Mayor Gavin Newsom today issued the following statement in response to California Inspector General Laura Chick’s audit of federal stimulus funds received by San Francisco and her finding of no reportable issues concerning how the City is spending funds received under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA):”I’m very proud that the Inspector General’s report validates that San Francisco is spending the federal stimulus dollar we’ve received quickly and efficiently. From the beginning, we created the Recovery SF website so residents and taxpayers could track our progress and stay informed about stimulus money spending, jobs and projects.

Under the extraordinary leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and our Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer in Washington, San Francisco will benefit from more than $1.12 billion in federal stimulus funds to rebuild our infrastructure, boost our economy and create thousands of jobs. We’ll continue to be vigilant, transparent and accountable for every federal stimulus dollar we receive as we invest in the future of our City and region and put people back to work.”

San Francisco is set to receive the following Recover Act funding:

· $366.97 million in direct grants
· $33.36 million to the San Francisco Unified School District
· $200 million in funding for Doyle Drive
· $121.0 million in funding for the renovation of 50 UN Plaza
· $400 million for the Transbay Terminal

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, requires that taxpayer dollars spent under the Recovery Act are subject to transparency and accountability. To ensure that accountability requirements are being met, the Inspectors General of 28 federal agencies distributing Recovery funds continually review their agencies’ management of Recovery funds. On April 20, 2010 the California Recovery Act Inspector General released a review of San Francisco Workforce Investment Board’s (WIB) spending of Recovery Act funds for Summer Youth, Adult and Dislocated Worker Programs and found no reportable issues.

For more information on the spending of San Francisco’s Recover Act dollars visit: http://recoverysf.org/intranet/RecoverySF/