Pacific Palisades home burned down, car in driveway, Feb. 7, 2025. (Photo: Katy Grimes for California Globe)
LADWP CEO Resigns Following Court Ruling That Could Cost Utility Billions Over Palisades Fire Debacle
Janisse Quiñones leaves her $750,000 salary behind and heads to her hometown of Puerto Rico to modernize their electrical grid
By Megan Barth, March 5, 2026 2:46 pm
In a stunning turn of events that underscores the ongoing fallout from the devastating Palisades Fire, Janisse Quiñones, the CEO and General Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), has resigned. The announcement came mere hours after a court ruling rejected LADWP’s attempt to dismiss a massive lawsuit, potentially exposing the city-owned utility to billions in liability for its alleged role in exacerbating the devastating blaze.
The Palisades Fire, which erupted in January 2025, ravaged over 22,000 acres in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and surrounding areas, destroying more than 5,300 structures, claiming at least 12 lives, and forcing tens of thousands to evacuate. The fire’s rapid spread was blamed in part on critical water supply failures, including empty reservoirs and inadequate hydrant pressure that left firefighters scrambling without essential resources. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, represented by lead counsel Trey Robertson, allege that LADWP’s negligence—such as allowing the Santa Ynez Reservoir to remain offline for months—directly contributed to the catastrophe.
On Wednesday, a judge overruled LADWP’s demurrer to the plaintiffs’ Master Complaint, clearing the path for the case to enter discovery. This phase could unearth internal documents, emails, and testimonies revealing decision-making processes at LADWP, potentially proving claims of systemic mismanagement. Robertson, a wildfire attorney and volunteer firefighter, highlighted the ruling on X, noting its implications for holding the utility accountable. With damages estimated in the billions, the ruling represents a major legal setback for LADWP and could burden Los Angeles taxpayers with staggering costs.
Interesting development coming on the heels of the judge in our case overruling LADWP's demurrer to our Master Complaint. LADWP now faces billions in liability for the Palisades Fire.
Janisse Quiñones, head of the L.A. Department of Water and Power, resigns…— 415FirePhoto (@415FirePhoto) March 4, 2026
Quiñones’ resignation was swift and telling. Appointed by Mayor Karen Bass in 2024 with a record-breaking $750,000 annual salary—a 75% increase over her predecessor—she faced intense scrutiny for prioritizing “equity lenses” in operations while infrastructure crumbled. Critics, including survivors, accused her of criminal negligence, pointing to pre-fire warnings from Cal Fire about low water levels reminiscent of the 2018 Woolsey Fire. A state investigation, ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom shortly after the fire, confirmed that water pressure issues would have persisted even if reservoirs were full, but it did little to quell public outrage over LADWP’s preparedness.
Quiñones, a native of Puerto Rico, is departing to lead LUMA Energy, tasked with modernizing her homeland’s electrical grid—a move some see as an escape from the mounting legal and political pressure in Los Angeles. City officials, including Councilmember Traci Park, lamented the timing, noting LADWP’s ongoing challenges from fire recovery to infrastructure projects like the East San Fernando Valley light rail.
This development is the latest chapter in California’s wildfire saga, where government failures have repeatedly amplified natural disasters. The Palisades Fire exposed not just LADWP’s shortcomings but broader systemic issues under Democratic leadership, from neglected maintenance to misplaced priorities on social equity over public safety. As Assemblyman David Tangipa recently warned, if such failures can occur in urban Los Angeles in January, they can happen anywhere in the state.
As the lawsuit advances, expect more revelations that could reshape how California utilities operate—and who pays the price for their lapses.
ANOTHER DEI-hire Democrat-appointed cockroach scurries away to avoid facing the music in an attempt to evade scrutiny for the COMPLETE MISMANAGEMENT of everything related to these horrible fires..
John Kobylt did a great recap of just how misguided this hire was and you can judge for yourself here :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4HT1nkPS9c
WE pay for their lapses in judgement, maintenance and their lawsuits… in the form of higher utility rates…
And Tom Steyer is full of bovine excrement when he bleats that he’s going to lower utility rates by some absurd percentage – how??? By waving his magic hedge fund wand???
DWP needs to be sold to an investor owned utility, get rid of the negligent upper and middle management, then get rid of bottom level non producers – there are plenty of them that are enjoying on the job retirement. It will be painfull, it will be a struggle, there will be foot dragging and defiant resistance, but it needs to be done. The water and power entities need to be sold separately to different companies, entirely separate managements. Additionally, the former CEO needs to dragged back from puerto rico to answer legaly for her incompetent, grossly negligent oversight of the DWP.
Yes, Quinones needs to be dragged back from Puerto Rico where she is hiding, or will be hiding, to answer legally for what she has done. If we found out she is getting a “pension” now I wouldn’t be at all surprised.
Good riddance to this obscenely overpaid equity-DEI-spewing slacker, Janisse Quinones, appointed by commie L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, who couldn’t even manage to do the basics of her job, like making sure fire hydrants were working or that the reservoir was filled (it’s still empty), which resulted in a complete inferno in the Palisades last year affecting many many many many lives there, from which apparently they will never recover, neither materially nor emotionally, psychologically and perhaps spiritually, and of course killing a good number of Palisades residents for good measure.
Quinones had been negotiating to leave before the ruling- probably since the fire. The empty reservoir and LA fire would have disqualified her for any job stateside, but apparently not in Puerto Rico, whose own infrastructure is decidedly Third World, with the number of blackouts rivaling Cuba. Her incompetence will fit right in.
Let me guess. She is a DEI lesbo, men and Californians need not apply. And now she is out of the laws reach when the questions of fundamental incompetence get asked.
What did she do to earn her paycheck besides stand on her expensive balcony watching the poor taxpayers suffer.
.
Here is how it works. Democrats overpay underperforming (non-performing) DEI hires. The entire state operates this way. That’s one reason why the cost of living is so high. The people in this state vote for their own poverty.
Do we? Or do our votes get shifted by “dominion” during “adjudication” and/or tabulation?
Does the tabulation algorithm get updated during their “trusted build”?
Inquiring minds WANT to know….
The PDF on the CA Secretary of State’s website to former SOS Alex Padilla lists out the security weaknesses form pages 19 onwards, and then explains them away with I.T. security platitudes…
These systems are designed for vote manipulation….
I still think this had everything to do with the UN SMART CITY aka 15-MINUTE-CITY aka C40 CITY and UN AGENDA 2030. It’s also about DEPOPULATION and DESTROYING All property, exempting the GLOBALISTS and all who serve them. The UN is also connected to the WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM who said-You’ll Own NOTHING, you’ll have NO PRIVACY and You’ve never been happier. They also want us to have NO cars or transport other than walking, biking and maybe if you’re lucky, you’ll get an EV car. These evil HYPOCRITE GLOBALISTS also wants us to have NO FAMILIES, NO PRIVATE PROPERTY, NO HOUSES, NO nothing. I don’t know why JUSTICE isn’t being delivered yet for the CRIMES committed by Gavin NEWSOM, Karen Bass etc. Hey Yoo-hoo, REPUBLICAN LEADERS in CA who are MIA, where are YOU? NEWSOM has NO Business running for USA President. Imagine what he’ll do to the ENTIRE USA. Oh and NEWSOM is also creating a huge NATIONAL SECURITY RISK with our OIL-GAS Crisis that Newscum DELIBERATELY CAUSED!
Beware of TOM STEYER and MAYOR MAHON of San Jose who are running for CA GOV. STEYER is into the UN and NET ZERO etc and also supports ILLEGAL ALIENS. Our GAS-OIL will still be in big trouble. MAHON’s SAN JOSE is a UN C40 city and he and his SILICON VALLEY HIGH TECH GLOBALISTS will be bad news. And San Jose also has a HIGH HOMELESS Rate. And look at the even more OUTRAGEOUS and OBSCENE Housing COSTS. YEA, true it’s not only San Jose but Santa Clara Valley and now even the Santa Cruz Hills, also Los Banos area and Livermore Valley are bad now too. I understand supply and demand and appreciation but this is insane. But their solution is, let’s have those teeny-tiny apts next to Light rail-Trains. Let’s have WALKABILITY and call them TRANSIT and URBAN villages and everything is WITHIN 15 minutes. So all you have to do is either walk or ride a bike. I was wondering why I saw so many MAHON ads-his money is coming through HIGH TECH GLOBALISTS and Tom STEYER who also runs many ads on housing affordability was already rich and is involved with the UN and NET ZERO. What OIL REFINERIES we have left might almost all be gone, probably not all because the very rich GLOBALIST Hypocrites in in CA will still want their Oil-Gas. Look at all those PRIVATE JETS who flew in for the SUPER BOWL.