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Nice Try County, but still a FAIL – New Policy Clause

This is part of an ongoing series about Los Angeles County gov't waste. Relatively recently one Department’s policy manual added a clause that at first glance looks like it’s addressing the waste reporting policy issue I mentioned earlier. It’s possible precursors of this site persuaded them to finally address waste reporting, or at least LOOK like they are addressing it. (I’ve given similar grievances before this site was created.) The problem is a comparison with my suggested policy text (see link below) shows it’s missing most of the steps needed to be useful. Here is a paraphrasing of the clause added by a given Department of the County: Office managers shall report any and all wasteful practices to [a given office]. There are multiple problems with this. The biggest one is that the receiving office is not required to do anything with the information. It could sit silently in a dusty folder forever (real or virtual). Remember the ending scene in the first Indiana Jones where t...
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Observing Los Angeles County's Wasteful Practices

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...
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