LADWP top earners reap nearly $800,000 as utility bills soar

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power paid its five highest-paid employees a whopping $3.84 million last year, including nearly $2.1 million in overtime, as Angelenos struggled to keep up with soaring utility bills, according to a California Post investigation.

LADWP’s eye-popping salaries are part of a staggering $2.65 billion annual salary and benefits bill, with 114 employees pocketing more than half a million dollars each.

The department’s five highest-paid workers — four distribution supervisors and one electrical distribution mechanic — collected a total of $3.84 million, with each of them earning more in overtime than their regular pay, according to salary figures verified with LADWP.

One mechanic earned a staggering $505,769 in overtime alone, bringing his total annual salary to $760,685. The utility’s highest-paid supervisor was paid $779,192, including $434,281 in overtime.

LADWP declined to provide the names of these five employees despite multiple requests from The Post.

The utility paid its 13,623 employees a whopping $2.3 billion in wages, plus an additional $350.3 million in employer pension and health contributions, according to a California Post study of 2025 compensation records released by the California state comptroller.

The 114 employees earning more than $500,000 collectively raked in $66.1 million in a single year, averaging nearly $580,000 each.

These staggering payments come as Los Angeles ratepayers face skyrocketing utility bills and demand an independent audit of the agency responsible for keeping their lights on.

“I paid more this year to LADWP in utility bills than I did in property taxes,” Reed told the Post.

Fed up, Reed started a petition demanding an independent audit and relief from high summer electricity rates. As of Tuesday, it had collected more than 39,000 signatures.

He presented his demands directly to the LADWP Board of Water and Power Commissioners on Tuesday.

“We demand real answers,” he told the Post.

LADWP defended high overtime pay as a “necessary and cost-effective tool” to keep the lights on while the department struggles to fill critical positions.

The utility pointed to the Palisades fire in January 2025, major storms, extreme heat and a shortage of highly skilled electricians.

“In the case of the Palisades wildfire response, some staff members worked weeks without a day off,” department spokeswoman Kimberly Briggs told the Post.

The department said workers perform critical tasks, maintaining and restoring power to more than 1.6 million customers, especially during emergencies.

“These classifications are in high demand throughout the utility industry, making recruitment and retention increasingly competitive,” Briggs said.

LADWP also noted that training a power line crew foreman takes at least four years, while civil service hiring rules can delay filling vacancies.

But John Kobylt, a longtime utility watchdog and KFI AM 640 radio host, didn’t buy the explanation.

“Los Angeles residents have been getting ripped off for decades,” Kobylt told the Post. “No one stops him.”

He blasted the LADWP as “a completely corrupt organization from top to bottom.”

Payroll records reveal just how prevalent massive salaries have become.

Of the 114 employees who earned more than half a million dollars, 36 were electrical distribution mechanic supervisors, 30 were transmission and distribution district supervisors, and 26 were electrical distribution mechanics.

Another 321 employees earned more than $400,000, while 901 salaries exceeded $300,000.

Departmentwide salaries jumped 8.3% between 2024 and 2025, to about $2.3 billion, according to California state comptroller records. Add $350.3 million in employer pension and health contributions, and the total rises to about $2.65 billion for LADWP’s water and power operations.

LADWP countered that overtime accounts for only 5 percent of its $10.8 billion budget, while total labor costs account for 18 percent.

But the department did not provide details on how much of the overtime among its highest-paid employees came from specific emergencies and how much was due to routine staffing shortages.

For Craig Ribeiro, an apartment owner in Venice, soaring electricity costs are another reason why living and owning property in Los Angeles is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. Ribeiro told the Post that rising energy bills are on top of other expenses, pushing him to sell his property next year.

Even his tenant, who moved from Oregon, was stunned by the electricity costs.

“I told him welcome to Los Angeles,” Ribeiro said.

Ribeiro sees massive public service salaries as part of a broader pattern of taxpayer spending with little accountability. He compared the payments to the city’s spending on the homeless, where he believes residents have seen “little or nothing to show for it.”

The city’s independent ratepayer advocate warned that electricity costs would continue to rise as Los Angeles strives for carbon-free power, while acknowledging that many costly upgrades to the aging power grid would be necessary regardless of the city’s environmental goals.

LADWP says its electricity rates remain lower than those of neighboring utilities.

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