Letter to the Editor:
To my fellow ratepayers, I am concerned about mismanagement at the Burbank Water & Power Department.
The Burbank City Council has appointed 7 Burbank residents to a board to oversee the BWP. Among their duties is to oversee the budget of the BWP.
The appointees are:
Cynthia LaCamera, Laura Tenenbaum, Christopher Malotte, Philippe Eskandar, Timothy Cherry, Earle LeMasters, and William Luddy.
It should be noted that Board Member Eskandar (due to his length of service) has enjoyed more than 100 free meals at the ratepayers’ expense.
It has been said that if you were to find one roach in the cupboard, there is usually more.
It also turns out that part of the $5,000.00 per year is used to feed the General Manager’s 9 top assistant managers attending each meeting. Ms. Lindell’s total annual compensation is $361,896. Each of those 9 top managers average total compensation is in the $300,000 range. In my opinion, the management at the BWP are paid very well. It begs the question: Why the need to give the managers and appointed board members a free meal?
When I questioned Ms. Lindell about the above practice she offered the following reasons:
1) We work hard.
2) It is tradition.
3) If I don’t include the free meals, my managers may leave us for other jobs.
4) I have the blessing of the City Manager.
5) The money spent is a fraction of our income/budget.
I believe all of the above reasons are unjustified to continue this practice.
I placed an open records request to see the credit card charges for the BWP management. They reveal a great deal of travel all over the country at the ratepayers’ expense. One multi-night hotel and food billing was for a trip to Anaheim. Another was for a trip on ‘Women in Management’.
The BWP is issuing a new bond in the amount of 120 million dollars. It GUARANTEES that our utility bills will increase 50%. With additional cost of living increases in salary, the cost of generating energy and the cost to purchase water always increasing, it is a safe bet that all of our utilities bills will DOUBLE in the next 4-8 years.
General Manager Lindell appears indifferent to waste and needless expense in her department. I am calling for change. We should demand a BWP board that exercises greater oversight.
General Manager Lindell should be replaced with a person who is budget-minded and cares about the ratepayers of Burbank.
Joel Schlossman
Burbank resident
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