LEE KANON ALPERT ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE WATER AND POWER BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Edith Ramirez Re-Elected Vice President
LOS ANGELES – Lee Kanon Alpert, an award-winning San Fernando Valley advocate, attorney, arbitrator and mediator has been elected as president of the City of Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners (Board). In his role as president, Mr. Alpert will play a key role overseeing policy issues such as power reliability, water supply, security, the movement to renewable energy and water and power conservation initiatives, among others. The Board also re-elected Commissioner Edith Ramirez as its Vice President.
The Board of Water and Power Commissioners is the governing body of the LADWP, the nation’s largest municipal utility serving 1.4 million electric customers and 680,000 water customers. Each Board commissioner is appointed to five-year terms and serves on a voluntary basis.
“I am honored to have been granted the trust and the responsibility that this position holds, by my fellow board members. We are at a challenging time in the history of our great and growing City when it comes to water and power resources. Our water resources dwindle and our cost of that necessary resource increases. Mandated changes in the manner in which we produce energy for our electrical needs, necessary to protect our worsening environment, create additional costs, all while we continue to protect and develop our existing physical plant,” said Alpert. “Our goal is to, in the safest and most secure manner, continue to provide the water and energy needs of those we serve at fair and reasonable prices to our ratepayers, while balancing these burgeoning costs.”
Mr. Alpert, who was appointed to the Board of Water and Power Commissioner by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa last December, serves as general counsel for a number of businesses. His primary legal practice areas are business and corporate law, administrative and government relations, arbitration and mediation, cable franchising negotiations, commercial, construction and real estate transactional law. Over the course of his 36-year career, Mr. Alpert has served as a Superior Court Judge Pro Tempore and as a private and court-appointed arbitrator, mediator and referee. He also helped design the American Arbitration Association’s California Mediation Program and was the first American Arbitration Association (AAA) mediator on the West Coast.
Mr. Alpert received his Bachelors of Science in Education from the University of Southern California. He graduated Loyola University School of Law, with is Juris Doctor degree., and at Harvard University, completed his certification at the Graduate School of Business Executive Program Certification in Not for Profit Leadership and Management.
Mr. Alpert is currently a member of the Providence Health and Services Regional Governing Board (which oversees 5 regional hospitals), Chair of Genesis L.A. Economic Development Corporation;; a Member of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association; on the Advisory Board, Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley; and on the Advisory Board at Woodbury University, School of Business.
Mr. Alpert has served as in numerous appointed capacities in government. He is the past Chair of the City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety Commission, past Chair of the first Commission on Neighborhood Councils for the City of Los Angeles, a past member of the Los Angeles World Airport’s Commission, along with many other City, County and State entities.
Mr. Alpert has received the Tree of Life award from the Jewish National Fund, the 41st Annual Fernando Award for a lifetime of achievement in volunteerism in the San Fernando Valley, the Stanley M. Lintz Community Service Award from the San Fernando Valley Bar Association, The Circle of Life award from the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging for Mr. Alpert and his immediate family’s lifelong community involvement, and was named 2007 Person of the Year by the Metropolitan News Enterprise and Metropolitan News Legal Newspaper, Los Angeles.
Ms. Ramirez was re-elected as vice president of the Board. She was first elected vice president in September 2006 after having been appointed by Mayor Villaraigosa in September 2005. She is a partner with the law firm of Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart, Oliver & Hedges, LLP, which specializes in intellectual property and complex business litigation matters. She received her A.B. from Harvard-Radcliffe College in 1989. Ms. Ramirez obtained her law degree from Harvard Law School in 1992, where she served as a member of the Harvard Law Review. After graduation she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Alfred T. Goodwin, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She was an associate at the firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher for three years before joining Quinn Emanuel.
Ms. Ramirez has participated in a variety of other professional and community activities, including serving as a member of the Board of Directors of Volunteers of America of Los Angeles. She is former President of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice and is also a former member of the Los Angeles Police Permit Review Panel.
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