With less than three years left in her final term as Los Angeles City Controller, Laura Chick feels she has a lot left to do. Known for her active use of her office as a watchdog agency for taxpayers since taking office in 2001, Chick has undertaken performance audits of many city departments exposing inefficiencies, waste of taxpayers’ money and possible fraud. “My motivation is to change city government for the better,” Chick said. A former social worker and City Council member representing the Valley for eight years, Chick was the first woman in Los Angeles history to hold a citywide office. Chick is the first controller to hold the office following charter reform in 1999 which increased the controller’s powers. Her bold, no-nonsense style has helped raise the profile of the office. While some have accused the 62-year-old, who now lives in Silver Lake, as being a media hound, Chick said she recognized the need for more public accountability of city government if any real change will take place in how the city performs its duties. Her years at City Hall in two different posts have given her a unique perspective on city government and what it needs to be more effective. Question: What do you think is the biggest challenge or problem with L.A. city government? Answer: The biggest challenge is to have a cohesive and agreed upon city vision where the leadership of L.A. is united in both framing the priority problems and in the strategy to attack those problems. Instead of internecine and comp and jealousy and separate agendas. I’ve watched this for over 13 years and have to ask why aren’t we further along in how we approach certain problems. It’s because there isn’t an agreed upon, unified city vision and then teamwork in going forward. Q: Why do you think there is not a unified vision? A: Some of it is about the individuals and some of it is about the system. To take the system first, we have such unbelievable checks and balances. The charter started to make the mayor and the controller stronger positions. There is still a lot of power in the council and the 15 City Council members. Some of it is systemic and then you have 15 council members competing. Term limits have also changed the face of politics and the movements of politicians and their staying power of committing to a vision and long-term solutions. I’m hopeful we have the right leadership now in the mayor’s office to shape a stronger mayor’s position. It’s doable but it takes individual and collective will. That hasn’t been the nature or politics of city government in Los Angeles except for sporadic moments post earthquake and for a period during Tom Bradley’s era when he had a team with the council. Q: The nature of Los Angeles itself is so huge and there are so many interests, could it be that perhaps we’ll never have a cohesive vision? A: On certain key issues there needs to be a cohesive vision. Here’s one: traffic. That’s something where politics doesn’t have to come into it and shouldn’t. It’s a problem that’s non-partisan and hitting everyone in the face. There’s also public education. If people are logical and think about it that’s an issue that impacts everyone. I guess maybe one of my own personal struggles is we have to surmount personal interests and partisan interests on a regular basis to move forward toward solutions. That’s probably why I have never been interested to date in an office that’s a partisan, political office. I don’t think those politics work well in solving problems. Q: Are you saying that you’re not going to run for Congress or Senate? A: It’s not been on my plate. Q: What about mayor? A: I’ve thought about it very seriously twice in my political career and rejected the idea. I would say it’s an automatic rejection going forward for many of the same reasons. I would find it very difficult to raise the kind of money needed for a successful, competitive race, and to do the job right you have to do it the way this mayor is doing it. There are too many other things in life that pull on me to want me to completely turn myself over to it. It’s a total and entire turning over of your life to being the mayor. That is what this city needed and will continue to need. You have to be somebody who is willing to turn your life over. I am not. Q: You found a lot that needs to be changed in a lot of the departments. What changes have happened because of your audits and your work since becoming controller? Can you cite specific changes in specific departments? A: I’m not comfortable or relaxed that the changes are permanent. How things are done relies on written rules and procedures, relies on transparency and people watching but also relies on the people doing the work. And two, the changes are still very new. These changes haven’t become an entrenched, traditional way of doing things yet. But one change I would have to cite is contract awarding. It’s still evolving and I’m still pushing for further changes. It has become more transparent and I think more fair and about the public benefit because, one, they know somebody is watching and two, because in particular the proprietary departments who have awarded so much in the way of contracts have changed the way they are doing business. Ethics is a biggie. In record-breaking time, there was a huge change and it disallowed commissioners from raising money anymore for elected officials’ campaigns, which had been at the root of awarding contracts. I think I changed the mayor’s relationship with his commissioners. There is a reason why this mayor has a very top legal expert advisor on his staff. At Department of Water and Power, they didn’t have an audit committee. Well, they had it but it never met. They weren’t fulfilling their fiduciary responsibility. They had their own internal audit department but their audit had to go through bureaucratic channels. That has changed. These are written changes that have been voted on in open meetings so that for them to change now and go back to the old way would be a big deal and noticeable. The Community Redevelopment Agency, DWP, (the Los Angeles) port and airport commission meetings are now televised. I would say one of the biggest categories is that city government has become much more transparent. Now, when I come out with audits instead of the status quo at City Hall saying “she doesn’t know what she’s talking about” there’s a very different reaction. Q: Out of the audits so far is there a common thread or a similar theme? A: I think there are multiple similar themes and it depends on how far down you want to go because I could give a technology theme, a transparency and accountability theme, a good business practices theme. I would say the biggest overarching theme or message is has nobody been paying attention here, how come nobody has asked the questions before. Right inside the departments they haven’t been asking questions and I pitch that to general managers all the time. Don’t sit around and wait for me to come in. Read my audits and see what the findings are for your friends next door because I bet your people are doing the same thing. Q: Did the change in the charter allow you to be as aggressive as you’re being? A: The change in the charter allowed me to do performance audits. The change in practice and resources inside City Hall had taken away that from the CAO office who had in the past been the place that had done management audits and reports that looked at things. Q: Why should the business community care about the audits? A: It’s their tax dollars and it’s their business success. If this city is not well run I say it affects every single business and their bottom line because businesses need the world around them to go smoothly. They need streets cleaned, need crime prevented, they need schools educating kids, and they need building permits issued quickly. But the public also needs to know there are safe buildings going up and businesses need to know their tenants are occupying safe buildings. Businesses should want relief on business tax and the way we get there is running city government more efficiently and effectively. I’m all about talking to the business community. I get frustrated sometimes because they don’t see the importance. I need their voice behind me also when I am pushing for change. Q: How would you feel if after you leave office some bureaucratic faceless person who does not have the vitality that you have displayed, replaces you because no one else wants to run for controller? A: I hope I can play an influential role in who succeeds me and it is my intent to do that. Q: How will you do that? A: Through an endorsement and helping on somebody’s campaign. Q: Do you have somebody in mind right now? A: No, I do not. It’s too early. My body isn’t cold yet. I am not a lame duck. I won’t be a lame duck until the day I walk out of office. But I will weigh in. Here’s my other wishful thinking: I think the public’s attention on the office is there now and there will be people running for the office. Term limits create an interest. People have to look for their next job. People should eyeball it. It’s an important place, an important office. It’s a powerful thing for a city to have an elected official who is not voting on things, who’s not creating policy who can speak directly to the public and say this is what’s going on.
