Taxpayers float 8,000+ unused phone lines

LOS ANGELES, June 19 (UPI) -- Los Angeles County officials say they do not know why more than 8,000 unused phones are being billed to Southern California taxpayers.

County government officials said taxpayers are shelling out at least $1.5 million annually for the government's unused lines, including some that officials said may have never served a purpose, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

The investigation into unused government-paid lines began when William Fujioka, chief executive of the county, discovered that 329 unnecessary phones had remained in service at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital in August 2007 when it was downgraded to an outpatient clinic.

"After the hospital closed, there just wasn't a clear sense of what we were going to do with the facility so no one turned off the lines," said Michael Wilson, spokesman for the Department of Health Services.

The countrywide review was ordered by Fujioka when it was discovered that the county is still paying for the hospital phones.

"This is government at its worst," Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said. "We have a problem, no question about it. But we are going to move quickly to fix it."