At virtually every campaign stop, Los Angeles mayoral candidate and City Controller Wendy Greuel points to eliminating $160 million in "waste, fraud and abuse" she's found at City Hall as a solution to the city's fiscal troubles and evidence that she would be a tough fiscal manager as mayor.

But most of the dollar total in Greuel's claim, now featured in television ads, relies on two audits that depend on an accounting maneuver and a large revenue projection that the controller's office itself said was unrealistic from the start.

Many of the dozens of audits cited by Greuel's campaign to support the $160-million claim reveal shortcomings in municipal policy and recommend "best practice" reforms that many people inside and outside of City Hall would agree are needed.

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