Update: Spending ARRA money in LA County

After weeks of playing phone tag with the person in charge of implementing the 10,000 jobs program, my executive director and I went down to the Board of Supervisors meeting this morning to ask for an active discussion. We didn't get it, but the aforementioned person came down from her meeting upstairs and gave me her cell phone number to call. We set a date for a meeting involving major stake holders for the 3rd week of July. I find this whole process of working with a local government slow and infuriating, but it teaches me patience, which I sorely lack, so that's good, I suppose.

Now, the newsworthy items that I learned during our impromptu side-bar meeting are that (1) the South Bay WIB has already found employment for 417 people, mostly in non-profit orgs; (2) the governor's threat to cut CalWORKs has stalled a full implementation of the program; (3) the ARRA money has not been disbursed yet; and (4) the interim solution is to run the program on a borrowed money with the hope of getting reimbursed once the ARRA money comes down.

I applaud the County's effort to find employment, even if temporary, for the unemployed. But I'm afraid that this well-meaning effort will end up amplifying existing barriers to employment for those with criminal records, rather than help alleviate it.