Overview
The City of Los Angeles is the second-most-populous city in the United States — roughly 4 million residents — governed by an elected Mayor and a 15-member City Council. Enterprise technology runs through the Information Technology Agency (ITA), which serves as the city's central IT department: led by General Manager and CIO Ted Ross, ITA reports around 465 employees and delivers enterprise IT and digital services to roughly 45 city departments, tens of thousands of city employees, and the public. It is important to distinguish the City of Los Angeles from the separately governed County of Los Angeles; they are distinct buyers with their own budgets, CIOs, and procurement.
The defining context for FY2025-26 is fiscal stress: the city entered the year facing a roughly $1 billion deficit (driven by overspending, liability payouts, soft tax revenue, and fire recovery) and adopted a roughly $14 billion budget that closed the gap through cuts, labor agreements that ultimately averted civil-service layoffs, and use of reserves.
Despite austerity, ITA is a recognized digital-government leader (repeatedly ranked a top Digital City) and is moving aggressively on generative AI and on the SmartLA 2028 program tied to the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. For a Dell SLG seller this is a large municipal opportunity, but one where the message must fit a cost-pressured, efficiency-first environment and route through city purchasing and Council approval.
- ITA under GM/CIO Ted Ross is the central IT buying center for ~45 departments; proprietary departments (DWP, LAWA/Airports, Port of LA) run independent IT budgets and procurement outside the general fund
- General Services Department and departmental purchasing run competitive solicitations; vendors must register and meet city contractor-compliance requirements (business-inclusion, living-wage, equal-benefits)
- Contracts of significant value require City Council (and often Mayoral) approval — factor Council committee timing into deal sequencing
- Fastest compliant path: cooperative purchasing contracts that extend pre-competed pricing and terms, bypassing a stand-alone city solicitation where a usable co-op exists
Where Dell Can Play
- Anchor the account on ITA under CIO/GM Ted Ross as the enterprise buying center, while separately mapping proprietary departments (DWP, LAWA, Port of LA) that run their own IT budgets and procurement.
- Lead with efficiency and consolidation in an austerity year: position ISG, infrastructure refresh, and managed services as cost-takeout against a budget that just closed a ~$1B deficit — not added spend.
- Tie AI-infrastructure and data-readiness to the citywide Gemini rollout and the LA A.I. Roadmap/Safety Checklist, leading with governance, privacy, and security fit and comparable municipal references.
- Engage the security org (CISO Timothy Lee) on operations, endpoint, identity, and resilience hardening ahead of the 2028 Olympics and the SmartLA 2028 program.
- Get the procurement path right early: confirm city-purchasing registration and contractor-compliance requirements, identify the owning department, and factor City Council/Mayoral approval and committee timing for any sizable contract.
Budget & Fiscal
The City Council adopted a roughly $15 billion FY2026-27 budget on a 12-1 vote in May 2026 with no major layoffs or furloughs — a notably calmer cycle than FY2025-26, which entered facing a ~$1B deficit and required labor deals to avert layoffs. The FY2026-27 plan still carries a projected shortfall (reported in the ~$200-250M range), which the city offset by raising reserves (General Fund Reserve to ~$515M, ~6% of revenues) rather than cutting staff, while funding 510 additional police officers and Inside Safe. Technology spend is not a single concentrated line — ITA holds the enterprise IT appropriation, but proprietary departments (DWP, Airports, Harbor) and large general-fund departments carry their own IT.
- FY2026-27 is calmer than the prior year but still cost-conscious — the shortfall was closed with reserves, not layoffs, so efficiency, consolidation, and automation pitches remain the right frame over net-new capital.
- Technology budgets are distributed: ITA owns enterprise IT, but proprietary departments (DWP, LAWA/Airports, Port of LA) and large operating departments fund their own systems — verify the owning department before forecasting.
- Financial status reports from the City Administrative Officer (CAO) are the authoritative check on where the budget actually lands; confirm current figures against the CAO before sizing a deal, especially given noted revenue and macro risks (World Cup, tariffs, immigration policy).
Initiatives & Priorities
LA moved from a ~100-user pilot to deploying Google Workspace with Gemini across its computer-using workforce (reported around 27,500 staff), backed by large-scale ITA training sessions (3,000-5,000 participants) and an eight-week 'super user' program. A live lane for AI-infrastructure, data-readiness, and productivity tooling, with comparable municipal references valued over decks.
AI ProductivityITA has published an 'L.A. A.I. Roadmap' and an 'A.I. Safety Checklist,' building responsible-AI governance, privacy, and security review into how the city adopts AI. Governance-forward posture means AI-infrastructure and data plays should lead with transparency, security, and compliance fit.
AI GovernanceITA convenes the Smart City effort (SmartLA 2028) across dozens of departments to modernize connectivity, mobility, IoT, and digital services before the 2028 Olympic & Paralympic Games — a multi-year program touching network, edge/IoT, and data platforms. Mega-event readiness is a durable funding rationale even in an austerity year.
Smart City ModernizationITA's security organization, under CISO Timothy Lee, defends against very high daily threat volumes and has modernized its SIEM and threat-prevention program. With the 2028 Games raising the regional threat profile, security operations, endpoint, identity, and risk-visibility are an active spend area.
Cybersecurity ResilienceProcurement
Selling to the City of Los Angeles runs through city purchasing and Council oversight, not a single buying desk. The General Services Department and departmental purchasing handle solicitations, vendors must register and comply with city contractor requirements, and contracts of significant value require City Council (and often Mayoral) approval. Cooperative contracts can accelerate catalog-style buys. Confirm the owning department first, then map the city-purchasing path and any usable co-op.
| Vehicle / gate | What it means for Dell |
|---|---|
| City purchasing / General Services Department | The central path for competitive solicitations and citywide agreements; vendors register and meet city contractor-compliance requirements (e.g., business-inclusion, living-wage, and equal-benefits programs). |
| City Council / Mayoral approval | Larger contracts require City Council approval (and frequently the Mayor's), so factor Council committee and agenda timing into any sizable deal. Smaller buys may clear at the department level. |
| Cooperative purchasing contracts | The city can leverage cooperative vehicles to extend pre-competed pricing and terms — a faster route than a stand-alone city solicitation where a usable co-op contract exists. Confirm which co-ops Dell holds and which LA actively buys through for a given category. |
| Proprietary department procurement | DWP, LAWA/Airports, and the Port of LA run their own procurement and IT budgets outside the general-fund process — separate buying centers to map for infrastructure and as-a-service plays. |
Spend Signals
GovSpend · as of Aug 10, 2026Dell vs. competitors (spend, payee)
Brand footprint — all channels (est.)
Higher of two conservative lenses: product-name match · manufacturer tag. Both undercount — treat as floors.
Expiring contracts (re-compete)
| Contract | Vendor | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| Wireless Camera Surveillance System Services | Celplan Technologies Inc | Oct 16, 2026 |
| Pre-Qualified IT Task Order Bench List | Commercial Programming Systems Inc | Dec 31, 2026 |
| Pre-Qualified IT Task Order Bench List | 22nd Century Technologies Inc | Dec 31, 2026 |
| Pre-Qualified IT Task Order Bench List | SDI Presence LLC | Dec 31, 2026 |
| FleetFocus M5 ongoing maintenance and related services | Trapeze Software Group dba AssetWorks LLC | Dec 31, 2026 |
| Pre-Qualified IT Task Order Bench List | 1 Spatial Inc | Dec 31, 2026 |
| Pre-Qualified IT Task Order Bench List | Spruce Technology Inc | Dec 31, 2026 |
Open bids / RFPs
| Solicitation | Due |
|---|---|
| Civil Case and Matter Management System (RFP) City of Los Angeles | Sep 28, 2026 |
| Training for the LAPD Using Virtual Reality City of Los Angeles | Feb 26, 2027 |
| RFQ — Procurement of Cyber Assets/Services Supporting the Bulk Electric System City of Los Angeles | Jan 1, 2030 |
- California fiscal year runs July–June; the window here is PO issued dates 2022-07-01 through 2025-06-30 (3 fiscal years, FY2023–2025).
- Cisco footprint text-match originally included ~$377K of confirmed false positives (chemical 'catalyst' vendors Merichem/Merichem Technologies, plus plumbing, law, and turbine firms) — excluded from the figure above; Presidio Networked Solutions LLC is the dominant legitimate vendor (~$6.5M).
- Apple footprint excluded a $700K false positive from 'Chatham Lodging' (a hotel company, evidently matching 'apple' in unrelated text) — the figure above reflects that exclusion.
- Lenovo product-text match totaled only ~$85K, below the $100K reporting floor, and is omitted; figures are GovSpend PO line-item estimates and may still include minor unscreened false positives.
- The Bulk Electric System cyber-assets RFQ carries an unusual 2030-01-01 due date in GovSpend, suggesting a standing/rolling LADWP solicitation rather than a single-deadline bid.
- Dell footprint figures on this page were recomputed on 2026-08-05 after a measurement error was found: the earlier method summed per-keyword buckets, so a line item naming two matched terms (e.g. “Dell OptiPlex”) was counted twice. The values here come from a single de-duplicated match over the same keyword set and supersede the earlier, overstated totals.
- Competitor brand figures on this page were recomputed on 2026-08-05 after the same measurement error found in the Dell totals: the earlier method summed per-keyword buckets, so a line item naming two matched terms (e.g. “Cisco Catalyst”) was counted twice. Values here come from a single de-duplicated match over the same keyword set and supersede the earlier, overstated totals.
- expiringContracts refreshed 2026-08-10 to apply a two-week runway floor: entries must have endDate on or after 2026-08-24 (a prior pass floored only on today's date). Two entries expiring before the floor (3 Di Inc and Applications Software Technology LLC, both Oracle Siebel/WebCenter bench contracts ending 2026-08-21/22) were removed and replaced with two more vendors from the same Pre-Qualified IT Task Order Bench List (endDate 2026-12-31), keeping the panel at 7.
Power Structure
| Decision-maker | Why they matter |
|---|---|
| Karen Bass Mayor | The city's chief executive; owns the budget priorities and adopted the ~$15B FY2026-27 budget. Bass advanced from the June 2, 2026 primary and faces a November 3, 2026 runoff against Councilmember Nithya Raman — the mayoralty could change; confirm who holds the office before a long-horizon program. The executive context for any enterprise-scale technology program. |
| Ted Ross General Manager & CIO, Information Technology Agency (ITA) | Long-tenured GM/CIO leading central IT (~465 staff), the AI rollout, and SmartLA 2028. The primary enterprise-IT relationship for the city motion. |
| Timothy Lee Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) | Leads the city's information-security program and security operations within ITA. The security buying-center owner; verify current status before forecasting. |
| Matthew W. Szabo City Administrative Officer (CAO) | The city's top budget/finance official; authored the FY2025-26 budget summary and mid-year financial reports. The fiscal gatekeeper and the source of authoritative budget figures. |
| City Council (15 members) Governing body / contract approval | Approves larger contracts and the budget through its committees (e.g., Budget, Finance). Council and committee timing gates any sizable technology deal. |
News & Signals
Sources
- City of LA ITA — Organization Overview
- City of LA ITA — About ITA
- Mayor Karen Bass — Releases Balanced Budget Proposal FY2025-2026
- ABC7 — LA City Council approves revised $14 billion budget
- Mayor Karen Bass — Agreements to avert all civil-service layoffs in 2025-26 budget
- City Administrative Officer — 2025-26 Budget Summary Pamphlet
- City of LA ITA — Publishes 'Los Angeles A.I. Roadmap'
- StateScoop — Generative AI creeps into Los Angeles city government
- StateScoop — Los Angeles prepares to be 'smart' ahead of 2028 Olympics (Ted Ross)
- LA Cyber Lab — Timothy Lee, CISO, City of Los Angeles
- California City News — L.A. City Council approves ~$15B FY2026-27 budget
- CD5 (Yaroslavsky) — L.A. City Council passes revised FY 2026-27 budget
- FY 2026-2027 City of Los Angeles Proposed Budget (CAO)
- NBC News — Nithya Raman advances to face Mayor Karen Bass in November runoff
- Ballotpedia — Mayoral election in Los Angeles, California (2026)
- The Sports Examiner — Google signs on with LA28 as Founding Partner for AI and Cloud
- GovTech Insider — Los Angeles IT Leaders Brief Industry on Priorities, Challenges