DWP’s $1,013 Celebration Strikes Sour Note With City Controller

John Bednarski, a planner for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, remembers the main dish as “some kind of fish or something.” Secretary Jane Funn says, “I think it was steak.” Engineering manager Gary Stolarik also could not recall the fare--”but I think I ate everything--I usually do.”

While the food at the catered luncheon on March 6 for 25 city employees may have been less than memorable, the $1,013 bill, according to city Controller Rick Tuttle, was “outrageous.” And so, Tuttle added, was the venue--the exclusive Jonathan Club, which has been sued by the city for allegedly discriminating against women.

“I don’t know what they ate,” Tuttle said, “but I know this: It was too much.”

Payment Blocked

On Thursday, Tuttle blocked reimbursement of a $40-a-person tab submitted by a DWP executive for what was dubbed a “celebration” of an out-of-court settlement of a lawsuit filed against the DWP.

“Rate-payers have a right to expect that the rates they pay are for water and electricity service, not for employees to feast on $40 lunches,” Tuttle wrote in a letter to Norman E. Nichols, DWP general manager. “ . . . In addition, it is absolutely unbelievable that DWP requested reimbursement for this event, when it was clearly indicated on the bill that the party took place at the Jonathan Club.”

After a quick review, Nichols announced late Thursday that, while the celebratory lunch was “appropriate,” the price and location of the meal were not, and added that the three host managers will split the check.

But, in a tart letter to Tuttle, Nichols added: “I was surprised to learn of your concern through your press announcement. In the future, these oversights will receive my attention if you will be so kind as to simply call me.”

Attorneys Asked to Pay

Meanwhile, a spokesman for City Atty. James K. Hahn, whose office is handling the Jonathan Club legal battle, announced that three deputy city attorneys assigned to the lawsuit who attended the DWP luncheon have been asked to pay their portion of the bill “out of their own pockets.”

The luncheon, organized by Walter Hoye, DWP engineer of design, was arranged after a $2-million settlement of a $13-million lawsuit filed by the M. A. Mortenson Co., general contractors for a $146-million water filtration plant in Sylmar.

“The luncheon meeting was to thank all the DWP people, all the clerks and secretaries and aides and engineers and lawyers who worked so hard to have a very successful conclusion of the litigation,” Hoye said Thursday. “We had very short notice to try to find a place to have this luncheon meeting; we didn’t know we would settle rather than go to trial. . . . Given this set of circumstances, it seemed reasonable.”

Tuttle, however, vehemently disagreed.

In an interview Thursday, he acknowledged that the city Charter places no specific limits on meal expenses, and added that he would be hard-pressed to define any. Still, he asserted, there are common sense guidelines.