DWP workers’ financial data stolen

Computer equipment containing the private financial data of every employee of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was stolen earlier this week, prompting the utility to pay for a credit monitoring service for each of its 8,275 workers.

DWP General Manager H. David Nahai sent employees an e-mail and an interoffice memo Wednesday informing them that computer equipment containing each worker’s name, date of birth, Social Security number, employee identification number and deferred compensation balance was stolen from a private DWP contractor.

The letter, which contained an apology from Nahai, advised DWP employees to watch their credit reports and look for accounts that they did not open themselves. Still, DWP spokesman Joe Ramallo said the utility had no evidence that the missing information had been misused.

“We’re required by law to notify our employees that this theft occurred,” he said. “But we don’t have any knowledge at this point that the data was the target, and law enforcement said they don’t believe that it is.”

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s appointees on the five-member DWP commission on Tuesday plan to discuss the burglary, which occurred Monday in the Fullerton office of the data-processing company Systematic Automation Inc.

A company representative did not return a call. But a spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, the union that represents DWP employees, said Friday that his workers were “shocked and upset” by the loss of the data.

“They believe this is a direct result of the mania for outsourcing that the DWP has had,” said Bob Cherry, a communications consultant for the union. “The DWP should have been paying more attention to the potential impact of sensitive data like this getting sent to outside vendors.”

The issue of employee privacy at the DWP has been a sensitive one since September, when the Los Angeles Daily News published on its website the names and salaries of each utility worker.

Vince Foley, who serves on the board of the DWP Retired Employees Assn., said he has received anxious calls from retirees. The stolen computer equipment also contained financial data on employees who retired between July 1, 2006, and June 30, 2007.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever heard of anything like this because, typically, people outside of the DWP don’t have that information available,” Foley said. “DWP’s computers are, of course, encrypted and protected. But this is a situation where they had . . . a consultant who’s given all this data so they can prepare the [benefits] statements.”

david.zahniser@latimes.com