Turning checks into jobs

Months of frenzied application filing are starting to pay off, and federal stimulus dollars are trickling in to the City of Oakland. City officials are generally ecstatic, except for one troubling question: is there enough staff to manage it all?

Most of the federal stimulus grants allow little to no money for administration costs, says Margaretta Lin, who’s coordinating the city’s stimulus program. The spending rules “aren’t mindful of the fact that local governments have been decimated by the economic slowdown,” says Lin.  

Many taxpayers see caps on the amount of money tagged for administration costs as a good thing.  The less money going to government bureaucracy, the more available for buying materials and paying workers. But somebody’s gotta sign the checks, manage the bids from private contractors, and report it all back to the federal government.

This all comes on the heels of deep budget cuts for local governments in California. The City of Oakland cut 20% of its workforce this year in order to close an $83 million budget deficit, says Lin. Now, the city’s barebones staff is working overtime to get the stimulus program moving, which in theory, should lead to an improved economy and more income for the city.