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DWP is unpopular in LA and in the Owens Valley. LAO file photo
The Department of Water and Power is already one of LA's more unpopular institutions: unable to stop screwing up customers' bills, lavish in its pay to employees and other spending, ever-hungry for higher rates, the source of regular flooding from broken water pipes, and slow to send rebates to homeowners who sign up to rip out their lawns. Now this. A retired DWP audio-visual technician named Thatcus Richard was charged Thursday with misappropriating more than $4 million in public funds by steering video contracts to friends. Before he retired last June, he was getting paid more than $100,000 a year. Prosecutors allege he made more than $1 million personally on the video scheme.
