What Did $750,000 a Year Deliver for Los Angeles?

Vambram · Jan 11, 2025

The firestorm is still in progress in Los Angeles, priorities first and foremost are saving of lives and property. The calamity in Los Angeles is still early in the situation, ongoing, and not yet under control, but some basic facts can be established at this point in time.

Janisse Quiñones PE (She/Her) is the CEO and Chief Engineer at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).
Janisse Quiñones was hired with a $750,000 Salary, nearly twice that of her predecessor.
LADWP operates ten major active reservoirs and over 107 smaller storage facilities, all of which create operational flexibility to balance water supplies and customer demands.
A key reservoir in the Pacific Palisades fire was inoperable.
Multiple locations of the service area that Quinones oversees are a raging inferno and short on water for firefighters.

Water for the LADWP Service Area comes from the following sources:

73% is purchased water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) which is both an aqueduct to State Water Projects in upper California and the Colorado River Aqueduct.
15% is water from the Los Angeles Aqueduct which is fed from water close to the Nevada Border.
10% is local groundwater.
2% is recycled water.

Now that some of the basic facts are established, the reality is that one of the largest urban fires ever experienced in the U.S is in progress. It looks like World War II-era firebombing in progress. The severe water shortages, War on Dams, and ideological virtue signaling are well known in Governor Newsom’s California. But Water and Power are essentially apolitical and based on science, fact, and best practices of civil engineering, correct? A peek at the LADWP Strategic Initiatives refutes that luddite view. Here are the four, strategic imperatives for LADWP:

What Did $750,000 a Year Deliver for Los Angeles? | The Gateway Pundit | by John Mills

As Los Angeles grapples with unprecedented fires, questions arise about leadership and accountability. What does a $750,000 salary truly deliver in a crisis? Explore the implications.

www.thegatewaypundit.com

Pommer · Jan 11, 2025

Am I to understand that this “article”, (which seems willing to “lay blame” while the crisis is on-going?), is “newsworthy”?

Vambram said:
Janisse Quiñones was hired with a $750,000 Salary, nearly twice that of her predecessor.

How much money does she make if there isn’t a city-destroying conflagration?

Vambram · Jan 11, 2025

Pommer said:
Am I to understand that this “article”, (which seems willing to “lay blame” while the crisis is on-going?), is “newsworthy”?

How much money does she make if there isn’t a city-destroying conflagration?

Frankly, I was completely shocked that the salary for that government official was so very, very high.

iluvatar5150 · Jan 11, 2025

Vambram said:
Frankly, I was completely shocked that the salary for that government official was so very, very high.

That’s because we’ve been conditioned to expect that public officials get paid peanuts. For a position with that much responsibility over an organization that size, in one of the most expensive areas of the country, $750k is not unreasonable. Anybody with similar responsibility in the private sector would be pulling down at least that much out there.

Hans Blaster · Jan 11, 2025

Vambram said:
Frankly, I was completely shocked that the salary for that government official was so very, very high.

She's the CEO of a major utility. PG&E (gas and electric in the Bay area) has about 2.5x as many employees, 4x the revenue, about the same number of household customers, and actually *causes* deadly wildfires, and its CEO makes about 20x as much.

Pommer · Jan 12, 2025

Vambram said:
Frankly, I was completely shocked that the salary for that government official was so very, very high.

If I had a city/county that was ~481 sq/mi located in a semi arid region, I’d want the best manager of water that I could find and it we had to spend three-quarters of a million dollars to find them…yes, that’s going to be done, you can’t get good people for crappy wages.

Vambram · Jan 12, 2025

Pommer said:
If I had a city/county that was ~481 sq/mi located in a semi arid region, I’d want the best manager of water that I could find and it we had to spend three-quarters of a million dollars to find them…yes, that’s going to be done, you can’t get good people for crappy wages.

That salary is higher than even what a POTUS makes. Just don't seem right to me.

Pommer · Jan 12, 2025

Vambram said:
That salary is higher than even what a POTUS makes.

He’s going to “donate” his again, right?

Vambram said:
Just don't seem right to me.

What world be a reasonable salary for this position?
Let’s see: ~8760hr/yr, is a shade under $86/hr.
She probably has a ton of schooling, (and yes, “knows the right people”, so what),

iluvatar5150 · Jan 12, 2025

Vambram said:
That salary is higher than even what a POTUS makes. Just don't seem right to me.

POTUS is way underpaid, as are most of the upper tiers of the federal government. POTUS can at least make a ton of money with books and speeches after leaving office.

Vambram · Jan 12, 2025

Well regardless of how high that the salary is for that government position, due to recent events of this past year in California, one has to wonder whether or not that was money well spent.

Hazelelponi · Jan 12, 2025

Pommer said:
If I had a city/county that was ~481 sq/mi located in a semi arid region, I’d want the best manager of water that I could find and it we had to spend three-quarters of a million dollars to find them…yes, that’s going to be done, you can’t get good people for crappy wages.

Sadly this one absolutely isn't worth the wage.

Why are the fire hydrants left without enough water pressure to operate? Why are essential reservoirs just completely offline,?

Should have hired the cheaper guy, this is worse than a thousand dollar hammer, at least the hammer worked.

essentialsaltes · Jan 12, 2025

essentialsaltes said:
“There’s no urban water system engineered and constructed to combat wildfire,” said Michael McNutt, a spokesman for the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, which serves 75,000 people in northwest Los Angeles County. The system was intended to supply water to homes and businesses, he said, and to help fire crews defend a large structure or several homes, not multiple neighborhoods at once.

As homes burned, water continued to flow through their pipes even as they ruptured or melted.

DaisyDay · Jan 12, 2025

iluvatar5150 said:
POTUS is way underpaid, as are most of the upper tiers of the federal government. POTUS can at least make a ton of money with books and speeches after leaving office.

He can also hold official functions at his various venues, have foreign dignitaries pay to stay at his national and international clubs while seeking favors (this goes for lobbyists and GOP favor-seekers), have his business run with absolutely no divestment or blind trust, and dabble in NFTs.

CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN · Jan 12, 2025

A lot of these fires are in rich areas. That why these people make a lot of money. Rich people in these areas should have paid more into fighter fighters. And stop being cheap. Just remember this , when you vote to give rich people a tax ride off. Why should poor or middle class people have to pay for the rich people areas? Houses in LA start at $700 square feet.

Aryeh Jay · Jan 12, 2025

Wow, I did not expect to see victim blaming, but here we are.

ThatRobGuy · Jan 12, 2025

iluvatar5150 said:
That’s because we’ve been conditioned to expect that public officials get paid peanuts. For a position with that much responsibility over an organization that size, in one of the most expensive areas of the country, $750k is not unreasonable. Anybody with similar responsibility in the private sector would be pulling down at least that much out there.

I'll admit, at first glance, $750k does feel like a "high figure" for such a job.

Being a city public official in that particular job, making over double what the mayor does, does seem "out of sorts"

LA Mayor Karen Bass makes $311k if the public records site I'm looking at is to be believed.

For instance, I looked up the Cleveland counterpart for that job, and they get paid $204k (Mayor Bibb makes $184)

If we want to compare to another high-priced city.

For NYC: Their head of water and power (who also oversees their environmental regulations as well) makes $374k (and mayor Adams makes $258k)

So at the very least, the ratios for LA seem very different (if the normal pattern is that the job pays just a little more than the Mayor makes)

And to what you're saying about equivalent jobs paying more in the private sector. That's certainly true, but the private sector often times has an additional layer of accountability, in the form of (for good or bad, depending on the industry) a fiduciary responsibility to the company owners and/or the investors), and the looming threat of the company going out of business (and the ever looming threat of getting a swift kick in ass, right out the door) if they end up sucking at that job.

As where, in the realm of unelected government work, those forms of accountability often don't exist.

Short of physically/sexually assaulting someone, embezzling funds, or leaking confidential information, it's pretty hard to get fired from city government work once you're in and have been there for 5 years.

That's the part that never really gets discussed when people talk about some of the government work that's underpaid (compared to the private sector counterpart)... the fact that they have the kind of other benefits (in terms of healthcare, pensions, and paid leave) and job security (regardless of how good or bad they are at it) that most in the private sector could never dream of.

CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN · Jan 12, 2025

Aryeh Jay said:
Wow, I did not expect to see victim blaming, but here we are.

It's sad, that a lot of homes, trees and wild life burned up. But these are rich millions plus dollar homes. And I remember some rich man wanting turn CA into 5 states. So, they don't have to pay into poorer schools. Or pay less taxes. But they can deal with that thought. White everyone is helping the rich.

Pommer · Jan 12, 2025

Hazelelponi said:
Sadly this one absolutely isn't worth the wage.

What did/didn’t she do, that made you form this opinion about her performance?

Hazelelponi said:
Why are the fire hydrants left without enough water pressure to operate? Why are essential reservoirs just completely offline,?

The system wasn’t built to be able to provide enough water to quench all of the fires that the city has been experiencing these past few days, that’s nobody’s “fault”.

Hazelelponi said:
Should have hired the cheaper guy, this is worse than a thousand dollar hammer, at least the hammer worked.

How did she “fail”?

iluvatar5150 · Jan 12, 2025

ThatRobGuy said:
I'll admit, at first glance, $750k does feel like a "high figure" for such a job.

Being a city public official in that particular job, making over double what the mayor does, does seem "out of sorts"

LA Mayor Karen Bass makes $311k if the public records site I'm looking at is to be believed.

For instance, I looked up the Cleveland counterpart for that job, and they get paid $204k (Mayor Bibb makes $184)

If we want to compare to another high-priced city.

For NYC: Their head of water and power (who also oversees their environmental regulations as well) makes $374k (and mayor Adams makes $258k)

So at the very least, the ratios for LA seem very different (if the normal pattern is that the job pays just a little more than the Mayor makes)

And to what you're saying about equivalent jobs paying more in the private sector. That's certainly true, but the private sector often times has an additional layer of accountability, in the form of (for good or bad, depending on the industry) a fiduciary responsibility to the company owners and/or the investors), and the looming threat of the company going out of business (and the ever looming threat of getting a swift kick in ass, right out the door) if they end up sucking at that job.

As where, in the realm of unelected government work, those forms of accountability often don't exist.

Short of physically/sexually assaulting someone, embezzling funds, or leaking confidential information, it's pretty hard to get fired from city government work once you're in and have been there for 5 years.

That's the part that never really gets discussed when people talk about some of the government work that's underpaid (compared to the private sector counterpart)... the fact that they have the kind of other benefits (in terms of healthcare, pensions, and paid leave) and job security (regardless of how good or bad they are at it) that most in the private sector could never dream of.

That’s because that level of cutthroat competition doesn’t exist as much as you think it does. For one thing, some businesses are too big or too important to be allowed to fail. A major utility would definitely fall into this. The big investment banks were in 2008. Boeing likely would be, too, etc. Second, there are plenty of industries where the barrier to entry is high enough that incumbent firms can coast on their own mediocrity for a long time - they don’t have to be excellent or efficient. They just have to be profitable enough to keep the doors open. I put some of my own employers in this category- they figured out a niche a while ago and coasted for a couple decades.

ThatRobGuy · Jan 12, 2025

iluvatar5150 said:
That’s because that level of cutthroat competition doesn’t exist as much as you think it does. For one thing, some businesses are too big or too important to be allowed to fail. A major utility would definitely fall into this. The big investment banks were in 2008. Boeing likely would be, too, etc. Second, there are plenty of industries where the barrier to entry is high enough that incumbent firms can coast on their own mediocrity for a long time - they don’t have to be excellent or efficient. They just have to be profitable enough to keep the doors open. I put some of my own employers in this category- they figured out a niche a while ago and coasted for a couple decades.

That's true of some businesses, but not all.

Even if the corporate entity as a whole is deemed "too big to fail" that's not true of the individual employees and executives.

Take GM for instance (their company was deemed too big to fail)

Their recent list of CEO's during those "trying years"

Dan Akerson: September 1, 2010 – January 15, 2014
Edward ("Ed") Whitacre Jr.: December 1, 2009 – September 1, 2010
Frederick A. "Fritz" Henderson: March 30, 2009 – December 1, 2009
G. Richard Wagoner Jr.: June 1, 2000 – March 30, 2009

Meanwhile, there are ineffective city government executive-equivalents who go years and years without having to worry about getting canned (if ever)

Obviously the "City Government of Los Angeles" is "too big to fail", it's one of the biggest cities in the country, it needs a city government. But that doesn't validate the particular people who currently hold positions under that umbrella.

What Did $750,000 a Year Deliver for Los Angeles?

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