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An audit from Controller Wendy Greuel finds the city is unable to track the true inventory of parking lots in Los Angeles.

The City of Los Angeles receives $85 million a year in taxes from parking lot operators, but an audit released today finds the city could be entitled to more funds if it knew how many parking lots actually exist.

The audit from Controller Wendy Greuel identifies 1,900 parking lots in the city. However, officials are unable to say if that is a complete inventory. The Office of Finance contracts with a company called The Parking Network to track unreported parking lots or lot operators who are not paying their fair share of the parking occupancy tax.

“One of my greatest concerns for the city is the uncollected debt owed to the city, including parking lot operators who owe the city millions of dollars,” Greuel said. “The city needs to have processes in place to ensure, with a high degree of certainty, that uncollected money isn’t being left on the table at a time when the city needs it most.”

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Photo by The West End via Flickr Creative Commons

Everyone wants to see what $2 billion baseball looks like -- the Dodgers announced that opening day 2012 tickets for the stadium's 50th anniversary season have sold out.

Wednesday night's annoucement follows the news that Magic Johnson and group purchased the team for an unprecidented sum of money. 

The timing of the ticket shortage is notable, but selling out of opening day seats is something the Dodgers are used to.

It's also a hit of feel-good news as the peanuts-and-Cracker-Jack spirit has been challenged by controversy amid Frank McCourt's divorce and a near-fatal attack of SF Giants fan Bryan Stow after last year's opening day game.

The April 10 home opener against Pittsburgh begins at 1:10 p.m. As in previous years, tickets are still available for fans that want to buy a mini plan or season ticket package.

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