The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is on track to have a new general manager…who will get paid substantially more than any other employee in the entire city. And more than twice as much as Mayor Karen Bass, according to public records acquired by MuckRock.
Janisse Quiñones, formerly a senior VP at PG&E, was nominated by Mayor Karen Bass to become the utility agency’s next chief. The L.A. City Council voted Tuesday to approve Quiñones’ nomination, along with a $750,000 annual salary – nearly twice as much as her predecessor, Marty Adams.
Even though the city is slashing funding for everything from streetlights to the fire department in the face of a $300 million budget deficit, Councilmember Bob Blumenfield defended Quiñones’ massive salary as necessary.
“DWP folks are putting that [figure] forward. They say that's what they need to attract the talent,” he told KNX News’ Craig Fiegener. “I agree it’s a shockingly high salary for a public servant. This is a publicly owned utility, but it still is competing in a market.”
Blumenfield said he isn’t an expert on what it takes to run a utility, but Quiñones has been through a vetting process and “she seems great and very knowledgeable.”
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Prior to the vote, Council President Paul Kreorian said the LADWP is "in need of a change of culture to ensure that it is a place of unquestionable integrity.” Councilmember Monica Rodriguez emphasized that Quiñones will have "all eyes" on her due to the crime and corruption that have plagued the agency in recent years.
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