Construction projects funded by federal stimulus money aimed at jump-starting California's economy are being delayed as much as two months because of a bureaucratic backlog, the state's inspector general said Monday.
Laura Chick, the former Los Angeles controller now overseeing stimulus spending as inspector general, said in a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that the agency in charge of reviewing projects needs more staff to speed up the process.
"Every day that a project is stalled is a delay in creating desperately needed jobs for Californians," Chick wrote. The state Office of Historic Preservation must approve most new construction, but employee furloughs, combined with a surge of applicants, have created a glut of unapproved projects.
