A former Los Angeles Department of Water and Power board member linked to an alleged bribery scheme was facing State Bar of California disciplinary charges Wednesday for allegedly soliciting and receiving more than $31,000 in free legal services from an attorney connected to the 2017 LADWP billing scandal.
The State Bar alleges that in the summer of 2017, attorney Bill Funderburk was set to vote as a DWP Board Commissioner on a $30 million no-bid contract for a business created by lawyer Paul Paradis — a cooperating witness in the DWP billing scandal — to provide consulting services to the utility.
At the time, Paradis was covertly assisting in the settlement of a class action suit brought on behalf of DWP ratepayers against the city of Los Angeles following the disastrous rollout of a new DWP billing system overseen by PricewaterhouseCoopers, in which some ratepayers were drastically overcharged, while others …