Company Profile
City of Los Angeles
Company Overview
CITY OF LOS ANGELES GOVERNMENT
The form of government for the City of Los Angeles is a Mayor-Council-Commission structure as provided by the Los Angeles City Charter effective July 1, 2000. Primary and final elections are held in the spring of odd numbered years. The people elect the Mayor, City Controller, and City Attorney every four years. The people elect fifteen City Council members representing fifteen districts for four-year terms with odd-numbered district elections coinciding with mayoral elections. The Mayor, subject to the approval of the City Council, appoints members of Commissions. The Honorable Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, has offices in City Hall. The City Council Chamber is where Council convenes every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00 a.m.
Company History
CITY OF LOS ANGELES AT A GLANCE
The first settlers of the City of Los Angeles consisted of 14 families numbering 44 individuals. The ceremonies founding the City took place on September 4, 1781. At that time, Colonel Felipe DeNeve, who was then Governor of the Spanish Province of Alta California, officially applied the name “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles” or “The Town of our Lady the Queen of the Angels.”
The City of Los Angeles was incorporated on April 4, 1850. It had a population of 1,610 (U.S. Census) and an area of 28 square miles. It did not have a graded street, a sidewalk, a water system, lights, or a single public building of its own. On Saturday morning, every citizen swept or cleaned the street in front of their home. Street lighting was simple. Each homeowner, whose house faced the street, was obliged to put a light at the door in front of the house each night during the first two hours of darkness. Today Los Angeles has a population of over three million, an area of 465 square miles, over 7,366 miles of streets, an abundance of water and power brought from mountains hundreds of miles away, and thousands of publicly owned structures of various types. The friendly lanterns that once hung at the door have been replaced with streetlights. Adobe houses have been replaced with commercial buildings and residences, volunteer police and fire departments have been succeeded by highly trained, properly equipped, and well-organized municipal forces, and mud flats have been dredged to become two of the world’s busiest harbors at Wilmington and San Pedro.