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LA Stimulus Money Will be the Most Transparent in the Nation, Says Garcetti

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Eric Garcetti

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LA City Council's new ad hoc Committee on Economic Recovery and Reinvestment met last week for the first time carefully deciding how stimulus will be handled. "At that meeting, we established a set of 9 guiding priorities by which we intend not only to fulfill the president’s vision for efficient allocation of the stimulus funds, but also to make Los Angeles the most accountable, transparent, and effective city in moving economic recovery programs forward," Council President Eric Garcetti wrote on his personal blog on his campaign website. With this transparency, he believes the city will get up to $1 billion. No decisions have been made on which projects will make the cut, but in February Garcetti alluded to the two sides of the issue: whether money should go towards meat and potatoes projects such as repairing the 80 year back log on sidewalks and streets or go attractive sounding ideas like green construction and solar power? Now with the nine standards set in place, choices may be a bit easier.

Still, Garcetti wants your input. "What projects would you like to see us target? Where can we get the most bang for the buck and how else can cities lead the way toward economic recovery?"

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