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Riding the public gravy train
If you're looking for work in this rotten economy, I've got a tip:

Run, don't walk, to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and apply for anything they've got.

A reader sent me a posting for an executive secretary position at the DWP, and the salary range is $68,089 to $97,864, with great benefits.

"A good secretary is worth her weight in gold," said my e-mailer. "Only in the Los Angeles DWP do they take that quite literally."

I like that line, but does a DWP executive secretary make more than his or her counterparts in other city departments?

Absolutely, and it isn't even close.

I checked with the personnel department and found that the same position in other city departments starts at $54,000 and ranges up to $72,000.

Top pay, in other words, is $25,000 more at the DWP, and the gravy train is not limited to secretaries.

A DWP custodian can make $50,000, compared to $36,000 in other departments. A DWP gardener tops out at $56,000, versus $46,000...

...It doesn't have to be justified. It's just the way things work in a bureaucracy controlled by the likes of Brian D'Arcy, the feared head of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 18, which represents thousands of DWP employees. Any politician who wishes to belly up to the public trough, and stay there, wants to keep the powerful union boss happy....

..."Oh, Steve, what about [L.A. County Supervisor Mark] Ridley-Thomas' $170,000 office remodel?" asked Diane W. "In times like this? APPALLING! Shameful! Nauseating and Disgusting!"

There was just one problem with Diane W.'s e-mail.

It wasn't a $170,000 remodeling job. As first reported by KABC-TV Channel 7, it was a $707,000 remodeling job.

That, by the way, is twice the cost of two median-priced homes in L.A. County....