Posted on 10/04/2004 8:41:58 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO - State Controller Steve Westly said Monday his office will audit another $6.4 million worth of grants passed out by legislators with little guidance or oversight.
The eight new audits are in addition to four announced last month, when Westly ordered the return of up to $15 million in unspent money given to groups that sometimes neither needed nor even knew of the grants.
Westly ordered a review of four years of the grants after news stories suggested $125,000 may have been illegally sidetracked to the 2002 campaign of Secretary of State Kevin Shelley from a nearly $500,000 grant for a San Francisco community center that was never built.
The review turned up 20 other large grants in which there was little documentation or oversight.
Westly has since ordered full audits on 12 of them, including the eight announced Monday: Committee for Restoration of Mission in Fremont, $985,000; Santa Barbara Zoological Gardens, $329,975; Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose, $172,375; Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services in Los Angeles, $197,000; P.F. Breese Foundation in Los Angeles, $246,250; city of Anaheim, $123,125; Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, $98,500; and two grants to the city of Yucaipa totaling $4,235,500.
The four ordered last month were the Slavonic Cultural Center in San Francisco, $394,000; Mission Trails in San Diego, $985,000; MLK Museum/Chavez Center in Los Angeles, $246,250; and Breed Street Shul in Los Angeles, $492,500.
"Lawmakers earmarked these funds for worthy causes, but the best intention is no substitute for accountability," Westly said in a statement blaming the Department of Parks and Recreation.
Parks officials say lawmakers attach few requirements to the constituent grants, and don't include enough oversight money.
ON THE NET
State controller: www.controller.ca.gov
Oh yeah, no chance that THIS money was misspent.
I want a ringside seat (behind bulletproof glass)!
Take pictures for me okay? LOL.
Who exactly is the duel between?
Is this Westly trying to look tough since he was asleep at the wheel with Shmelleygate?
Good question. Westley v. the leftists in hopes of looking "independent" for a goobernatorial nomination? Is this Westly trying to look tough since he was asleep at the wheel with Shmelleygate?
It could be a diversion or just simple posturing with no real accountability at the end. Westley was an entrepreneur, not a politician. He may also just be incensed at what he sees and too raw to realize the hornets' nest he's stirring, or he could be looking to put Lockyer in a tight spot as to who is the real "reformer."
If Westley levels charges of malfeasance, what will be really interesting is to see what Lockyer does, given that he wants to be governor too. Who knows?
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