LOCAL : DWP Chief Resigns; Pressured by Mayor Over Travel Spending
Department of Water and Power General Manager Norm Nichols, under pressure from Mayor Tom Bradley for hesitating to immediately support water rationing and for his controversial spending practices, resigned today.
The resignation, disclosed in a letter to Bradley and members of the City Council, followed on the heels of a major shake-up that included the resignation of DWP Commissioner Carol Wheeler on Monday.
Nichols has been at the center of a growing controversy over the mammoth utility’s use of charter flights, which cost more than $700,000 last year, and a nearly $1-million bill for tours of facilities for politicians, agency officials and business people.
His hiring of a $2,800 round-trip charter flight April 14 to Sacramento was also highly criticized by City Controller Rick Tuttle, who refused to authorize payment for the trip, calling it “exorbitant” and possibly “unlawful.”
Bradley called on the DWP board to require pre-authorization for all such charter flights and also ordered a moratorium on the costly tours.
The mayor has also complained about Nichols’ initial hesitancy to support Bradley’s plan to impose mandatory rationing to achieve a 10% saving in water consumption from 1986 levels.
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