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Blackout Boss

With all the disasters and crises lately, there's no shortage of Giuliani moments for local officials. Or, I should say, potential Giuliani moments (I suppose ...

With all the disasters and crises lately, there's no shortage of Giuliani moments for local officials. Or, I should say, potential Giuliani moments (I suppose you'd have to perform to make it a Giuliani moment). The latest bureaucrat to get a shot at playing Rudy: L.A.'s Department of Water and Power Chief Ron Deaton. By this L.A. Times account, Deaton handled yesterday's blackout with confidence.

The Times portrays Deaton as calm through the storm:

The veteran civil servant stood calmly in front of the DWP headquarters on Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles with a giant map of the power grid, trying to explain why it was actually good news that so much of the city was without power.

"The system was doing what it was supposed to do," Deaton told a television reporter, explaining that power was switched off to protect the system from being greatly damaged.

"It's better to shut it down than to burn out the whole system," he said.

Until last year, Deaton was L.A.'s chief legislative analyst, so he has good relations with the city council. As Councilman Jack Weiss told the Times: "He probably knows not only which wire was cut, but which line item in the city budget paid for it."

Surely, you're wondering: how much does L.A. pay this cool cat? $310,000, making him the best-paid city employee in all of L.A. Sounds like he might be worth it.

Christopher Swope was GOVERNING's executive editor.
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