There may be a $405-million budget shortfall, but that's not going to affect the levels of police officers employed by the city, according to an accord reached yesterday by a couple City Councilmembers and Mayor Antonio Villaragosa. more ›

Before she goes off to Sacramento to work under Schwarzenegger later this month, City Controller Laura Chick today released another scathing audit (.pdf) bringing to light another major city inefficiency. “There is no way that the City of Los Angeles can keep up with serving the needs of the people when it takes an average of 135 days (4 ½ months) and a minimum of a dozen steps to hire one person, and that’s just the reactionary part it takes to fill a vacancy. But anticipating public and workforce needs is not part of the picture,” she said in a statement. She goes on to describe that there is no strategy to efficiently hire new employees and that city hall insiders often get extra points on their applications just for serving the city the longest, even if they are not qualified. more ›