Neighborhood News & Chatter
Edited by David Coffin
July 02, 2009

Making a run for it.. the 51st

Some of you know that I’ve been a member of our local neighborhood council for a number of years. I originally ran for the District 10 seat when the elections were first held back in 2000 and later ran for a second term winning that as well.  At the end of this term I’ve decided that nine years on the neighborhood council is enough and others from District 10 should go on to participate and contribute.

cityhallsmNeighborhood councils were created as a way for residents to have influence in the development and events of their communities because L.A.’s downtown-centric government was failing to address the needs of L.A.’s suburbs

As a resident and a parent of a couple of toddlers, I wanted to participate in that discussion. I wanted better schools, a better Westchester business district, more parks and more soccer fields.  

Our neighborhood council’s collective weight helped spotlight and stall LAWA’s plans to expand the airport by moving the northernmost runway 340′  further into the community. It provided a forum for residents to speak with Pacific Division captains on a spate of burglaries that occurred in Kentwood and Playa del Rey a few years back.  The NC was also instrumental getting most of our local public schools (including Westchester High School) out of the LAUSD’s local district and into the iDivision. It challenged the LADWP General Manager when he came out sell an electricity rate increase but instead ran into a buzz-saw when asked how they can declare hundreds of millions of dollars as “surplus” and give it to the city while holding out their hand to voters for a rate increase citing insufficient funds to upgrade the underground electrical infrastructure.

Even with its successes (and there have been many), the unfortunate reality is that the real power is still held by elected officials in higher office and neighborhood councils are for the most part.. advisory. 

Yes, neighborhood councils can make things -very- awkward for members of the city council, the mayor, city departments and city unions when their goals aren’t in alignment with ours. Because of the system of neighborhood councils growing power, city interests are finding it more difficult to steamroll through taxes, bonds and pet projects. Neighborhood councils are putting a lot of eyes on city activities. 

Eight years of being on the neighborhood council has given me an insight into big city and state politics that I could not get have received had I not been a part of it. But it also made me acutely aware that our communities fate is intrinsically tied to policies coming out of City government and more significantly, the California legislature. 

capitolWe can complain all we want about dropouts but it won’t change locally.  The change has to occur at the top. High school kids are not getting diplomas because they are less smart than students two, three, and four decades ago but because of the new education curriculum decided at the state level to raise the bar to getting a diploma. At the same time the State it eliminated vocational education as a path to receive one.  It was a one size fits all solution that fits only a few. 

Emphasizing that that point,  Jose Huizar then a LAUSD board member (and later an L.A.  City Councilman) said  ”Yes, there will be dropouts. But I’m looking at the glass half full” when he introduced an even higher bar that made Algebra II the new requirement to receive a diploma beginning in 2016.   

That glass half full so far is a million high school students who between 1997 and 2007 dropped out of LAUSD schools.

—– ##### —–

I enjoyed my time on the neighborhood council immensely. I’ve learned a lot about city county and state government but I also realized that changes in education, housing, water resources can only be done legislatively in our capitol and I’m frankly tired of the people we keep sending there because those legislators are not improving our children’s education, they are ruining it. They are not bettering the quality of life for Californians, they are degrading it. They are not improving the wealth of the lower and middle class, they are bankrupting it.

Because of this I have decided to run for the 51st Assembly Seat that was recently vacated. The election will be held September 1st.

While my odds may not be all that good running against an entrenched Democratic machine; unlike theirs, my message crosses ideological boundaries. I offer solutions, not recycled campaign slogans. Solutions for better schools, for diplomas, for a sustainable planning policy and a scalable tax system that will pay for essential government services. 

I hope that you will support me.

CD-11 residents short changed in water allocation

Over the past few months H. David  Nahai and his LADWP cohorts have made a concerted effort to misinform the public by referring to Tier I allocations in “percentages” and mixing into the public dialog that residents receive an ”average of 28 HCF” .  A recent flyer stating  stated:  “As an example, a typical two-month billing cycle for a single-family residential customer who is allocated 28 hundred cubic feet (HCF) of water pays $81.76, or 2.92 cents per cubic foot.”

Unfortunately for CD-11 (Councilmans Rosendahl’s) residents, not one resident in his district who lives on a 7500 sq ft lots (about 95% of its residents) or less really gets 28 HCF of water as advertised. With the new across the board restrictions, we’ll now have far less that most L.A. residents when the lowest Tier I is reduced to 22 HCF.

Rosendahl’s entire 11th council district happens to be in what is called a “low temp” region. Most single family households in our district have been getting far less than what LADWP advertises with only 24 HFC during winter months. With the new restrictions now in place,  our Tier I allocation is a 22% reduction over what the LADWP has been advertising.

Water wars…

Neighbors turning on neighbors.

water-hoseCity officials seem to be getting their way in casting blame on residents for using too much water.

Here is a recent dialog has been going on at in our local community listservers Wpdrncnews and Onalist where residents observed a librarian hosing down a sidewalk after our new water restrictions have taken place.

Just went by the Mar Vista Library and they were HOSING down their sidewalk - guess they didn’t get the memo about our drought,
restrictions etc.!

Shame on them!

and…

Did you stop to ask them? A lot of folks still don’t get the word, and the “public relations efforts” of plain folks like us who are a concerned part of the community can pay off, too. Often a polite (non-shaming) one-on-one conversation can change attitudes.

and…

Hello All,

I talked with the head librarian at the Mar Vista Library. She was washing sticky soda off the sidewalk because there were complaints about the mess being tracked inside the library. She jokingly said she knew no good deed would go unpunished. Everyone is still welcomed to come by anytime and check out a book.

She has made sure her staff knows about the water restriction. Please keep up the effort to help neighbors understand how to meet these new requirements. More information is available at http://www.ladwp.com

Best regards,
Jim (CD11 staff member)

I hope my neighbors don’t try to “shame” me into conserving water more than I already do.  They will get an informed earful on how misinformed they really are.

Here is the bottom line…

I have no problem with the librarians efforts to clean up a mess using a hose. It’s unfortunate that we are now at a point where our quality of life has been so compromised by city’s incessant drive to build, build, and build that we have to defend cleaning up a sidewalk or take a shower for more than the prescribed 5 minutes.

This has been all too predictable. How many more proposals will we continue to see where four residential parcels will be turned into forty housing units or half block of parcels are turned into a 2000 units before we realize that it is having a negative impact on our quality of life?

The Mayor and the entire city council are to blame for this unfortunate situation. I’m not going to blame mother nature or Federal judges on this. State and local politicians (and even our neighborhood council) have to be singled out for creating this water shortage because none of them are stepping forward to question the city’s planning policies. None of them are asking just how sustainable is the regions housing policy?

Lying L.A. City officials

This email to LA Weekly takes on Los Angeles Police Department Chief Bill Bratton -and- Mayor Villaraigosa’s insistence that this city’s streets are as safe as the 1950’s. Most everyone saw through this idiotic comparison but it took a police chief from an earlier era to pin it down.

From http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/crime/daryl-gates-to-bill-bratton-19/

Dear Mr. McDonald,

Your recent article regarding the use of crime statistics was most interesting. Los Angeles today clearly cannot be compared to Los Angeles in the early ’50s or ’60s. To use crime statistics is, of course, meaningless.

There are so many other factors that need to be taken into consideration as you point out in your article. Crime statistics are difficult to compare because there have been changes in the way in which data are reported.

For example, multiple crimes committed at the same time are no longer reported today as they were years ago. A carjacking occurs, the woman victim is robbed at gun point and physically assaulted — all of those crimes would be reported and counted (as) carjacking, auto theft robbery, and (assault with a deadly weapon) in times past.

Today, only the most serious of the crimes would be counted in the crime statistics. Not necessarily bad, but a change in reporting. There are others as well.

Professor (Andrew) Karmen’s analysis — comparing murder and robbery rates per population — is right on mark. Although given the better emergency medical care provided today, murders often become only ADWs when they would have been reported as murders many years ago. As you clearly point out, the use of crime data is not the way to compare L.A. today with L.A. of yesteryear.

One factor that has not been mentioned, but I strongly believe is the major reason for crime going down all over the nation. The police have always been efficient in capturing criminals, but there were serious problems with prosecutions and sentencing. I made speech after speech telling the public that if we fill our prisons, and kept them filled with those who commit crime after crime — the career criminal — we will see a significant reduction in crime.

The number of criminals is not an infinite number — it varies — but not infinite. It is finite. The reason that the number of criminals and crime appeared to be infinite is that the same people were moved through the system time and time again.

We have finally gotten tough on crime and have filled our prisons with career criminals and have kept them there longer.

I think the police, prosecutors, (and) judges are doing a fine job — but the real heroes in this drama are the public who have said enough is enough and have voted in harsher sentencing [three strikes] and are unwilling to accept excuses for letting the bad guys go free.

If we significantly reduce prison populations, as some keep urging–I assure you crime will go up exponentially. By the way L.A.’s crime rate was lower than 33 of the major cities in 1991 — wonder what it is today in comparison!?

Thanks for the article — great public service. DFG, a former chief.”

Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.

Vote today

With apologies to Steve Greenberg

same-oh1

Trutanich for City Attorney

Los Angeles Magazine which ran a cover in 2006 describing Mayor Villaraigosa as one of the city’s elite ‘influentials’ of Los Angeles politics is now describing the mayor as a ’Failure.’   This Westchester dad agrees!

(What’s missing in the Los Angeles Magazine cover however is a lineup of the city council members that should be behind him.  Los Angeles’s hard landing in the fiscal gutter was a team effort. ) 

Today the Los Angeles Times published a front page article about our failed mayor who is once again and maybe for the last time testing his influence (he lost Prop B) by endorsing his closest ally Jack Weiss over Carmen Trutanich.

All of this speaks loudly for why we should vote for Carmen Trutanich. Between the two candidates only Trutanich participated in the Westchester/Playa Candidate forum sponsored by the neighborhood council.  Weiss failed to show up. 

At our local forum Trutanich said he would not be advising the city to cave in to billboard companies or multi-million dollar ’settlements’ such as fire department ‘dog food’ cases.  That latter case could have funded the entire neighborhood council system. We need a City attorney who will protect the interests of our cities voters and not the interests of lobbyist and high powered law firms.  

We need a City attorney who will challenge what is seen by most legal firms as easy money. Money that Delgadillo gave away time and again could have been used to preserve city services.

Council skips Phase II water restrictions and jumps to Phase III

Just as I suspected… City council voted to ratchet up the Emergency Water Conservation Phase level from Phase I to Phase III.

A few weeks ago I met with Rosendahl and told him that they (LADWP) would skip Phase II entirely and go on to Phase III or Phase IV.  This was something I predicted here last Fall though I didn’t think they would do it until June or July. The City Council approved of the stricter ordinance today.

In case people are wondering… here is how the various phases defined in Ordinance 180148 affect watering your landscape.

PHASE I
Limited hours for watering landscape.
No moratorium on new developments.

PHASE II
Watering landscape on Monday, Thursday and Saturday only.
Still no moratorium on new developments

PHASE III
Watering landscape on Monday and Thursday only.
STILL no moratorium on new developments

PHASE IV
Watering landscape on Monday only.
STILL NO moratorium on new developments

PHASE V
No watering landscape allowed
STILL NO MORATORIUM on new developments

PHASE VI
To be determined. (They’ll think of something else to make L.A.’s residents miserable. Perhaps shower free weekends.)
STILL NO MORATORIUM ON NEW DEVELOPMENTS

How out of skew can our housing policies be to the regions realities?!

Last week the City Council decided that residences with 4 or more household members that live on average size lots and fail to stay under the Tier 1 allocation are themselves ‘water hogs’ so they will punish them with nearly doubled water rates. However, if you live on a large and very large lot they will continue to grant you larger allocations of water.

These council people weren’t elected for their skills in details or mathematics or they would have realized that 5 people living under the Tier I cap are far more frugal water users than just two people in a similar sized residence.

So John Doe living on a 15,000 square ft lot gets his 48 HFC and only has to cut back on his marigolds while my family has to stop washing our clothes four nights a week and take 3 minute showers?  

They could have easily authorized the LADWP to reduce the water allocation to the four largest lot sizes where clearly the additional allocation has everything to do with water for landscaping. 

At L.A. City Hall, housing production trumps quality of life. At least the little guys quality of life.

Water rate conservation goals target the wrong customers

Families will pay heavily while customers with horses (and city officials) get exemptions.

Los Angeles has never been friendly to families given its dysfunctional schools, high taxes and fees, its scarcity of parks and an unfriendly business climate that been chasing retail and manufacturing businesses to other nearby cities.

Friday, April 17th added yet another burden to living in the city when the Los Angeles City Council approved lowering Tier 1 allocations by 15% and increasing the water rate on those who can’t stay under the allocation.

The new rate reduces the basic allocation from 28 to 24 HCF every two months which will squeeze the available water allocation in a 5 member family to about 60 gallons a day per person.

Old PaintBy definition, any family with three to six members who stays under the current 28 HCF is already conserving since they are using up to 70% less per person than another household with only two people.

While families with several children will likely have to forego a shower once every few days to stay under the Tier 1 allocation, the City Council did give one important group a break, they offered customers with horses an exemption to the new rate! Yep, Old Paint takes precedence over your spouse and kids.

It doesn’t stop there however. The extra burden on families is especially noticeable in how the Tier1 rates are calculated. Residents living on larger lots are given additional water allowances well above the 24 HCF. The new rates will have little personal effect on residents living on lot sizes greater than 7,500 square feet since all they have to do is cut back watering on the Agapanthus.

For instance, a resident living on an 11,000 sq. ft. lot has nearly two times as much water available to them at 40 HCF than a resident living on a lot smaller than 7500 square ft even though their family size is comparable.

If you have more dirt, you get more water. Residents living on lots as large as 43,560 sq. ft. and over will have up to 60 HCF before they have to pay Tier 2 rates.

LADWP General Manager David Nahai and his wife and two children who live on a 15,594 sq. ft lot will have 40 HCF available to them. That amounts to about 124 gallons per day for  each of his family members before they will be subject to Tier 2 rates. This is the very same person who was fingered as L.A.s most prolific water waster last year while averaging over 90 HCF.

What They Should Do…

Old Paint should get his exemption of course but the rest of the City’s new rate structure really targets the wrong customer.

A much fairer solution (and one that seems more in keeping with many city staffers and elected officials who believe that residents should give up their lawns) would be to leave the lowest lot size allocation alone at 28 HCF and significantly reduce the allocations for larger lots. Maybe as much as 25% to 30%. After all, the extra water allocated to larger lots is used almost solely for landscaping.

Most people think the Tier 1 allocations are just one number, 28 HCF (or roughly 21,000 gallons) that we get every two months. What isn’t ever quoted in news stories is that it are really 5 different allotments for each temperature zone and where your household fits in depends on the size of property you live on.

Westchester and Playa del Rey will actually get even less water because of the temperature zone we live in. W/PdR residents will have to cut back to 22 HFC per billing period. That amounts to 68 gallons per person each day in a 4 member household and 45 gallons per person in a 6 member household. Such small sums are quickly used up simply by doing what is necessary to stay clean and healthy.

In Westchester/Playa, we live in the low temperature zone and our current Tier 1 allocation is:

up to 7,499 sq ft. = 26 HCF
up to 10,999 sq ft. = 32 HCF
up to 17,499 sq ft. = 48 HCF
up to 43,559 sq ft. = 56 HCF
above 43,560 = 72 HCF

The first level is for the most part a lifeline allocation regardless of where you live. There was not a lot of margin in that first level between what a family of four or more needs in the normal course of daily chores, cooking, hygiene, laundry, etc. and what some folks in government think are excess.

The more members you have in a household, the less water that each person has available to them and given there are certain basic needs per person (showers, toilet flushes, glasses of water, etc) medium and large families will likely  exceed the maximum allocation to a residential lot.

Unfortunately our Council Members and their staff haven’t done their homework and instead accept as gospel whatever the LADWP and its Mayor appointed General Manager has to say -which is pretty typical- in LA City government.

Here is what we will have now:

up to 7,499 sq ft. = 22 HCF
up to 10,999 sq ft. = 27 HCF
up to 17,499 sq ft. = 40 HCF
up to 43,559 sq ft. = 47 HCF
above 43,560 = 61 HCF

What city officials should have done is acknowledge that additional water allocations for lot sizes above 7,499 sq ft are for primarily for landscaping and it is those lots that should be asked to conserve more. Not the lowest allocation where most homes of our community fall under.

This rate schedule would have had a far better conservation result without impacting the people who already conserve the most.

up to 7,499 sq ft. = 26 HCF ; 0 cut
up to 10,999 sq ft. = 26 HCF ; 20% cut
up to 17,499 sq ft. = 36 HCF ; 25% cut
up to 43,559 sq ft. = 42 HCF ; 25% cut
above 43,560 = 54 HCF ; 25% cut

Let’s thank our Councilman for this new burden imposed on us.

Westchester’s basketball program - An obstacle to reform

Now that Westchester High School has again taken the state Division I basketball championship I’ll take this opportunity to reprint an article I posted a year ago that pointed out that we cannot have reform at WHS until the school focuses its attention and resources (including it varsity sports programs) at local students instead of the regions elite.

Westchester High School may have won its 5th State Division I title, but the basketball program continues to be nothing more than a private club team headed by Ed Azzam. A club that has no place for W/PdR students.

Azzam even acknowledges himself that academics at WHS takes a back seat to sports in this recent  L.A.Times blog as saying “That’s kind of when it kind of dawned on me, the difference between CAMS (the charter school Azzam’s son goes to) and a lot of other schools. My kids would never consider missing a game — and it wouldn’t even enter my mind — and that’s the difference. The academics here (at CAMS) come first in all that they do.”

Since I published the article a year ago there have been some encouraging changes including the hiring of a new principal. Dr. Bruce Mims was recently hired by a select group of parents, teachers and community members as part of the iDesign reforms at the high school.

However, Mims will have a tough time attracting our local students including local student athletes as long as Westchester’s sports programs are designed to attract or recruit athletes from throughout the country with the specific goal of winning Division I championships.

Westchester out of the Playoffs - so should be the coaches

Former principal Dana Perryman - “We would like the Westchester community to continue to believe that this is their school… There are a lot of families with young children in the area and we want them to send their children here.”

When Perryman uttered those words six years ago hoping that our communities children would return to the school, few Westchester families took up her offer. Many of those third graders whose families she was speaking to will be attending other high schools this coming September.

That is because the school continuously failed to offer the families a wide array of academic courses, electives and it set its bar so high in its sports programs by offering places on its junior varsity and varsity teams only to the regions most elite players. I pointed out not to long ago on these pages (quickly picked up by one local newspaper) that the high school no longer even has an aerospace magnet even though the magnet had “Aerospace” in the name.

All of this could change if reforms can take place now that the school elected to distance itself from the perpetually broken system of local districts and a micromanaging downtown board of education. In December, teachers and parents voted to join the LMU/Westchester Family of schools. Its still part of the LAUSD but it is being granted some forms of autonomy.

Steps for reform
One recent step in the right direction was the announcement that our high school will be getting its school band and music director back. That’s just one of a series of steps that will be necessary if the LMU/Westchester family of schools is serious about renewing community interest in the high school.

Another important step would be a demonstration to the community that the athletic needs of our sons are just as important as the performing arts needs of all of our children.

That step would necessitate a new direction in the schools varsity and junior varsity athletic programs and finding new people to manage and coach it.

Now that the basketball program at Westchester High School has come to a quick end, it would be a good time to thank athletic director Brian Henderson and basketball coach Ed Azzam for their services and look for a new director and coach whose interests are in providing the local student athlete with opportunities.

Henderson and Azzam’s only interests has been to win CIF State Division I championships year after year. Together they have been quite effective. However, to meet that lofty goal the Comets have been caught violating CIF rules time after time, year after year.

Few if any at all of Azzam’s varsity players over the years have come through Westchester’s feeder schools that would also include our local private schools. Henderson and Azzam’s program have routinely recruited outside of the schools enrollment area, often raiding other schools to recruit some of the best players in the country to insure a place in the CIF state finals.

Some examples include:

  • The Comets were slapped with a year’s probation when Hassan Adams played for the team in a 2000 summer tournament before his transfer to the school was official.
  • The same year Ashton Thomas was declared ineligible for varsity competition one season because of an improper transfer from Leuzinger.
  • In 2003 Amir Johnson was recruited out of Verbum Dei (an academically superior school btw) to play basketball for WHS. Westchester was Johnsons third school in as many years having originally enrolled at Narbonne. Westchester was banned from post season play in the CIF State finals after the recruiting violations were discovered. According to the Los Angeles Times, Johnson was punished for falsifying grades and an assistant coach was banned from coaching for one year.
  • Hassan Adams of Inglewood had attended two other high schools before landing at Westchester.
  • The LA Times also noted that starting point guard Ashanti Cook, sixth man Brandon Heath and reserve Bobby Brown each came from Inglewood and others came from Santa Monica, Hawthorne, Torrance, Lawndale, Carson, Hancock Park and the Crenshaw district.
  • Auri Allen played at two different high schools in four years before winding up at Westchester in his senior year.
  • The LA Times wrote: “Three times in the last two years (2002-2003) Westchester has been formally accused of breaking City Section rules, and twice it has been penalized.
  • In 2005 Eric Sonderheim of the Times wrote: “The stink of corruption keeps getting stronger even though the City Section (referring to particularly to Westchester) and The Southern Section have new transfer restrictions requiring athletes to change residences if they want to gain immediate eligibility.”

Cheating the community

Westchester high school recruiting practices have come at a price to the community. Our son’s, many who could easily find themselves a slot on a team in another school if they had lived elsewhere, are left out of program in our own community.

Because of Westchester’s recruiting practices, it’s been years since this community has been able to rally around one of it’s children at our high school and its been years since one of our kids found their name in a local paper such as the Argonaut with a story of their contribution to a successful win over another school. What this ultimately boils down to is another opportunity that the school failed to provide our children and one of many reasons why it will be difficult to encourage community enrollment.

In 2002, Reseda Coach Mike Wagner was quoted as saying: “No kid in his right mind is not going to want to go to Westchester, where they get their shoes and sweats and bags.”

It goes even further than that, The LA Times write “While most high school teams do car washes and bake sales to raise funds for equipment, uniforms and travel, Westchester, a public school, attracts all-star-caliber athletes from across the South Bay and parts of Los Angeles. The players admit they have been at least partially enticed by thousands of dollars in free apparel and paid trips to national tournaments that are attended by hundreds of college scouts.”

In the same article the Times wrote ”Jonathan Smith, a top player at Lawndale Leuzinger High, transferred to Westchester before this season only to become an end- of-the-bench reserve. But he doesn’t regret his choice.

“There’s a lot of exposure,” he said. “At Leuzinger, we only traveled to tournaments in the South Bay. At Westchester, we travel everywhere. The shoes, they’re nice too.”

Westchester high schools activities have hurt not only our community but other high schools as well since they lure students away from their programs as had happened with Amir Johnson who attended Narbonne and Mater Dei before settling in on Westchester HS.

On a well known basketball forum a parent wrote, “If you want your son to be part of a program that cheats and constantly is looking for players to replace your son and your son will have teammates transferring in and out faster than the planes that land at LAX, then Westchester might be one of the places for him.

If you want your kid to be part of a program that the Coaches genuinely care about the well being of the kid (not just the basketball skills) and will work their butts off to build a team around your son and help him both on the basketball court and in the classroom, I can suggest the following schools…”

Clearly at many high schools, recruiting top talent has reached obsessive levels and the cycle continues year after year. It doesn’t have to continue at Westchester High School any longer.

If the LMU/Westchester Family of Schools is true to it’s commitment of bringing the community back into its schools, it will have the authority bring back athletic opportunities to kids living in the Westchester high school enrollment area.

Does L.A.’s proposed water rate
structure discriminate against families?

The Department of Water and Power voted to reduce a residents basic allotment of water from 28 HFC to 24 HFC. Anything exceeding 24 HFC will now be charged a higher rate.  This was proposed by the board to “encourage” residents to conserve. (Nothing was proposed by the board to encourage reductions in housing development that’s been driving most of the water demand in the last decade.)

walletThe unfortunate result of reducing the basic (Tier I) allotment is that it hurts the pocketbook of households with three or more members, particularly those with kids. Single member households and couples will easily stay under the 24 HFC tier level.

However, households with children will end up paying more since water rates are not based on the number of people living in the home. If you have three or four children, each taking daily baths, brushing teeth, doing laundry for them, etc. you will obviously use more water, but probably less per capita than a one or two person household.

I just checked my February bill and my family used 25 HFC so we are going to be over our allotment and will have to pay extra if the city council approves it. Last year we were at 31 HFC so we already have reduced our consumption by 20%.  

Take our current usage and divide it by four we only use 6.25 HFC per person or 3.12 HFC per person per month. That is roughly 2,330 gallons a month or 77 gallons a day per person. A family of 5? 59 gallons per day per person. Now we are getting into city enforced shower-free days.

A single person can use all 24 HFC (299 gals per day) and stay under the cap. A couple can use 12 HFC (150 gals per day) each and stay under the cap.

So who is getting penalized by the proposed water rate? Households with 3 or more members.

What they ought to do is go after the higher-consumption customers like those living in LADWP General Manager’s neighborhood.  

Yep… The General Manager of the LADWP last year was outed using over 100 HFC in numerous billing cycles. 4 times my homes usage. The audit also notes that his neighbors also use from 2 to 4 times what we use in a month. My guess is that they don’t give a twit how much they pay or what Tier level they are in.