So How Much is the LADWP Thing Gonna Cost?
The taxpayer bill for some weird lawyering and one good public relations day for the city.
What kind of taxpayer money was blown as a result of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power billing debacle? Because some attorney had to buy a 3rd power boat or got so bored being rich that he wanted to go high altitude mountaineering in Mongolia?
Let’s add it up:
Depending on how you slice it, either $11.8 million or $19 million in attorney fees to settle the billing case. Let’s go with the conservative number of $11.8 million, paid to a couple attorneys who might have literally done 0 work on behalf of wrongly billed LADWP customers.
$22 million in city contracts to Paul Paradis to help fix the billing problem. In the process of representing both sides of the billing lawsuit, Paradis scored $30 million in no-bid city contracts through a cyber security company he formed called Aventador Utility Solutions. Remember this is an unknown personal injury lawyer from New York who got paid lots of money for his “cyber security expertise.” And the company is named after a high-end Lamborghini. The initial contract called for Paradis to find a chief project manager. So Paradis hired himself, twice, each time for more money. The most expensive guy with the least knowledge got the contract. It’s believed that Paradis got it as a thank you from the city for helping settle the billing case. But wait, after that information came to light and the city canceled the remainder of the contract, the company changed its name to a car from the video game Grand Theft Auto: Ardent Cyber Solutions, and kept getting awarded multi-million dollar contracts by the city of LA. Lol what.
$2.5 million in sanctions. A judge handed the city of LA sanctions because of how obstructive it was in handling litigation related to the billing settlement. Just the cover-up cost $2.5 million.
$177,000 for an internal investigation into the city attorney’s office. The report absolved City Attorney Mike Feuer, who oversaw the billing lawsuit, but it interviewed…no one.
So about $37 million as of now? And that’s not including fees paid to Browne George Ross, the very cool firm representing the city in all of this, or other fees the city will pay. How much did the definitely-not-public special master’s investigation cost? The apparently millions in unpaid e-vendor invoices the city is on the hook for? What else am I missing? The number could hit $50 million.
How much does tens of millions of dollars actually cost? Tens of millions so the city could have a little PR bump when it announced the settlement. Tens of millions so a few guys can maintain their gaudy cost of living, which includes private jets, and properties in California, Tennessee, and Arizona. Tens of millions over nothing.
Happy New Year!