The security chief at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was abruptly replaced last week as the agency’s lingering power vulnerabilities are scrutinized by City Hall.

Former Security Services Director Patrick Findley was fired on Thursday, according to three City Hall sources familiar with the matter but who were not authorized to speak publicly.

His departure came less than a week after this news organization revealed utility officials failed to implement 9/11-era security recommendations. A previously redacted version of a City Hall report outlined gaping vulnerabilities at the nation’s largest municipal electric utility, including a major power transmission center without door alarms. Outside consultants who authored the report blamed broken management for the lingering problems.

Findley declined to comment, saying he was “seeking some advice.”

Department leaders plan to answer before the City Council on Tuesday, explaining how they’re addressing security recommendations dating to 2001. Navigant Consultants followed up on those recommendations as part of the sweeping department analysis released in December.

Findley was hired in 2008 to bring more discipline and organization to the DWP security ranks, observers say. He had spent more than 30 years at the Los Angeles Police Department, according to his LinkedIn profile, rising to command the jail and other divisions. Also in 2008, federal regulators approved critical infrastructure protection standards for the industry.

When Navigant consultants checked for compliance with those standards and followed up on a 2001 threat assessment, they found many physical security suggestions were “ignored.” They pointed to management policies and practices that created a system without accountability.

“A behavioral change is imperative for the department to reduce outstanding security risks,” consultants wrote in the Industrial, Economic and Administrative Survey.

In recent years, Findley emerged in the news occasionally. He contended with a series of phone scams in which callers threatened to cut off DWP customers’ service if they didn’t pay down their accounts with prepaid cash cards. Some of the scammers used exact customer billing information, leading the agency to investigate its internal defenses.

Findley also strengthened security at DWP headquarters downtown, where visitors now have to present photo identification and pass through a metal detector. In a trade publication article, he said managers were “grateful” for the protection.

But workers weren’t so satisfied. At a major power distribution center, according to Navigant, delivery trucks could enter without identification. In a transmission hub, “site personnel are concerned for their safety as they have had security breaches in the past,” the report said.

Also last week, DWP General Manager Marcie Edwards announced a management reorganization to “aid in the coordination” between the water and power systems. While responding to some criticisms by the ratepayer advocate and the consultants, her reorganization stops short of one of the Navigant recommendations: to have the security director report directly to the general manager. Findley’s former position of security director remains and will report to the newly created position of chief operating officer.

Replacing Findley on an interim basis is Gary Wong, agency spokeswoman Michelle Figueroa said. Wong currently serves as assistant general manager of the Joint System Services, the group that includes customer service, IT and other functions that transcend water and power.

Figueroa said she could not comment further about “personnel matters.”