Department of Water and Power workers are paid bonuses for being part of car pools, riding a bicycle to work and for operating the heavy-duty equipment for which they were hired, according to a review of reports released recently by City Controller Ron Galperin.

Those are among the more than 600 work rules that govern the DWP and add to its costs of operations now subject to review. Mayor Eric Garcetti is holding up a proposed DWP four-year contract in part to scale back some of those extra pay perks.

Other premiums are offered for working odd shifts, using specialized equipment or working in difficult locations such as tunnels.

Other costs such as sick time and the way the department contracts out some work are being scaled back in the proposed contract, where workers will need a doctor’s note after three days of illness and reducing the amounts paid to bring in private workers.

In releasing the information, Galperin did not make any recommendations for change.

“This is his first report looking at the salaries and what goes into overtime,” Assistant Controller Claire Bartels said. “He is going to have other reports in the future looking at other aspects.

“At this point, he is not saying if the payments are good or bad, but something the public should be aware of.”

Some of the payments involve programs developed years ago, such as the payment to participate in car pools or bicycling to work.

They were developed as ways to encourage workers to abandon their private vehicles to reduce traffic and help the environment.

“These are policy issues for the mayor and City Council to decide,” Bartels said. “These are all decisions that were made at one time or another. The controller is not judging if they are appropriate, but making sure the public is aware of the enormous range of factors other than overtime pay that goes into salaries.”

City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana told the City Council last week that a provision of the new contract will allow the city to continue to negotiate to determine if those various work rules should be continued.

Brian D’Arcy, business manager of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18 was not available for comment Monday, but he said through spokesman Chris Modrzejewski that most of the DWP’s overtime issues were due to the agency being down 500 workers and the need to pay them to keep the systems operating.

In his report last week, Galperin focused on the overtime pay to workers, saying more than 86 percent of DWP workers received extra earnings above their base pay and that more than 35 percent of DWP’s full-time workers were paid more than $50,000 in the first six months of this year.

He also found that DWP workers were paid an average of 20.8 percent more in base pay compared with other city workers.

DWP officials have said the gap is partly due to the fact the utility paid cost-of-living increases without interruption, while city workers went for a period without any increases.

PA Consulting, a private firm hired last year to review DWP rate increase proposals, said there are other areas where reductions can be made to reduce the impact on rates.

It cited customer service and information technology divisions, which account for 40 percent of the utility staff. PA Consulting said the agency should look at ways to reduce those numbers and to outsource some of the services to save money.