LADWP chief Janisse Quiñones stepping down to return to Puerto Rico

The CEO of Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power is stepping down from her role, the mayor’s office announced Wednesday.

Janisse Quiñones will be leaving the $750,000 a year job to return home to Puerto Rico, where she will take on a leadership role on the island, “supporting the modernization and transformation” of its electric grid, Mayor Karen Bass’ office said.

“Janisse brought steady leadership and engineering expertise to LADWP during a critical period for our city,” Bass said.

“Her focus on resilience, reliability, and strengthening the workforce has helped position the Department for continued progress. We thank her for her service to Los Angeles.”

The top engineer came into the role in 2024 and is leaving as part of a “planned leadership transition.”

“Serving the people of Los Angeles has been one of the greatest honors of my professional life,” Quiñones said.

“I am deeply grateful to Mayor Karen Bass and the City of Los Angeles for the trust placed in me to steward essential infrastructure that supports the health, safety, and economic vitality of our communities.

“Los Angeles is a city defined by innovation, diversity, and resilience. It has been a privilege to serve a community that continually rises to meet its challenges.”

Quiñones came under fire last year and was blamed for the poor handling of the response to the Los Angeles fires, specifically for leaving reservoirs empty and not addressing nearly 400 fire hydrants that needed repair.

More than 1,300 Los Angeles fire hydrants needed maintenance or repair—some flagged nearly a year before the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires—raising questions about whether broken hydrants impacted firefighting efforts, according to a KCAL News investigation.

Furthermore, Quiñones oversaw the shutdown and emptying of a reservoir in the Pacific Palisades during brushfire season, the Daily Mail reported. This reportedly resulted in firefighters running out of water faster.

She earns a whopping salary of $750,000 — twice as much as her predecessor, Martin Adams — making her the city’s highest-paid employee, even more than Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who earns around $300,000.

The city’s Department of Water and Power is the largest municipal utility in the United States, providing water and electricity to 4 million people, including more than 681,000 water customers and 1.4 million electric customers.

Prior to leading LADWP, Quiñones served as Senior Vice President of Electric Operations at Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

Quiñones was born and raised in Caguas, Puerto Rico, and attended the University of Puerto Rico–Mayagüez Campus, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

She is now homebound, where she will oversee her island’s electric grid, which remains in deep crisis—plagued by chronic outages, a 33% energy shortfall, aging oil-fired plants, nearly $9 billion in debt, and residents enduring far more blackouts than anywhere on the U.S. mainland nearly a decade after Hurricane Maria.

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