Los Angeles County, California

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Los Angeles County is one of 58 counties in California. Its county seat is the City of Los Angeles.

Los Angeles County is the most populous county in the United States. The California state government population bureau estimates its population as of January 1, 2008 as 10,363,850.[1] The county's population is greater than the populations of 42 states. The county also has more residents than the 11 least-populous states in the country added together. It is home to more than 25% of all California residents.

Contents

[edit] Website evaluation

Main article: Evaluation of California county websites

In the "My Government Website" project, the website of Los Angeles County is the only website of 3,140 counties that contains all ten items on the Transparency Checklist.

[edit] The good

  • The names and contact information of all board of supervisor members is published.[2]
  • Board of supervisor meeting agendas[3] and minutes[4] are published.
  • Budget documents are published.[5]
  • Audits are published.[6]
  • Information on taxes is provided.[7]
  • The names and contact information on administrative officials is provided.[8]
  • Building permit and zoning information is published.[10]
  • Information on contracts is published.[11]
  • Information on lobbying is provided. [12]

[edit] Lobbying

During the two-year legislative session that ended December 1, 2008, Los Angeles County spent $3.7 million to employ eight lobbyists and to contract separately with five lobbying firms to lobby the California legislature.[13]

Main article: California taxpayer-funded lobbying

In 2008, Los Angeles County reported $1,695,000 spent on lobbying. [14]

[edit] County supervisors

Los Angeles County is governed by the five-member Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors who are individually elected from each of five districts. The five members of the board are:

Each supervisor represents over 2 million people.

The five county supervisors drink water during board meetings out of water bottles with customized labels. An employee is paid $9.92 an hour to peel the labels off water bottles, print new labels that depict the county seal and affix those new labels to the water bottles.[15]

[edit] External links


Ballotpedia has an article on:

[edit] References

Working for accountable government now


  1. County population estimates with annual percent change, January 1, 2008 data
  2. Board Members
  3. Agendas
  4. Minutes
  5. Budget
  6. Audits
  7. Auditor
  8. Administrative officials
  9. Public Information Office
  10. Zoning
  11. Contracts
  12. Lobbying
  13. Sacramento Bee, "Local government lobbying costs soar in California", February 10, 2009
  14. Los Angeles County - Open Secrets
  15. Los Angeles Times, "L.A. County supervisors sip from customized water bottles", March 31, 2009