When Evergreen Solar announced it was filing bankruptcy this week, the news sparked a flurry of stories pointing out how the “green” solar panel company had received money from the federal stimulus.

The Massachusetts-based company was held up as another example of wasted taxpayers’ dollars under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

But Evergreen Solar may be a better example of just how complicated and difficult it can be to track the massive $821 billion federal stimulus.

Because despite the White House and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick both citing Evergreen Solar as receiving stimulus money, the government’s website that tracks ARRA spending could find no evidence the solar panel company did indeed get that money.

Recovery.gov, the U.S. government’s official website related to Recovery Act spending, could find nothing showing that Evergreen Solar received any stimulus money.

“From our initial reviews, we can find no data in Recovery.gov indicating that Evergreen Solar received Recovery Act funds,” Recovery.gov spokesman Edward Pound said.

It would be tough to blame all the websites that cited Evergreen as a recipient of ARRA money.

The White House sent out an April 22, 2009, communication claiming the Recovery Act had success in creating jobs. The White House stated that because of the stimulus bill and new contracts, green energy companies were looking to hire. The White House then cited Evergreen Solar hoping to hire as many as 100 people.

The state of Massachusetts put out a press release citing Evergreen Solar’s involvement with a project funded by the stimulus.

Evergreen Solar put out its own press release in October 2010 that their panels were all compliant with the ARRA and could be used by projects funded by the stimulus.

Pound said that even if Evergreen Solar had received stimulus funds as a subcontractor, there should have been some record of it.

While the City of Ann Arbor has laid off police officers and eliminated positions from the fire department this year, it is sitting on $1.5 million that it has set aside for public art. The city has raised $2.7 million for public art since 2009, but has only spent $1.1 million on two art projects, according to a city official and public documents received in a Freedom of Information Act request.

The city set up its “public arts” fund in 2007, with the City Council agreeing to take 1 percent of the money that went into capital improvement projects that were $100,000 or larger and set it aside for art. Most capital projects involve streets, sewers and water.

Aaron Seagraves, the city’s public art administrator, said there are several projects planned. For example, the city wants to put $150,000 of art in its Ann Arbor Justice Center police and courts building.

“Art is in the eye of the beholder, but crime statistics are not,” said Michael LaFaive, director of the Mackinac Center's Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative.

LaFaive said the residents would be better served if money for sewers were actually spent on sewer construction and not diverted for public art, and that it would be better to have “people donate money to arts instead of having it extracted from them.”

Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje didn’t return an email seeking comment. But AnnArbor.com reported that the mayor wants to do more with public art.

Ed Jacques, spokesman for the Police Officers Association of Michigan, said he was reluctant to say much on the topic because the city is negotiating a contract with Ann Arbor’s police union.

“The most important service that a community or municipality can provide is security and safety for its residents,” Jacques said. “That has to be the No. 1 issue.”

According to AnnArbor.com, the city eliminated 20 positions in the police and fire departments for the 2011-12 fiscal year. Seven police department employees were laid off.