If city hall is going to buy stuff, they should use it, right? A survey of taxpayer-funded purchases more turned up some interesting results, City Controller Wendy Greuel has found. In her latest audit, which will be released later today, she finds that many purchased items are misplaced or have gone completely missing, according to a sneak peek of the report. more ›

At a L.A. City Council committee meeting last Friday, city budget officials announced that Los Angeles has received around $591 million from 84 grants in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. That's out of 150 applications put forth so far, asking for a total of $1.5 billion in the three-year federal program. And applications aren't over yet. A low-income weatherization grant was submitted by LADWP last week and two more are expected to be turned in this week. Those two are both tech-related. One program would allow people without computer and internet access to checkout laptops for a couple weeks at a time and another would upgrade the city's website to become a customer service powerhouse and social network. more ›

An e-mail, probably from an anonymous staffer within the city's Information Technology Agency, says the city's most successful outreach tool to the public is set to be cut from the budget outright. If you don't use it, 3-1-1 is available 24 hours a day with live city operators ready to take various requests like graffiti and bulky item pickups and help you access any person within the city. It's goal is to centralize access to the city and could in fact save the city money when the three phased project is finished, if ever. more ›

FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this post stated that the Information Technology Agency launched the feature.

On Tuesday, a few hours after the earthquake, the Los Angeles Fire Department put up a link on the "Highlights" section on the homepage of the city's website, pointing to their Earthquake and Disaster Preparedness Manual (.pdf)--a smart move since right after an earthquake is the best time to educate people on preparing for a future and considerably worse one (Tuesday's quake was only considered "moderate"). more ›

Today, the Information Technology Administration (ITA) along with the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE), announced some Los Angeles E-Democracy, as they call it. What does this mean? A bunch of online toys for us city nerds. Here's some of what they've done in the past 24 months: Online Council Votes: stalk follow your councilmember's voting track record. Online Council File Index: Keep track of any legislation considered and/or acted upon. Online Council Docs: We... more ›