LADWP boss quits job to flee to Puerto Rico — just weeks after court found utility company liable in fire: ‘direlection of duty’

Just weeks after a Los Angeles judge ruled that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) could be held liable for the catastrophic water system failure and aging electrical infrastructure that fueled the Palisades Fire, the utility’s CEO and chief engineer is stepping down, announcing her return to her home island of Puerto Rico.

Mayor Karen Bass announced Wednesday that Janisse Quiñones, who oversees the city’s electric grid and water supply, will step down effective March 27 as part of what the mayor described as a “planned transition.”

Critics, however, suggested the timing was more than coincidental, calling it “suspicious” and labeling her sudden departure a “dereliction of duty.”

“Interesting development, coming on the heels of the judge in our case overruling LADWP’s demurrer to our Master Complaint,” attorney Alex Robertson, the lawyer in the Palisades Fire case against LADWP, told The California Post. “I don’t believe in coincidences.”

Robertson was referring to a Feb. 19 ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Samantha Jessner rejecting LADWP’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit.

By overruling the utility’s demurrer, the court allowed claims of inverse condemnation and dangerous condition of public property to proceed — specifically allegations tied to the “inherently risky” design of the water supply system and the failure of “antiquated” electrical infrastructure.

Jessner’s decision allows a massive lawsuit on behalf of roughly 10,000 fire victims to move forward, forcing the city to formally respond to allegations that failing infrastructure and depleted water supplies worsened the disaster.

The ruling also highlighted claims that LADWP knowingly designed a water system that could fail if its primary reservoir was offline. At the time of the fires, the 117-million-gallon Santa Ynez Reservoir in Pacific Palisades had been drained for repairs — a decision plaintiffs argue contributed to the system being overwhelmed.

“The buck stops with her,” Robertson said. “She was chief engineer. The reservoirs should have been repaired in weeks, not months.”

The city’s top power and water official took over her $750,000-a-year post in May 2024 — three months after the Santa Ynez Reservoir, the system’s main water supply, had been closed for repairs in February.

Robertson noted that the LADWP CEO was negotiating a payout to leave her job. “The optics don’t look like a great setup,” he said.

Quiñones had already faced criticism over the department’s response to the devastating Los Angeles fires, including scrutiny over empty reservoirs and hundreds of fire hydrants that reportedly needed repair.

“Her term is marked by failures,” Robertson said. “Once we are allowed to start discovery, we will see why she was effectively forced out by Mayor Bass.”

A KCAL News investigation found more than 1,300 fire hydrants across Los Angeles required maintenance or repairs, some flagged nearly a year before the Palisades and Eaton fires — raising questions about whether malfunctioning hydrants hindered firefighting efforts.

LADWP has maintained that draining the reservoir was required by federal and state regulations to protect drinking water quality. The utility also argues that even if the reservoir had been full, the system’s flow capacity would still have been quickly overwhelmed by the extreme demands of the blaze.

“They are going to focus on causation more than liability,” Robertson said, adding that LADWP still has a “strong case” even as the ball moves into the utility’s court.

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