She said it with what sounded like a sigh of resignation: Laura Chick is finally getting a BlackBerry.

Maybe that's one way of explaining how much things are changing for the former Los Angeles city controller, who's ending her first week in Sacramento as the state's new 'inspector general for federal stimulus funds'. Or something like that.

Maybe job #1 should be fixing that clunky title.
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The first report on federal stimulus dollars in California and around the nation is out, and poses two key questions: do local officials have the resources and training to follow all the rules, and can anyone really peg the full impact of all this money?
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California's portion of the federal stimulus money seems to be flowing a little faster every day. And with it comes folks watching how it will be spent. A lot of folks.

On this morning's edition of The California Report, I reported on the complexity involved in managing some $48 billion in money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That management, and distribution, is passing through multiple channels, often led by Governor Schwarzenegger's economic stimulus task force but also including the Legislature, local officials, and others.

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"There's mass confusion still at this stage."

That's what Governor Schwarzenegger said today about efforts to find precise estimates in both how much money California is getting from the federal stimulus package... and... how much of that money counts toward whether officials can pull the so-called budget "trigger."
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And now, the latest developments from the "Clear as Mud" files... everyone who's anyone around the state Capitol wants to know whether California's share of the federal economic stimulus package is large enough to allow some of the less-than-loved budget decisions to be rescinded.

But finding an absolute answer to that question... well, that's what has landed us in the muddy water.
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