Los Angeles City Council Unanimously Confirms
Marcie Edwards as LADWP General Manager

Edwards is First Woman to Lead LADWP

Edwards will bring decades of experience in the utility industry to her new post. She ran Anaheim Public Utilities for 13 years prior her appointment as Anaheim City Manager in July 2013. She had previously worked at LADWP for 24 years in numerous positions of increasing responsibility. As the LADWP general manager, she will oversee the nation’s largest municipal utility with an operating budget of $5.5 billion, 8,800 employees and water and power to nearly 4 million Angelenos. 

In nominating Edwards last month to serve as LADWP general manager, Mayor Eric Garcetti tasked her with leading the nation’s largest municipal utility through the biggest transformation in its history and in the history of California utilities.    

Following her confirmation, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said, “I’d like to thank the City Council for confirming Marcie Edwards to lead the DWP. I chose Ms. Edwards because her leadership rests on a comprehensive knowledge of the business of water and power, having risen through the ranks at the DWP, and amassing more than 35 years of experience in utility operations inside and outside L.A. She’s savvy and tough, and I’m confident she will continue our efforts to reform the DWP and save money for ratepayers.”

“Marcie Edwards is a smart, strong leader who has the experience and understanding to guide LADWP through the unprecedented challenges it faces at this critical juncture in its history,” said Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson. “Welcome home, Marcie, we look forward to working with you.”

Board President Mel Levine said Edwards’ experience running a municipal water and power utility as well as her deep familiarity with LADWP will serve her well in her new capacity. “She has the proven leadership and experience to take on the issues at LADWP and lead the Department through many tough challenges that lie ahead,” Levine said.

Among Edwards’ top priorities will be improving customer service, resolving billing issues related to the conversion of LADWP’s customer information system, overseeing LADWP’s transition to a clean energy future through further development of renewable energy and local solar expansion, increased energy efficiency, water conservation, and developing more local water resources to combat climate change and drought.  She is also strongly committed to increased transparency and outreach to LADWP’s “customer-owners”.

“I am honored to lead LADWP during this challenging period — it’s like coming home to the utility I grew up with,” Edwards said. She praised LADWP employees, saying, “This is a tough job and no one person can do it alone. It will take a group effort to meet the challenges now facing LADWP. I am heartened to work with such dedicated, intelligent and innovative people, many of whom are among the best in the water and power utility industry.”

Edwards began working at LADWP in August 1976 at age 19 as a clerk typist.  She then became a steam plant assistant, a plant equipment operator, a steam plant operator, a load dispatcher and a senior load dispatcher.

She steadily worked her way up the ladder to become LADWP superintendent of load dispatching, energy control center manager, manager of bulk power operations/maintenance, and bulk power business unit director. From 1998 to 2000, she served as assistant general manager for the marketing and the customer service business units. She left LADWP in December 2000 to serve as general manager of Anaheim’s municipal water and electric utility. 

A past Governor on the California Independent System Operator Board, Edwards also served as interim CEO of that agency in 2004, and, in that role, assisted in avoiding statewide power outages during the Energy Crisis.

Edwards received both her Bachelors degree in Organizational Management, as well as her Masters degree in Public Administration from the University of La Verne. She is married with one son.

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