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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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Case 2 - Reverse Automation: Unnecessary Forms and Procedures

This is part of an ongoing series about Los Angeles County gov't waste. Updated  9/23/2024. Often there are convoluted & wasteful forms, processes, and/or procedures that continue over the years because nobody bothers to simplify them. If somebody higher up is not complaining about something, it's usually left as-is, as change is Rocking The Boat, the Greatest County Sin. They often say, "It cost too much money to simplify". But the convoluted approach is often costing more money in the longer run by making employees take unnecessary time to do it the convoluted way: Penny-Wise-Pound-Foolish.  It's similar to a consumer deciding whether to rent or buy a house. A house requires more up-front expenditure but is usually less expensive in the longer run. The County "rents" too often. They rarely do a true cost-benefit analysis to see if waste claims are really true. They either guess out of their ass or don't guess at all out of laziness and/or fe
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