CaliforniaController.comWhat happened after Cohen promised tougher scrutiny? Follow the reporting on homelessness spending, unclaimed property and management failures inside the Controller’s own office.
Read the full chronology at MaliaCohen.org →13 articles and reports
Cohen cited denied funding. The request did not specify homelessness.
Her 2022 CalMatters interview named homelessness spending as a priority for scrutiny. The later statewide audit exposed gaps in spending and outcome records. The unresolved question is what her own office delivered on that promise. [CalMatters][California State Auditor]
The lawsuit names Cohen and contractors Kroll and Kelmar. It alleges foreign addresses were rewritten before investors’ shares were taken and sold without proper notice. The case concerns whether the state had grounds to take the assets at all; the accusations await a court ruling.
Managers violated telework rules. Payroll collections also failed.
The underlying investigation found false California work-location forms and limited HR action after IT flagged possible out-of-state work. Investigators also documented more than $33,000 in overpayments and delayed collection. The office’s response said both managers had separated and promised better location monitoring. [California State Auditor]
Julie Watts examines the hurdles owners face reclaiming money California holds for them and looks at states that return money automatically. The investigation asks why owners must navigate a claims process after the state has already identified property that belongs to them.
Separately, California’s published rules allow up to 180 days to review a complete claim. During the 2025 system replacement, the office also paused claim evaluations for weeks. [State Controller’s Office][State Controller’s Office]
Kendall reported that the state’s homelessness council had not analyzed spending beyond 2021. Three of five programs lacked enough outcome data to assess cost-effectiveness, despite roughly $24 billion allocated across housing and homelessness over five years. The report explains how poor recordkeeping left lawmakers funding programs without a dependable account of their results.
Assembly Republicans demanded records of the Controller’s payment reviews and audits, including work on homelessness, EDD and DMV. Grimes reported their questions about whether agency and vendor assurances were replacing deeper scrutiny. The letter calls for Cohen to produce the audit trail behind her office’s oversight claims.
Doug Brown sought $18,000 owed to his family but struggled with the paperwork required to claim it. The report follows the difficulty of recovering money the state holds for its owners.
Before taking office, Cohen identified homelessness spending, EDD and DMV as areas she wanted to scrutinize. The interview records her priorities in 2022, setting up a comparison with what her office later delivered.
The CA Post Editorial Board argues that telework failures and the unclaimed-property controversy undermine Cohen’s credibility as a fiscal watchdog. This is an editorial judgment about her leadership; the reporting and investigation records are listed separately.
The investigation documents out-of-state telework violations, salary overpayments and delayed recovery inside the Controller’s Office. It includes the agency’s responses, including the managers’ separations and promised changes. This is the source record behind the reporting on failures in Cohen’s own operation.
The audit found inconsistent tracking of homelessness costs and outcomes. Two programs appeared likely to be cost-effective; three lacked enough information to assess. The separate State Auditor conducted this review, while Cohen’s own office later reported no homelessness audits.
The high-risk assessment describes resistance to an independent review of delayed financial reporting. Cohen’s office disputed that characterization. The exchange matters because public oversight depends on the Controller opening the office’s work to outside examination.
The performance audit identifies reporting and coordination problems across California’s financial-reporting process and credits recent improvements in timeliness and quality. Its recommendations show what still needs fixing after the earlier dispute over independent review.
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