No-Divestiture Vote of DWP Panel Protested

Responding to a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power pension board’s refusal last week to enact a divestiture policy, representatives of a DWP black employees group and the electrical workers union told a City Council committee Wednesday that the board’s act went against many of their members’ wishes.

These members, the employees’ representatives said, favor following official city policy by abandoning pension plan investments, including their own, in companies doing business with South Africa.

Mamie Grant, president of the Assn. of Black Employees in City Government, said her organization, which includes 2,000 DWP members, wants $139.1 million in DWP pension funds withdrawn from South Africa-connected companies as a protest against segregation of the races there.

Arnold A. Medina, assistant business manager of Local 18 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, which represents 8,000 DWP workers, joined Grant in protesting the pension board’s decision.

In spurning a divestiture proposal last Thursday, the seven-member board that administers the $1.2-billion water and power retirement fund failed to muster support from any of its three employee representatives. In rejecting divestiture, the three indicated that an overwhelming majority of retirees and employees believe such a policy could jeopardize their pension plan.

But Grant, testifying before the council’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said that a poll of about 500 members of her own association revealed that few re ceived any information about the divestiture proposal. And, in fact, she added, many of her members support divestiture.

“I do not feel that these employee representatives are carrying out the will of the employees,” Grant said.

Medina agreed.

“We have spoken to many, many employees and the great majority of those employees are for adoption of a divestiture policy,” Medina told reporters, adding that his union represents 8,000 workers--nearly all of them blue-collar workers--among the 10,500 DWP employees.

The retirement plan also covers about 8,000 retirees.

In voting against divestiture, all three employee representatives--led by board President Vincent J. Foley--expressed concerns that delving into political or social issues such as apartheid could set a dangerous precedent in administering the pension fund. Although the remaining four members voted in favor of divestiture, the support of at least one of the employee members was required for approval.

The water and power panel was the first of the city’s three pension boards to oppose a citywide divestiture policy supported and encouraged by Mayor Tom Bradley and the City Council. Last year, police and fire pension commissioners and the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement Systems board went along with divestiture and agreed to sell more than $600 million in investments linked to South Africa.

Despite its defeat last week, the divestiture issue appears headed back before the water and power retirement board.

Paul H. Lane, DWP general manager and chief engineer, told council members that a special committee has been molding a new proposal aimed at complying with the city’s divestiture policy and satisfying employee concerns. But he declined to shed any light on the proposal.

“We can’t give you any details on it because it’s a sensitive thing and I want to come up with something that we all (can agree on),” Lane said.