Wendy Greuel, L.A.’s new City Controller, spoke at the 2009 Congress of Neighborhoods on October 10, 2009, at the L.A, City Hall.

She said that 46% of Controller audits have never been heard by the City Council.

I’m sure she hopes the two audits recently done on the Convention Center and the other on street services won’t suffer the same fate.

Her Controllers accountability plan is designed to allow the public to see what department(s) is responsible during an audit by going to the Controller’s website. The public will see a score card, and is encouraged to report on what is or not being done regarding the audit or its implementation.

Greuel wants NCs to be involved with financial reporting and is counting on NCs to be part of the solution.

She gave awards to the Sunland-Tujunga NC, Foothill Trails District NC and the LA Fire Department Battalion 12 for their heroic work done during the Station Fire. They are in city council district two which she represented on the City Council, before being elected as City Controller in March.

As all city elected did, Greuel reminded us that the City is in the worst city financial crisis in memory and that, in her words, the City needs to get back to the basics.
Hopefully that means getting good service from all essential departments while and stopping the give-a-way of city funds and tax breaks to outside entities when we can least afford it.