LA’s $750,000-a-year water czar is responsible for a series of failures that contributed to the devastating Palisades Fire, fire department insiders told DailyMail.com.
Under orders from Mayor Karen Bass, the city has maxed out its budget to “attract private sector talent,” hiring Janisse Quiñones, CEO of the Department of Water and Power (LADWP), with a salary of $750,000 – almost double that of its predecessor.
Now Quiñones is accused by LA Fire Department (LAFD) insiders of leaving a nearby reservoir shut off and fire hydrants broken for months, DailyMail.com can reveal. This has left firefighters without water while battling the devastating Palisades fire this week.
And, Daily Mail.com has learned, Quiñone’s former employer has also been linked to fire scandals. She was previously a top executive at electric utility PG&E, which went bankrupt due to liability for several massive wildfires in California.
From 2021 to 2023, she served as senior vice president at Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E).
The utility’s power lines sparked the second largest wildfire in California history, Dixie, in 2021. His involvement in the 2018 Camp Fire cost PG&E a $13.5 billion legal settlement.
The company’s liability for allegedly causing fires was estimated at $30 billion when it filed for bankruptcy in 2018. It went bankrupt in 2020.
Quiñones joined PG&E in April 2021 as Senior Vice President of Gas Engineering, transitioned to Senior Vice President of Electric Operations in July 2022 and left the company in December 2023.
Janisse Quiñones, the newly appointed CEO and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, staggered through a news conference Wednesday (left) while discussing the lack of water available to extinguish raging wildfires.
Quiñones said water sources were dry at 3 a.m. local time on Wednesday, blaming low pressure in the system and water being consumed faster than it was being replenished. (Image: A firefighter removes a hose from a fire hydrant after running out of water)
Sources told DailyMail.com that since her hiring from LADWP, Quiñones oversaw the closure and emptying of a reservoir in the Pacific Palisades during wildfire season.
The closure left firefighters battling the current Palisades Fire without water more quickly, experts say.
The Santa Ynez Reservoir is designed to hold 117 million gallons of drinking water. But it was taken offline in recent months to repair a tear in the cover that exposed the water and potentially affected its drinkability.
The shutdown was first publicly reported by the LA times on Friday morning.
Former DWP General Manager Martin Adams told the newspaper that having the Santa Ynez Reservoir would have helped fight the Palisades fire that wiped out most of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood this week.
“Would Santa Ynez have helped? Yes, to some extent. Would it have saved the day? I don’t think so,” Adams said.
He said the crucial reservoir had been offline “for some time” before the fires, but did not know the exact date.
But a source at the LA Fire Department (LAFD) told DailyMail.com that DWP officials told them “if it hadn’t been closed, it probably would have been fine and they had enough water for the fire.”
However, insiders tell DailyMail.com that the DWP chief had known about the broken fire hydrants in the city for months
A well-connected former senior LAFD officer told DailyMail.com that lack of water was already a “common” problem, made worse by DWP’s failure to repair shut-off fire hydrants
Sources told DailyMail.com that since her hiring from LADWP, Quiñones oversaw the closure and emptying of the Santa Ynez Reservoir in the Pacific Palisades during wildfire season. When the inferno broke out this week, the water source was empty
At a news conference this week, Quiñones said firefighters in the Palisades ran out of water due to low pressure in the system, using the water faster than it was being refilled.
A well-connected former senior LAFD officer told DailyMail.com that lack of water was already a “common” problem, made worse by DWP’s failure to repair shut-off fire hydrants.
“Every year the fire department goes out and checks every hydrant,” he said.
“For my entire career, we did this once a year and sent a report to our Hydrant Unit with any issues we encountered. Year after year, the same hydrants that had problems went unrepaired.
“An example that comes to mind is the fire hydrants at Palisades High School in Temescal Canyon. They were often dry, we checked them. DWP knew they had problems and that it would take months to resolve them.
“It’s a known issue across the city with DWP.
‘Last year the annual fire hydrant checks were handed back to DWP because the firefighters were literally too busy making calls.
“I bet DWP didn’t do this. I’d like to see if they have the documents.’
The city has maxed out its budget to “attract private sector talent,” hiring Janisse Quiñones, CEO of the Department of Water and Power (LADWP), in May with a salary of $750,000.
Many have complained about LA Mayor Karen Bass’s absence in Africa, firing fire hydrants without water and electricity to power lines left on to fan the flames. (Image: Bass and Gavin Newsom touring the Palisades Wednesday)
Flames from the Palisades Fire burn through a residential building on Sunset Boulevard amid a powerful storm on January 9, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles
LADWP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A current senior LAFD official also told DailyMail.com that some fire hydrants in the Palisades were not working when desperate firefighters tried to use them this week, and that they had not been repaired due to budget cuts by LA Mayor Karen Bass.
DailyMail.com has exclusively obtained a memo to LAFD ‘top brass’ sent on Monday, January 6, the day before the Palisades Fire started, revealing demands from Bass to cut the department’s budget by another $49 million, on top of the already $17.6 million in cuts voted by the City Council.
The daily news from Los Angeles previously reported that the city’s total spending on the fire department increased by $53 million in the 2024-25 fiscal year, which runs through July, but that $7 million of their budget was put into a separate fund for personnel while wage negotiations were still confused, leading to the $17.6 million accounting deficit.
Department veterans told DailyMail.com that the net effect of the budget machinations has been fewer firefighters on the scene for years.
The beleaguered LADWP was only just recovering from a series of major scandals, including in 2022 when former chief executive David Wright was sentenced to six years in prison for bribery.
Wright took bribes from attorney Paul Paradis to secure a $30 million, three-year LADWP contract for the attorney’s firm, federal prosecutors said.
Compounding the corruption, Paradis also received nearly $2.2 million in illegal kickbacks from a complex scheme in which he simultaneously represented LADWP and residents who sued the department over a billing debacle.
DWP implemented a new billing system in 2013 that inaccurately increased utility bills, leading to class action lawsuits.
Paradis represented the city as special counsel, but at the same time represented plaintiffs in the billing debacle and conspired to obtain a favorable payout for himself and his clients. He was sentenced to three years in prison in 2023.