LOS ANGELES : City Council Confirms Rice for DWP Position
The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday unanimously confirmed Mayor Tom Bradley’s appointment of civil rights attorney Constance Rice to the powerful Department of Water and Power Commission.
Rice, western regional director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, is the only African-American on the five-member commission.
She replaces environmentalist Mary Nichols on the board of the DWP, which provides water to about 3.5 million Southland residents and operates facilities crucial to air and water quality standards in the Southwest.
Rice’s appointment follows the council’s rejection the nomination of another black civil rights attorney, Melanie Lomax. Council members contended that Lomax had a weak environmental record and that she had acted inappropriately during a feud with then-Police Chief Daryl F. Gates.
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