West Covina Neighbors focus is on financial, management, and leadership issues. We focus on those issues because those issues impact the services we receive, the taxes we pay, our safety and well-being---our quality of life. Our website provides resources that inform and educate the public on topics that are important to residents
Working together, West Covina Neighbors, stopped, by a 80% to 20% vote, the severely flawed Measure WC which would have increased our city sales tax. See Measure WC Archive for details.
The major concern now is the city's designation as "High Risk" by the California State Auditor. In short, the city has had a history of deficit spending. See material below and the City Finances page for details.
Intent to Withdraw from
L.A. COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
"Operating a public health department requires a serious financial investment - stable
funding stream - that attracts top talent who are specialized in environmental health and
infection prevention."
Public Comment submitted to City Council from Jaime Garcia, Regional Vice President,
Hospital Association of Southern California, April 6, 2021.
The West Covina City Council majority decided to create a Health Department with no needs assessment, no project plan, no estimated revenue or expenditures, and no cost-benefit analysis.
The City of West Covina Responds to the State Audit!
The new West Covina City Council will hold its first regular council meeting on January 19, 2021 at 7:00 PM.
Meeting Agenda Item 29 is of interest to most, if not all residents. This agenda item is City of West Covina’s corrective action plan in response to the December 2020 State Auditor’s Report.
Please note this is the first step. The Finance and Audit Committee is also scheduled to meet and discuss this issue. This is a good start by our new city council!
Read Agenda Item 29 staff report and attachments on the January 19, 2021 Meeting Agenda. The documents have also been downloaded and posted to the Audit page of our website.
The State Auditor’s report on West Covina’s finances is out!
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Read the State Auditor's Letter to the Governor and the Audit on the State Auditor's website.
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Review resident concerns and actions taken on our Resident Concerns on City Finances page.
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Review news articles on two audits the State of California conducted our "news articles" page.
CA State Auditor
Three Year Comparison of WC's Overall Financial Rank
The State Auditor’s website -- www.auditor.ca.gov/local_high_risk/dashboard-csa -- has a wealth of searchable information on the financial health of California’s 450 plus cities. The City of West Covina’s statewide overall ranking by the State Auditor from 2016 to 2019 is shown below. The lower the number the more serious the financial risk.
We would like the City Council to explain what happened that caused West Covina to go from Rank 20 in 2017-18 to Rank 9 in 2018-19 and what is being done to improve the situation?