LA Tax Waste Watch

This is part of an ongoing series about LA County government's wasteful practices. A lot of County tasks involve rather routine and clerical work. Ideally a manager or specialist should not spend too much time on routine and clerical work. In some cases it can't be easily avoided, such as approving actions, also known as "signing off on requests". That's a manager's job. And illnesses and long vacations may also result in such. But misallocation is often chronic , not temporary.  Many on-going clerical and repetitive tasks can be given to just about ANY general clerk familiar with PC's with a bit of direct training and maybe written steps. They don't require any degree beyond high school graduation with decent grades. If the general clerk gets stuck, they can contact a specialist or their manager. Needing occasional help is not a reason to have expensive people do ALL of it, but this is sometimes given as an excuse. They invent lots of excuses for wast...

I worked in the private sector before I worked in the County Government, and was shocked to see the degree of waste when I joined the County more than a decade ago. Taxpayers should be made aware of this mistreatment of their tax dollars. I notified my superiors of issues, and they rarely seem concerned. In general, "rocking the boat" is considered a far bigger "sin" than waste, and thus waste continues in the name of office politics. NOTICE: Please see the disclaimer first. Most of the observed waste falls into one or more of four categories:  The first is being "penny-wise-pound-foolish". This is a British expression about over-focusing on little things such that you don't notice or don't get around to bigger things. A common excuse for doing this is "it takes too many resources to just look into an issue raised". In some cases it's true, but this excuse is way over-used. It's laziness. I'll visit ways to manage the expense...