Los Angeles City Elected Offices
Chick was elected to the Los Angeles City Council from the Third District (Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Reseda, West Hills, Winnetka and Canoga Park), in 1993 and served two terms, until 2001. She defeated Joy Picus, who had served since 1977, and for whom Chick had worked as a political aide.
In 2001, Chick was elected Los Angeles City Controller, becoming the first woman to hold citywide office in Los Angeles. As Controller, she was the Chief Auditor and Chief Accountant of the City working to ensure its fiscal health. In her nearly eight years in this office, Chick released over 170 audits and reports exposing a wide range of problems throughout city government. As the taxpayers' watchdog she rooted out waste and fraud and championed innovation and new ideas to challenge the status quo.
In 2006, Los Angeles Magazine named Laura Chick one of the most influential people in the City. The Los Angeles Daily News editorialized, “…as City Controller, she’s often been downtown’s lone champion of good government." A Los Angeles Business Journal feature said, “Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick has emerged as a central voice in the ongoing debate over how the City handles its contracts.” In a May, 2004 feature article, Los Angeles Magazine states, “Where others couch and evade, she is Ms. Blunt.”
One of her last audits to be released as City Controller exposed a backlog of thousands of untested DNA rape kits at the Los Angeles Police Department. Chick's report brought a national spotlight to an intolerable situation. This resulted in City officials finally making the problem a priority. Her work won her the prestigious ProPublica Prize for Investigative Governance. Chick left the City Controller's position due to term limits in 2009.
Her experience includes managing a family-owned retail business. Laura first entered elected office in 1993 when she defeated a 16-year incumbent for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council. Seven months after taking office her district was devastated by the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Chick went into action working around the clock, an ever present figure in the toppled neighborhoods. Laura used the crisis as an opportunity to rebuild in a smarter and better way, creating what is now a thriving redevelopment zone with shops, cafes and a legitimate theater converted from an X-rated movie house.
Read more about this topic: Laura N. Chick
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