Stimulus Funds Gone Awry? Who Could Have Guessed?

Todd Thurman / June 23, 2009

A story coming out of Glendale, CA, reports that stimulus funds were used to help two non-profit organizations instead of a road in the city which has not been repaired since 1992. City officials believed that repairing the roads are a better fit for the purpose of the stimulus (shovel-ready public works projects); unfortunately, the Community Development Block Grant Advisory Committee had already decided where the money was going to go before the city got to tell them that.

There are a few things wrong here. First of all, this is a gross misuse of public funds (even for stimulus funds).  Secondly, the road in Glendale actually needed to be repaired and city officials said it would cost more to repair later: (more…)