The official website of Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky

About the Program

Category: Civic Education and Public Information (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

The Official Website of Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky Los Angeles County, CA Population: 9,935,475 Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky has created a highly acclaimed website that breaks with convention and provides county residents with both a deeper and broader understanding of county government and its impacts on their lives. Developed by former journalists, it aggressively and effectively fills the gaps of understaffed traditional media, covering such crucial topics such as the environment, transportation, health, social services, public safety and the arts. Yaroslavsky’s website, www.zev.lacounty.gov, is a credible source for sophisticated news coverage that in 2011, drew nearly 200,000 visitors and was named best government website by the L.A. Weekly. The diverse content of the website, separated into seven topical sections, is written for a web-savvy audience as well as readers who enjoy longer newspaper style narratives. In its efforts to be informative and credible, the site does not shy away from controversies, whether they involve tragic deaths of youngsters in the care of county child welfare workers or allegations of jail brutality by sheriff’s deputies. The site has been particularly effective in highlighting programs that are successful and profiling individuals who are tackling some of the county’s most vexing problems. The goal of this kind of coverage is to offer the public real-life examples of how their county government can be, and often is, effective in serving the varied needs of its constituencies.