City Controller Wendy Greuel announced today that Los Angeles could have an extra $23 million in the bank had officials not dragged their feet to approve permits for advertising on street furniture. more ›

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 ›

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 ›

There's a new position opening up at City Hall for someone who doesn't mind getting tough about bills getting paid. It's what's being called the "Collections Czar," and the role was approved by a 9-1 vote this morning during today's regular City Council Meeting. 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 ›

City Controller Wendy Greuel is working hard to stamp out counterfeiters, whose fake DVDs, CDs, and clothes glut the streets of Los Angeles and represent theft from hardworking Angelenos, explains a press release issued by her office regarding "Operation Chimney Sweep," the crack down by the Los Angeles Anti-Piracy Task Force hailed as "the largest raid on counterfeit goods in Los Angeles history." more ›

Los Angeles Police Department's Chief Charlie Beck continues to support the city's red light camera program, according to LA Now, and "insists the program is needed to reduce accidents and save lives, despite that it's losing millions of dollars because of unpaid tickets." more ›

L.A. has suffered a blow this year in regards to the budget. Job cuts, furloughs, impacted city services and more have had a ripple effect on the pubic (library hours shortened by two days, for one). To avoid more of this in the future, city officials are acting now to save the budget, which includes going to the voters at the March 8th municipal election. November 3rd is the deadline to place items on that ballot, so this week the politicians are at work. 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 ›

More jobs are expected to be created but City Controller Wendy Greuel is disappointed that two departments given $111 million in federal stimulus monney are slow to create and retain jobs. The Department of Public Works has received $70.65 million, resulting in the creation or retention of 45.46 jobs so far. Overall, there should be 238 jobs. more ›

John North at ABC7 this afternoon took a great look at the salaries of Los Angeles City Councilmembers. The question is, with a $179,000 salary and other compensation -- you'll often hear people say this makes them the highest paid councilmembers in the nation -- how can they justify furloughing city employees during this massive budget deficit? more ›

He's been a steady name in Los Angeles politics for decades, from the Los Angeles City Council to his current long-term spot with the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. Now, he's seriously being asked -- apparently by "people you just can't ignore" -- to consider making a stab at running for Mayor of Los Angeles next year, when Antonio Villaraigosa's term is up. more ›

City Controller Wendy Greuel is at it again and tomorrow plans to release an audit detailing how the city's Department of Transportation wasted $855,000 and exceeded a contract by nearly $2.5 million. more ›

As promised, L.A. City Controller Wendy Greuel has posted the salaries of all city employees to her website in wake of the city of Bell scandal where its city manager, for example, was being paid nearly $800,000. The 547-page document (.pdf) only shows approved annual salaries and not actual compensation, which may be affected by voluntary salary cuts, furloughs, overtime, etc. Greuel says the list will soon be updated to reflect those changes. But the list also hides what each City Councilmember pays their staffs. Instead of listing salaries by Council District, all city council staff is listed together as one unit. more ›

Just a day after L.A. City Controller Wendy Greuel announced that she will publish city salaries online, California State Controller John Chiang said he will be doing the same. “The absence of transparency is a breeding ground for waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars,” said Chiang... 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 ›

L.A. City Controller Wendy Gruel this afternoon teased the pending release of her audit on the city's gang reduction effort, saying that much progress has been made in the past two years, but over a half million dollars of taxpayer money dedicated to evaluating the program has not produced any results. Without that data, it's impossible to measure the success of the program, her office said. 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 latest audit from City Controller Wendy Greuel examine $203 million worth of contracts for services, which are supposed to happen when outside entities can provide a "necessary service that City employees can’t provide and if it is more cost-effective to do so," according to the Controller's office. more ›