move on to other reports from the CEO, Jenny Skinny on us.

[10:21] Good morning.

[10:22] it on? Yes. Good morning and welcome commissioner. We're very happy to have you. The tribes

[10:30] are such important partners and what we do every day so having a representative and the

[10:36] boy is really important for us. So looking forward to your contributions and how you're

[10:40] going to guide us to be better partners. Outside of that, I'm going to pass it to someone to give us

[10:46] a couple of dates from the water systems. I think a lot of them are really cool, especially the

[10:51] Good morning, Governor.

[10:53] Good morning, commissioners and so McCallence.

[10:56] A couple of things I wanted to report on.

[10:57] I wanted to start out first with obviously last week we have a storm that came in.

[11:02] As I did at the previous board meeting I provided an update on a water supply situation

[11:06] as a result of their precipitation.

[11:09] I'm happy to report that as a result of the storm that we had last week.

[11:13] We have been able to capture now in Los Angeles almost 80,000 acre feet of stormwater

[11:18] that we're going to use to recharge the groundwater basin, so that's always very good news.

[11:23] That's around 26 billion gallons of strong water. So we work really closely with the county,

[11:29] flood control folks, to hold that water during the rain event, and then release it,

[11:33] set it to the spreading basins, and be able to recharge the groundwater basin. So we're doing

[11:38] really well there. On the eastern Sierra, we were able to get as a result of the last storm,

[11:44] seven inches or what we call snow water equivalent.

[11:47] So when you have a snow pack, this is a certain amount of water within that snow pack,

[11:50] depending on how wet it is. And we got our seven inches, which means that now,

[11:55] we are at 98 to 99 percent of normal as of April 1st. So if we got normal precipitation, the

[12:03] Eastern Sierra will be at 99 percent of normal, which is really good. So it's starting out to be

[12:08] basically at normal water year for us, which is always a good thing. I think that's three years in a

[12:13] now, so we'll take it and obviously take the pressure off water supply. So we're doing really

[12:19] well there. When is the next time that you do this, no backpack? That one is coming up. March

[12:25] first, we're going to do the next round of snow surveys. So as a matter of fact, I believe we are

[12:31] supposed to be going up to myself and the CEO to put us to work. I'm going to make us do the

[12:37] survey. I'll always say I've done it once before, it's very hard work. So, but yes, we'll do the

[12:43] March 1st. And the main purpose is to basically validate what are snowpills tell us. So we have

[12:50] facilities that tell us approximately how much snow we have and how much water content, what we do

[12:56] when we go out is we validate that to make sure that we have the right information. And then we're

[13:00] able to calculate the potential runoff based on that. And the runoff usually starts at April 1st

[13:06] the rest of the year. So doing really well there when it comes to water supply. So I wanted to

[13:12] pass along that information. I think I mentioned the last meeting to the state also I located 30%

[13:18] allocation to the metropolitan water district. MWD has the rights to purchase around 2 million acre

[13:24] feet. So we're looking at 600,000 acre feet of water that metropolitan water district will be able to purchase

[13:31] from a state of California to supply to its member agencies,

[13:35] us being one of them.

[13:37] So that's the first update I want to provide.

[13:40] The next thing is studying as a reservoir

[13:42] floating cover.

[13:43] So as has been reported before, one of the plans

[13:47] that we have is to replace the floating cover

[13:49] that currently is on studying as reservoir.

[13:51] We fixed the cover after the fires,

[13:54] but we recognize that cover is jeopardized

[13:57] because of the fires and embers of fell.

[13:59] So we have been working really closely with the community with CD-11 to basically work on the replacement cover.

[14:09] We installed a temporary pipe above ground that's connecting our value system from the Corbin tank.

[14:15] It's going to park all the way to the Miss Gold tank.

[14:20] That's going to provide a certain amount of water if there is an issue while the reservoir is off.

[14:25] So, we have drank down the reservoir a certain amount, the rest of the water and the reservoir

[14:32] now is going to be drained, the process process has begun.

[14:36] We expect to be completed with the draining by late March.

[14:39] Once that happens, the contractor late fields is going to mobilize, they're going to remove

[14:44] the cover and they're going to begin the process of building the new cover that is going

[14:49] to be providing better protection for that water.

[14:52] This is once again, and I have to repeat this because folks sometimes think this is how we're doing.

[14:57] It's an inner step.

[14:58] This is to give us the search.

[15:00] Indeed, we have a good cover on setting as reservoir. The long-term plans are being developed. My planning

[15:06] staff is working on that, and it can be a combination of things, perhaps put a hard cover in

[15:11] setting as, or we build tanks elsewhere, or on the setting as property, or we look at perhaps

[15:17] treatment. Also, turners have been looked at right now by staff, and there's going to be a recommendation

[15:22] brought to me, and then I will recommend that to the CEO for us to be able to move forward with a long-term

[15:27] permanent solution. So this is basically the short term solution right now, but we're making

[15:32] good progress on that.

[15:34] And then some of the cover will be the best of all we'll be back online by expecting to

[15:40] have the result back online by the end of the year. So that certainly should be good news.

[15:47] The next item, as some of you may recall, in others of 2025, we had a major out of situation

[15:55] in the Port of Ranch, Kornada Hills area.

[15:58] It was as a result of a 48 inch valve that failed

[16:01] in its closed position that wouldn't allow us

[16:04] to pump water to the trunk line,

[16:06] and eventually make it the Susana tank,

[16:08] which is in the west side for non-divalli.

[16:11] As a result of that, during that emergency,

[16:14] we had to dig over 20 feet deep.

[16:17] We took out the valve that was stuck,

[16:19] and we replaced it with a spool,

[16:20] just a straight piece of pipe.

[16:22] And what we did all of this weekend

[16:24] is we went it back and installed brand new valves and we have a couple of pictures I wanted to show you

[16:29] because just for you to see the extent of it. What you're looking at here is two 48 inch

[16:35] butterfly valves that are being installed to allow us to go to isolate that pipeline. To ensure

[16:42] that we could do this as quickly as possible, everything was assembled before went into the hole.

[16:48] So you're looking here at two butterfly valves. You got two bypass valves there as well as a

[16:53] off or we call a bleed. And you can see here that it's being lowered into into the trench.

[17:00] And if you can go to the next picture, there you can see now the pipe being put in.

[17:05] And then what we do is we weld what we call butt straps on each end. And that's how we connect the

[17:11] new piece of pipe to the existing piece of pipe that we have there. So quite a bit of work.

[17:16] The one thing that's also very evident, we're not 20 feet deep. That was one of the things that

[17:21] wanted to make sure that we could change

[17:23] is to put it in an allocation that was more accessible.

[17:26] This is more normal installation than being 20 feet deep

[17:30] as the old valve was that was installed back in the 60s.

[17:33] This took a lot of coordination and a lot of effort

[17:36] between the water distribution division

[17:37] and the water operations division.

[17:40] This was done Friday night to Saturday morning.

[17:43] So one of the things that we did here,

[17:45] and this so lesson from when we had the outage

[17:47] is that we had two temporary pump stations

[17:50] that we're pumping water to sustain a tank.

[17:53] So we kept the full all throughout the night.

[17:55] So our staff was working,

[17:57] if we had encountered a problem,

[17:58] we would have a full tank 10 million gallons of water

[18:01] in the store, that we could use in case of anything.

[18:05] Luckily, we're all the good planning

[18:06] and all the good work, we had no issues.

[18:08] So we were able to get this work done

[18:10] with most people who are sleeping.

[18:12] So the following morning Saturday, when they woke up,

[18:14] we had this fight back in service.

[18:16] So I wanted to make sure I mentioned this

[18:18] because this just shows the good work

[18:21] that our distribution folks do in the Trump

[18:22] and construction folks, and they were able

[18:24] to put in this work in a matter of 14 or 15 hours.

[18:28] So, but it's a group effort between operations

[18:31] and distribution.

[18:32] And those are all our own people doing that.

[18:33] These are our own people, correct?

[18:35] We are probably the only municipal utility

[18:37] that has its own Trump current crews

[18:40] as well as over 30 mainland crews that install 240,000,000

[18:46] your feet will pipe in a yearly basis, so they do excellent work.

[18:49] And then the last thing I wanted to mention is that this Thursday, February 26th, we're

[18:55] going to be hosting the water system, specifically water distribution division, the annual

[19:01] tap off.

[19:01] This is the 14th annual tap off.

[19:04] It's going to take place between 8 o'clock in the morning and 3 p.m. and this is going

[19:08] to take place at Silmar West, which is our training facility.

[19:12] It is just north of the filtration plant.

[19:14] It's a great event where you will see LED-DP staff compete with other utilities on a variety of skillsets that they have from a tapping name and doing it in, you know, the shortest time possible to what we call meter madness and near hysteria where it basically take apart meters and put them back together very quickly.

[19:36] It's a great event because we also have vendors there.

[19:38] we talk about safety, we talk about equipment that's coming out, locally team participates

[19:44] as well.

[19:45] So it's a great event and once again it'll be this Thursday from 8 to 3 p.m.

[19:50] And that's the end of my report.

[19:51] Thank you.

[19:52] Thank you.

[19:53] Great event.

[19:54] And now I'm going to pass out to Mr. Robert Gonzalez, who was recently promoted too.

[20:00] Do a system general manager, can you talk about your title now and why you're responsible for and then give us the power of date?

[20:06] Yeah, sure. Robert Gonzalez, I've been with the Department about 36, and a half years.

[20:11] Yeah, it's been a while.

[20:13] So I'm a system general manager over the generation delivery.

[20:18] So it's exciting. I'm very familiar with it. I started a long career, a long time ago here in construction, and worked my way through a generation.

[20:27] And actually I've been all over the department except for the water side and some of what

[20:32] now.

[20:32] I guess.

[20:33] But anyway, that's a little history on me.

[20:36] As far as my update, I wanted to give an update on the storm, so I'm just going to cover

[20:40] some numbers quickly.

[20:42] We had a series of storms hit.

[20:43] As you all know, February 16th through February 19th, our peak customer outage was 21,973.

[20:51] Total customer history storage since the beginning of the storm was 58,738.

[20:58] So as far as preparing for the storm, we had 24-hour cut coverage, scheduling district, trouble

[21:03] cruise and other cruise. We had quite a few people on. We had an average daily cruise of 54 cruise a day.

[21:10] The restoration was prioritized the outages impacting the highest number of outages first and then the longest out.

[21:18] And our crew just did an amazing job, I mean, and our preparation was so well set up, it was just, it was great to see it, it was really a good event for us as far as storm events.

[21:33] So without having any questions, yes.

[21:35] This is just basic. When we say a crew, approximately how many is that, that unit?

[21:42] The crew is usually five to eight people including the Supervisor.

[21:48] And that's for the patrol and line mechanic crew Kirk actually line mechanic crews, we have other crews out there too that could be two or four people that 54 number doesn't count all the auxiliary crews that we have out at the same time they call support out and those other crews will come out.

[22:03] The 54 is the line crews that are coming out and troubles.

[22:07] Thank you.

[22:08] And I just want to highlight my

[22:10] co-week.

[22:12] Mike, can you spin up?

[22:13] I can't see you.

[22:14] He's our T&D director and runs our T&D operations.

[22:19] And it's been a pleasure having you.

[22:22] And I just want to say thank you to the crews.

[22:24] Because when there's a storm that out there, when it's raining,

[22:27] and done the rain, and trying to make things safe,

[22:29] and bring power back.

[22:31] So it's not an EC job.

[22:33] And they're on song heroes of our organizations.

[22:35] Same with the water crews working at night.

[22:38] So thank you all so to the trouble desk because they're taking all the calls and this

[22:42] patching crews and they always I'm not mentioned so I want to make sure that they get mentioned

[22:47] and obviously they're easy to see who keeps our system operating and roll balance.

[22:53] Thank you.

[22:54] Yes, thank you.

[22:58] Then I'm just going to bring Daniel Lucera for where I was going to say the reprimand I think it's

[23:04] that you do because this was your, your show and you did a really well job, but they

[23:10] incident in the co-existent station that made them use this week. The car that

[23:14] hit our station and so Daniel Lucer is a executive director of security and so Daniel.

[23:22] Thank you very much. Commissioners, community members, great to be before you today. I wish

[23:27] you were under better circumstances, but I think this incident highlights the evolved threat

[23:33] environment that we operate in. We know there are deliberate bad actors out there who seek to do

[23:39] our department harm and our role here is to protect our employees, our operations, our critical

[23:46] infrastructure and most importantly the public. We do this sort of public has safe and secure

[23:51] access to utilities and resources. I'll say this was categorized by the FBI as it's a laborer

[23:58] of terrorism. So this was an intentional event. I'm not going to say too much more about it

[24:03] because it's still an ongoing law enforcement operation, but I want to make sure that I express

[24:07] my sincere thanks to our federal state and local law enforcement partners. Obviously, this was

[24:13] out of Los Angeles, so this was a cost-state line and involved a huge amount of coordination.

[24:19] I was incredibly impressed by how internal and external stakeholders came together

[24:25] in a time of emergency to be able to communicate,

[24:29] pass the relevant information to the decision makers,

[24:32] and make sure that we were able to protect those resources

[24:37] as I mentioned.

[24:39] I'll tell you, I've been at the Department

[24:40] only about seven months now, so I'm still relatively new,

[24:44] and I'm drinking from the fire hose learning all I can.

[24:48] But I'm so impressed by Janice's leadership,

[24:51] prior to me coming on board,

[24:52] She's already set a SOP for success to make sure that we evolve in terms of some of the programs, policies.

[25:00] And security measures that we're putting in place. Obviously, allies are going to be on our city as we move towards the world cup and then onto the Olympics.

[25:10] We are in the middle of upgrading a lot of our different programs. I'm not going to speak about any one of them specifically, but I'll tell you before the Olympics come, we will be a drastically different and improved organization in terms of our security posture.

[25:26] And I also want to make sure that I give thanks to our proprietary employees, although they

[25:33] were not involved in this incident, we have a very robust security team who works 24,

[25:38] 7, round the clock, protecting hundreds of our facilities, and they're really the frontline

[25:42] ones who at 0, dark 30 make sure that the bad actors out there don't have access to our

[25:49] facilities.

[25:51] So, at this time I'll open up to any questions and apologies if I'm a bit coy, but since it

[25:56] is a ongoing investigation where we can't reveal too much of the sensitive information.

[26:02] Thank you.

[26:02] And the first thing I'd like to say is also, thank you to you, your entire security team,

[26:06] Janice, to you and your entire management team for keeping commission, especially me and

[26:11] Vice President Katz directly informed, kind of seeing real time, but close enough.

[26:17] It's better because of that event.

[26:19] And I realize we have operations across five states, and we have issues, you know, like we have had in the past week.

[26:25] You know, downstairs in front of our building with people, you know, who live nearby, they maybe are not doing so well at the moment.

[26:32] And we have issues of like this that are, you know, significant not just for us, but also for national security.

[26:37] So I appreciate all that you're doing and you have our back. Keep it up. Thank you, sir.

[26:42] Thank you, Daniel. I just add that there was no disruption to our services and there was no, in safety incidents to any of our coworkers. So that was good news.

[26:52] Like Daniel said, it was a great lesson learned for us.

[26:55] I also want to thank our communications division for mobile license and submitted a

[27:00] bulletin for our work force to keep them informed.

[27:03] And the security team quickly elevators our security posture.

[27:07] So we make sure that our security in all our facilities was on that elevated position.

[27:12] And that was shared with our co-workers and so I want to thank their co-workers as well.

[27:17] For keeping an eye, if you see something, say something, because you never know what

[27:21] But actors are trying to do and we do manage one of the most critical infrastructure systems

[27:27] in LA.

[27:28] So it is important that all of our coworkers are part of the eyes and ears that we need to

[27:33] protect our infrastructure.

[27:34] So thanks.

[27:35] Thank you.

[27:36] Thank you.

[27:38] I also want to remind people that we are in the second delivery of workday financials and I

[27:44] I'm here today is the readiness for it, it's happening in the lobby, air or lobby.

[27:52] And a level at the E-Trem, at the E-Trem, and so we're 90 days working days from goal-life.

[28:00] As you remember, we did work day for HR last year and now I can't believe it's already

[28:05] here.

[28:06] The finance is like coming in and I'm extremely proud of what the team has accomplished.

[28:11] So I encourage all the co-workers to go by the HM and participate on the readiness, especially

[28:17] if you're impacted.

[28:18] And I'll pass it up to you if you want to add anything about work day.

[28:21] Thank you, Denise, and good morning, commissioners, and San Tilly Department Chief Financial

[28:25] Officer.

[28:26] So as Denise said, in June, we went live with human resources and payroll.

[28:31] So in July, first, we're going to go live with all of our back office systems.

[28:35] General Ledger, Costa County, miscellaneous, receivables.

[28:39] all of the back office tools are going to be converted to workday. The fair is going on down

[28:46] stairs. Right now we have great participation. Right now we're doing our dress rehearsal. So

[28:51] employees are welcome to get into the practice tenant. Go in. If you're a travel proxy,

[28:56] go in there practice so that you know what you're going to do July 1st. It's been a great journey.

[29:03] We've been talking about doing this for decades and it's finally coming through July 1st and I

[29:08] Welcome any questions from the commission.

[29:10] Thank you. Any questions?

[29:12] Not at this time.

[29:15] I just want to say congratulations.

[29:18] These kind of positions are never easy.

[29:20] I've been through work day to finish myself at a much smaller scale.

[29:23] And it was painful, but I think the net result of it is a lot of easement.

[29:28] And I'm pretty sure it's a priority.

[29:29] And also a great platform to make the organization look better.

[29:34] So it's a massive undertaking that I think that what you get there,

[29:37] we're fantastic with congratulations and hopefully we'll get there with everyone on board and I

[29:41] want to see that it's going to be dear for the organization. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[29:46] And just a couple more updates just want to piggyback on the lunar year as the year of the horse,

[29:52] which I'm very fascinated by the year of the horse because it's about action, change,

[29:58] It's great to have a very young leadership.

[30:00] And so I just want to tie back to the Department and the leadership that we've had this year. You've heard about all those changes that are happening in, and this is our year. So I'm very, very proud of this. And I'm going to take advantage of the Lunar New Year to continue the progress to serve our communities. And lastly, on March 7, we have our reservoir walk. And some of what are you talking about that?

[30:25] All right, so yes, we have done this actually a couple of times already.

[30:32] We do a reservoir walk.

[30:35] In addition this year, we're also celebrating the 101st year of the Maul and Dam.

[30:41] So what people may not realize is that the Maul and Dam is basically the same design as

[30:45] the same Francis Dam.

[30:47] The same Francis Dam is the Dam that failed many years ago and pretty much ended the

[30:51] for World of Mahal and years later, obviously, you know, with more knowledge of geopolitical engineering,

[30:59] to realize that it had to do with the abutments, not to damage self, the type of soil that we had there.

[31:05] But the dam that's at the Hollywood Reservoir is been there for over a hundred years,

[31:09] serving the community. And on March 7th, we have an opportunity to go for a nice little stroll.

[31:15] I think it's a little bit through miles. So we want to invite everybody to attend. It will be a great

[31:20] opportunity to also celebrate women's history month.

[31:24] I know Janice is going to be there with our sneakers and walking the three and a half miles.

[31:29] And you're running. You're going to run them.

[31:31] Wow. Okay. That's a commitment.

[31:34] But yes, the events should be a fun food at day.

[31:40] We're going to be able to take a look at some of the nice areas that we have in Mahal and

[31:44] area there in Moundam. It's a very popular area for the community to walk on a daily basis.

[31:50] As you know, the Hollywood reservoir both in North and the upper lower Hollywood reservoirs

[31:56] and not any longer part of the drinking water system for their maintained there for fire protection,

[32:02] especially using helicopters and they have been using the past.

[32:05] But the property now is used more for recreation by the community, passive recreation.

[32:11] We need walking around.

[32:12] So it's a great opportunity once again that it's going to be on March 7th and I believe that

[32:18] only Janice is going to be there, but also our poor president Marks is going to be there

[32:22] and like them by run together.

[32:24] Oh boy.

[32:25] Oh boy.

[32:25] Yeah, my running might be different than your running.

[32:29] I totally, you're running around.

[32:30] I'll be walking right behind you if you want.

[32:33] But I want to invite everybody to attend the event.

[32:35] It should be a great day to go for a nice stroll.

[32:39] Hopefully the deer will not be scared of my big crowd.

[32:42] Yeah.

[32:42] They should be there.

[32:43] I sadly will be out of town for family obligation and missing the walk.

[32:47] But I do want to encourage people to go there.

[32:51] And as you walk around the reservoir, take a moment.

[32:55] Our DWP employees have built a beautiful power

[32:58] in the garden along the walk as well.

[33:01] But as a demonstration garden of what you can do in your own homes

[33:04] and replace your turf with native plants

[33:06] through our amazing turf free bait.

[33:08] And we also have the leap program for, you know,

[33:12] if you're financially challenged,

[33:14] you can actually get a full replacement

[33:16] and garden, fully funded by DWP, and especially, you know, take a moment in that garden.

[33:24] The garden was actually dedicated to a really special environmental leader who worked with

[33:30] DWP, Cindy Montana, so there's a beautiful clock there for her as well.

[33:35] So it's a very special place, beautiful, beautiful sight and really part of our connectivity

[33:41] and habitat throughout the Santa Monica Mountains, so I hope that everyone enjoys a beautiful

[33:47] Just I don't think I mentioned the time is the event starts at 7.30.

[33:51] At the 30.30 30 morning.

[33:53] Right, Harry.

[33:54] Yes, boss, 7.30 the morning.

[33:56] It goes to 10 o'clock.

[33:58] So we'll see you running there at 7.45.

[34:01] Thank you.

[34:03] Yeah.

[34:04] I was so happy until now.

[34:09] Lastly, about the most important announcement is I want to recognize

[34:12] a Stella team in as Stella's return at the end of the month after 33 years of service in the

[34:20] department and she is a civil engineer from UCLA. She's a Greens and joined the WPNPDC

[34:27] power design and construction innovation and then she worked for what's the vision and then

[34:33] move into optimization customer service and been in the customer service organizations. I think

[34:40] This is 2008, but you can correct me for more.

[34:43] 2004.

[34:45] And she, the last job that she's had is being the interim director of customer service, and

[34:51] she has held that job, a stop job, a lot of work, and she has done an amazing job.

[34:58] So I just want to say thank you for your service.

[35:01] I wish you the best. This is the best part about working as when you get to retire and enjoy your time with your family and your loved ones. And whatever you're going to do next, I hope that you're happy, healthy, and full of joy. So thank you. Thank you so much.

[35:20] If I want to see anybody else who wants to say something about Estena, who's not a

[35:25] voice, though?

[35:26] No, I know.

[35:27] I'm going to behave.

[35:28] But I do need to say something because I actually have known Estella for pretty much three

[35:33] decades.

[35:34] So from the get go, as soon as she came to water, we've been friends ever since personal friends.

[35:39] I know it has been Billy and her girls and I want to tell her that we are so happy for you.

[35:45] Um, she's always going to be a water system person despite the fact that she's spent most of her time in customer services, but she is a water engineer. She's part of the water family. And, um, I couldn't be happier for, uh,

[36:03] be on the road. But I wanted to just wish nothing but the best retirement. All my friends

[36:08] seem to be retiring slowly, so they must be saying, they're not saying, I don't know.

[36:14] But like I said, it's still has been great when she was in the water system. And I could see

[36:19] that evolution and that involvement of her, when she moved to customer services, she's probably

[36:24] the biggest advocate for customers. Everything that happens in customer services, she's always talking

[36:29] about what about the customer? How is he or she going to, you know, if see this? And I think

[36:34] that that is a very important role to play. And by the way, she's a civil.

[36:39] I don't want to hear that I'm so happy.

[36:42] But I still have congratulations and we should nothing but the best.

[36:45] Thank you so much. Yeah. Yeah.

[36:48] That's what

[36:53] we got to share anything with us.

[36:54] I do want to say yes, my car is with water and every time I'm in a meeting, I'm like, what about water?

[37:00] We serve water as long as power.

[37:02] We dig against power.

[37:04] But people have an electric and a water meter.

[37:07] And it has been a privilege.

[37:09] Yes, I started as a student engineer.

[37:12] Yes, I kept knocking on the door to get in.

[37:16] I was calling the recruiter every week.

[37:18] Can you tell me a stop calling?

[37:20] Because I wanted to get in here.

[37:22] This has been a great, a great career.

[37:26] I do want to stress that it's the people.

[37:28] It is the people that makes this place great and we're all different my stress out with my team

[37:33] We all have different backgrounds, so that's what makes us stronger. So I am gonna miss I don't I'm not a cry

[37:39] I am gonna miss this place because there's lots to do

[37:43] But it's an exciting when exciting time right now things are moving and it's great to see the future

[37:49] Some of the watching watching from home because I'm using time with my family and I'm very excited

[37:54] To spend time with my girls and my husband so

[37:58] Thank you. Thank you for your very, very long service and I hope your retirement is even more fun.

[38:06] Thank you so much.

[38:07] Thank you. Thank you. This is a surprise.

[38:09] I thought I was just sitting here and going to be quiet.

[38:12] Not at all.

[38:15] Thank you.

[38:15] That's not how we operate.

[38:17] I just had.

[38:19] It ended down to me when they were talking about big shoes to fill.

[38:22] In a way, that's very good that DWP does lead big shoes to feel, because when the person comes, when they step in, they already know that they can grow fast, that they must grow fast of what's expected to.

[38:39] And if each person made the shoe and the job bigger each time,

[38:46] they left to think where we would be.

[38:49] Because we certainly don't want to start over,

[38:51] we can't start over.

[38:53] So thank you for everything you are leaving with us.

[38:58] We will use that.

[38:59] We will grow from that.

[39:01] Thank you so much.

[39:02] Thank you.

[39:03] I buy that.

[39:05] You mentioned the people, which is internal,

[39:07] but also your focus on customer service.

[39:08] You know, the public reserving, it's a change of the job to a career.

[39:15] It's not just the passage of time.

[39:17] Thank you.

[39:17] Thank you for that.

[39:19] Thank you.

[39:20] Wow, sir.

[39:22] Any other comments?

[39:23] Okay.

[39:24] Thank you.

[39:26] So, Tim O'Connor, the right pair advocate.

[39:28] Oh, great.

[39:31] We're going to flip the positivity.

[39:35] No, I'm just sure.

[39:36] But let me just start by saying Commissioner Ortega is one of four

[39:39] Get a chance to sit down with you last week, welcome to the Commission.

[39:43] I myself have only been here about eight months in my role

[39:46] and it's really been a remarkable learning experience as well as an opportunity to connect

[39:50] with the commissioners and with the staff here folks like Estella and her team

[39:55] who we interact with regularly and Salmo and the whole.

[40:00] The whole team here at the department has been so welcoming and open and for a right pair advocate

[40:05] it helps me do my job effectively and I hope that you receive the same treatment I look

[40:10] forward at working with you going forward. I'm sure it's going to be very positive experience.

[40:16] The items I do want to speak about today of which there are three are related to first

[40:23] file item number three regarding the financial services organization monthly activities report.

[40:30] The reason I'm speaking about this is because this at its core is about how the utility

[40:36] collects money and uses that to support the delivery of safe reliable and affordable electric and water service.

[40:45] And this provides me an opportunity to talk about an upcoming report that my office will be putting off this Thursday

[40:51] which benchmarks LEDWP rates and repair bills against those of other utilities here in California,

[41:00] namely the IOUs as well as the peer municipal utilities.

[41:06] We will be releasing that report with an eye towards affordability and the context within which

[41:21] DDP rates and in particular, people's bills, you sit within that context.

[41:28] So looking forward to releasing that material to the public later this week.

[41:33] Can we just add a power utility?

[41:35] We're focusing on electric.

[41:37] First, we will later be pursuing a water utility bill focus, but yes, we're focusing on power at this moment.

[41:46] The second item I'd like to call forward is item related to item for approval number 2, which

[41:53] we understand has been continued to the next board meeting.

[41:57] We look forward to working with the customer service team to understand how the customer

[42:04] experience and interaction with customers will be affected by debt collection services.

[42:11] This is a tremendously important endeavor for the utility which fits within a larger strategy

[42:17] associated with reducing accounts receivables and ensuring that the Department has the revenue

[42:23] it needs to provide the critical service that it does provide and look forward to working with

[42:29] the team to learn more about that one. Finally, on item number three, we've been working in dialogue

[42:37] with the water team, as recent as even just right before the meeting today, they provided contextual

[42:44] information as well as information. I want to just provide a little bit of information on this

[42:52] one because this headwork restoration phase for agreement is really a design, you'll contract

[43:02] that is nested within a much, much larger project of more than $400 million dollars, many

[43:08] year project that is about critical infrastructure and meeting the departments needs to provide

[43:13] clean, fresh, safe drinking water for the people of the region.

[43:18] The design that's presented to the board and that, as Ben selected, I think really speaks to

[43:29] ability of the department to kind of bring forward the connectivity between critical infrastructure

[43:35] and ecological and community resilience and connectivity. And when you think about the ability

[43:44] for a project that is an above-ground, clean drinking water project located here in the heart of

[43:52] and being able to overlay recreation activities and ecological preservation and really kind of bringing people together.

[44:03] It really represents a best of what the department has to offer.

[44:06] We'd love to see this more than $400 million project come to a close and so we're excited to see that as part of it.

[44:13] But just want to highlight the good work of the team on this item and just note that

[44:17] No, PA doesn't always sort of weigh into projects of this nature, of the size of this nature.

[44:24] However, because of its connectivity to a much larger and very significant effort of the department,

[44:28] we just wanted to call attention to this and really lay around our support for this item.

[44:33] So thank you.

[44:34] Thank you very much, Mr. Conor.

[44:36] Any questions for the rate for advocate for many commissioners?

[44:40] Not at this time.

[44:43] Next, we're going to go to the consideration of the items that are on the agenda for approval.

[44:49] As of just suggested, one of the items item N2 will be deferred to a future meeting.

[44:55] So, Madam Secretary, so you can note that.

[44:58] Are there any items then?

[45:00] Commissioner wishes to pull out for special consideration.

[45:02] No.

[45:05] Okay, and I think Madam Secretary, please list three main items that are for approval and consideration.

[45:11] Item N1 and item N3.

[45:14] Any is there any motion to approve items N1 and N1 and N1?

[45:17] Motion to approve items N1 and N3.

[45:21] Madam Secretary, please comment, roll.

[45:23] President Marks.

[45:24] Aye.

[45:25] Vice President Katz. Aye.

[45:27] Commissioner Ortega.

[45:35] Thank you very much. And now we move to management reports, the particular presentation regarding the

[45:41] national society of black and gender.

[45:58] I'm Rick Wishner, it's like my name is Ramsey. I'm the president for the National Society of

[46:03] Black Engineers chapter to your LEDWP. We go by NETV and SBE for a short presenting alongside

[46:09] with me is Michael Simpson, our President Elex, and today we are very pleased to announce our

[46:15] sixth year annual report for the fiscal year 2025 and 2026. And so today we'll be presenting

[46:21] our necessary core goals, our membership demographics. We have some engineering hiring data from the

[46:27] department. We're going over some of our programming events and our professional development events.

[46:34] So, we are on this is our executive board who are actually with us in the audience today.

[46:39] So, if I want to call your name, would you please stand?

[46:42] So, first we have Cecil Bill of Disilum, our secretary,

[46:47] Kimberley Smith, our program's chair,

[46:51] Lever and Brazil, our treasurer,

[46:56] Maudi Jorot, our parliamentarian,

[47:00] Shivon Page, our delegate,

[47:03] Anthony Carrungo, our other delegate,

[47:08] and Katina Thomas, our president and emeritus.

[47:11] So, first I'd like to say how grateful I am for these group individuals,

[47:14] they support me on a day-to-day basis, myself and Michael.

[47:18] Thank you for your leadership.

[47:18] Thank you for your support. You make our job a lot easier and I'd like to it's really important that the department also benefits from their leadership because the department stands for excellence and they definitely embody that. So, thank you.

[47:30] Also with us, we have our membership. Would you all please stand as well?

[47:41] That's amazing. Thank you so much. So, thank you for your membership. Thank you for your support. Thank you for being here and showing up. Appreciate that so much.

[47:47] So through our efforts in the department, we've been able to put forth high-quality programs and events and very being very impactful and so this is not just for the department but we work outside of the city of Los Angeles as well.

[48:00] So through our efforts, we provide leadership opportunities for our members and we allow them to shine and showcase their experiences and their leadership and so the department definitely benefits from that and I'd like to thank everyone once again.

[48:15] So moving forward, I'd like to speak on our mission, which from professional development, just going off of that.

[48:22] The mission of the National Organization is to increase the number of culturally responsible black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community.

[48:32] So this is from our parent organization that includes both collegiate chapters and hand professional chapters.

[48:36] So, bringing it home here, we also develop our own mission statement with the Department and based

[48:42] on its significance, I'd like to read that out as well, that is to foster diversity and inclusion

[48:47] in the field of engineering, provide professional development opportunities for its members,

[48:51] and contribute to advancement of STEM initiatives within the community.

[48:55] We aim to empower and support back engineers creating a collaborative environment that promotes

[48:59] excellence, innovation, and impact.

[49:03] So moving forward, like to pass it on time to go over our core goals.

[49:10] Thank you, I have to see.

[49:11] So as you can see on this screen, we have three, let's be called those.

[49:15] We're start off with the community and STEM.

[49:17] Go, which is as mentioned, to promote engineering and STEM related careers for pretty

[49:21] collegiate and collegiate students.

[49:23] And I think it was first of all here.

[49:25] One of the other things that was where I cooked the art.

[49:27] It was a year after LWW, probably out of 100 students

[49:32] a committee, we had a career fair and in the form of the panel,

[49:36] that was composed of LWWP engineers.

[49:39] Next we have our recruitment, which is our recruitment at LWW

[49:42] colleges and regional and husband national conventions.

[49:47] Something that we implemented this year is going to take me

[49:50] local colleges and we recently attended California State University

[49:54] And we'll see you all later in the provided information sessions about WWP.

[50:00] I also have a upcoming session next month at USC. And then lastly is UNI. We have burdens to pay membership, another

[50:09] initiative that launching is a collaboration with other technologies, including ship, society,

[50:15] health, health professionals, and police, society, and engineers, we're planning to do a mentoring

[50:20] program. We're wanting to hope to listen to this first few years, we're providing professional

[50:25] development seminar, some of them, some of them is AI and field session and also a grad school

[50:30] information session.

[50:35] So here's our current members, we have 133D Spain members divided

[50:38] throughout the water, power, and joint systems, but we also want to emphasize we have

[50:43] every 10 or 10 of your members and our email list, they're actively trying to proceed to

[50:48] things you do is paying members.

[50:55] So the slide here is the engineers I buy a

[50:58] ethnicity for years 2024 and 2025. In the 2024 cycle site, we have 16-year-old

[51:06] engineers and 4% were African American Iraq and in 2025 we had a 6%

[51:13] but they were that isn't important and they're turning them in the right direction.

[51:17] And we want to see if we can target double digits, and so we can approach the approximate

[51:22] senses of early accounting, which is approximately simple, simple for African Americans.

[51:26] And the first wave force is a stronger wave force, as that is much earlier in the board

[51:30] meeting again.

[51:31] We've felt that opportunity, which is why this is very important.

[51:36] And in this slide, we just kind of dive deeper, we're looking at the terms on the four

[51:40] hiring data.

[51:41] We have three black engineers, one black woman, two black men, and a total of 25.

[51:47] five, five, seven packages, and again,

[51:49] I have to mention an improvement, a two-brake amendment,

[51:52] and a five-brake amendment.

[51:55] Thank you, Michael.

[51:56] So on the topic of hiring, one of our premier events

[51:59] is the National Convention hosted by the Parent Organization.

[52:03] So here you see attendance of about 15,000,

[52:06] and this is a multi-day event where they have workshops

[52:09] in seminars, high-level speakers, technical sessions.

[52:13] We also have the Career Fair, which we attend as LEDWP.

[52:16] we attend on the recruiting side, but also on the attendee side, and so on the recruiting side.

[52:23] This is the space where we're going to find the best talent from around the nation, and it's

[52:27] very important for LDWPTV there, because we want to capture that talent. And so it's a very competitive

[52:32] landscape, you know, this portion of 500 companies all around, and we're competing with them.

[52:38] So this comes to our first big ask. Our next big ask is to, you know, we just saw the hiring data.

[52:44] There's a lot of work that needs to be done.

[52:46] And so we asked for the department and for recruiting to bring forth or continue to bring

[52:51] forth the same day job offers.

[52:53] Because one of the pain points that we've noticed talking to collegiate members is that our hiring

[52:58] process is pretty lengthy and out of our control.

[53:02] But by the time they get an interview and by the time they get on board, that can take over

[53:06] six months.

[53:07] And we're competing with the best of the best, but it's fortunate 100 companies, right?

[53:11] So, and they can't wait for us that are graduating in the coming May or sometimes in December.

[53:15] And so we asked, Recreation is doing a good job.

[53:18] I'm seeing the development in bringing forth the same day job offer so I'd like to ask

[53:21] to continue to do so and also improve upon that.

[53:26] And so on the attendee side as well, I've had the pleasure of attending many of these events.

[53:31] They have various different workshops and seminars to go through, we grow through continued

[53:37] learning and we network with our peers and industry experts.

[53:40] It provides fresh new ideas, fresh perspectives, you see CEOs of these companies speaking at these events and it's very inspiring.

[53:48] So I want to bring forth a story that one of our members who attended for the first time actually one of our other conferences.

[53:57] She came back to me after attending one of our conferences and that she attended multiple workshops.

[54:02] So it's so inspired that she wants to go back to school.

[54:05] So, thankfully through the department's tuition and birth and programs, she was able to attend a University of Southern California and is currently attending this this winter session.

[54:15] So, very happy for you.

[54:18] We can see the development that these conferences are doing for our employees, the professional development.

[54:22] It's translating directly to the department and it's great to see that.

[54:25] That's why we're doing it.

[54:28] So, also, shown on this slide, we have on the top left, we have a chapter award that we received

[54:35] for the Readiness Six Professional Development Program of the Year.

[54:38] This is our Nesmi chapter from DWP, a receive this award based on our programs that we've done here.

[54:45] So, it's important to note that we're being recognized.

[54:47] We're being recognized on the National Stage for all the great work that's being happened here.

[54:51] So, it's wanted to highlight that.

[54:54] It's moving on to some of the other programs that we do here, a little part of it.

[54:59] I'll start y'all.

[55:00] The top left, starting off the journey from the pre-collegiate side. We do events such as a back-to-school drive where our members wish us the provided donations of money, as well as back-packs and school supplies. We're able to collect over 300 back-packs for these students from the yellow organization as well as bridge builders. We want to plant the seeds young. We want to plant the seeds of DWP young. We want to plant the seeds of Mesby, of what it is to be engineered, inspire them.

[55:30] And then bring that forth to the picture to the right.

[55:32] We attended an information session that you see a link from the collegiate side.

[55:36] So we want to continue that conversation on the collegiate side.

[55:38] So like Michael mentioned, we're going around some local universities to their chapters and we're speaking on the

[55:44] in the life of an LED-lit P-employee, LED-lit P engineer.

[55:48] We see on the water, the power, and the joint systems.

[55:51] We speak about the opportunities that we have such as the student engineering program and such as the

[55:56] already different associate positions that we have.

[55:59] We bring forth that we would be attending these conferences and conventions, of course.

[56:05] One of which was this past fall.

[56:06] We attended an Oakland California.

[56:09] We attended a region six conference.

[56:11] And another story there is after speaking one of the recruiters about two or three students came up to their table,

[56:19] mentioning that they are there because we provide the information to them at their school.

[56:24] So it's doing something we're making an impact it's showing so we want to see that timeline right from the pre-collegiate to the collegiate and eventually working with them alongside them at the LEP.

[56:38] And so on the professional side we have on the bottom left photo, we do events internally as well for professionals.

[56:44] This is one of our events the networking rooftop social, so of course networking is extremely important.

[56:49] We don't have the chance to collaborate and work with these individuals on a day-to-day basis.

[56:55] So being there, being there and meeting each other is very important, and they can bring that forth to their work.

[57:05] All right.

[57:06] So moving on to some of our other events.

[57:09] On the top left, we have our criminal higher and tour.

[57:12] This is one of our technical tours that we host.

[57:15] So as you can see, we had a bunch of our members come out there to visit the Terminal Island

[57:20] water acclamation clients so they can learn about its operations and how they treat the

[57:24] water there.

[57:26] We have a professional development conference and other type of conference that similar to

[57:31] their own just mentioned.

[57:32] We do other social events like a football watch party that we recently had in fall and like

[57:37] Michael mentioned, we collaborate with other organizations such as Swedish, Society of

[57:45] in other years we've worked with the Spire and as well as the Pride.

[57:52] I'm just a summary of highlights.

[57:53] Some of which I've already mentioned,

[57:56] 2025 National Convention, which we attended last March,

[58:00] 2025 Professional Development Conference,

[58:03] Professional Headshots that we've done this past fall.

[58:06] This is another one of our initiatives for professional development,

[58:09] be equipped to our members with professional headshots.

[58:12] They can put on to their teams,

[58:13] unless it on their teams profile as well as their outlook profile.

[58:16] also just increasing their visibility.

[58:20] Also, we did a co-pilot training class.

[58:23] This is one of the new technologies

[58:25] brought forth to IDWP.

[58:27] So we wanted to make sure that our employees, our members,

[58:30] are utilizing that effectively.

[58:32] And so that was a great event there.

[58:34] Like I already mentioned, the terminal island tour.

[58:37] And on the pre-collegiate side,

[58:39] we brought forth local, we brought forth attending

[58:42] the local university as the chapters.

[58:44] We do bring your child to work with department hosts or they're tabling where we have

[58:50] turbine kits that children can play with, somebody else as well.

[58:54] That is a national regional conference, another one of our conferences as well.

[59:00] Another premier event that we do annually is the MLK Day Parade, which we just did recently

[59:05] in January.

[59:06] Which was amazing.

[59:07] How is there?

[59:07] Margin with, we have the bucket trucks, we have electric vehicles, showcasing the LEDWP brand.

[59:13] I think it's very important for LEDWP to present in the community and this is just one example of which through the nice seeing all the attendees to the parade

[59:23] you know, they ask for discounts for their water and power bills.

[59:28] Of course, we get a lot of thank you for your service.

[59:34] That's really nice to see and it shows that we're out there in the community.

[59:37] We see retirees coming up to us giving us hugs.

[59:39] So it's one of the events that we want to continue to do, and as you can see, we have been

[59:43] doing it in past years, for many years now.

[59:49] And even more recently, back just a month, happy back history month to you all.

[59:53] So we made a goal of ours to do weekly events.

[59:56] During the first week, we had a social out and long beach.

[1:00:00] The second week we brought in a historian to speak on the significance of the month, and it's background.

[1:00:07] And then last week was our main event, which was roots and flavors, with, thankfully, over 110 days were there.

[1:00:13] We had executive speakers, we had cultural Q&A session, we had food for everyone from different regions, so that people can embrace the black culture.

[1:00:22] And then here we are with you today for our board presentation.

[1:00:26] And some upcoming programs is, in March, we had a LEDWP technical tour of the Tahonga World

[1:00:33] Field Response Action Treatment Facility.

[1:00:36] So the audience here is going to be the local chapters that we've built connections with,

[1:00:42] you know, we've attended various local chapters to speak on the Nesby and LEDWP, but we

[1:00:48] want to continue that conversation and bring them into our facilities.

[1:00:52] And so, you know, not conversation.

[1:00:55] So we'll be doing that in March.

[1:00:58] We'll be attending our national convention,

[1:01:01] the big premier event coming up in March as well.

[1:01:04] In April, we have a Nizvi Junior Day,

[1:01:07] and what is Nizvi Junior Day?

[1:01:08] We bring forth the pre-collegiate onto one of our facilities.

[1:01:15] And we bring them forth and show them what it is to be an engineer.

[1:01:18] I'll give them a full day of activities.

[1:01:20] And we're very excited to let this year.

[1:01:22] We do this on an annual basis.

[1:01:25] In May, we have another professional development event.

[1:01:28] And in June, we do an annual Juneteenth celebration.

[1:01:31] And finally, in July, we'll be introducing

[1:01:33] our new executive board for the next fiscal year.

[1:01:36] So bye-bye, see me.

[1:01:38] And some acknowledgments.

[1:01:40] I'd like to thank the Board of Water Power Commissioners,

[1:01:43] Janice Kionnus, John Smith, Tracy Pierce,

[1:01:46] and Sintely, Norma Greb, Joseph Romolo, Kendall Helb,

[1:01:51] and sell more Collins and David Hansen.

[1:01:53] I apologize if I missed anyone here.

[1:01:57] And a special shout out to these individuals

[1:01:59] who aid us on a day-to-day basis,

[1:02:01] recruitment services, who've taken on some

[1:02:03] of the responsibilities from the DEI office.

[1:02:06] And thank you so much.

[1:02:07] Big help on our operations, our events and programming,

[1:02:11] corporate communications and media relations,

[1:02:13] putting our name out there.

[1:02:15] Facility services for adding us on our events,

[1:02:18] bringing all that together,

[1:02:19] I'll record graphics and print shop for our posters and flyers, of course, and he cars office for our room reservations here with any department.

[1:02:29] And thank you to our membership.

[1:02:31] Once again, this is one of our nice pictures here.

[1:02:33] And with that, I'd like to conclude the presentation.

[1:02:36] If you guys have any questions for us.

[1:02:37] Thank you.

[1:02:38] Thank you very, very much.

[1:02:40] Thank you.

[1:02:40] I'm glad

[1:02:44] you're going to have a very hard act to follow because that's a lot of success.

[1:02:49] I have a question when you do recruiting on campus in particular,

[1:02:53] And you're trying to get people attracted to careers in engineering, but also at the WP in particular.

[1:02:58] What, with the current cohort regeneration of graduating engineers, what is it that is the main thing that moves them toward a career like this?

[1:03:08] Is it, is it the diversity of opportunities? Is it the supportive work environment? Is it, you know, the civil service aspects perhaps for some of the jobs? What is it that really drives them?

[1:03:18] to be frank, the dollar amount, as a salary number, but I think where the value lies is the

[1:03:26] attendee of the recruiter at the table, showing their experiences in the department,

[1:03:31] showing our work-life balance, and showing all the benefits that we have,

[1:03:35] and where it is to be an engineer here. So I think that having the personnel there and person

[1:03:41] and sharing their experiences at the most of the value and we have that face-to-face communication

[1:03:45] with them. And what share of folks to be into hiring come from the community here or something

[1:03:51] California and how many are coming nationally? I do not have the statistics. I can do that for you.

[1:03:57] But I just want to ask you a little bit more about the local. Yeah, majority of our local

[1:04:00] locals are recruiting definitely emphasizes the hiring efforts locally. Yeah, and we do go

[1:04:07] across a nation like organizations such as as the ship and SWE, we have our regional and

[1:04:11] national conventions and that's where we can capture the engineers around the nation.

[1:04:18] So yeah, yeah, what's terrific. Thanks very much. Thank you.

[1:04:21] As your time permits, I'm not yours necessarily, but someone I would very much personally like to have someone

[1:04:28] give me an overview of day in the life of a DWP engineer. And of course, if it's anything that's in bullet points,

[1:04:35] I'd love to personally read that. But over a cup of coffee, I would just love for somebody to give me

[1:04:41] highlights of the day in the life of a DWP engineer.

[1:04:45] Make note of that. Thank you. Thank you.

[1:04:48] I wanted to comment on that opening photo in the presentation. It really kind of looked like

[1:04:54] the Avengers. Like it had superhero vibes, which I think is appropriate here.

[1:05:00] You're doing is really important to the department creating a sense of community and communicating not just internally, but externally and inclusive and welcoming environment.

[1:05:11] You know, particularly the work that you're doing with schools and students and the outreach, you know, we heard from Estella today that she started here as a student engineer and I've met so many of our amazing leaders at DWP who got their start that way.

[1:05:25] and these opening that door to young students

[1:05:31] and helping them see themselves in these amazing careers

[1:05:36] is so important.

[1:05:37] So thank you for the work that you're doing every day.

[1:05:40] Really appreciate it.

[1:05:42] Thank you.

[1:05:43] Thank you.

[1:05:44] I just also commend you on your great work you're doing.

[1:05:47] I think it's critically important

[1:05:48] and today's environment, you know,

[1:05:50] there's a lot of things going on.

[1:05:52] And I myself have been a part of, I mean, in my early days, even grad school, we're

[1:05:57] recruiting for block students and the difficulty of getting the community to the point

[1:06:03] where we're, who're good and early, too, such career paths as engineering is good and

[1:06:08] important.

[1:06:08] I think there's another sport.

[1:06:09] I commend you on that.

[1:06:11] And I hope that we can expand on that and really get, as you said, 10% matching the population

[1:06:15] of here in LA County and do more that we can do to really find Black engineers and

[1:06:22] and please as part of our great organization.

[1:06:26] So thank you very much, I look forward

[1:06:27] to like Commissioner Penitle, and more about this.

[1:06:30] We're more active.

[1:06:31] Thank you.

[1:06:32] Thank you.

[1:06:34] You really want to say something?

[1:06:36] Well, I want, you know, as a new commissioner,

[1:06:39] it's great to see that the department

[1:06:41] has such a wonderful organization involved inside of it.

[1:06:45] And they have been recruited as much more needed

[1:06:47] And it's really inspired the young minds that you're looking for.

[1:06:53] But also, too, it looks like you have a lot of fun there.

[1:06:56] Anytime you want to bite me, I will be happy.

[1:06:59] Some of the social pictures and so on.

[1:07:02] I would like to learn about engineering.

[1:07:05] That's what I'm talking about.

[1:07:07] That's right.

[1:07:09] I'll just add first happy Black History Month.

[1:07:13] I was in here for the last board meeting when we probably talked about it, so I don't want to let that go.

[1:07:20] Thank you for the invitation that was in here for the event, but I was looking forward to here and how it went.

[1:07:26] So it sounds like a success and a lot of fun and I miss all the food. I was in Africa, so I guess I was celebrating

[1:07:33] somehow somewhere. I want to say representation matters. And when you go to a school,

[1:07:42] As a black engineer, Miller Femell and a small kid sees you, they can see themselves in you.

[1:07:51] And when we talk about diversity, it's not just having an energy, it's intentionality.

[1:07:55] And the department's very intentional about increasing our diversity to match the communities that we're serving.

[1:08:01] And we have work to do in the engineering aspect, and we have work to do in the female hiring.

[1:08:07] hiring, but it's because of your commitment and giving back to your community that we can make a difference.

[1:08:15] We can't not do it without the representation of the communities that we're serving.

[1:08:20] And so I'm very proud of the work that you're doing.

[1:08:22] I'm very thankful for the work that you're doing and I'm most thankful for the community you built

[1:08:27] inside because it's important to have a local community that you can relate to and have the

[1:08:37] because that makes you just that much stronger. So thank you.

[1:08:40] Thank

[1:08:43] you. Thank you again very much. Thank you.

[1:08:56] I don't think we have any reports on committee activity unless you have a

[1:08:58] question to move on on that. There are filed items.

[1:09:04] Do any commissioners have any questions specifically about any of the

[1:09:08] findings or information?

[1:09:09] I don't have a question. I do have a comment.

[1:09:13] The filed items include reports of any

[1:09:17] with one small exception on a reporting issue that's been addressed.

[1:09:22] There are a lot of zeroes, and I think environmental compliance is extremely important enough

[1:09:27] and goes unnoticed, so I just want to say thank you to the team, Katherine, and your whole group,

[1:09:34] you know, to work that I know happens day and day out.

[1:09:38] I don't know if Executive Director was so, I was still listening on security, but I think in both cases

[1:09:44] environmental compliance and also in security. A lot of your work is, you know,

[1:09:50] John Oliver once did a piece about infrastructure where he dramatized this, this like movie trailer

[1:09:56] and you know, the people working day and day out to make sure that nothing happens.

[1:10:00] So, you know, you're doing that, that hard work to make sure that we're avoiding disasters and issues and pollution and security issues. And whether it's, you know, folks out in the field, you know, doing testing or in the lab or, you know, again, with the security group as well, it's a 24-7, you know, there's a lot of work that goes into keeping us safe, keeping our water systems safe, our infrastructure safe. And that's both safe from that.

[1:10:29] factors in terms of, you know, human

[1:10:32] bad actors, disasters and, you know,

[1:10:37] issues around pollution as well. So I just want to take a moment to say thank you.

[1:10:41] You know, continue this important work.

[1:10:42] I look forward to many more zeros when it comes to

[1:10:46] finds in the future as well. So thank you.

[1:10:52] Okay. There's no other comments.

[1:10:53] Think I asked commission secretary to order the all three of the file items as

[1:10:59] So filed.

[1:11:00] Thank you.

[1:11:01] Does any commissioner have anything they'd like to introduce for future consideration?

[1:11:08] Hearing none, Madam Secretary, are there any neighbourhood council submission?

[1:11:13] No community impact statements or formal positions have been filed for any items on today's agenda.

[1:11:18] Fine.

[1:11:19] Since we've approved the items on today's agenda, I now have to say to you attorney, please, before we go into a closed session, to give us the purpose and statutory authority for doing so.

[1:11:29] Thank you.

[1:11:29] The Board shall now recess in the closed session for conference with legal counsel regarding three lawsuits.

[1:11:37] The first is entitled, Eric Smith, First of City of Los Angeles,

[1:11:42] pending in Los Angeles Superior Court as case number 2 to STC,

[1:11:48] V 2 8 1 6 0.

[1:11:52] The second case is a Dolpho and we give a last was a Skobar versus LADWP.

[1:11:58] Los Angeles Superior Court Case Number 23 STCV23798, and the third case is Aushrat

[1:12:09] Ishikea versus LEDWP. Los Angeles Superior Court Case Number 24 VECV04955.

[1:12:21] The Board shall report out publicly any action taken in close session and the vote or

[1:12:28] extension there of every member present in accordance with government code section 54957.1 of the California government code.

[1:12:38] But thank you very much and we will now move into closed session.

[2:01:35] We're ready. Could you let me know when you're ready?

[2:01:38] I'm leaving this all here.

[2:01:44] We still have a quorum present, and I turn it to the city attorney to read us out, please.

[2:01:54] We're back in open session, and we have two report-outs from the closed session in the Escobar case.

[2:02:03] The Board by unanimous vote approved a settlement in the amount of $995,000.

[2:02:14] And in the case of Yexkia, the board approved a settlement of commissioners approving

[2:02:29] in the amount of $172,923 and 74 cents.

[2:02:37] Thank you, Ms. Lara.

[2:02:37] They're being no other business, we are adjourned.

Board of Commissioners Meeting - Feb 24th, 2026

Agenda

Transcript