Retiree Gave DWP an Idea 11 Years Ago; Suit Gets Him Reward

Jim Saito may have finally won his 11-year battle with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Saito, who retired in 1984 after 30 years as a DWP meter reader, was awarded $108,000 by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury last week on a lawsuit he filed against his former bosses. In the suit, he claimed that DWP officials were guilty of breach of contract when they failed to adequately reward him for a suggestion he made in 1975 to reduce costly errors by meter readers.

“They were just stonewalling me all those years,” Saito said Tuesday. “They should have given me my money when they found out it (the suggestion) was saving them money.”

The DWP, like many companies, encourages employees to make cost-saving suggestions. And it promises to give them 10% of any savings that result from suggestions.

Saito’s money-saving idea was a way to reduce the possibility of errors and time lost when meter readers in 1975 began marking their records by filling in boxes on computer cards instead of writing the numbers down.

He said his idea called for meter readers also to make a handwritten record--with a No. 3 pencil--to back up the reading on the computer card. Although his suggestion worked in training tests, it was rejected by DWP officials.

Undaunted, Saito persisted in trying to get his suggestion adopted, but to no avail. He wrote to public officials, including Mayor Tom Bradley, and sought the help of employee unions. But that also did not help.

“The government shafted me once,” Saito said, referring to his family’s internment along with thousands of other Japanese-Americans during World War II. “I wasn’t going to let these people do it too.”

In 1977, DWP officials decided to take another look at his suggestion. They eventually sent Saito a check for $10 and a certificate of appreciation, saying that they were unable to fully determine the effectiveness of his suggestion.

However, since 1977 the DWP has used a recording system similar to the one suggested by Saito, but it was not his, officials said.

Saito said he was enraged when he received the check, feeling that DWP officials were trying to deny him of his just rewards.

He filed suit in 1980, contending that DWP officials were able to determine the savings resulting from the suggestion and that they were not willing to reward him fairly.

The jury agreed last week, deciding that Saito’s suggestion actually saved the DWP $1.08 million--a verdict that means $108,000 for Saito.

“The money is fine but the important thing is the freedom of my mind,” Saito said. “My mind has been in a jail all this time. I was going nuts, being moody.”

The money? “I’ll give it to my wife. She’s been terrific.”

DWP officials said they are considering an appeal of the jury verdict.