City Controller Wendy Greuel has taken a look at the Los Angeles Police Department's approach to tackling a backlog of over 7,000 untested rape kits in recent months, and has found that there is much room for improvement in how the LAPD handles this kind of evidence. more ›

In August, about 120 guns were seized from the city's animal control officers and facilities as part of a department audit conducted by City Controller Wendy Greuel. Thursday, officials announced the audit determined that all of the department's weapons were accounted for, though there had been previous concerns some weapons had gone missing. more ›

City Controller Wendy Greuel isn't missing an opportunity to take a critical look at Los Angeles' emergency response plans after Hurricane Irene took most of the East Coast out of commission this weekend. She has announced an audit of L.A.'s current emergency disaster preparedness plans. more ›

Ever wonder just how much those tasked with running the city are raking in? Well, City Controller Wendy Greuel, spooked by the scandal in Bell, has released the salaries of L.A.'s highest paid city employees, reports CBS News. The highest paid person is much more low-profile than you might expect: Gina Marie Lindsey, the general manager of the Los Angeles World Airports, who earns $326,856 a year. more ›

As part of an audit being conducted by City Controller Wendy Greuel, about 120 weapons were confiscated from six City-run animal shelters yesterday. Although animal control officers are issued firearms, there is a concern that the weapons have not been properly inventoried, and some guns may have gone missing. more ›

Are animals being cared for in shelters run by L.A.'s Animal Services Department actually being stolen and sold for profit? It's possible, and City Controller Wendy Greuel has announced today her intention to conduct an audit aimed at uncovering just what is going on behind the scenes there. more ›

City Controller Greuel released the second in a series audits of the LADOT parking citation process revealing massive oversights, missed revenue, questionable policies and special treatment, according to a statement from her office. more ›

City of Los Angeles employees managed to waste about $1M on cellphones, says City Controller Wendy Greuel in an audit released yesterday aimed at uncovering the spending habits of seven departments when it comes to cellular technology. Said Greuel of her findings: "My audit demonstrates that our technology policies need to keep pace with technology. Cellular phone service contracts are constantly evolving and we should not pay a penny more than we have to - ever." more ›

Today Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa revealed his budget plan for the City of Los Angeles, and while it did not include layoffs, it did include furloughs. "In an effort to close a $457.5 million deficit, the mayor is calling for 26 furlough days for city workers who will not get cost-of-living raises as part of their contracts, and 36 furloughs days for employees scheduled to get raises," explains the Daily News. more ›

A budget memo released today by the City Controller's office indicates that there are 18 City Departments on track to be a combined $31.9 million over their current budgeted salary appropriation by the end of the fiscal year 2010-2011. more ›

The City of Los Angeles will save a projected $62 million this fiscal year by implementing mandatory employee furlough days, and while these furloughs mean a successful short-term solution to our budget woes, they won't help much in the long run. more ›

City Controller Wendy Greuel posted an update to an online database today to include the 2010 calendar year earnings of about 37,000 City of Los Angeles employess. Greuel says “Angelenos have a right to know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent, which is why I thought it was important for Los Angeles to set an example and post the salary of every City employee online." more ›

Details of new audit today released by City Controller Wendy Greuel show that the Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD) "does a very good job helping to build housing," but "they’re not good at collecting money," according to a release issued by the City Controller's office. Greuel's audit, part of an ongoing series of audits aimed at ensuring the city's funds are properly administered, looked at how more than $43 million in Special Revenue Funds are managed at the LAHD. more ›

The city of Bell scandal, in which employees and elected officials were earning astronomical salaries, prompted local governments across California to try to be a little more open with how much they pay workers. Los Angeles became one of those municipalities when City Controller (and likely Mayoral hopeful) Wendy Greuel quickly jumped in and released a massive database -- actually, it's a one long PDF file -- detailing the salaries of some 37,000 employees. more ›

How effective is Los Angeles' Photo Red Light Program? That's the question City Controller Wendy Greuel will be talking about at a press conference later this morning. The enforcement cameras, which record drivers who will eventually receive a ticket in the mail running red lights, are supposed to improve public safety by reducing accidents at the city's highest risk intersections. more ›

In the wake of the sky high salaries scandal in the city of Bell, city of Los Angeles officials got a heads up yesterday: their salaries, along with all of their staffs, would be published online as soon as possible. more ›

The Mayor's Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD) received some gentle criticism from the Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel after an audit was released suggesting the program needed more oversight and evaluation. more ›

Although governments shouldn't strictly run themselves like a corporation, this is one area where they should. A follow-up audit performed by City Controller Wendy Greuel has demonstrated the city's lack of ability to collect on bills owed. Since a similar audit three years ago, the city has slightly improved, but not by much. more ›

Nearly a year after the costly public funeral for Michael Jackson the costs incurred by the city of Los Angeles will be paid back, AEG and the Jackson Estate announced today. The issue last Summer became a controversy: Los Angeles was dealing with (and still is) a depleting budget and had just shelled out over a million dollars -- permits, street closures and mostly a boat load of police -- for an international event that AEG eventually turned into a movie. more ›

During the height of a heated battle between the L.A. City Council and the L.A. Department of Water & Power earlier this year, City Controller Wendy Greuel announced she would audit the utility to see if they were telling the truth. At issue was a transfer of funds to city hall coffers that is done annually. This year, however, the LADWP balked and threatened to stop the much-needed $73.5 million transfer -- enough to save the city from bankruptcy at the time -- saying their budget would be in trouble if the City Council did not allow an increase in electricity rates, which eventually did happen. more ›

The LADWP is crying poor, but others say the utility is sitting on millions of surplus funds enough to save Los Angeles from bankruptcy on May 5th (specifically, $73.5 million is in question). Now City Controller Wendy Greuel wants to set the record straight. “I want to take the politics out of this process and provide an independent review of the DWP’s finances," she said in a statement late this morning. "I want to ensure that there is proper oversight and transparency for how the DWP spends the ratepayers money and verify the Department’s claim that they could not complete the Power Revenue Transfer. Although I had already begun a separate audit of the DWP’s renewable energy portfolio, I thought this financial audit regarding the Power Revenue transfer was critically important to do.” The audit should be completed within a month. more ›

Following up on a 2005 audit that examined the time and efficiency the Los Angeles Planning Department handles land-use applications, City Controller Wendy Greuel was left disturbed. "Out of all of the audits I have done so far, this is among..." more ›

If this fiscal year isn't bad city coffers--a $212 million deficit, prompting major cuts and thousands of layoffs--let's look at next year's, which begins on July 1st and has a projected $484 million shortfall. Add to that today's news from City Controller Wendy Greuel who says the coming year will be even more brutal in her economic forecast for 2010-2011. more ›

When a City Controller does an audit, the results are usually scathing, finding millions in waste. Today, Wendy Greuel announced that an audit of purchasing controls within Los Angeles' Supply Management System (SMS), where $500 million is spent on goods, was "working well." She still, however, found a few loopholes: "126 City employees with SMS access rights have been terminated from the City, and more than 50 individuals have duplicate SMS user IDs," she pointed out, adding that "some employees share SMS User IDs." Both could leave the city susceptible to wasteful spending. more ›

It's something Mayor Villaraigosa has been ragging on and now Controller Greuel is jumping in on the action... more ›

City Controller Wendy Greuel is at it again and this morning released a report showing off more wasteful spending in the city. With over 40,000 phone lines totaling $7.2 million a year in phone calls, she looked at phone call policies and if there is proper oversight in the justification employees making calls. Some findings her office released in a teaser are as follows: more ›

The elected City Controller has no authority to audit fellow politicians, namely the offices of the Mayor, City Attorney and 15 City Councilmembers, according a judge's ruling today. The issue comes out of a battle between the former Controller--Laura Chick--and former Attorney--Rocky Delgadillo. Current Controller Wendy Greuel believes the judge misinterpreted the law and plans to appeal. In part, city laws states that the Controller has the power to "exercise a general supervision over the accounts of all offices, departments, boards and employees of the city charged in any manner with the receipt, collection or disbursement of the money of the city." more ›

This is local government at its finest, folks. Last year when then-City Countroller Laura Chick tried to audit then-City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, a lawsuit against Chick was brought forth. At issue? Chick wanted to audit the City Attorney's workers compensation program, but Delgadillo balked, throwing a lawsuit in the way. More broadly, the question being asked in the lawsuit, does the elected City Controller have the power to audit another elected official? more ›

Thousands of rape kits still remain untested, finds a follow-up to a year-old audit that revealed some 7,500 rape kits sat untested on the shelves of LAPD labs. City Controller Wendy Greuel plans to release the the full findings tomorrow morning. Her office said today that the backlog has been reduced to 65%. However, Greuel says the Department’s record keeping is inconsistent, making it difficult to give entirely accurate numbers. In early October, it was reported that 3,157 kits were left to go with the full backlog completion due in the summer of 2011. more ›

Last year, then-City Controller Laura Chick wanted to do a performance audit on then-City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo's office. Delgadillo successfully blocked it with a court order, but the fall out over private attorney fees for Chick, totalling $200,000, has lingered. The most recent tentative court ruling was pushed yesterday another month so Greuel and Trutanich can work things out. more ›