You can abuse taxpayer funds, but be warned: You won’t get away with it for more than a decade or two.
Last month, the inspector general for California’s High-Speed Rail Authority reported that consultants on the state’s much-delayed bullet train project had used hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funds to pay for “trips to gyms, a nightclub, an escape room, a tiki bar and a cigar lounge.” Traveling on taxpayer dollars, consultants also “flew first-class and were reimbursed without questioning, in violation of contracts and state policies.”
Last week, accountability arrived. Well, sort of. In an October 9 special meeting, the board that oversees the High-Speed Rail Authority sharply limited the ability of CEO Ian Choudri to personally approve contracts on the project.
If you dig into the details, though, the accountability part becomes fuzzier. Board member Lynn Schenk said she was outraged to learn about the improper use of public funds. Also, Schenk has served on the oversight board since 2003. Read these details from a report on the news website CalMatters carefully:
Board member Henry Perea suggested the travel payments are so egregious that the state should end its contract with the firms right away, something Gov. Gavin Newsom has also floated. However, Perea said he worried that doing so could set back the long-delayed rail project even further.
“I’d terminate these four (contracts) tomorrow or today, but I understand there’s a question of operational needs that we have with these folks,” he said.
These contractors have abused us in an outrageous manner, and what a shame it is that they’re going to continue serving as our contractors.
Also, as CalMatters put it, “the board did not grill the authority’s top executives for failing to catch the behavior.” Money was misspent, so don’t do that again. Anyway, moving on…
At the board meeting, Choudri walked away from reporters who tried to ask him questions. In a state with frequently complicit and docile legacy media, California journalists are pursuing this story with considerable seriousness, prompting state officials to run and hide.
But you can watch Choudri’s statement to the board, and this is where things get especially interesting.
— Eytan Wallace (@EytanWallace) October 10, 2026As promised in the below thread, I am posting the full prepared remarks from CA High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Ian Choudri from today's @CaHSRA High-Speed Rail Board meeting.
While Choudri did not take questions from reporters, I am sharing his full remarks to ensure fair… https://t.co/vaSXMkdafa pic.twitter.com/UGlicFQR0M
Choudri described a series of new steps the High-Speed Rail Authority is taking to ensure that public funds are spent appropriately. “To further strengthen fiscal discipline,” he told the board, “the authority has enhanced internal controls through its review process, updated consultant travel requirements – that’s already done – and revised our training materials for our own staff and for consultants. It also implemented additional oversight measures to ensure all expenses meet state standards.”
The California High-Speed Rail Authority was created in 1996, and its project was approved by the state’s voters in a 2008 referendum. Active construction began in 2015. In 2026, with no trains and no track in place, the officials who oversee the project are working to implement new internal controls to prevent waste.
This week, The Federalist asked the High-Speed Rail Authority to explain specifically why new financial controls were just being created in 2026 for a project that by any measure began more than a decade ago. The response from a media relations manager just restated the things Choudri had already said: “To further strengthen fiscal discipline, the Authority has enhanced internal controls through its review process, and updated consultant travel requirements, and revised our training materials.” Their response to a question about the CEO’s statement was to repeat the CEO’s statement.
This is California, and you can find versions of this story everywhere you look. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) was created in 1993. This August, with a LAHSA contractor agreeing to plead guilty to federal fraud charges and several others awaiting trial, the agency announced that it was reviewing a new report it had commissioned from an accounting firm to figure out how to “strengthen its financial practices.” Imagine a private sector company announcing in its fourth decade of doing business that it was trying to figure out how to really nail down its basic accounting practices.
As I’ve written before, the City of Los Angeles took over a functioning motel in 2020 and turned it over to to a homeless services non-profit to be converted into long-term housing for the homeless. In 2026, it’s empty and gutted:
A couple of years ago, California’s state auditor reviewed $24 billion in recent state funding for homeless services, concluding that they weren’t really sure where all the money had gone or what the spending had accomplished.
California government: Money is spent. No one is quite sure where or for what. Some hints appear about cocktails and first-class airline tickets. New procedures are implemented. Nothing much gets done.
You can have this kind of government for the whole country, if you want to elect California officials to national office.
Chris Bray is a senior correspondent at The Federalist and a former infantry sergeant in the U.S. Army. He has a history PhD from the University of California Los Angeles, not that it did him any good. He also posts on Substack, at "Tell Me How This Ends," here.