DWP transfer in legal limbo

Marking a win for taxpayer advocates, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power lost a key court battle Wednesday over its multimillion-dollar transfer of ratepayer funds to city coffers each year. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kenneth R. Freeman issued the tentative ruling Wednesday in which he refused to validate the annual cash transfer on procedural grounds.

But Freeman did not rule on the crucial question of whether the DWP has been illegally overcharging water ratepayers in order to transfer millions of dollars a year to the city's general fund to pay for police, fire and other city services.