why Obama's stimulus doesn't work...American greed is over the top...i'm sure the LA city council patted themselves on the back with bonuses and whatever else they needed with the 111 million too...
More than a year after Congress approved $800 billion in stimulus funds, the Los Angeles city controller has released a 40-page report on how the city spent its share, and the results are not living up to expectations.

"I'm disappointed that we've only created or retained 55 jobs after receiving $111 million," said Wendy Greuel, the city's controller. "With our local unemployment rate over 12 percent we need to do a better job cutting red tape and putting Angelenos back to work."

According to the audit, the Los Angeles Department of Public Works spent $70 million in stimulus funds -- in return, it created seven private sector jobs and saved seven workers from layoffs. Taxpayer cost per job: $1.5 million.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation created even fewer jobs per dollar, spending $40 million but netting just nine jobs. Taxpayer cost per job: $4.4 million.

Greuel blamed the dismal numbers on several factors:

Aug. 13: Several thousand people protest demanding jobs outside City Hall in Los Angeles.


1. Bureaucratic red tape: Four highway projects did not even go out to bid until seven months after they were authorized.

2. Projects that were supposed to be competitively bid in the private sector went instead went to city workers.

3. Stimulus money was not properly tracked within departments

4. Both departments could not report the jobs created and retained in a timely fashion..

"I would say maybe in a grade, a B- in creating the jobs," Greuel told Fox News. "They have started to spend those dollars but it took seven months to get some of those contracts out. We think in the city that we should move quickly and not in the same usual bureaucratic ways."

A b-??? they are still patting themselves on their backs... more like an F...

So ... you want to blame Oboma for ... the sloppy and maybe criminal activity of the city...



like the 111 million was just to create jobs ... it was to keep jobs and .... more importantly to rebuild aging and deteriorating infrastructure that .... HAD to be fixed anyway... but the city had no money to do it ...


Catch 22 bud. Blame the city for not planning for it years ago ... and the tax payers for not supporting paying enough to do it years ago.

are you directing that tirade at me?

so i guess to you 111 million dollars is ok to waste on RETAINING less than 55 jobs? is that what your griping about?
or is it fox news? either way, whether you want to put labels on it or not, the whole thing is wastefull. Greed is a major problem, and it is getting worse. You can blame whoever you want, i don't care... but just tossing money up in the air doesn't work, no matter what "wing" someone is.
BTW, i'm not a RW, LW, i have NO wings at at all.
and i don't like lemons...

Obama has set a wonderful example of how nt to run things and every jack off politician is going out of their way to squeeze what they can out of the system before Americans FINALLY pull their heads out of their backsides and finally do something about it.

We ARE run by greedy idiots!

And I find it humorous how people can so readily bash FOX and not bash all of the Media. I guess ted Turner is their God or something to that effect. I love how people can be led around by their nose and think they are in control...

ALL OF OUR MEDIA ARE IDIOTS!

the LA City council...


Greedy Idiots.

111 Million to keep 55 jobs... Just weak and stupid and now the big question, where EXACTLY is all that money going? Rebuilding worn out infrastructure???

Please don't make me laugh!

Hell, Cal trans got nailed recently for a lot of financial mismanagement like special Break Rooms hidden all over the place in things you would think were service sheds along the freeways. one even had a refrigerator fully stocked with beer and a pool table and TV.

thats my kind of job.. drive, drink beer, watch some tv while shooting pool...then maybe a break, like a nap...

bonuses... isn't that what the banks did with their bailout funds?

mismanagement of funds has never been limited to one party or another...

let's do some math...

$111M divided by $50,000 equals 2220 jobs. This is how many jobs that should have been created at least with that amount of money.



so the question is: why weren't they?

i don't think greed has a particular party...

Im sure that racist bigot Antonio Villariagosa got his pockets stuffed full of cash in the deal!!

I agree.

Here the stimulus money is being used for the roads and it sucks to travel through town now. It took them a while to start but now they are EVERYWHERE.

You know that it is not that simple with construction jobs, right?

The cost of material can be horrendous and the contracted labor is not so cut and dried.

yea. 55 new or retained jobs...
i could have done better than that...
by myself...

Get to it then, by yourself

get barry to send me a check... i'm ready

It wasn't Obama who sent this one.

Someone who can make it all better and isn't doing it is a shame. I am sure that the people who are working all this would appreciate the help in solving it all.

So hop to it.

Go Go Mr. Fix it.

wrong barry did send it...
and i'll get stated right on that, as soon as i get the check

I read the same story from a different article...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100917/bs_yblog_upshot/report-los-angeles-spent-70-million-in-stimulus-funds-to-create-7-76-jobs;_ylt=Apfww3sd1TOjyDTw0LH_YQlh24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTVxMnF0Ym4yBGFzc2V0Ay9zL3libG9nX3Vwc2hvdC8yMDEwMDkxNy9ic195YmxvZ191cHNob3QvcmVwb3J0LWxvcy1hbmdlbGVzLXNwZW50LTcwLW1pbGxpb24taW4tc3RpbXVsdXMtZnVuZHMtdG8tY3JlYXRlLTctNzYtam9icwRjY29kZQNtcF9lY184XzEwBGNwb3MDNQRwb3MDNQRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA3JlcG9ydGxvc2FuZw--

The audit didn't find any misspent funds or waste. But the breakdown of how some of the money was spent seems to indicate efficiency was not exactly the order of the day for project managers. The Department of Transportation, for instance, spent $9 million to install new LED lightbulbs in traffic lights at 1,800 intersections. Less the $228,000 in labor costs associated with the project, that's nearly $5,000 per location to change lightbulbs. Another project spent $4 million to install 65 new left-turn arrows, averaging more than $61,500 per arrow.



"Seems to indicate efficiency was not exactly the order of the day"?

No sh**

$61,500 per left turn arrow?Are you kidding me???That is like two years of my wages going to one turn arrow?How much money could it possible cost to cut a a piece of aluminium and apply a reflective decal to it?$150.00?$125.00?


After all the interest we will pay on the deficit due to this stimulus it will probably be more like $300 million for 55 jobs.


Way to go Obama.You have thousands of people living in cardboard boxes in Los angeles and you are wasting $61,500 for a single sign.Seems totally sane coming from the mind of a liberal.