Auditor Slams City Hall for Tens of Millions in Uncompetitive, Untracked Grants

City gave money away without criteria or accountability, audit finds.

By Nigel Jaquiss

City Auditor Mary Hull Cabellero today released a scathing review of the city's practice of doling out tens of millions of dollars in discretionary grants and awards without a process for deciding who should get the money or tracking the results of such spending.

Here's a summary of the audit's findings:

In a Jan. 15 letter to Hull Caballero, Mayor Charlie Hales and city budget chief Andrew Scott agreed past practices were unacceptable and pledged improvement.

"In response to concerns noted in the audit," Hales and Scott wrote, "the City Budget Office has drafted a Special Appropriations Grant Management Guide outlining policies and procedures for allocating, monitoring and evaluating special appropriations grant funding."

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