Parking Attendants Who Can Keep The Lights On In Their Homes And Their Country Homes
An editorial in the LA Times about the sick rates of pay at the DWP, thanks to the union's coziness with the pols:

Few kids grow up dreaming of becoming a parking lot attendant, but the job can be quite lucrative -- at least if you land one at the L.A. Department of Water and Power. According to a report in Bloomberg News, garage monitors at the DWP made, on average, $74,408 a year; nationally, the average salary for this position is $21,250.

That's just one of many eye-popping figures unveiled by Bloomberg, which found that DWP workers make on average 40% more than other city of Los Angeles employees, even when they're doing nearly identical jobs. For example, carpenters at the DWP averaged $102,732 in 2010, compared with $65,201 at the general services department. DWP auto painters pulled down an average of $109,192, compared with $59,901 at the Fire Department. Overall, utility employees had an average salary of $96,805, while other city employees averaged $68,822.

The reason for these inflated salaries isn't mysterious. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is among the biggest campaign contributors in Los Angeles, which means that at contract time, the DWP union finds itself in the enviable position of negotiating with city politicians who may owe their own jobs to the union.

I'll be working in a donut shop at 90 to pay the parking attendant's pension.