Using DWP workers instead of private contractors cost millions

AP via CoCoTimes ^ | 4/17/7

[SmithL]

LOS ANGELES- Some upgrades to the Department of Water and Power's aging system were shifted from private contractors to costly DWP crews, pushing the price tag up millions of dollars, it was reported.

The Daily News reported Tuesday that a DWP review found that using city crews to install trunk lines roughly doubled the cost and the length of time it would have taken private workers to complete the project.

For instance, a private contractor bid $6.2 million to install a 42-inch pipeline beneath Burbank Boulevard and White Oak Avenue, a project estimated to take 250 days.

When the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 18, objected, the project was turned over to unionized DWP crews, who completed the work in 439 days at a cost of $13.8 million.

"Experience indicates that contractors can complete trunk line projects on a substantially shorter time period than in-house forces," water system chief James McDaniel wrote in a memorandum to DWP general manager Ronald Deaton.

Despite cost overruns, the DWP plans this week to hire a 20-member union crew for a third trunk line project. It's part of a compromise with the union, which agreed not to challenge private contracts for 13 upcoming trunk-line projects.

The 13 future projects will cost rate payers an estimated $737 million, but officials said it could have up to $1.3 billion if DWP workers did the work.

"The settlement agreement clears the way for the department to enter into a number of contracts for essential trunk-line construction work," board president David Nahai said. "At the same time, we have to remember that we need to have in-house capability, as well.

"At the end of the day you can't just continue contracting out."

[SmithL]

Your tax dollars at work.

[1rudeboy]

[chuckle]

[2banana]

Extortion - pure and simple...

[AngelesCrestHighway]

....”At the end of the day you can’t just continue contracting out.”....WHY??? It might be cost effective and save taxpayers some money????...Who cares about that!

[RC2]

Great.....let South Central LA people do the work. LA will never see water again.

[skimask]

I work as a private contractor for underground utility work in Los Angeles. It is common knowledge among us in the private sector that the DWP will send out six or seven workers to do a job we can do with two. Not only can we do it with two, but we take fewer days to complete the project too.

[Toddsterpatriot]

The Daily News reported Tuesday that a DWP review found that using city crews to install trunk lines roughly doubled the cost and the length of time it would have taken private workers to complete the project.

Thank God a PPP wasn't involved. LOL!

[1rudeboy]

I had a college friend that worked summers in Michigan for a local water "authority." His job (and the crew's) was to run a video robot between two manholes checking for leaks into the storm drain. He says that they would run the 'bot halfway into the pipe, and then shut it down and drink beer. If a supervisor showed up, they'd fire it back up again in time for him to walk into the "van" and see that they were working.

The supervisors could not check their Thermos containers for booze, either, which was a bonus. Union rules.

[1rudeboy]

Hey, at least the PPP didn’t make a profit.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

LAWP Unionized Workers - doing the jobs taxpayers cannot believe they are paying the freight for.

[Toddsterpatriot]

Hey, at least the PPP didn’t make a profit.

Yeah, double the cost is worth it, just so long as dirty foreigners don't make a profit.

[1rudeboy]

And our sovereignty remains intact!

[1rudeboy]

Hey, now that I think about it, think of the benefit to our economy of these union-types earning all this money for their Mob masters.

[Zakeet]

The Daily News reported Tuesday that a DWP review found that using city crews to install trunk lines roughly doubled the cost and the length of time it would have taken private workers to complete the project.

Another example of poor investigative reporting. Anybody knows that the city crews are at least 4-5 times less efficient that private contractors. As a result, the Daily News' figures are woefully understated.

[Toddsterpatriot]

earning all this money for their American Mob masters

[Shamrock-DW]

Duh...does UNION not mean anything?

[BurbankKarl]

Same reason 100,000 people were without power 48 hours last week.