Friday, January 6, 2012

Los Angeles, California

Portions of this article were taken from Wikipedia.

Los Angeles is a city in California with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621. It is the most populous city in California and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City, on a land area of 468.67 square miles (1,213.8 km2), and is located in the southern region of the state. It is the focal point of the larger Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside combined statistical area, which contains nearly 17.8 million people and which is one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world and the second largest in the United States. Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most multicultural counties[8] in the United States, while the entire Los Angeles area itself is recognized and regarded as the most diverse metropolitan area in the United States. Antonio Villaraigosa is the city's mayor.

[edit] The Good

  • Current and past budgets are posted.[1]
  • Meeting dates, agendas, and reports are posted.[2][3]
  • City Council members are listed with contact information. Each council member has an individual website with biographical and district information.[4]
  • The Mayor's website has a contact form but phone number and direct email are not listed.[5]
  • Names and phone numbers of city administrators are provided.[6] Email addresses for departments are also provided.[7]
  • Zoning information and building permits are available.[8][9]
  • Audits are posted.[10]
  • Contracts are available for viewing in a searchable database/[11]
  • Bids and RFPs are posted.[12]
  • Contact information is given for those interested in accessing city public records.[13]
  • Business tax information is provided.[14]
  • Registration information is available on those registered to lobby the city. [15]

[edit] The Bad

  • Information on fees and license costs is not provided.
  • Information on membership in any taxpayer funded lobbying associations, or the city's own lobbying activities, is not provided.

[edit] Budget

The city's FY 2010-2011 budget closed a $492 million gap in the general fund through a combination of revenue increases and spending cuts. 2,400 city positions were eliminated, and $54 million was cut from fire departments, and $100 million was cut from police departments. It totaled $6.7 billion. The city's financial policies require that at least 2.75% of the general fund budget be allocated to the Emergency Fund.[16][17]

Los Angeles' fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30 of the next year. The budget system includes a process of budget formulation, budget adoption, budgetary control, and cost control.[17]

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is postponing at least $100 million in personnel costs until after he leaves office. Villaraigosa has delayed paying for such obligations as police overtime, unused sick time, contractually agreed-upon wage hikes and an early retirement program that gave 2,400 employees full pensions five years ahead of schedule. The next mayor, and possibly the one after that, will inherit the tab. [18]

[edit] Audit

A recent audit revealed that former City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo failed to investigate fraud or collect money the city was owed, cost the city $3 million.[19]

[edit] Expensive water

Los Angeles Controller Laura Chick found in a March 2009 audit that the city spends $189,000/year on bottled water. In 2006, Villaraigosa told employees to buy their own; at that time, employees were spending $89,000/year.[20]

[edit] Public employees

[edit] Elected officials

Los Angeles is governed by three elected city officers, including a mayor, and a city council. The Mayor, City Controller, and City Attorney are elected by voters every four years. The Mayor submits proposals and recommendations to the Council, enforces city ordinances, and approves or vetoes Council ordinances. [21]

Fifteen City Council members are elected to four year terms, for a maximum of two terms.[21]

[edit] Administrative officials

A full city organizational chart can be found here. A contact list for administrative departments and officials can be found here.

[edit] Public employee salaries

Main article: Los Angeles employee salaries

A full list of city employee salaries is provided by the City Controller's Office, and can be found here.

Elected officials' salaries are as follows:[22]

PositionSalary
Mayor$232,425.72
City Controller$196,667.94
City Attorney$214,546.96
City Council Member$178,789.18

[edit] Pensions

According to a recent report published at Northwestern University, Los Angeles is one of the ten municipalities with the largest amount of unfunded pension liabilities. Nationwide there is $574 billion in unfunded pension liabilities for local pension plans, and this is in addition to the $3 trillion in debt facing state-sponsored pension plans.[23] The report states that the pension plans could be out of money as early at 2025.[23]

Municipality
(number of plans) 		Liabilities, Stated Basis, June ?09 ($B) Liabilities (ABO), Treasury Rate Net Pension Assets ($B) Unfunded Liability ($B) Unfunded Liability / Revenue Unfunded Liability per Household ($)
Los Angeles (3)34.649.323.226.1378%18,193

[edit] Reform

In March, 2011, voters approved ballot Measure G, a pension reform plan that will reduce city costs from the pension and healthcare plans of newly hired Fire, Police, and Harbor employees. With the measure's passage, the average pension and health cost to the city for each new hire is expected to fall from $15,000 to $12,000 annually.[24]

[edit] Lobbying

Main article: California taxpayer-funded lobbying

For 2007 and 2008, Los Angeles spent $2,397,335 on lobbying, while the city's attorney's office spent $192,041. Total, the city spent $2,589,376 in 2007 and 2008.[25]

All businesses operating within the city must pay a city business tax. Information on the tax is provided by the Office of Finance.[26] Tax rates for the period of 2009-2011 can be found here.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ? Budget
  2. ? City Events Calendar
  3. ? E-Packets
  4. ? City Council
  5. ? Ask the Mayor
  6. ? Phone Directory
  7. ? Contact Us
  8. ? Planning
  9. ? Building and Safety
  10. ? Audits and Reports
  11. ? City Contracts
  12. ? Bids and RFPs
  13. ? Records
  14. ? Finance
  15. ? Ethics Commission
  16. ? Wall Street Journal, L.A. Budget Deal Cuts Police, Fire, May 21, 2011
  17. ? 17.017.12010-2011 Budget Summary
  18. ? LA Times, Villaraigosa delays payment of $100 million in personnel costs, Jan. 3, 2011
  19. ? Daily News, Audit: City lost $3M by mishandling workers' comp, Oct. 13, 2010
  20. ? Los Angeles Times, "L.A. County supervisors sip from customized water bottles", March 31, 2009
  21. ? 21.021.1Your Government At a Glance
  22. ? Salaries
  23. ? 23.023.1MacIver Institute, City of Milwaukee Pension a Ticking Time Bomb According to Northwestern Study, Oct. 12, 2010
  24. ? City of Los Angeles Pension Reform, Ballot Measure G, "Ballotpedia."
  25. ? State-Level Lobbying and Taxpayers: How Much Do We Really Know?, Pacific Research Institute
  26. ? Office of Finance

Source: http://sunshinereview.org/index.php?title=Los_Angeles,_California&diff=233735&oldid=prev

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