DWP’s trusts remains mysterious

The head of the largest Department of Water and Power union (Brian D’Arcy at IBEW Local 18) says he’s going to appeal a recent court order to turn over financial records for the Joint Training Institute and Joint Safety Institute.

These non-profits have taken in about $40 million in ratepayer money collectively over the last ten years or longer. To be sure, it’s a story that’s been in the news for 9 years, when the LA Weekly tried to delve into the issue of where this money was going, only to come up empty handed.

Gene Maddaus reports for the LA Weekly, and he joined us tonight for the Mixer.

The back-and-forth between city officials and utility union folk has been going on for months now and we still have little idea what these trusts are doing with this money.

“Journalism feeds on information,” Maddaus says, and it’s difficult to find out anything about this because the power brokers at the employees’ union seem to have the opinion that they should “stonewall everything”.