County Counsel

The County Counsel is an appointed officer whose duties is to provide legal advice and representation for the Board of Supervisors, County officers, County departments and public agencies in civil matters. Mary Wickham currently services as County Counsel.

County Clerk / Recorder Registrar

This agency is more important than its name might suggest. Under the leadership of Dean Logan, it is responsible for running almost all elections that take place in the county, including ones for federal and state offices. The department determines polling sites, voting systems, and more. And it’s playing an important role in setting up the first-ever County Citizens Redistricting Commission.

The office also has many functions unrelated to elections such as providing marriage license issuance, performing civil marriage ceremonies, offering fictitious business name filings and indexing, doing qualification and registration of notaries.

Fire Department

The LA County Fire Department is responsible for providing emergency services such as fire fighting, search and rescue, emergency medical response, and hazard material response. It serves all parts of the county, except for the few dozen municipalities, like the City of LA, which have their own fire departments.

Los Angeles County Probation Department

The Probation Department is currently the largest probation agency in the nation. It has 6,500 employees and an operational budget of over $900 million. The department is responsible for the supervision of 72,000 adult parolees and approximately 2,000 juvenile paroles. The department operates 50 individual facilities throughout the County of Los Angeles. Criminal justice reform advocates have been successful in shrinking the number of youth in custody and are working to continue that trend through investing in alternatives to incarceration and other forms of community care and support.

Department of Consumer and Business Affairs

DCBA is the central department for consumer complaints and in charge of disseminating consumer protection information. DCBA assists with certifying local small businesses and helps those interested in starting their own small business in Los Angeles County. DCBA also helps Los Angeles County residents with issues involving real estate fraud, identity theft, elder financial abuse, small claims court, mediation, foreclosure, small business development, and minimum wage enforcement. All services provided by DCBA are free of charge.  

For more information regarding DCBA and their services please follow the link here.

Office of Education 

This is the largest regional education agency in the nation. The department provides programming and services that support LA County’s 80 school districts (including LAUSD). The county school Superintendent and Board of Education are appointed by the Board of Supervisors.

Department of Mental Health 

The Department of Mental Health operates more than 80 programs and contracts over 700 providers to provide mental health services to residents across the County of Los Angeles. Mental Health services can range from assessment, case management, crisis intervention, medical support and rehabilitation. Other services the department is also tasked with include homeless outreach, psychiatric emergency response, school threat assessment and suicide prevention.

Public Defender’s Office

The Office of Public Defender is tasked with providing legal services to people accused of crimes who cannot afford to pay for a private attorney. The office has 32 offices throughout the County with over 1,200 employees that range from attorneys, investigators, psychiatric and social workers. Several years ago they unionized and their union is active in advocacy efforts. 

Ricardo Garcia is the current head of the Law Office of the Public Defender and was appointed by the County Board of Supervisors. He has served in this role since October 2018.

Department of Public Health

The mission of the Department of Public Health is to promote the health and well-being for Los Angeles County residents. The department oversees 14 Public Health Centers located throughout Los Angeles County. The Department of Public Health employs over 4,000 Public Health professionals that oversee a wide range of services from disease spread and prevention, food handling and safety, and substance abuse recovery programs. The current Director of Public Health is Dr. Barbara Ferrer and has served in that role since February 2017, when she was appointed by the County Board of Supervisors

Department of Children and Family Services

The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), is the largest children protective services agency in the nation and helps over 2 million children across the County. DCFS promotes child safety and well-being and uses its community partnerships to connect children to stable homes in times of need.

Department of Public Social Services 

The Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) administers a variety of programs that provides food-cash assistance, cash assistance, in home assistance for senior citizens, assistance and aid support for individuals and households experiencing homelessness, and job training for residents in LA County.