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Blackout Puts DWP Chief in the Spotlight

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Times Staff Writers

Ron Deaton was the consummate City Hall insider. As the Los Angeles City Council’s behind-the-scenes advisor for 11 years, he negotiated contracts, rewrote legislation and gently informed council members when they were making no sense.

Then late last year, Deaton became the chief of one of the most scrutinized agencies in the city, the Department of Water and Power.

Not only does the department control two of the city’s most important utilities, but it is often at the center of some controversy or another, such as raising water rates or owning coal-fired plants.

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On Monday, an extensive power outage thrust Deaton into his most visible role, that of reassuring the city that the department would soon restore power.

The veteran civil servant stood calmly in front of the DWP headquarters on Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles with a giant map of the power grid, trying to explain why it was actually good news that so much of the city was without power.

“The system was doing what it was supposed to do,” Deaton told a television reporter, explaining that power was switched off to protect the system from being greatly damaged.

“It’s better to shut it down than to burn out the whole system,” he said.

When the lights went dark, Deaton was having lunch at a Chinatown restaurant.

When the scope of the outage became known, he rushed back to the DWP headquarters to oversee the restoration of power in the city and defend the agency’s response.

City Council members vowed to have Deaton appear before them to explain why the massive outage occurred.

But they said they were confident that Deaton would resolve any problems.

“Something I’ve appreciated about Ron Deaton is that he’s a straight shooter, and he’ll tell you what he thinks,” said Councilwoman Wendy Greuel.

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“I haven’t always agreed with him, but he’s someone you can challenge, and he’ll challenge you right back. I would rather have someone who tells you the honest truth, rather than someone who sees it through rose-colored glasses.”

The confidence from council members comes in part because as the city’s chief legislative analyst, he was, until last year, their top advisor.

“He probably knows not only which wire was cut, but which line item in the city budget paid for it,” Councilman Jack Weiss said.

Deaton, 62, is the city’s highest paid employee, making $310,000 -- more than the mayor or the chiefs of the police and fire departments.

When he began working for the city in 1965, at the age of 22, it was with the DWP. He went to the analyst’s office in 1976.

In his job as chief legislative analyst, he was the de facto city manager, aware of everything that was going on at City Hall while escaping the scrutiny given to the city’s elected officials.

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A student of military history, he was known for crafting strategies that could withstand attack from a variety of angles, a skill that serves him well at the DWP.

When he arrived last year, the agency was in turmoil.

Three general managers had come and gone in 2004. A proposed rate hike for water users had resulted in a lawsuit.

The public relations firm that the agency had employed to burnish its image had been accused of bilking the city of thousands of dollars by overbilling for its services.

As general manager of water and power, Deaton is no longer as invisible as he was as chief legislative analyst.

“Everyone may know you in Sacramento when you’re the [legislative analyst] in Los Angeles, but they don’t know you on Sepulveda or on Sunset or in the neighborhoods,” Councilman Tom LaBonge said. “I saw him take charge today and explain the challenge that DWP had.”

But he is also no William Mulholland, known as the father of L.A.’s water system.

Deaton is not larger-than-life, flashy or vociferous. He’s a bureaucrat who as legislative analyst shied away from interviews.

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Still, those who have worked with him say Deaton has the skills to find solutions to thorny problems.

DWP board member Silvia Saucedo said she has been impressed with how Deaton has dealt with one challenge after another.

“He’s great under pressure,” Saucedo said. “He’s quick at thinking on his feet. He’s a smart man.”

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