UPDATE: More inconsistencies found in stimulus job creation claims

DWP slow to spend federal stimulus money, L.A. controller finds

Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel found that the city’s utility had been slow to spend its $112.7-million share of federal stimulus dollars and that the department’s initial estimates of jobs created in the program may not have been accurate and lacked documentation.

The city received about $630 million in stimulus grants and loans, but Los Angeles officials have struggled to spend the money quickly because of extensive employee furloughs and the city’s lengthy processes for awarding grants and contracts.

Though President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act launching the program in February 2009, Greuel’s new audit found that Los Angeles had only spent about a third of its stimulus money by the end of 2010. The city’s spending rate has lagged behind that of other big cities such as New York, Chicago and Minneapolis, according to its own analysis.