From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Wendy Greuel
Wendy Greuel
Wendy Greuel geles City Controller and former President Pro Tempore
of the Los Angeles City Council representing the 2nd
District, which includes portions of the San Fernando
Valley.[1]
Early Life, Education, and Early
Career
Wendy Greuel was born and raised in the San Fernando
Valley, where she graduated from and was student body
President at Kennedy High School. She continued her ed-
ucation at University of California, Los Angeles, during
which time she worked in the office of Councilman Joel
Wachs and Mayor Tom Bradley. Upon graduation, Greuel
worked in Mayor Bradley’s office for 10 more years. She
was the Mayor’s liaison to the City Council, City Depart-
ments and the community on public policy issues includ-
ing child care, the homeless, the elderly, and health is-
sues. She was also helped establish LA’S BEST, a nation-
ally recognized after school program that as of October
2011 is still serving school children throughout the city
18th City Controller of Los Angeles
of Los Angeles.[2]
From 1993 to 1997, Greuel worked in the administra-
Incumbent tion of President Bill Clinton. She served with Cabinet
Assumed office Secretary Henry Cisneros as the Field Operations Officer
July 1, 2009 for Southern California for the Secretary of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD) where she became involved
Preceded by Laura N. Chick
in projects offering opportunities for homeownership,
Member of the Los Angeles City Council from the 2nd job creation, economic development, and social services.
district During her tenure, she managed HUD’s response to the
In office 1994 Northridge earthquake.[3] In 1997, Greuel joined the
July 1, 2002 – July 1, 2009 Corporate Affairs Department of DreamWorks SKG where
she worked on the company’s government and commu-
Preceded by Joel Wachs
nity affairs coordinating the company’s legislative activi-
Succeeded by Paul Krekorian ties at the local, state, and national levels.
Personal details
Born May 23, 1961 (1961-05-23)
City Council
Granada Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S. In 2002, Greuel won a run-off election against former
Political party Democratic Assemblyman, now Councilman Tony Cardenas by 225
votes to fill the remainder of the term of Second District
Spouse(s) Dean Schramm
Councilman Joel Wachs. She was re-elected in 2003 and
Residence Los Angeles, California, U.S. 2007 and served until July 2009 when she assumed the of-
fice of City Controller.
Alma mater University of California, Los Angeles
At the time of her departure from the City Council,
Website http://www.lacity.org/ctr her committee assignments included Chair of the Trans-
portation Committee, Vice Chair of the Budget and Fi-
Wendy Jane Greuel (born May 23, 1961) is a municipal nance Committee, Member of the Audits and Govern-
American politician. She is the 18th and current Los An- mental Efficiency and Energy and the Environment Com-
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Wendy Greuel
mittees, and Chair of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Business restaurant outside of city limits. Her office called a local
Tax Reform. sandwich shop that could have provided lunches for less
While in office, Greuel created the Office of Public than $17,500, which would have amounted to a signif-
Safety, which consolidated all city-operated security icant savings and a boon to local business. She subse-
forces aside from the Police Department and created the quently called on the City Council to create a policy de-
Police Fund, a program through which any elected offi- claring who should pay for city services associated with
cial could root out inefficiencies and allocate the money such events.
saved to the hiring of new police officers. Greuel also In late July, Greuel announced that her delinquent
developed the Stolen Vehicle Recovery Program, which taxpayer program had successfully collected nearly $3
enabled Department of Transportation officers to tow million from 16 delinquent taxpayers in just four months.
stolen vehicles instead of LAPD officers, saving the LAPD She stated that over $107 million in delinquent taxes
time and resources. She launched a district-wide anti- from 126 tax scofflaws were still to be collected.
graffiti campaign and witnessed a significant increase in Also in late July, Greuel had to deal with the fact that
the number of neighborhood watch organizations in her about $6 million in city checks dated July 24 that were
district. She implemented a Safety Valet program and up- sent to vendors were returned for insufficient funds.
graded safety signage at all public elementary schools in Greuel’s office said the problem was related to the tran-
her district. Greuel also implemented the 50/50 sidewalk sition of Wells Fargo taking over Wachovia Bank opera-
program, which expedited sidewalk repairs if neighbors tions. They informed people to redeposit the checks and
agreed to contribute 50% of the cost. On transportation, sent letters of apology.
Wendy lobbied for funds to complete a carpool lane along Greuel’s first departmental audit was released in
the 405 freeway and to implement a bus only lane along September and examined the operations of the Los An-
Wilshire Boulevard. She added 450 left turn signals to city geles Convention Center. It found that the Center wasted
streets and led the synchronization of city traffic lights. more than $1 million in taxpayer money by failing to
In 2004, Wendy was involved in a controversial clo- properly control employee overtime and lacked a system
sure of a pedestrian bridge in Sherman Oaks. It limited for keeping track of its fixed assets, some of which could
access of renters on the south side across the bridge to not be found. It also found that the convention center has
additional parking over the L.A. River on the north side. no clear policy for oversight of fee waivers and recom-
The bridge was closed without any public forum, and mended that a flexible demand-based pricing program
when the renters demanded a meeting, the police agreed be implemented, allowing management to fill the Con-
to examine the area and whether or not the bridge being vention Center during slower times by reducing rental
open had an effect on crime rates as home owners to the prices.
north of the bridge had claimed. After 90 days, the po- Her next audit came in November and served as a
lice found the claims to be false, but Greuel closed the follow-up on previous Controller Laura N. Chick’s audit of
bridge anyway. This remains a subject of much conten- the Los Angeles Police Department’s DNA rape kit back-
tion in the area as of 2011.[citation needed] log. Greuel found that the LAPD cleared almost two-
Working with Council President Eric Garcetti, Greuel thirds of its blacklog but called for continued improve-
led efforts to reform the city business tax and cut taxes ments and changes in how the LAPD catalogs the cases.
for over 60% of all businesses. She also created tax incen- She recommended the LAPD change its database on how
tives to keep film and entertainment production in Los it tracks crimes, saying it now has three separate data-
Angeles and led anti-piracy efforts at the municipal level. bases where one would help improve efficiency. Then
Greuel created the Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Inves- LAPD Chief nominee Charlie Beck, now Chief of Police,
tigative Unit in the City Controller’s office and banned agreed with her and announced that he was in the
political fundraising among City commissioners. process of putting her recommendations into effect.
In December, City Controller Wendy Greuel released
City Controller an audit that found the city pays its bills too early, lead-
ing to a loss of up to $8.1 million a year in interest and
Greuel defeated Nick Patsaouras and Kathleen Suzy earnings on investments. Auditors said under a policy to
Evans on March 3, 2009 to become the next City Con- pay bills within 30 days of receiving the invoice, the city
troller of Los Angeles. She took office on July 1, 2009. [All was at times paying 10 to 20 days before they were due. In
of the following information about her tenure as Con- a separate audit, Greuel also found the city continues to
troller was taken directly from AP, LA Times, and LA Dai- fail to take advantage of volume discounts and computer-
ly News articles.][citation needed] ized payment systems that could lead to more efficiency
Just one week into her service as City Controller, and cost savings.
Michael Jackson’s memorial service was held in Los An- In 2011, Los Angeles’ Audits and Governmental Effi-
geles. Greuel found that nearly $49,000 had been spent ciency
on police officers’ lunches, which were ordered from a
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Wendy Greuel
Political offices
Preceded by Los Angeles Succeeded by
Laura N. Chick city controller —
2009–present
Preceded by Los Angeles City Council Succeeded by
Joel Wachs 2nd District Paul Krekorian
2002–09
Her tenure has also been marked by her legal battle [2] http://www.msdf.org/about-us/newsroom/press-
with current City Attorney Carmen Trutanich. The issue releases/2011/06/06/mayor-hahn-celebrates-la-s-
began when former City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo re- best-sweet-16-by-announcing-expansion-of-after-
fused to let former City Controller Laura N. Chick audit school-program
the workers’ compensation program in his office. Chick [3] http://www.uclalumni.net/alumnistories/notable/
responded by issuing subpoenas to six Delgadillo employ- Wendy2.cfm
ees. Delgadillo then sued her. In mid December, LA Coun- [4] Los Angeles Controller Wendy Greuel, Speech at
ty Superior Court Judge Mark V. Mooney found that the Loyola Law School Q&A Luncheon (Sept. 23, 2010).
City Charter, the city’s primary governing blueprint, did [5] http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/08/
not grant the Controller the power to evaluate the city los-angeles-mayors-race-candidates-election-
attorney’s handling of workers’ compensation issues or fundraising.html
for that matter, audits on the city attorney or any other
elected official, including the mayor and members of the
City Council. Greuel announced that she would appeal
External links
the decision. Former Controller Chick issued a statement • Los Angeles City Controller’s Official Website
upset with the ruling and supporting Greuel’s upcoming Persondata
legal appeal. Name Greuel, Wendy
Alternative
Los Angeles Mayoral Election, names
2013 Short descrip-
tion
City Controller Wendy Greuel has announced that she
Date of birth May 23, 1961
plans to run for Mayor of the City of Los Angeles in
2013.[4] As of June 30th, 2011, Wendy was leading the Place of birth Granada Hills, Los Angeles, Califor-
Mayor’s race in fundraising with $518,000 collected.[5] nia, U.S.
Date of death
References Place of death
[1] http://cityclerk.lacity.org/cps/pdf/clkasgn.pdf
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wendy_Greuel&oldid=453746733"
Categories:
• 1961 births
• Living people
• California Democrats
• Los Angeles City Controller
• Los Angeles City Council members
• People from Los Angeles, California
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