Good riddance to Department of Water and Power (LADWP) CEO Janisse Quiñones, the official who left alocal reservoir drybefore the devastating Palisades Fire in January 2025.
Quiñones joined LADWP in May 2024. On paper, she was qualified. In practice: a disaster.
She is leaving her $750,000-per-year job to take over asCEO of Puerto Rico’s power grid, LUMA.
One feels bad for the people of Puerto Rico: Haven’t they suffered enough?
The 117-million-gallon Santa Ynez Reservoir above Pacific Palisades was already empty when Quiñones took over at LADWP. But she took no action to finish the repairs or refill the reservoir — not even after aDecember blaze in Malibuhighlighted the urgent need for an emergency store of water.
The reservoir above Palisades had been built in the 1960s precisely because of the risk of wildfires in the Santa Monica Mountains, along the boundary between the city and the chaparral.
Yet when fire erupted on the morning of Jan. 7, the reservoir was offline. By evening, fire hydrants were dry — partly due to a collapse in water pressure as pipes burst from burned-out homes, but also due to the sheer lack of supply.
The reservoir had been drained to repair a cracked cover that had been installed to comply with federal regulations. It was emptied again earlier this year, after another crack was found.
Also emptied: public trust in Quiñones and the LADWP, who refused to take responsibility for the disaster. Instead, Quiñones accepted anawardpraising her for her leadership in the crisis.
Quiñones is a qualified engineer with experience in public utilities management. But in her brief tenure at LADWP, she stressed everything except water and power, focusing on “woke” priorities like diversity and identity politics.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
