Got Parks?

4 Million here, 4 million there, what's it to you? It obviously isn't much to the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks who lost a $4-million donation to buy land for playgrounds in low-income areas. The LA Times:

Anna Bing Arnold donated the money to the city when she died in 2003 with one condition: It must be spent by May 2005 or the city will forfeit the funds. But Jon Kirk Mukri, general manager of the city parks department, said he did not know about the money until the city attorney's office notified him about it in late November.

"If there were people that were actively working on it, they certainly didn't tell me about it," said Mukri, who joined the parks department in February 2004, after the money had been donated. "Be that as it may, I was told. Better late than never."

Mukri believes a previous employee who knew about the money retired without telling anyone about it.

Good news, it's not to late. Bad news, how is it that these departments keep losing money by the millions and still have the gall to beg for tax increases? Failed leadership and a lack of accountability. Sound familiar to another office in city hall?