L.A. City Hall Missed Out on More Than $1 Billion in Free U.S. Money: Wendy Greuel Blames Lack of Coordination

By Dennis Romero Mon., Jan. 23 2012 at 12:54 PM

MatM

You, the taxpayer, might have missed out on $1 billion or more in free money because the geniuses at City Hall failed to coordinate their grant applications.

That's according to the latest audit from city Controller Wendy Greuel, whose office says today that ...

... the lack of an effective centralized oversight unit to coordinate grant applications among the City's departments led to various oversights and ultimately reduced Los Angeles' share of competitive grant funding.

The Controller says that of $1.3 billion in grants sought by L.A., only $261 million was awarded.

A lack of coordination might have cost us. A lot. In fact, Greuel says, city departments could have gone for a lot more than just $1 billion.

The funds were being offered via the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but "the City failed to pursue all eligible funding opportunities," according to Greuel's office.

The city dropped the ball on Economic Adjustment Assistance Funding as a result of a lack of bodies: " ... Furloughs and early retirement of staff" meant there weren't enough heads to write the grant, apparently.

Same goes, apparently, for Public Works and Economic Development Facilities funds.

LAX officials failed to apply for more than one grant available from federal Airport Improvement Program Funding. According to Greuel's office:

The review reveals that LAWA officials applied for the category they felt had the best chance of being funded and did not pursue other categories, though they were in line with the core mission and the City was eligible to apply for additional funding for other critical improvement projects.

Oops.

The Controller found that the city was slower than a Teamster on payday in applying for these particular grants (average time: 5 months) and that there are -- get this -- no formal citywide guidelines for going for grants.

Wow.

Of course, Greuel wants the city to adopt a centralized grant-oversight unit and to come up with guidelines that all departments can follow:

In these difficult economic times, it is crucial for the City to pool resources and expertise between departments to streamline grant approvals and get the funding in the pipeline. I urge the City Council to establish and empower a Centralized Oversight Unit to make sure that the City does not miss out on accessible federal support.

Yeah, next time your car dives into a pothole that destroys your tire and cracks your wheel, remember that L.A. can't fix its worst-in-the-nation streets, but that its overpaid employees (average city salary: $72,000-a-year) have ample freedom and luxury to pass up free money.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

Tags:

audit, City Council, City Hall, grants, Los Angeles, Wendy Greuel

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Idiotic

So the city couldn't apply for all the grants because there wasn't enough manpower (furloughs and early retirement) which is a result of the city trying to cut its labor costs. So the city controller's solution is to build another layer of govt and add more employees to an oversight unit? What was the furloughs and early retirement for, then? This kind of circular, stupid thinking is why people don't trust their govt in the first place.

Gojump

Free U.S. Money??? NO SUCH THING.

molasses jones

um... That would have cleared up the deficit in the city budget, no?

Mike Jones

L.A. city council is corrupt to its core and totally incompetent and needs to be voted out. Richard Alarcon, Tony Cardenas, Bernard Parks, Ed Reyes are particularly bad.

common sense

Greuel as member of the City Council Budget Committee should had requested a standing committee, coordinating grant application and federal funding on an ongoing basis. Oops!!Again, continuing with her hypocritical MO.

Star Jonestown

Dennis, the job of an audit is largely to critique... The city applied for the $1B you claim they "missed out on."

Grant money is not automatically handed over - there are countless competing applications.

Your fundamental conclusion is false. The grants weren't rejected because of a "lack of coordination." The audit Claims poor coordination "reduced" funding. The conclusion you draw, that the city would have received ALL OF THE MONEY with coordination, is not linear. It is incorrect.

The audit clearly has an agenda - build an "oversight unit." Which is an excuse to spend more to hopefully make more money. I'd bet that Ms. Gruel would like to have a hand in the creation of this new committee...

But I don't believe that this audit truly found evidence of city incompetence. It's Monday morning quarterbacking with the spin that 'it would be better if we had more staff'.

Dennis Romero

Star:

I understood what you were saying (the city applied, didn't get) when I wrote this, but this is what the Controller is saying, not me. Perhaps your problem is with her.

Star Jonestown

Thanks for the reply, Dennis. I read you frequently and I appreciate that you took the time to read my thoughts on the article.