Janisse Quiñones, Head Of The L.a. Department Of Water And Power, Resigns - Beritaja

The caput of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power stepped down Wednesday arsenic portion of a “planned activity transition,” Mayor Karen Bass’ agency announced.

Janisse Quiñones, who took the helm astatine DWP successful 2024, is returning to Puerto Rico, wherever she is from, to thief modernize the island’s electrical grid.

In a statement, Bass said that Quiñones brought “steady activity and engineering expertise to LADWP.”

“During her tenure, LADWP reinforced electrical grid and h2o strategy reliability, enhanced coordination during wildfire events, and precocious investments to fortify resilience amid expanding ambiance pressures,” the connection said.

Quiñones’ hefty net of $750,000, which drew attraction erstwhile she was hired, was meant to beryllium competitory pinch backstage inferior companies. She antecedently was a elder vice president of electrical operations astatine Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

Quiñones managed the DWP done the Palisades fire, erstwhile a cardinal reservoir was quiet arsenic firefighters battled the blaze.

Some based on that the reservoir, which had been drained to repair its cover, led to little h2o unit and hampered the firefight.

The DWP has pushed back, saying the repairs were basal to protect nationalist wellness and that moreover if the reservoir had been full, location still would person been h2o unit issues, considering the bonzer request connected the strategy during the fire.

A state investigation recovered that moreover if the reservoir had been full, the travel complaint successful the pipes “would person been a limiting facet successful maintaining unit and the strategy would person been quickly overwhelmed.”