I think Text::ParseWords (core module) should work as well:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Text::ParseWords;

my $s = q[ci,14938340,2,"Monday, February 21, 2011 19:58:06 UTC",34.69
+53,-118.5350,2.2,17.40, 9,"Southern California"];

print join "\n", parse_line(",", 1, $s);
print "\n";
[download]

Outputs:

ci
14938340
2
"Monday, February 21, 2011 19:58:06 UTC"
34.6953
-118.5350
2.2
17.40
 9
"Southern California"
[download]

-John