Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Sunday

Like a dumb old farmer who closes the barn door after the horse gets out, Council Member Wendy Greuel and Mayor Villaraigosa now are addressing the $10 million in fraud, waste and abuse going on with the city's fleet of "take home" vehicles following the releasing of a damning audit by City Controller Laura Chick.  Greuel has authored a City Council motion to ask for a "study" of the issue while the Mayor has ordered a freeze on the issuance of new vehicles and using City credit cards at gas stations.

Local pols are seeking to gain over $300 million in Obama era money for "infrastructure" projects in the San Fernando Valley. No word what those projects are but no doubt the lobbyists and contractors are lining up to built projects as cost effective as the Orange Line Busway and tbe Belmont Learning Center, to just name two.

If you really want to know what's going on at the OLD GRAY HAG ON SPRING STREET don't read what the Westside White Guy writes, be sure to visit Ed Padgett's excellent Los Angeles Times Pressmans 20 Year Blog, run and penned by the people who print the paper.  WWG has some inside buzz as to the possible moving of the Calendar entertainment section to the main news section but according to Ed the speculaton in (Anglo)LAObserved is all wrong. 

If you buy something in another state the state of California expects you to pay a "use tax" on the item.  The state, hungry for revenue like a crack whore jonesing for her next fix, plans to allow people to "voluntarily" register their purchases online or face potential audits.  According to the state Board of Equaliziation the use tax  "applies when a person or business in California purchases tangible merchandise from a retailer outside of this state that will be used, consumed, given away, or stored in this state and the retailer does not collect California tax on their sales."

City Spends $10 Million on Take Home Cars; Remember That When They Raise Your Parking Meters

Laura Chick has released an audit of how the City manages it's fleet of vehicles, including cars that officials and employees are allowed to take home at night, and well it isn't pretty. The City is spending $10 million a year on take-home cars, with fraud, waste and abuse rampant.

Among the key findings of the Controller's report::

• The type of required insurance policy for employees with take home vehicles is inadequate and costly. Most employees are unaware of the requirement and do not possess it. This goes unmonitored resulting in increased risk and liability for the City and for the employee who drives the car.
• There are 48 City vehicles for use as loaners when cars are being serviced, repaired, washed or detailed. Twenty-eight of those vehicles are unneeded.
• Gas credit cards issued to elected officials, staff and general managers have a $1,500 per month line of credit (in case of emergency) and there is no way to determine if these are only used for city cars.
• Until around the time our audit began, the City did not monitor usage of cards to fill-up five gallon gas cans. Since that time there has been a 41% drop in usage.
• Since April 2008, the City’s former car auctioneer has owed the City $2.1 million. The City continued to use this auctioneer even after it stopped reimbursing the City. The City Attorney is now preparing a letter to collect the monies owed.

Chick has called for an immediate cancellation of City gas cards as well as overall reforms such as investigating if it's cheaper to reimburse employees for mileage as opposed to providing cars.

Read the whole report, here.

And you thought the City needed more of your money!