Posted on 02/23/2026 2:24:32 AM PST by Libloather
Los Angeles City Hall looked less like the nerve center of America’s second-largest city Friday — and more like an abandoned office complex after a zombie apocalypse.
Entire hallways with deserted offices. Corridors eerily silent. Parking garage empty besides the city hall guards.
When the California Post visited City Hall Friday, the Office of Finance, a council liaison office, and the Los Angeles Housing Department were closed for business.
Over the course of the day, about 50 Angelenos oblivious to the closure turned up to pay their bills or seek financial advice, only to find no staff to help them.
**SNIP**
The irony is stark: Los Angeles is scrambling for revenue, yet on Friday, there was nowhere for taxpayers to pay.
Los Angeles City employs about 50,312 workers across about 44 departments and bureaus in numerous buildings across Los Angeles, with a total payroll of $6.4 billion.
Each is run by a general manager who decides when employees must report in person to the office.
The California Post contacted 40 city departments asking about their policies on remote work.
Only the Los Angeles Housing Department confirmed a they are still working from home a certain amount of days a week. Two other departments — including the Department of Public Works — replied only to say the inquiry had been forwarded and that a response would be forthcoming.
The Post discovered several offices were closed only after visiting City Hall in person.
Los Angeles Housing Department alone has about 670 employees, the Office of Finance about 230, and the Bureau of Street Services commands a workforce in the thousands responsible for maintaining streets, sidewalks and trees across Los Angeles’ 470 square miles.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
At least they can still vote.
Custodial services have long been outsourced to cleaning services companies. The department in the city is for the overseers, not the custodians themselves. It's one office that could easily work remotely.
The cleaning service companies are all off-site and the locations cleaned daily are spread all throughout the city, so instead of forcing the city employees who oversee the cleaning contracts commute into a building and pay for office space for them, have them work remotely.
Most, if not all of the city properties have key-card access that includes contractors. The 3rd party security companies the city contracts with already monitor and record who swiped their card at each door and which company they work for. In addition to cameras throughout, the customer complaint hotline (which can be remotely staffed) will quickly tell what areas haven't been cleaned.
You can hire better staff at a lower rate because the city is not forced to pay top dollar for the few employees who can afford to live in the city, or afford to commute all the way in.
There's no need to commute into an office just to answer emails, review contracts, and field phone calls from people who are everywhere else except the building you're in. You can hold remote meetings back-to-back instead of having to schedule them days apart due to travel.
I know people who commuted to jobs in Los Angeles by shuttle van for up to 2 hours one way. They soon left those jobs and eventually California because that lifestyle for a regular paycheck is unsustainable, especially when starting a family.
Sounds like some of those offices just ran out of money to operate. People don’t generally work without pay, so the offices just shut down. What happens now..who knows? Since they don’t really have a working governor to call the shots>>??? Sounds a little like some of the U.S. territories who want to become states without anyone there who can steer the ship.
Many folks in the military had a name for this. I won’t use it.
I wish you would use it.
My wife works in the Registrar’s office of a major state university. Total registrar staff is about 25 people. There are many days when she is the only one that shows up. Most state employees are lazy slackers.
“Entire hallways with deserted offices. Corridors eerily silent. Parking garage empty besides the city hall guards.” It’s Gavin, too much hair gel, LA.
What about those who didn’t vote rat, didn’t vote for top-to-bottom expensive corruption?
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