After months of delays, the Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to approve a one-year contract with the union that represents roughly 3,500 firefighters, providing no pay raises for the fiscal year that ends June 30.

The agreement with United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112 is designed to save $11.6 million this year and $2.3 million in the fiscal year that starts July 1, city officials said.

As part of the pact, firefighters will give up for six months the $28.25 uniform allowance that is paid by the city every two weeks. Other cost savings for this year will be achieved by delaying the payments that must be made for unused sick time, said City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana.

Under the agreement, firefighters will not be reimbursed for unused sick time until they have accrued 136 unused sick days, officials said. Currently, firefighters must receive compensation after accruing 112 unused sick days.

The head of the powerful union that represents employees of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power voiced alarm Friday over Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s comments to The Times editorial board about the utility’s management.

In a statement released through a spokeswoman, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18 business manager Brian D’Arcy said he was “shocked and disappointed” -- and accused the mayor of attempting to “scapegoat union members” for the utility’s problems.

“In doing so, he is failing to take responsibility for his own actions in managing the largest municipally owned public utility in the United States,” D’Arcy said.

Two days ago, Villaraigosa told The Times that he had been waging an “absolute war” against the DWP bureaucracy and said the union was “both part of the problem and part of the solution.” He also complained that high-level managers are both “defenders of the status quo” and members of the union.

There are a lot of cities that would eagerly welcome an In-and-Out drive-through burger restaurant in their town.

But not San Juan Capistrano.

The South Orange County city has rejected plans for the popular eatery to locate on one of the city's main drags amid concerns that Del Obispo Street had turned into "Fast Food Alley" and "Cholesterol Row."

Councilman Tom Hribar, who proposed the ban on new drive-throughs on the street, told the Orange County Register that another such restaurant would further clog already bad traffic. "That was the reason our citizens rebelled," Hribar said.

In-and-Out officials seem resigned to the idea that the San Juan Capistrano location is out of the question -- at least for now.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had unusually sharp words Wednesday for unidentified high-level bureaucrats within the city’s Department of Water and Power.

At a meeting with Times opinion writers and editors, the mayor said his recent fight with the City Council over boosting electricity rates was made harder by the utility’s own resistance to change. Though he nominates the DWP general manager and appoints its board, the real power is held by utility supervisors who “control the bureaucracy.”

“For four years, I’ve battled a bureaucracy that just won’t respond to the policy direction” to move away from coal toward renewable fuels like solar and wind energy, Villaraigosa said. “It’s been an absolute war.”

He said it was extremely difficult to get information out of utility leaders. “Every time that we tried to figure out what the numbers are,” the bureaucracy resists. “Getting through that Byzantine bureaucracy is very difficult…. We’ve got to figure out a way to make that agency more transparent.”

He may be a lame duck, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave notice Wednesday that he's going out fighting -- as in battling the alliance of oil companies, conservative activists and fellow Republicans who are gathering signatures for a November ballot initiative to overturn California's landmark global warming law.

The 2006 law, which the Hummer-driving governor considers a highlight of his administration, would slash the state's carbon footprint by 15% in the next decade. And in the process give an impetus to the sort of green-tech businesses that Schwarzenegger sees as the key to the state's economic future.

Complete details of Schwarzenegger's battle plan can be found on The Times' Greenspace blog.

-- Margot Roosevelt

The Costa Mesa City Council has proposed that the city purchase the Orange County Fairgrounds from the state for $96 million, the minimum price state officials had been looking to fetch from a sale as a way to help close the state budget deficit.

The proposal was made in Sacramento on Wednesday during a visit to the governor’s office by Councilwoman Katrina Foley, Councilman Gary Monahan and City Manager Allan Roeder. The Daily Pilot has more details.

What's unclear is how the budget-challenged city would pay for the purchase. The proposal specified that, apart from offering $96 million for the 150-acre property, the city would commit to closing the deal no later than Oct. 31, 2010.

-- Mona Shadia in Orange County

A high-level aide to Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich lashed out Wednesday at Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa over his proposed budget, telling neighborhood activists that Trutanich’s office is being asked to absorb cuts that are larger than those sought at most other city agencies.

In an e-mail titled “Mayor Declares War on City Attorney,” Special Assistant City Atty. Jane Usher said Villaraigosa is attempting to slash the size of the city attorney’s office by an unfairly large amount -- 36% over a two-year period. Usher said Trutanich asked the mayor to allow him to do “more work” on such issues as the collection of unpaid debts and the reduction of workers’ compensation costs.

“To his face, the mayor agrees with Trutanich. In his budget proposal, the mayor shows his true colors,” Usher said in her e-mail. “So bring on those bogus lawsuits. Deal your drugs in our [neighborhoods]. Because this mayor lacks fiscal foresight. He has other agendas. He simply refuses to spend your money intelligently, to protect us.”

The words were especially strong considering that Usher campaigned for Villaraigosa’s election in 2005. She served as his planning commission president from 2005 to 2008.

Villaraigosa Deputy Chief of Staff Matt Szabo said the mayor would issue a comment later today. [Updated, 7:07 p.m: Villaraigosa spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said late Wednesday afternoon that the mayor would have no comment.] But City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana, the top budget advisor at City Hall, said other agencies are also being asked to make large sacrifices.

In the fiscal year that starts July 1, the mayor is seeking a nearly 25% cut in the Cultural Affairs Department, Santana said. The Human Services Department is being zeroed out, he added.

-- David Zahniser at Los Angeles City Hall

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Wednesday announced that the city has received a $1.1-million federal grant to increase the prosecution of domestic violence offenders and assist victims.

The mayor made the announcement at a City Hall press conference on “Denim Day," recognized to increase public awareness of sexual abuse.

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck accompanied the mayor, along with several representatives from groups that assist victims of domestic violence – all of whom were sporting jeans.

The grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women, will provide additional funding to the L.A. city attorney’s office to prosecute domestic violence suspects and enhance coordination with the LAPD. The new effort will also help investigators track the connection between gang violence and domestic violence.

-- Phil Willon at Los Angeles City Hall

When a 62-inch water pipe burst and sent hundreds of thousands of gallons of water pouring into homes in Studio City last fall, Department of Water and Power officials knew they would be on the hook for a lot of money to pay back homeowners for damaged property.

But 7-1/2 months later, what many thought should have been a relatively straightforward process of paying residents who claimed the deluge of water and sludge destroyed their homes and upended their lives has turned into anything but.

Some residents claim the city is dragging its feet. City officials said some of the claims filed by residents have raised red flags and require careful examination to make sure the city isn't being ripped off.

"We have folks seeking recovery for a $95,000 diamond ring allegedly washed off a kitchen counter," said City Atty. Joe Brajevich.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has just begun delivering his State of the City address at the new LAPD headquarters adjacent to City Hall.

You can watch the speech live on the city's website, or read the text here, as it was prepared for delivery:

President Garcetti; Members of the City Council; City Controller Greuel; City Attorney Trutanich; Members of the School Board; Chief Beck; Chief Peaks; Presiding Judge McCoy; Judges Edmon &  Espinoza; General Managers and Commissioners of our City departments; Consuls General; Fellow Angelenos:

Pardon me if I break with the established ritual this afternoon.  Instead of giving the traditional State of the City, complete with all things we've accomplished and all the things we intend to do, instead, I want to try and confine myself to a single topic: our city budget and what we must do to solve our deficit and hone our mission of the Angels.

I think everybody realizes the urgency of our present financial condition.  My friends, this is a tough time for everyone right now in Los Angeles.  We are experiencing an historic economic collapse. 

A former Los Angeles firefighter who also worked as a real estate broker pleaded no contest Monday to more than a dozen felony counts in connection with a real-estate fraud scheme, authorities said.

Brent Lamont Mathews, 43, pleaded no context to six counts of forgery, three counts of recording a false or fraudulent instrument and four counts of grand theft, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.  He also admitted two special allegations of taking more than $500,000.

Mathew’s girlfriend at the time, Joi Rochelle Smith, 34, was a notary public and part-time real estate broker who was also charged by authorities. In February, she pleaded no contest to one count of recording a false or fraudulent instrument, the district attorney said. Smith was sentenced to three years of formal probation and 52 days of community service.

Mathews allegedly put his name on the title of a Hacienda Heights property without the owner's knowledge or consent through a series of forgeries and false filings, prosecutors said. He also allegedly went on to defraud two investors after recruiting them as partners to "flip" the house, the district attorney's office said.

The two victims lost $146,000 in the deal, prosecutors said

Mathews resigned from the Los Angeles Fire Department in December 2009 in lieu of discharge, according to the district attorney.

-- Robert J. Lopez

Los Angeles County Chief Executive William T Fujioka said Monday that he is grappling with a $510.5 million budget shortfall and may need to lay off about 100 workers to help close the gap, even with negotiations underway with labor leaders that could yield compromises.

“This will be the worst year,” Fujioka said at a news conference today, predicting that the economic downturn will continue to ease and the pressure on the county will be far less in coming years.

In addition to possible job cuts, Fujioka's proposal to close the budget gap includes shortened library hours, reduced overtime for sheriff’s employees and the elimination of more than 1,000 vacant positions across the county.

Fujioka also cautioned that the cuts might grow significantly worse in the coming weeks because of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed $1.5 billion cut to county funding. That situation remains fluid, however, and no state cuts are included in Fujioka’s plan so far.

Currently, his budget proposal for the coming fiscal year totals $22.721 billion, a decrease of $885 million from the current budget. The proposed budget is scheduled to be presented to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday, allowing for public hearings to begin May 12.

Among proposed curtailments:

Remember all that panic over the possibility of 4,000 job cuts at Los Angeles City Hall?

Never mind.

In the first preview of the 2010-2011 budget he will unveil Tuesday, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa released a list of 3,500 positions that will be eliminated from the city's workforce of about 35,000 employees.

But that figure includes as many as 2,400 employees who are taking the city’s early retirement deal, 336 people who have been transferred to new jobs, another 105 who have already been let go and 383 pending layoffs that can’t take place until July because of a labor agreement.

When the final calculations are done, Villaraigosa may only be talking about several hundred additional layoffs next year -- leaving the total at fewer than 1,000 people.

City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said when the City Council authorized 4,000 position eliminations in February, budget officials always intended to count employees retiring early within that number.

Though the number of filled positions targeted may be less than once anticipated, Santana said the smaller list was evidence that the budget-tightening moves that the mayor and council have done this year are paying off.

A Big Bear Lake man has been charged with fraud for passing himself off as a general and using the seal of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on his business cards, federal investigators said Friday.

Prosecutors said Carmine Alexander "Bud" Cannarella, 64, had spent years pretending to be a general in the Army Reserve, making the bogus claim on his business cards, resume and the Internet. He even had photos made up of himself in a two-star general's outfit.

"There are indications that he once applied to be city manager of Big Bear," said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles. "It is unclear what he was up to."

Cannarella did, in fact, serve in the military in the 1960s, but he never surpassed the rank of private.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a former president of the Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, offered a muted response Friday to the death of former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates.

“Chief Gates committed his life to the Los Angeles Police Department and to the city of Los Angeles. We all mourn his death, and my condolences to him, to his family and to the officers of the Los Angeles Police Department who mourn his loss," the mayor said at a noon news conference, called to announce his endorsement of San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris for state attorney general.

In a written statement released later in the day, the mayor also noted that Gates would be remembered for creating the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program for teaching children about the dangers of drugs and for helping “pave the way" for department reforms.

In March 1992, while serving as vice president of the ACLU of Southern California, Villaraigosa criticized a City Council proposal that would have delayed moving Gates out of the job, even though the procedural maneuver would have allowed two Latino candidates to be considered.

Hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles will soon be notified that they must shut down in June, when the city's medical marijuana ordinance will take effect.

The City Council decided Friday to approve fees that dispensaries will be required to pay to register, the last piece of the long-delayed ordinance. When those fees are effective, which is expected to be around June 4, city officials will send cease-and-desist letters to illegal dispensaries. The city's medical marijuana ordinance allows only dispensaries that registered under the city's 2007 moratorium to continue to operate under its new law.

"It was the wild, wild West for weed in Los Angeles for some time, and we are going in the direction to finally take control of the situation," said Councilman Jose Huizar, who helped draft the medical marijuana ordinance. "This is a very significant step."

Operators of the dispensaries that will be forced to shut down have been weighing their legal options, which include suing the city to challenge the ordinance.

In a joint effort with Southern California’s air quality management district and prosecutors in four surrounding counties, Los Angeles city lawyers helped negotiate a $15-million settlement with a company accused of illegally selling smog-causing cleaning solvents to auto shops and other businesses across Southern California.

The settlement with Safety-Kleen Systems Inc., finalized this week, provided some welcome news to Los Angeles city officials who are trying to close a $222-million shortfall this fiscal year.

The Texas-based company, which markets itself on its website as a green operation that “enables thousands of businesses to stay in balance with the environment,” admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to end the litigation by paying $3 million in penalties to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The rest of the money will be divided between the city of Los Angeles city attorney’s office and the district attorneys’ offices of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. City lawyers plan to put their $2.4-million portion into an account dedicated to enforcing consumer and environmental protection laws. They hope the money will help them close the office’s deficit this year.

An attorney for Safety-Kleen could not immediately be reached for comment.

[Updated at 1:13 p.m.: Eric Zimmer, executive vice president of Safety-Kleen, said the vast majority of the company’s customers in the South Coast area have transitioned from petroleum-based solvents to water-based cleaning materials over the last decade. He added that some of the company’s customers told Safety-Kleen representatives they were exempt from the air quality management district’s rules barring certain cleaning materials.

“It is a very complicated set of regulations,” Zimmer said. “The bottom line there was misinterpretation of the implication of those rules by Safety-Kleen and our customers, and the role of Safety-Kleen in the compliance on behalf of customers.”

“We are taking full responsibility and putting this matter behind us,” he said.] 

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s appointees at the Department of Water and Power approved a 4.8% electric rate increase Thursday, with utility officials warning that the political standoff over the issue had put the city’s renewable energy goals in jeopardy.

On a 4-0 vote, the DWP board agreed to an increase of 0.6 cents per kilowatt hour, a proposal it rejected just two weeks ago. That plan was endorsed by the City Council on Wednesday, putting an apparent end to the fight between the council and the mayor over rates.

But Raman Raj, the DWP's acting general manager, said the recent impasse would make it “almost impossible” to reach Villaraigosa’s goal of ensuring that the utility gets 20% of its power from renewable sources, such as wind and solar energy, by Dec. 31.

Because of the standoff, the DWP has already postponed plans to purchase wind power from Utah, a contract that would cost roughly $19 million annually.

“The 20% goal is less and less likely as each day goes by,” Raj said.

The rate hike is scheduled to go into effect July 1 and last three months.

A sweeping culinary change may soon be taking place at LAX.

If a series of concession contracts are approved by Los Angeles airport commissioners and the City Council, a slew of new dining options might include local favorites such as Bertha’s Soul Food, Korean barbecue restaurant Park’s Bar-B-Q , East L.A. institution La Serenata de Garibaldi, and macrobiotic-focused M Café de Chaya.  Local star chefs Nancy Silverton, Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken have proposed restaurants for LAX too.

Silverton, who owns Pizzeria Mozza and Osteria Mozza in Hollywood with celebrity chef Mario Batali, has proposed an Italian cafe called Spuntino (which means “snack” in Italian) in Terminal 7. Her menu would include fresh-from-the-oven foccacia or a version of her famous pizzas and the same kind of appetizers she serves at her mozzarella bar at Osteria Mozza –- locally produced mozzarella and burrata served with Italian cured meats and olives.

“I said I wanted a Berkel slicer, so I can slice my prosciutto to order,” Silverton said.

Homeless counts in Ventura County dropped 17% this winter, a success local officials attribute to more low-cost housing opening up and better coordination of services in cities.

Social workers found 1,815 people living on the streets on the night of Jan. 26, according to a report from the Ventura County Homeless and Housing Coalition. That's a 17% decrease from 2009 for homeless individuals. Homeless families dropped 25%.

Reductions were consistent in Oxnard, Ventura, Simi Valley and other cities with significant homeless populations, said coalition director Cathy Brudnicki.

The drop comes at a time when local unemployment hovers around 11% and shows that local governments can make a significant dent in a chronic problem with they work together, said Joseph Colletti, chief executive officer of Urban Initiatives, a nonprofit that helps the homeless and other underprivileged people.

In the last year, housing for homeless and poor families opened in Oxnard and Ventura.  A Simi Valley advocacy group was able to find stable shelter for 93 people. Ongoing programs in several cities, combined with new federal stimulus dollars for homeless prevention, also helped cut the numbers, Colletti said.

-- Catherine Saillant in Thousand Oaks

Despite repeated vows to reform the way it handles costly discrimination and misconduct complaints, the Los Angeles Fire Department relies on a disciplinary system plagued by poor documentation, uneven punishment and a lack of clear guidelines, according to a city audit.

The allegations outlined in the 220-page report mirror findings that have been raised repeatedly in city audits dating from 1994. 

The cases cited in the study occurred between late 2007 and last year -- after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and top fire officials vowed to change department culture in the wake of legal payouts that had cost taxpayers millions of dollars to settle claims of harassment, retaliation and discrimination.

The audit, conducted by the Fire Commission's office of independent assessor, credited the department with making improvements but noted that it has a way to go to address longstanding problems in its investigative process. The report was presented Tuesday to the Fire Commission.

Among the problem cases cited in the latest audit:

• A firefighter told two Jewish firefighters, "I'll stick you in an oven," and later pushed a firehouse bench toward one of the men after he filed a discrimination complaint. A station captain failed to take action after being told of the comments, and department investigators failed to fully investigate the incident involving the bench.

• A firefighter used a racial epithet in front of several firefighters who were having dinner with an African American colleague after a department golf tournament. The firefighter should have received time off but was only issued a written reprimand.

• Department investigators engaged in alleged misconduct when serving a subpoena for confidential medical records during a disciplinary probe. The audit recommended that the department immediately stop seeking investigative subpoenas, a practice that exposes the city to legal liability, until a formal policy is written.

• An off-duty paramedic was caught by police with a prostitute in his car as the two appeared ready to engage in a sexual act. Department investigators conducted a cursory interview and failed to file adequately researched reports. In the end, the paramedic received six days off.

Battalion Chief Ronnie Villanueva said in an interview Wednesday that the department acknowledged the problems outlined in the audit and is working with the Fire Commission to reform its investigation and disciplinary system.

"We embrace the report," said Villanueva, a department spokesman. "We need to change the way we do business. We need to improve our process."

-- Robert J. Lopez

 
An advocacy group that has been demanding greater government protections for adult film performers plans to file a complaint Thursday with state regulators against nine Los Angeles-area porn talent agencies.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation officials, opening a new front in their fight with the porn industry, said they plan to send a letter to State Labor Commissioner Angela Bradstreet arguing the agencies encourage porn performers to engage in unsafe sex that puts them at risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

“Many of these agents are callous enough to describe the unprotected sexual acts their clients will engage in on a checklist on their websites as cavalierly as if one was ordering off a menu in a restaurant,” said Michael Weinstein, the foundation’s president.

The nonprofit foundation, based in Los Angeles, has been campaigning for increased regulation of the porn industry since a 2004 HIV outbreak among performers in the San Fernando Valley.

Agencies named in the complaint include A List Talent, ATMLA , Gold Star Modeling, LA Direct Models, Lisa Ann’s Talent Management, Metro Talent Management, SpieglerGirls.com, Type 9 Models, Inc. and World Modeling, according to Weinstein.

Woodland Hills-based ATMLA’s website features a list of mostly female performers’ names and photos. Click on a photo, and up pops a list of sex acts the actress is willing to perform on screen, including many that involve unprotected sex.

The agency’s owner, a former porn actress known as Shy Love, said she believes AIDS Healthcare activists are on a witch hunt.

"They keep trying to figure out who to blame, and now they’re blaming the agents,” Love said.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council members may be close to a breakthrough in their protracted dispute over how much the municipal utility should charge ratepayers and how much it should contribute to the city’s troubled treasury.

The council voted 8 to 5 on Wednesday to adopt a three-month electricity rate increase of 0.6 of a cent per kilowatt hour to take effect July 1 and be reviewed again by Oct. 1. The action marked the second time that the 15-member council mustered a bare eight-vote majority to back an increase equivalent to a 4.5% boost for ratepayers. Opposing the plan were council members Bernard C. Parks, Jan Perry, Paul Krekorian, Tom LaBonge and Dennis Zine. Councilmen Greig Smith and Ed Reyes were absent.

The proposal largely mirrors an increase that the council approved two weeks ago but that died after the Department of Water and Power’s board of commissioners demanded a larger, longer-lasting hike to pay for the fluctuating costs of coal and the mayor’s renewable energy agenda. That council rejected the DWP’s counter-proposal.

As a result, DWP executives said the department would not transfer $73.5 million to the city’s cash-strapped budget, maintaining that the utility could not afford it without the rate hike. The DWP’s refusal to provide the money has dramatically increased the size of the city’s deficit, expanding it to $222.4 million for the fiscal year that ends June 30, city budget officials said Friday.

The DWP board has scheduled an emergency meeting Thursday to consider accepting the council's increase.

“We’re pleased with the council’s actions,” DWP Acting General Manager Raman Raj said Wednesday afternoon.

Next week, Villaraigosa is expected to announce his list of planned layoffs for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

“I’m guardedly optimistic that this is a done deal,’’ said Councilman Herb Wesson, who added that he has been talking with the mayor daily in an effort to broker a rate hike agreement.

[Updated at 3:52 p.m.: “I think what the mayor did was put the city before some of the things he supported."

Wesson said he has talked with the mayor almost daily since the political feud began, in hopes of finding a compromise. Those discussions began the night of April 2, when Wesson went to the mayor’s home and the two longtime political colleagues spent a few hours smoking cigars and tossing around ideas on how to reach a deal, the councilman said.

“The critical thing is that, as we move forward with all of the other issues, the mayor and the council need to be on the same page whenever we can," he said.

Wesson said the council retains the political leverage necessary to ensure there’s “more transparency" and accountability at the DWP, including possibly installing a ratepayer advocate.]

“We feel the commission will do, independently, what’s in the best interest of the city," said Matt Szabo, Villaraigosa’s deputy chief of staff.

-- Phil Willon and David Zahniser at Los Angeles City Hall

The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to reject a plan to freeze hiring in the Los Angeles Police Department over the next three months, even as personnel officials continue preparing to lay off as many as 383 civilian workers July 1.

The council sent the issue to a committee for more study, a move that would allow 90 officers to be hired by June 30 to replace those who plan to retire or resign. That vote came a few hours after Personnel Department officials told the council that they were moving ahead with plans to lay off at least 100 workers apiece in the Library Department and the Department of Recreation and Parks because of the city's budget crisis.

Still, several council members said they did not want to back away from a commitment made last year to keep the LAPD at 9,963 officers.

If “we renege on that 9,963, we’re jeopardizing the people of Los Angeles, and we’re putting a knife in the back of the chief of police,” said Councilman Dennis Zine, who is also a reserve police officer.

Some council members said they were torn by the competing priorities.

The series of major water main breaks that occurred around Los Angeles last year was caused by the city's water conservation program, which put too much pressure on the city's aging cast iron pipes, according to a city report released Tuesday.

The report is a step forward in solving a mystery that bedeviled city officials and engineers and enraged some residents who had to endure the flooding and road damage.

A team of scientists charged with looking at the pipe breaks concluded that the city should rework its conservation plan, which limited the use of sprinklers to Mondays and Thursdays.

One alternative would be to require homes with even-number addresses to conserve on even-numbered days and requiring homes with odd-numbered addresses to conserve on odd-numbered days, the team said.

“The bottom line is, you want to create a more even usage of water pressure so you don’t have a sudden drop of water pressure at a given time of the day,” said Jean-Pierre Bardet, a USC engineering professor who headed the team.

The investigation team, which appeared before the council’s Energy and Environment Committee, found a connection between the city’s water-rationing program and the increase in pipe breaks last summer, particularly with cast iron pipes.

At various locations in the L.A. Department of Water and Power distribution system, water pressure fell significantly on Mondays and Thursdays after the beginning of the water-rationing program on June 1, 2009, the report said.

“Those water pressure drops on these days were caused by an increased water flow during the watering of lawns,” the report said. “As a result, the cyclic levels of water pressure increased and accelerated the metal fatigue failures of aged and corroded cast-iron pipes.”