David Nahai no match for Brian D'arcy (DWP)

Columnist Alan Mittlesteadt, from LA City Beat, says that David Nahai, the mayor's candidate for DWP Gen Mgr. is no match for IBEW 18's Brian D'arcy

"The mayor so badly wants a strong ally running the agency that he’s willing to feed this talented man to the DWP beasts."

"Get this straight, David Nahai is no match for Brian D’Arcy, the boss of the most powerful union in town, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18. The union represents 90 percent of the DWP’s workforce and pretty much owns the place, including management. D’Arcy will eat Nahai’s lunch. D’Arcy’s gone untamed by more powerful general managers and couldn’t be caged by two mayors. This guy’s got so much pull that he won an 18 to 30 percent pay raise for his workers during the transition from Mayor Hahn to Mayor Ambition. To this day, neither Hahn nor Mayor Ambition will say the raise went down on their watch. What we know for sure is that D’Arcy’s union fed $307,000 into Mayor Ambition’s campaign fund in 2005, and that ratepayers are now stuck with covering the tab for the stealth raise."

"Nahai, an Iranian-American who speaks in a patrician accent, earned strong credentials as a fighter for green power. But somehow we’re supposed to think that his on-the-premises learning experience as a volunteer DWP commissioner for two years prepares him to lead the deeply troubled and byzantine empire of the DWP, the largest public utility in the country. Does Yoga prepare someone to become a guard at Pelican Bay? Nahai’s green credentials are impressive, but the DWP instead needs a Green Beret to make the utility receptive to democracy."

http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=6415&IssueNum=230

"Joe Ramallo, city spokesperson says that four of the past six department GMs were promoted out of the DWP ranks or worked elsewhere for the city. Over the past 25 years, Ramallo figures, nine out of 12 permanent or interim GMs came out of the DWP or another city department."(From LA Observed blog)

An article about Ron Deaton’s resignation (for health reasons) & speculation about who would be his successor (before the mayor’s announcement)
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-deaton27oct27,1,6316765.story

Leader Virginia Franklin speaks at King Drew hearing

Still pleading for a revival of South L.A. hospital

By Susanna Rosenblatt

Virginia leads the story:
"South Los Angeles activist Virginia Franklin wept before Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday, recalling how her mother, a psychiatric nursing professor, would bring her students to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center to train.Holding her 5-month-old nephew Kelly, Franklin asked the four board members present, "When he wants to go to school, where's he going to do his internship?"'(October 31, 2007)

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-king31oct31,1,6077519.story

Local Manufacturing Industry profiled

L.A. County tops in factory jobs

Businesses have many reasons to leave, but a skilled labor pool helps retain many of them.
By Walter Hamilton
October 23, 2007

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bizeconomy23oct23,1,3716162.story?track=rss

Despite the decrease in manufacturing overall, manufacturing is still an important part of the local economy. L.A.'s competitive advantage lies with its highly-skilled labor force and proximity to harbors. The local manufacturing industry challenges are the cost of land, lack of zoned industrial land/low vacancy rate, overregulation and the lower cost of producing goods overseas.

Taken by itself, Southern California's manufacturing base would rank third among states, after California as a whole and Texas. Los Angeles County is the nation's largest manufacturing center, with 462,300 jobs, topping Chicago by more than 72,000.

Manufacturing generally churns out well-paid middle-class jobs with good benefits, especially in Southern California, which often tends to have higher-skilled positions, experts say. The top sector in Los Angeles County, for example, is computers and electronic products, the economic group said.