Don’t be too quick to bet against DWP union boss Brian D’Arcy

Brian D’Arcy heads the DWP’s biggest union — and draws electricity himself, as a lightning rod in L.A. civic politics.

The head of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Local 18 did not show up at an audit meeting to explain how $40 million in ratepayer funds were spent at two DWP-related nonprofit trusts, which he co-managed with DWP chief Ron Nichols (the trusts were meant to improve labor relations at the DWP). Nichols resigned Thursday. And now the city controller says he’ll send out subpoenas to make D’Arcy show his hand.

When I talked to him for my column, he definitely had his third-generation-union tough on.

It was a few months after his union’s candidate, Wendy Greuel, had lost the mayor’s race to Eric Garcetti, and D’Arcy was clearly disgusted that some voters had bought into the election’s talking point of the DWP, and the IBEW’s wages and benefits, as civic villain. “They’ve dumbed down the electorate into believing this is horrible. It’s like the entire right-wing apparatchik has decided workers are the enemy — and we represent them.”

D’Arcy is also a member of the city’s 2020 Commission, which just issued a brow-furrowing report about Los Angeles’ dim prospects for the future, as a city being done in by poverty, traffic and shortsighted leadership.

D’Arcy mentioned the commission to me with a deep sigh. “L.A. is such a great city. We’ve got our own utility, we’ve got sunshine, we just can’t get out of our own way. It really takes people who care, to try to do something.”

As for whether the city should take over the DWP, which operates as a proprietary department, he said: “The city can’t manage anything. DWP runs like a business.”

And D’Arcy apologizes to no one for defending his union: “My responsibility is to look after the welfare of my members.”

So with the subpoenas supposedly on their way, L.A. can settle in for a city-D’Arcy match-up. Don’t look for D’Arcy coming around easily; look for a bare-knuckled fight.

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Follow Patt Morrison on Twitter @pattmlatimes