Closed Doors at the DWP?

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley has appointed Constance Rice, a respected attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Inc., to the Department of Water and Power Commission. Rice, or someone with similarly strong civil rights credentials, certainly is needed on the board to improve the hiring and promotion record of the nation’s largest municipal utility.

DWP boasts 11,000 employees. Minority employees, particularly among the professional ranks, have complained repeatedly of being passed over for promotions. The list of black employees who have filed lawsuits alleging discrimination is growing.

A group of minority and women computer consultants sued last year, charging racial and gender-based discrimination. The 21 vendors maintained that the DWP refused to pay them after auditing their work.

Other small-business owners have complained of not getting a fair share of contracts under the utility’s $3-billion budget.

DWP counters with these statistics: 18% of contracts are awarded to minorities; 52% of employees are minorities.

However, most minorities are concentrated overwhelmingly in lower-ranking and non-professional jobs.

The numbers do not eliminated perceptions of insensitivity at the highest levels of the department. Also commonly cited is a catered luncheon held three years ago for DWP employees at a private club that has a longstanding reputation for excluding minorities and women.

The DWP is a reliable provider of water and electricity to 3 million customers. It also contributes millions of dollars to Los Angeles city coffers. As a city department, it is under the authority of the Los Angeles City Council.

The DWP commission includes one Latino member and three white members, including some with stellar environmental credentials. They and the new commissioner must all be committed not only to the environment but to fair and equal opportunity in the DWP.