The county of Los Angeles has, per the budget area of its website, roughly 10 million residents — more than many states; and a multibillion-dollar budget “bigger than that of Kansas, Montana and Vermont — combined.” It also has, as of this writing, a $43.4 billion budget adopted in June and now being finalized. Among the takeaways:
- Technology is not directly referenced among recommended departmental budgets. The county’s Information Technology Services (ITS) unit sits within the Internal Services Department (ISD). Internal Services’ recommended budget is $772.6 million, and it has 2,156 positions. (All numbers are rounded.)
- A June 26 letter from county CEO Fesia Davenport to county supervisors highlights recommended adjustments to the FY 2023-24 budget and has more to say on tech. The budget, the letter notes, allocates $10.4 million in state funding to the Department of Aging and Disabilities. The funding will provide personal computers, Internet access, education, training and support for older adults and adults with disabilities. The goal is increasing social connections and enhancing self-confidence in navigating digital and online resources.
- Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $306.5 billion May revision of his then-proposed FY 2023-24 budget was, despite its projected $31.5 billion shortfall, expected to sustain and safeguard county investments and commitments including providing $50 million to pursue security upgrades and Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card technology to prevent theft of EBT benefits. Lawmakers subsequently approved, and Newsom signed, a slightly larger $310.8 billion state budget on June 27.
- In Health Services, the recommended county budget has $4.5 million and 18 positions for clinical informatics staffing aimed at optimizing the use of technology in patient care, including “using clinical data gathered from various systems to improve clinic workflow,” implementing projects and initiatives. In Human Resources, there’s $259,000 and the addition of one senior data scientist recommended, to create and analyze metrics for countywide initiatives to facilitate data-driven decision-making.
- Recommended county budget initiatives in Internal Services include $3.3 million — $2.7 million from intrafund transfers, and $602,000 from revenue — for cyber governance and operations services, reflective of an increase in reimbursable funding for cyber analytic service monitoring, cybersecurity awareness training, plus an extra layer of security for email scanning and mailbox monitoring. There’s also $2 million — $1.7 million from intrafund transfers and $368,000 from revenue — for shared services; and $564,000 for a strategic asset management system (SAMS), one IT Specialist position and one Principal Application Developer to transition SAMS management from AECOM and Brand New Box to the county.
