Ron Galperin

Ron Galperin
City Controller of Los Angeles
Incumbent
Assumed office July 1, 2013
Mayor	Eric Garcetti
Preceded by	Wendy Greuel
Personal details
Born	August 1, 1963
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Zach Shapiro
Alma mater	Washington University in St. Louis Loyola Law School
Profession	Politician Lawyer
Religion	Judaism

Ron Shalom Galperin is an American politician and lawyer. He is City Controller of Los Angeles, and took office on July 1, 2013.

Early life

Galperin attended Washington University in St. Louis for his undergraduate degree and Loyola Law School for his law degree (J.D.).^[1] Galperin was admitted to the State Bar of California on December 12, 1994.^[1]

Professional career

Prior to his election to the City Controller of Los Angeles, Galperin practiced law as both a transactional and litigation attorney for over 20 years. Galperin has long promoted cutting waste and developing programs to help businesses create jobs.

Neighborhood Council

Prior to his election, Galperin built a reputation as a leading voice for government reform. He is the first Neighborhood Council member elected to city-wide office in Los Angeles. As an officer of his neighborhood council, he advocated for quality of life improvements and more responsible neighborhood planning. He also developed and taught “L.A. City Government 101” to new neighborhood council members throughout the city and served as a council budget advocate.

Commission on Revenue Efficiency

As Chairman of the Los Angeles Commission on Revenue Efficiency, Galperin found new revenue sources and budget savings, both of which could be used to deliver more services to residents. He also served as President of the City's Quality & Productivity Commission.

Controller of Los Angeles

Galperin was sworn in as City Controller of Los Angeles of the City of Los Angeles on July 1, 2013. As Controller, Galperin oversees a team responsible for conducting independent audits of City departments, managing payroll for more than 42,000 City employees, disbursing 290,000 payments to outside vendors, and preparing comprehensive reports on the City’s finances, including its $49 billion in assets and $28 billion in liabilities.

Open Data

Galperin launched ControlPanel.LA,^[2] the City’s first open data portal, in October 2013. It features more than 70 million rows of data and hundreds of datasets and visualizations—including the City’s checkbook, details on the goods and services the City buys, assets and liabilities, employee compensation operating indicators and much more. Because of these efforts, L.A. has become the No. 1 Digital City.^[3] Likewise, Government Technology Magazine recently named Controller Galperin to its list of the Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers of 2015.^[4]

Audits

A hallmark of Galperin’s approach to auditing has been his willingness to work with other elected officials to craft solutions to problems.

Department of Cultural Affairs 1% for the Arts Program

Auditors found that $10 million collected from commercial developers to pay for public art installations near their real estate projects was not being spent. As a result of the audit, Council adopted a series of measures that updated administrative guidelines for the use of the money and mandated that the Department of Cultural Affairs develop a plan for how to spend it.

Audit of Foreclosure Registry Program

Auditors found that a program designed by the Council to fight blight and track foreclosures had done neither. Using a detailed blueprint laid out by Controller Galperin, the Council is creating a modern GeoRegistry to track troubled properties and revising fees to fund a robust property inspection and enforcement program.

Audit of Bureau of Street Services’ Resurfacing & Maintenance Activities

An expansive report in which auditors found that the City had missed the opportunity to collect $190 million in street cut fees because of shoddy cost calculations. As a result of the audit, a series of motions was introduced to better recoup costs from street cuts, retrofit City asphalt production facilities, and pilot new digital pothole-tracking technologies.

DWP

One of the Controller’s priorities is to make the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power more transparent, efficient and responsive to ratepayers. He created UtilityPanel.LA,^[5] a data portal featuring key financial data about DWP spending and payroll. In April, 2015, the Controller’s office conducted audits of the Joint Training Institute and Joint Safety Institute, which shed light on two trusts administered by the management of the DWP and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18. Other audits of DWP operations are currently in progress. Next year the Controller will release an Industrial, Economic and Administrative Survey of the DWP, a report that will place specific emphasis on infrastructure and creation of performance dashboards.

References

1. "Ron Shalom Galperin - #174373". Attorney Search. The State Bar of California.
2. ControlPanel.LA
3. Shueh, Jason (May 26, 2014). "Los Angeles Tops U.S. City Open Data Census".
4. Knell, Noelle (March 24, 2014). "TOP 25 DOERS, DREAMERS & DRIVERS OF 2015". Fellow 2015 honoree, Controller Ron Galperin, made major contributions to the city’s transparency efforts too, with his launch of the Control Panel L.A. portal, which features user-friendly dashboards on all things financial. Other efforts championed by Galperin include the Civic Innovation Lab, an engagement effort aimed at using city data to solve city problems, and the Civic Innovation fellowship, which pairs enterprise city staff for short-term projects.
5. UtilityPanel.LA

External links