DWP is on the hot seat over outages

That is the headline in today's LAT and deservedly so. Promises were not met, thousands of people went without power and they deserve an explanation for it. The LA City Council was asking for one yesteday, in order to make sure it never happens again. The Times called them "steamed" over the situation.

Council President Eric Garcetti said he felt that the city-owned utility misled the council when, on three occasions, officials vowed that they were better prepared to handle another heat wave than the one that crippled the power grid last year.

Instead, Garcetti said he spent much of the Labor Day weekend scrambling to get answers for residents in Silver Lake and surrounding areas who lost their electricity.

"The department looked us square in the eye and said they were prepared," Garcetti said at a City Hall news conference.

The other council members at the news conference -- Wendy Greuel, Tom LaBonge and Jan Perry -- said they now would demand monthly reports from the DWP on its infrastructure. They also want to see the department beef up its staff, but none detailed how to pay for doing so.

There are hundreds of jobs open at the DWP and thousands of pieces of equipment that need to be replaced. The DWP has been slow to act and it is great to see the Council using their leverage to force them to get a move on. Oversight is a good thing.