What Did $750,000 a Year Deliver for Los Angeles?

[Gene2memE]

The firestorm is still in progress in Los Angeles, priorities first and foremost are saving of lives and property. The calamity in Los Angeles is still early in the situation, ongoing, and not yet under control, but some basic facts can be established at this point in time.

• Janisse Quiñones PE (She/Her) is the CEO and Chief Engineer at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).
• Janisse Quiñones was hired with a $750,000 Salary, nearly twice that of her predecessor.
• LADWP operates ten major active reservoirs and over 107 smaller storage facilities, all of which create operational flexibility to balance water supplies and customer demands.
• A key reservoir in the Pacific Palisades fire was inoperable.
• Multiple locations of the service area that Quinones oversees are a raging inferno and short on water for firefighters.

Why is her pay an issue? She leads a critical infrastructure organisation with more than 11,000 employees. She's got more than 25 years of industry leadership experience and multiple advanced degrees. I'll also note that she's ex-military, and current reserve Coast Guard.

Funnily enough, the company I work for also has about 11,000 employees. The CEO earned a base salary in FY2023/24 of a little over $1.1 million, with a little more than $4.4 million extra in incentives, bonus pay and stock options. That's a little lower than the going market rate for someone in such a role.

I rather suspect that for someone in her position, who has worked as VP/SVP for several large infrastructure firms already, that salary alone was not a determining factor in taking the job.

I'm fine with bureaucrats and technical managers getting high salaries - they're certainly no less deserving of then than lawyers, bankers, currency traders or hedgefund managers.

That salary is higher than even what a POTUS makes. Just don't seem right to me.

That's because the salary of the US President hasn't been increased since 1999. Inflation adjusted, $400,000 in 1999 would be about $760,000 today.

Here's an idea - tie the salary of the president to CPI inflation. Or better yet, tie both it and and congressional/senate salaries to a multiple of the Federal minimum wage.

 

[Vambram]

Well regardless of how high that the salary is for that government position, due to recent events of this past year in California, one has to wonder whether or not that was money well spent.

@Gene2memE may I have your thoughts about this quote, please and thank you.

 

[Pommer]

Well regardless of how high that the salary is for that government position, due to recent events of this past year in California, one has to wonder whether or not that was money well spent.

The money was well spent in that it secured the person who is the chief engineer and CEO of LADWP.

An extraordinarily bad fire isn’t her “fault”; she makes this amount whether or not there are fires.

 

[Vambram]

The money was well spent in that it secured the person who is the chief engineer and CEO of LADWP.

An extraordinarily bad fire isn’t her “fault”; she makes this amount whether or not there are fires.

The CEO of LADWP and the also the LADWP itself failed in making sure that all of the water reservoirs serving Los Angeles were filled with the water necessary to attempt to try to adequately fight against wildfires in LA County.

 

[Arcangl86]

The CEO of LADWP and the also the LADWP itself failed in making sure that all of the water reservoirs serving Los Angeles were filled with the water necessary to attempt to try to adequately fight against wildfires in LA County.

All the operational reservoirs were full. There was one reservoir that was not operation because it was being repaired so it could be used for it's primary purpose, providing clean water to the city. But from what I've read even if it was open and full, it wouldn't have really made a difference. The issue wasn't a lack of water but rather that the infrastructure was not designed for the demands being put upon it. It was never designed to be used to fight multiple wildfires with no aerial support.

 

[BCP1928]

Frankly, I was completely shocked that the salary for that government official was so very, very high.

Why shouldn't it be in the same range as a private sector job with equivalent responsibilities? Even so, she hasn't got stock options and a golden parachute as besides..

What it is, is an example of the "income inequality" thing that Democrats complain of and Republicans are OK with.

 

[BCP1928]

That salary is higher than even what a POTUS makes. Just don't seem right to me.

Ah, but POTUS has quite a few perks, a nice house with live in servants, free transportation and medical care, a decent pension and lots of opportunities for easy money afterwards.

 

[Vambram]

All the operational reservoirs were full. There was one reservoir that was not operation because it was being repaired so it could be used for it's primary purpose, providing clean water to the city. But from what I've read even if it was open and full, it wouldn't have really made a difference. The issue wasn't a lack of water but rather that the infrastructure was not designed for the demands being put upon it. It was never designed to be used to fight multiple wildfires with no aerial support.

There should have been more reservoirs built and kept filled with water. The one resevoir that had zero water is capable of holding 17 million gallons of water. Back in February, it was emptied because its cover had tears which needed to be repaired. Why does it take so much longer than necessary to fix that reservoir's cover?

 

[Pommer]

The CEO of LADWP and the also the LADWP itself failed in making sure that all of the water reservoirs serving Los Angeles were filled with the water necessary to attempt to try to adequately fight against wildfires in LA County.

Have you seen any videos of the wind whipped fires?
I saw one that looked like a hurricane but with fire.

There isn’t a city in the world that could have kept its citizens and their citizens’ properties intact, from the devastation these conflagrations have wrecked.

Everything was not perfect, so some feel the need to “blame” people…do you have people out that way?
Were/are they in harm’s way?

 

[Vambram]

Have you seen any videos of the wind whipped fires?
I saw one that looked like a hurricane but with fire.

There isn’t a city in the world that could have kept its citizens and their citizens’ properties intact, from the devastation these conflagrations have wrecked.

Everything was not perfect, so some feel the need to “blame” people…do you have people out that way?
Were/are they in harm’s way?

The Santa Ana winds ain't uncommon because it occurs in California every year. The various levels of government in California have failed.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Have you seen any videos of the wind whipped fires?

Saw this in my feed recently, and should be publicly viewable.

 

[DaisyDay]

Wow, I did not expect to see victim blaming, but here we are.

Column: Compassion and decency are lost amid wildfires as California foes seek cheap political points

In their haste to politicize one of the worst natural disasters in California history, Donald Trump and many allies don't bother offering hopes and prayers. Their callous response is unprecedented.

www.latimes.com

 

[essentialsaltes]

Saw this in my feed recently, and should be publicly viewable.

As Chief Brian Fennessy of the Orange County Fire Authority said of the situation regarding "clearing brush":

“You could have put a 10-lane freeway in front of that fire and it would not have slowed it one bit,” Fennessy said.

In this case, Fennessy said, fire was blowing sideways from house to house, with the structures themselves serving as fuel.

Once a fire reaches clusters of buildings, the structures themselves become the fuel, they said. Moghaddas pointed to the Sunset Boulevard area, where the Palisades fire burned fire-hardened buildings like concrete commercial structures surrounded by pavement.

The winds grounded firefighting aircraft. And firefighters on the ground were focused on getting people out of the path of the fast-moving inferno as it burned deeply into communities.

The Palisades fire ignited Jan. 7 amid hurricane-force winds, with gusts of up to 100 mph recorded in some areas.

Large-scale attempts to preemptively thin or burn these coastal areas could therefore actually make the landscape more flammable in the long run, said Max Moritz, a cooperative extension wildfire specialist at UC Santa Barbara.

[As noted upthread, because invasive non-native grasses take over, and the grasses get dry and flammable more so than the native chaparral.]

 

[DaisyDay]

Ah, but POTUS has quite a few perks, a nice house with live in servants, free transportation and medical care, a decent pension and lots of opportunities for easy money afterwards.

Not just afterwards - if you work it right, ignore the emoluments clause of the Constitution, you can rake it in during your term. Just hold functions in your own profitable clubs, rent out venues to supplicants and have GOP party functions at your properties.

 

[Gene2memE]

@Gene2memE may I have your thoughts about this quote, please and thank you.

Here's the quote in question: "Well regardless of how high that the salary is for that government position, due to recent events of this past year in California, one has to wonder whether or not that was money well spent."

I'd say it was.

The LADWP was within 10% of meeting or ahead of almost all targets under its water and power infrastructure plans for 2023-2024, as well as being ahead of schedule for much of its long term capital expenditure plans. It appears to be resonably well managed both operationally and financially, being both profitable and largely meeting performance metrics around cost, reliability and other factors. It wasn't perfect, but no large agency like this is and it seems like LADWP was pretty well run overall.

You can look up all their infrstrucutre reports, corporate reports and rates metrics reports youself if you want.

The Santa Ynez Reservoir was empty because LADWP was doing things correctly and was tendering for repair in accordance local and state regulations. It wasn't filled pre-emptively because no-one knew (or could have know) that a fire was going to occur in that specific area with sufficient warning to get it filled. The resources that could be rapidly made available (3 tanks of 1 million gallons each) in the area were filled when the fires broke out and were ready for use.

However, the availability or otherwise of the Santa Ynez Reservoir wasn't a determining factor in the response to the fire, but rather pipe pressure and pipe diameter. But, the US political class and commentariat are doing their typical cultural casting about for a scape goat and it appears they're fixated on the LADWP.