Judge Delays Decision on First DWP Layoffs

It was dysfunction as usual on the local government front Monday, as a Los Angeles Superior Court judge temporarily blocked the layoff of hundreds of workers at the Department of Water and Power, saying that he was just too overwhelmed by other cases to finish a long-awaited decision on the legality of downsizing America’s largest municipal utility.

“The layoffs are going to have to wait another week at least,” Superior Court Judge Kurt J. Lewin told attorneys for the city and the union representing DWP workers scheduled to lose their jobs.

Lewin cautioned both sides not to interpret his temporary restraining order as an indication of how he will decide the larger issue of whether the layoffs can proceed. “I am not telegraphing anything,” he said.

But Lewin did send a loud message concerning his view of the state of the county court system.

Lamenting what he says is an increase in caseload but not support staff, Lewin said he has been unable to finish writing a decision in the DWP matter--the subject of a lengthy hearing in late January--because other cases have interrupted him.

“I’m doing my best,” he said. “I expect to have an order out this week.”

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After signing the temporary restraining order, Lewin said: “I think it is sad this court has to be a poor and deprived stepchild.” And with that parting shot, he abruptly left the bench and walked out of the courtroom.

Court administrators and Lewin’s judicial colleagues were perplexed by his outburst, saying that the caseload seems to be under control in most of the county’s civil courtrooms.

DWP General Manager S. David Freeman said he would abide by the court order and halt the layoffs that had been scheduled to start with the dismissal of 200 employees at the close of business Monday. “We are not going forward with the layoffs until we are legally able to do so.”

Freeman called the delay “another little detour on the road” to the smaller work force, which he says is essential if the DWP is to survive in the coming free market for electric power in California.

But, he said, the temporary restraining order leaves the DWP “in a state of paralysis. The whole organization is virtually holding its breath seeing how it goes.”

Howard Z. Rosen, an attorney for the Engineers and Architects Assn., said the restraining order “will prevent hundreds of people from having their jobs eliminated.”

Bob Duncan, executive director of the association, expressed the hope that agreement can still be reached at the bargaining table on a sweetened buyout and severance package that would avoid the need for layoffs. Nearly 650 DWP employees, all members of the engineers and architects group, are targeted for elimination.

The union wants a year’s pay as severance for younger employees who lose their jobs instead of the $25,000 to $50,000 that Freeman has offered. Older employees would receive extra service credit and enhanced pension benefits to leave voluntarily.

Freeman expressed a willingness to resume negotiations, but flatly ruled out going back to the City Council and asking for another increase in the “generous” $346-million package already accepted by the DWP’s most powerful union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the association that represents department managers.

“We put on the table every last penny we have to offer,” Freeman said.

Patt Sanders, a vice president of the union, accused Freeman of pursuing his own agenda to “cut, dismantle and destroy” the DWP at the expense of his employees. “For that, he gets an A+,” she said.

Freeman has said that he must cut the DWP’s work force as part of a multifaceted plan to pay off $4 billion in outstanding debt by 2003. The state’s private utilities, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Pacific Gas & Electric, must open their markets to competition from other power suppliers by the end of this month. Municipal utilities, like the DWP, are not expected to open their territory to competitors for several years.

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To prepare for that eventuality, Freeman won approval Monday from the city’s Board of Water and Power Commissioners to freeze electric rates for four years. He also got their backing for expanded authority to negotiate long-term contracts to keep major industrial and commercial customers from signing up with other power providers. The City Council must give final approval to the commission’s actions.

Hours after the morning court session, Lewin, a 16-year veteran of the bench, said he was “venting” in general about his workload and resources compared to those of his judicial counterparts on the federal bench.

The judge said the DWP case was “just one case,” and he didn’t believe that waiting a few days would hurt either party since his decision on a preliminary injunction probably will be appealed by one side or the other.

In fact, he agreed to extend the temporary order for an additional five business days after his decision is issued to allow attorneys for the union or the city to prepare their appeal.

He also acknowledged that he took advantage of a “convenient” forum in which to “vent that this court ought to be comparable in resources with the federal court and other courts, given its workload.”

“I’m entitled as a judge to take an opportunity to vent,” he said. “I didn’t make the deadline for whatever reason. I work as hard as I can as quickly as I can. . . . This morning I said I’m going to restrain the layoffs until I rule.”

John H. Reid, supervising judge of the criminal courts, pointed out that the civil courts have handled only six emergency criminal cases in the past month, compared to 67 in February 1995.

Victor Chavez, supervising judge of the civil courts, agreed that the pressure from criminal case spillover from the state’s tough three-strikes law has eased and hasn’t been much of an issue in the civil courts during the past year.

As a result of the recent changes in the court’s case management practices, Chavez said, the number of cases that judges juggle range from 250 to 460.

Lewin, he added, was “about average,” with a caseload of 393 in January, the most recent report available. “Some of them massage their calendars more than others,” he said.