Audit

The blind taste auditions finally came to an end on Tuesday night's episode of "The Taste. " Typically, the auditions are the best part of any competition. Those shows highlight the wackiest, worst, no-business-being-on-TV people for your entertainment pleasure. But I got a little bored with "The Taste. " Watching judges Ludo Lefebvre, Nigella Lawson, Brian Malarkey and Anthony Bourdain wear the same clothing they did in the first episode, but pretend it was a different day, and send chef after chef home with no real reason left me wanting more, and frustrated with the show's premise.

It took Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies a minute longer to respond to emergency calls from unincorporated parts of the county than from cities that contract with the department for police services, according to a county audit. The finding comes days after Supervisor Gloria Molina accused Sheriff Lee Baca of "stealing" police resources from residents in unincorporated neighborhoods and threatened to hire "independent private patrol cars" to backfill cuts in sheriff's patrols.

Capping a raucous eight-hour-plus meeting, the Irvine City Council early Wednesday voted to overhaul the oversight and spending on the beleaguered Orange County Great Park while authorizing an audit of the more than $220 million that so far has been spent on the ambitious project. A newly elected City Council majority voted 3 to 2 to terminate contracts with two firms that had been paid a combined $1.1 million a year for consulting, lobbying, marketing and public relations. One of those firms - Forde & Mollrich public relations - has been paid $12.4 million since county voters approved the Great Park plan in 2002.

An audit of the L.A. County assessor's office delivers mostly common-sense recommendations to address the bribery controversy. The recommendations of a new audit of the Los Angeles County assessor's office are a responsible, if somewhat depressing, reaction to the controversy that has embroiled that department for months. Its top official, John Noguez, has been arrested and charged with accepting bribes from a tax consultant who was seeking reduced assessments for his client's properties, a charge that, as the audit notes, creates the impression that "the property tax system in Los Angeles County is being gamed by politically connected taxpayers.

An audit of the embattled Los Angeles County assessor's office released late Thursday recommends key changes, including the appointment of a chief deputy with "managerial competence" and the requirement that private tax consultants register with the county. Conducted by Strategica Inc., the audit comes as elected Assessor John Noguez fights accusations that he pocketed $185,000 in bribes from a prominent tax consultant and campaign contributor who requested lower tax appraisals on client properties.

For aspiring actors growing up in Great Britain, "Les Miserables" wasn't just a popular stage musical, it was practically required viewing - particularly for Samantha Barks and Eddie Redmayne. Barks spent much of her youth performing a one-girl version of the show on her karaoke machine while Redmayne became obsessed with the play after first seeing it when he was 7. Barks soon left karaoke behind and went on to join the cast of a West End production of "Les Miz" in 2010. And now, at 22 - having beaten out the likes of Taylor Swift and Scarlett Johansson - the actress makes her film debut in the role of the lovelorn street waif Eponine in the adaptation of the classic Victor Hugo novel from director Tom Hooper ("The Kings Speech")

SACRAMENTO - The California parks department had accounting problems for longer than previously revealed, according to an audit released Friday by Gov. Jerry Brown's Finance Department, and officials had no plans to spend $3.9 million in unused donations. The audit said department officials had been inaccurately reporting the amount of money in two accounts since at least 1993. That's about a decade longer than finance officials identified this summer, when it was revealed that parks had a hidden surplus of $54 million.

An audit released Thursday found that Los Angeles County sheriff's managers improperly used department aircraft, including a helicopter ride for a commander's daughter on her way to a retirement party. In another instance, sheriff's officials used a department airplane to fly to Connecticut, costing the county more than $35,000 for a trip that would have been significantly cheaper and probably faster on a commercial flight. But the audit also found no evidence to support other accusations directed against the department's air unit.

SACRAMENTO - Managers at the California parks department circumvented payroll policies and boosted salaries improperly, the state controller said Tuesday. Controller John Chiang said the payouts were made with "deliberate disregard for internal controls, along with little oversight and poorly trained staff. When security protocols and authorization requirements so easily can be overridden, it invites the abuse of public funds. " Chiang said that bad record keeping in the department made it impossible to determine a total for the amount of money improperly paid.

Question: A new board took over five years ago. Our dues have never been so high. Our reserves, operating funds and bank balances have never been so low. Five years ago we had more than $600,000 cash in the bank for emergency funds. Now we have nothing. The board cannot explain where the money went or where it is going. For fiscal year 2012 we're in the hole for at least $155,000. The board president rejects owner requests for independent audits, stating our annual audit suffices. Our bimonthly newsletters tell owners what a great job the board is doing.