The battle for the open City Controller seat in next month's Los Angeles municipal election is generating heat and attention after departing Controller Laura Chick elevated the job's profile during her two terms in office.

Over the last eight years, Chick has brought the city controller's work out of obscurity through hard-hitting, high-profile audits of city government, including the recent exposure of the LAPD's failure to analyze 7,000 rape kits sitting on shelves in the department's freezers.

But the job of auditor and accountant for the city is a lonely one, according to Chick, who will leave office in July because of term-limit restrictions.

"I am not a lonely person, but the controller's job, in certain ways, is to stay aloof, objective, independent and apart from the rest of the city," Chick said. "You cannot win popularity contests in City Hall, because your job is to poke and prod and really nudge and annoy the status quo."

"I think that I have caused, through some of my audits, a real tightening up of the process by which decisions are made to award multi-million dollar contracts," she added.

Chick acknowledged, however, that she will be leaving City Hall with some unfinished business.

"In terms of reaching my goals of making this city a well managed city, I have not been fully successful. It's been slow-go. There's been not only resistance to change, but, very frankly, I have not had the political support that I have needed to implement change," said Chick.

The campaign for Chick's job as city controller has become one of the few competitive races before voters on the March 3 primary ballot. Three candidates have been campaigning for votes ahead of the election: 2nd District City Councilwoman Wendy Gruel; businessman and electrical engineer Nick Patsaouras; and businesswoman Kathleen Evans.

Greuel and Patsaouras are clear front runners, who have established themselves in the upper echelons of City Hall politics. Greuel has served two terms on City Council and worked closely with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on transportation initiatives. Patsaouras served with the mayor on a former incarnation of the Metro Transportation Authority and recently served as Villaraigosa's appointed President of the Board of the Department of Water and Power before resigning the seat to run for city controller. Their close relationships with Villaraigosa have raised doubts about either candidate's ability to serve independently of the mayor. Evans has tried to turn the issue to her advantage, campaigning on her outsider status.

The next city controller will have to keep track of how the city spends nearly $7 billion each year. With a projected budget shortfall of more than $400 million in the next fiscal year, whoever wins the seat will be under great pressure to find wasteful spending in the various departments of city government.

"We are going to see trees falling on cars. We are going to see shorter library hours. We are going to see shorter zoo hours. A tsunami is coming to L.A., because we are in the worst economic crisis in a generation," Patsaouras said, painting a bleak picture of what's at stake.

The next controller will also have to contend with an ongoing legal battle over the exact scope of the controller's power to audit programs, specifically those run by elected city officials. All three candidates have said they would argue for the ability to question any program that spends taxpayer money.

Sitting Controller Chick said one of her biggest concerns for her successor is that he or she continues to clarify the office's authority as specified in the city charter, which was rewritten in 1999.

"The city attorney interprets the city charter, and this city attorney has interpreted the city charter in a very damaging way for the public and for the city controller's office," she said.

Chick has been battling with Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo since last June over the reach of the controller's power to audit. Delgadillo sued Chick last November to block her from examining the workers' compensation program, which is run by his office.

All three candidates for city controller expressed support for Chick's position in her legal battle with Delgadillo.

"I believe in absolute transparency," said Patsaouras. "Therefore, as long as taxpayers' money is involved, an audit is appropriate. We should not hide behind legalese."

Greuel was dragged into the fight when City Council last fall voted not to provide money for Chick's legal defense. Greuel, already in the midst of her campaign for the controller's seat, cast the only vote in favor of paying for Chick's attorney.

"I supported putting language on the ballot that would have supported her in moving forward with her efforts to audit [Delgadillo's] workers' comp program," said Greuel.

The city council did not approve the ballot measure by the deadline for the March 3 primary.

Each of the candidates stressed in interviews that more frequent audits and transparency should be the principal goals of the next controller.

"I've really been at the forefront of ensuring there be transparency, recently pushing for communications between commissioners and lobbyists to be made public," Greuel said.

She also cited her work to ban city commissioners from fundraising for politicians as proof of her experience improving transparency and removing the "pay-to-play feeling in Los Angeles." Greuel added that she plans to institute regular performance audits of every city department.

Patsaouras said he also plans to perform regular audits. "But see, when you get to the audit, it's too late," Patsaouras said. "When a contractor or a consultant has walked away with millions, what do you do? You give it to an attorney. Probably two or three years later you get 60 cents on the dollar. You have to plan ahead."

Asked if there are specific departments he would like to audit as controller Patsaouras responded, "I'm not this demagogue politician. I don't know. I will go there. I will do my research. I will visit departments, and then establish priorities. For me it would be very presumptuous to say I'm going to audit this and that. Why? Because of hearsay?"

Evans laid out narrower goals than her opponents, including specific audits of the Community Redevelopment Agency and the administration of Section 8 Housing dollars in Los Angeles.

"I want to make sure the people that are getting that benefit, Section 8 Housing, are legal citizens of the United States," said Evans. "We shouldn't be funding people that are breaking our immigration laws. The taxpayer shouldn't be paying for that."

Chick said if the next city controller is to take on battles like hers with the city attorney, a certain style and approach will be necessary. "I would say it needs to be courageous, professional, and aggressive. Definitely aggressive," Chick said.

Patsaouras portrayed himself as the most aggressive of the three candidates. "I have been called a pitbull, a watchdog and a bulldog. And I take pride for that. When it comes to the taxpayers, I will do anything to save them money," Patsaouras said.

Evans, Greuel and Patsaouras cited "independence" as an important qualification for the job of controller. Each candidate said that a close relationship with either the mayor or the city attorney could undermine the controller's ability to audit the spending of those offices.

The issue of independence has moved to the front and center of the campaign. Until recently, Greuel, who entered the controller's race in 2007 and has raised far more money than either of the other two candidates, had been considered a shoe-in for the seat. But Patsaouras has gained some traction in recent weeks after calling into question Greuel's independence from Mayor Villaraigosa.

"She has been chosen [to run] by the mayor," Patsaouras said of Greuel's candidacy. "The [city] charter specifically was written so that the mayor does not appoint the city attorney. The mayor does not appoint the controller. And when you have an ongoing relationship and a history, then it's very dangerous in these difficult times."

Greuel countered, "I have always been interested in the controller's office," adding that she has proved her independence from the mayor. Greuel cited her disagreements with Villaraigosa over utility rates and his handling of a plan to turn Pico and Olympic boulevards into one-way streets. "There's also a variety of things that we've agreed on, working on synchronization of [traffic] lights and Measure R," she said.

Greuel further argued that Patsaouras is the candidate who has enjoyed the closest relationship with the mayor. She cited his service on Villaraigosa's first mayoral campaign and his appointment by the mayor to serve as president of the board of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

"I think his criticism is really quite hypocritical," said Greuel.

Patsaouras conceded he has had a relationship with Villaraigosa, but added a caveat. "I have had, have, and will have a personal relationship with the mayor. I met the mayor in the late '80s when we both served on the predecessor of MTA. But I serve the people," Patsaouras said.

Evans, who lacks the name recognition of the other two candidates and has lagged far behind in campaign funding, described the squabble over independence from the mayor as "a joke."

"They're both buddies of Villaraigosa. I think they're trying to make the race between the two of them. But really if you vote for one, you might as well be voting for the other. They're two sides of the same coin," Evans said.

Evans has also faced the appearance of having an independence problem. She has been running on a slate with candidates for mayor and city attorney. Asked if her independence would not be compromised by running in unison with candidates for the two other citywide offices, Evans responded, "There's going to be disagreements, and I will run the city controller's office like I would any other job where I was a controller."

With no polling data available, Greuel appears to be maintaining a comfortable lead in the race. She has accumulated a long who's-who list of endorsements, including both of California's U.S. Senators, high-profile L.A. area U.S. Representatives and local officials, as well as a list of labor, environmental and business organizations, according to her campaign Web site. Patsaouras' list of endorsements is much shorter, but includes notable L.A. Country Supervisors Mike Antonivich, Don Knabe and Gloria Molina, as well as Sheriff Lee Baca, according to Patsaouras' campaign Web site.

Endorsements aside, Greuel has had the most exposure of the three candidates, having served two terms on the L.A. City Council representing the San Fernando Valley. Greuel's campaign has also raised close to $1 million, according to the most recent L.A. City Ethics Commission disclosure in mid-January. That's nearly a 20 to 1 spending advantage over Patsaouras, who reported raising close to $50,000. Evans trailed significantly, with about $5,000 to spend before the March 3 primary.

"I started late, so obviously my fundraising is slow, but it's picking up very fast," said Patsaouras, who entered the race last November. "In the private sector, if you have a product that people don't want to buy, I don't care if you send three mailers, or make 50 calls, or 50 visits from your salesman, people will not buy."

Asked if she had advice for the next controller, Chick said it would be simply to get citizens interested in what the city controller does.

"Here's my theory," Chick said. "If I could get people interested, if I could get people to understand, they will get indignant, and they will become more active in their communities and in their city government. If that's so, we will have a better city government, because that is the bottom line. Otherwise, I will guarantee you, things will not only not get better, they will get worse."

The primary election is Tuesday, March 3. If one candidate does not win a majority of the vote, there will be a runoff between the top two candidates.

Chick declined to endorse one of the candidates but said if there is a runoff, she will make an endorsement.

Chick said whichever candidate voters choose on March 3, the next controller will face huge challenges, including analyzing the Los Angeles Police Department's budget. "I'm a great admirer of Chief Bratton as a law enforcement tactician, and he's done great things reducing crime. But LAPD costs an awful lot of money to run, and I think that we can run it more cost effectively," she said. Chick also released a report last week on the Department of Water and Power, which she described as an agency with all kinds of challenges. "That's the department that provides drinking water and lights for our city!" she said.

"There's probably not a single department in this city that has a plan that lays out what its goals are for the next three to five years. I often say that we're a city that's groping in the dark. How are you successful when you don't know where you want to go and what you want to be?" said Chick.