A brief note on Laura Chick

News has broken that governor-elect Jerry Brown will be eliminating the California Inspector General’s office when he takes control of the state in the new year. As a consequence, Inspector General and former LA City Controller Laura Chick will be out of a job when Brown’s term starts. I cannot emphasize what a tremendous loss this is for good government and the state of Calfornia.

Laura Chick is not just a vigilant watchdog–keeping track on the public’s money, rooting out graft and waste–she is literally one of the handful of insanely competent people we have in government in the state of California. Maybe in the entire nation.

Chick is a Democrat, but her apolitical style of simply doing a good, hard-hitting job no matter which party is in power, earned her the respect of boths sides. As City Controller, her audit of the Quimby program brought major attention to the incompetence of LA’s Recreation and Parks department. As did her audit of the city’s gang reduction program. She also exposed a huge backlog of untested rape kits laying around the Los Angeles Police Department. Because of Chick’s work, the city was forced to take action. Her role as the public watchdog was as vital to LA’s quality-of-life as any other person working in this city.

As Inspector General, Chick was put in charge of keeping tabs on more than $50 billion in Federal stimulus money. On top of keeping watch over the state’s spending and institutions. Her removal will save the state a whopping $700,000.

Here’s hoping she runs for higher office of some sort. Because she’ll have my vote for just about anything she runs for.