Imagine you’re running a $4 billion-a-year enterprise that is spending $1 million every day more than it takes in and expects the loss to rise to $2 million and then $3 million a day in the next two years, what would you do?
It’s a simple question with obvious answers. You cut costs, raise revenues and do a better job of collecting the money you’re owed.
In the case of this particular enterprise, Los Angeles city government, these efforts have been feeble to say the least: A few thousand workers paid off handsomely to retire even before they are 55, core services like libraries, parks and planning slashed to the bone and more studies on why $541.1 million in fees, licenses and penalties has gone uncollected.
The latest in a long series of studies on city bill collection was delivered Monday by the Commission on Revenue Efficiency (CORE), which called for massive reforms and appointment of an inspector general, a bill collections sheriff, with authority to carry them out..
Its 107-page Blueprint for Reforms of City Collections (CORE-Report.pdf) complete
with 67 specific recommendations amounts to an indictment of city
government for incompetence, inefficiency and worse — total
indifference to the public interest.
The short version (CORE-OnePage.pdf) outlines the extent of the problem by noting more than 75 percent of the bills are more than four months old, more than 40 percent more than two years old, nearly roughly half the bills never were referred for collection or had penalties or interest applied.
“The City has no real centralized billing and collection process and systems are woefully outdated,” the report notes. “The tally of uncollecteds doesn’t even include uncollected taxes, intergovernmental dollars & unbilled services.”
“The numbers really are quite shocking,” CORE Chairman Ron Galperin told a news conference in releasing the report.
It was the only quote he got in the press since the LA Times, preoccupied by the importance of the exercising routine of a former City of Bell official, ignored the report.
Rick Orlov in the Daily News did cover the news conference and was able to capture the lip service and hot air spewing from the lips of our elected officials whose leadership is responsible for the incompetence, inefficiency and total
indifference to the public interest of City Hall.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Council President Eric Garcetti and Distracted as he is with legal problems over his massive ethical violations, the mayor declared: “No city will ever be 100 percent in collections, but we can It could but you can bet Villaraigosa will never get past that recommendation to write off most of the $541.1 million as bad debt and uncollectible. For his part, Garcetti said that even if the city is able to collect only 10 “That $50 million would be enough to restore library hours or help get our Fire Department to full staffing,” Garcetti said. Huh, how does that work? It would be enough to reopen libraries and return to full staffing of the Fire Department this year but next year’s deficit will require more cuts, more hidden increases in charges to the public, more juggling of the books. And the following year’s projected deficit is even worse and the year after’s deficit far worse than that. But not to worry. Paul Koretz, who beat Galperin in last year’s CD5 Council race, is committed to take drastic action that goes beyond even the CORE report to the core problem at City Hall: Lack of leadership, lack of skill, lack of workplace discipline. “I guarantee we will treat this as job No. 1,”
“The majority of departments routinely ignore directives to
others dutifully vowed to move swiftly to carry out the recommendations just as they have so often in the past but they had no answers to questions about when the inspector general will be appointed and what funding the post will be given.
do a lot better”
percent of the outstanding debt, it will go a long way to help
eliminate a $320 million budget shortfall forecast for this coming year.
Koretz said. “The city is facing the financial problems it has because
of the failure in the past to deal with collections and inefficiencies.
improve collections. That’s why we need to adopt a no-tolerance policy
toward bureaucratic indifference. Any one who can’t get with the program
should move toward the door and get out. Heads should roll.”
Those are the people who make the policies and created the system where incompetence, inefficiency and total
indifference to the public interest flourish.
They are the ones who sign off on sweetheart contracts and work rules that discourage achievement. They are the ones who sell out the public interest to special interests and their own self-interest. They are the ones who have failed us, not the managers and workers who follow their lead and obey their direction.
What we need now is a new CORE — Commission on Removal of Electeds. I’m happy to volunteer as chairman if the mayor and Council should decide to move swiftly to actually fix what is broken at City Hall.
Imagine having a source of Revenue and year- after- year despite Auditor Recommendations-shared with the Controller and Managers, NOT ONE recommendation is ever implemented. Why?
We can look at the Mayor and City Council Members because ultimately, they are responsible, however, the department’s managers must be held accountable.
It’s not just receivables, it’s also Capital Assets-somehow they just walk out the door, or they sit without being used. Did the City insure these assets? Did the City recoup the money from the insurance company? My recommendation would be to demand better accounting and tracking of operations on a day to day basis. Internal Controls, Accounting Policies and Procedures and competent personnel are needed.
Question: Did many accountants retire from the City recently? Yes. Did these employees return to their native home, the Philippians? Yes. They got their monthly retirement and are living like QUEENS. They did what they were told and did nothing to improve efficiency. Meanwhile, taxpayers in LA City are left holding the bag.
Ron Galperin is a great public servant. I hope and think this report will get some attention and might spur some reforms.
Its a time of crisis…and possibility.
Koretz is such a hack.
First, he votes agains the City Council’s motion to outsource ambulance and billing collections in order to “protect jobs”. Of course, no jobs were at stake and keeping the service in-house would have cost the city $4 million to retrain those employees (who are now reassigned to other departments) on how to administer the new billing methods. It put the city at increased HIPAA liability (more costs) and there was NO gaurantee that the collections rate would increase. Oh well, labor got to him and he’s not that bright to begin with.
Flash forward and how he’s criticizing people who won’t make the city more efficient! Heads should roll!
Thanks Council District 5 voters. You’re better educated on the whole than most of the city, but you were sure brain dead when electing Koretz to the Council.
I’m sure the fire dept. is laughing their heads off at this one. The Mayor wants them to cut assistants at the top because of budget. This is beyond shameful and outrageous. How many libraries and parks have cut hours, moms with no day care, and so much more because of these incompetent politicians. What’s funny is when they go to community meetings they actually have the nerve to pretend everything is ok. The next time one of them is in front of a crowd or meeting let’s start booing them to send a message. Someone said “we are way to nice to them” after what they’ve done. Krekorian with the support of the NC’s is probably the only one who give a damn. We need to stop being nice and start behaving like the City of Bell
I’m sure the fire dept. is laughing their heads off at this one. The Mayor wants them to cut assistants at the top because of budget. This is beyond shameful and outrageous. How many libraries and parks have cut hours, moms with no day care, and so much more because of these incompetent politicians. What’s funny is when they go to community meetings they actually have the nerve to pretend everything is ok. The next time one of them is in front of a crowd or meeting let’s start booing them to send a message. Someone said “we are way to nice to them” after what they’ve done. Krekorian with the support of the NC’s is probably the only one who give a damn. We need to stop being nice and start behaving like the City of Bell
I believe that it is more than just incompetence and/or indifference to the public’s interest. I believe that there is more going on under the surface, than what is being disclosed. There are just too many hands in the till, with little to no oversight and there is just enough controlled chaos to hide nefarious dealings. After working for the City for 20 years and dealing with management for the same amount of time, I’ve been run in circles by management personnel who are resistive to disclose any internal written rules and/or regulations and/or the specific basis of their actions. I’ve seen nepotism and reported it with no action taken. I’ve made numerous complaints to the Ethics Commission, only to have a cursory investigation find that there is “insufficient information” with which to act. I’ve reported numerous observed improprieties by management, only to have them fall on deaf ears.
Management Personnel have a culture of selective fiefdoms with which they rule with an iron fist and are quick to retaliate to any challenges. They are loathe to give written responses or have their authority questioned.
It is a culture that is derived from advantage, that is selectively passed on from the top under the guise of “that’s just how we do things here”. It is the “wall” that each new council person must encounter and deal with in his or her own way. More often than not, it is the path of least resistance, that usually prevails.
Clean Sweep is going to need a bigger broom.
While I am always happy to see Ron Kaye lead a charge, the practical reality is this – we have a failed system of government. LA can’t work because it relies on systems that aren’t current with the changing times. Failure of government isn’t just local, it’s at the state and federal levels too.
So long as the current structure of government remains in place, we will hear more reports revealing the unprecedented amount of incompetency.
So long as the people remain silent, we will keep seeing “leaders” like Koretz jump on the bandwagon to denounce such incompetency while doing exactly the opposite in his/her own council district.
Just remember Einstein’s statement about insanity….
What does it always take a new appointment of a new sheriff in town to get things done?
What are the GMs of The Treasurers and Finance Depts, Controller and CAO head doing to control expenses and collect dept?
“The City has no real centralized billing and collection process and systems are woefully outdated,” the report notes.
There is a system created to deal specifically with this type of waste and inefficiency. I read about it overseas. Haven’t seen any mention of it in the postings from those complaining on Los Angeles blogs.
If this type of government laziness is frustrating to you, look into these measures I refer to. Shouldn’t be hard to find on the net. Just do a search for waste reduction, efficiency, improving the system, etc., and the body of international material will show up.
You get the government you deserve.
Ron,
Can you please go into your Google AdWords account settings and block the keyword [YES 25]. That will prevent the YES ON 25 ad from appearing. It’s the first thing I see and it immediately drives me away. I would like to continue visiting this web site.
As Koretz said: “The city is facing the financial problems it has because of the failure in the past to deal with collections and inefficiencies.”
The real problem is that if the City doesn’t clean up its corrupt, inept ways after magically collected the owing $541.1 million and continues to spend a million or more a day that it doesn’t have, the windfall will only last for a little more than a year.
In a few days, the Financial Status Report will be released. It is going to be ugly. And this after cooking the books by deferring pension plan payments of $400 million this year and failing to maintain & repair the infrastructure. The City is shortchanging the streets by $250 million.
The City Council needs to retain its own expert to help balance the budget. How can they even begin to trust the checked out Antonio?
Its unbelievable with the amount of money DWP collects from us how many times residents have been without power for hours. From Monday to early afternoon yesterday thousands of people were without power. DWP explanation was they don’t have staff to clean out the grids and they get dirty. Bullshit!!!! How many water mains have broken because of DWP’s failure to update the infrastructure and still collects millions. It seems every dept. in the city needs to be overhauled. There is a reality tv series with these clowns. How can they even show their faces out in public with the embarrassement of their incompetence and failure to be responsible representatives for Los Angeles.
When my friend George Epstein presented our elected City Council representatives with a suggestion to apply established technology (which he helped establish in the aerospace industry) to get rid of the potholes that make L.A. appear as a third-world nation, and then gain new revenues for the City by licensing the technology to other cities/states and roofing material manufacturers, the City Council found excuses to DO NOTHING. Same old. . . Same old. . .
Tom