A small item in Metro CEO Art Leahy’s morning update caught my eye:

Lapsing American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Funds Allocated to Cities

Yesterday, we notified 13 cities that all or part of their American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds will be recommended for lapsing during the Board of Directors November/December meeting cycle. To appeal our recommendation, representatives of the Cities must attend the November 4, 2009 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting as outlined in the attached notification. We will report on the results of the TAC meeting appeals to the Planning and Programming Committee on November 18, 2009 and to the full Board on December 10, 2009.

Follow the above link to see a two-page report on the issue.

And, in case you’re wondering, the 13 cities are: Bellflower, Burbank, Cerritos, Compton, Hermosa Beach, Hidden Hills, Huntington Park, Inglewood, Lomita, Monrovia, Rolling Hills, South Pasadena and Torrance. Compton stands to lose the most at $2.9 million. Ouch.

Most cities are trying to use for the type of transportation projects that can be done quickly and that either preserve or create jobs — i.e. street resurfacing, curb repair and that sort of thing. In many cases, the problem some of the above cities are having is completing the federal paperwork required to get the money.

The point of the memo is to shake loose the paperwork. If the cities lose the money, Metro wants to ensure that the money stays in Los Angeles County and doesn’t revert to the state, said David Yale, Metro’s Deputy Executive Officer for Regional Programming.