LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles Controller Laura Chick released two audits raising questions about the hundreds of police and fire officials, elected officials, city department heads and staff who have been allowed to take home city-owned cars at a time when the nation’s second-largest municipality faces a $433-million deficit, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The controller’s office also determined that a portion of the more than 2,000 cars purchased for $50 million, assigned to the city’s departments are not being used regularly, and that their use is poorly monitored. The controller said that also was the case for  some of the cars that can be checked out from City Hall.

The city currently spends $3 million a year on take-home vehicles for elected officials and their employees, and $7 million on so-called “home garaged” cars for police and fire employees. But Chick found there was no evidence of consistent evaluations “to ensure each home-garaged vehicle is justified, warranted and based on the city’s business needs.”

In fact, more than two years after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa voiced concern about the cost of the hundreds of police cars that officers are taking home each night, the controller’s office learned that the number of take-home cars assigned to LAPD officers shot up by 40 % from 2003 to 2008, which LAPD officials said was due in part to expansions in their department.

"Out of the 167 audits I've released, I have to say this is the most stunning example of how this city does business in an un-business like way," Chick said during a press conference. While city officials should be setting an example for thrift in a tough economic period, Chick said: "We are doing anything but that."