Civic Circus with Ankur Patel breaks down local politics, with a weekly report on city, county, and state bureaucracies.

We often get lost in federal issues like the debt ceiling, but the fact of the matter is Los Angeles City provides its nearly 4 million residents with water and power, public transportation albeit inadequate, and a host of other day to day services that create a functioning government.

A few weeks ago Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti held his most recent Government 101 workshop at City Hall.

Dozens of people showed up, from the college student who has never been to city hall to the gadfly there just to keep an eye on Eric Garcetti.

Over the years, Government 101 and other similar workshops have educated thousands of activists and concerned citizens on the processes of government.

Some people in attendance already knew the organizational structure of Los Angeles City’s 18 elected officials [1 mayor, 1 city attorney, 1 city controller, and 15 city councilmembers], 37 departments [from the department of aging to the zoo], 3 proprietary departments [Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Los Angeles World Airports, and the Harbor], and 95 Neighborhood Councils.

The most useful topic in Government 101 was who to lobby and how… Identifying which meetings to go to, power levers to pull, and key words are all just steps to get to know the right people. The best politician is the one you know.

Each individual department isn’t run by elected officials, but by general managers, commissioners, and other appointed officials that report to electeds.

Out of the 3 proprietary departments of LA the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), regularly draws the most attention from city activists. The lack of transparency, the direct effect they have on your bills, and regular rate hikes… which we are on the verge of once again, get people activated at least enough to make public comment.

The DWP has held a series of workshops across Los Angeles where concerned citizens can stick colored dots next to issues in order to voice their concerns and express their priorities in regards to the proposed rate hikes. The extent to which the DWP uses that information is not clear.

The LADWP has used the environment and renewable energies as part of the justification for the last two rate increases. They bring in environmental organizations, like the Sierra Club, that aren’t familiar with the internal politics and bureaucracy of Los Angeles to run interference and serve as a punching bag for ratepayers.

On July 13th and 14th the LADWP held workshops to prepare themselves and the public for the re-introduction of the solar incentive program (SIP) and the roll out of the nation’s first major feed-in tariff (FIT). A FiT would allow energy producing facilities to sell energy to the LADWP.

With solar manufacturers from around the world looking at California, specifically the multi-billion dollar solar market that is Los Angeles, policies like SIP and FIT need to be scrutinized. We must also become familiar with people in positions of power like Ron Nichols, the new General Manager of the LADWP.

I ain’t calling anyone a clown yet, but in order to speak truth to power, we have to know where power lies.