Matt Cunningham is against wasting tax money – unless it is being wasted on him
Back in the day, Red County editor Matt Cunningham was not a fan of Rob Reiner, or Reiner’s First 5 Commission. Take a look at the Flash Report post below, which Matt wrote back in 2006 – be sure to note how anti-Latino Matt is and also, he cries about wasting tax money. Well now that this Commission is paying him $200 an hour to read blogs, I wonder what he has to say for himself?
Reiner Resigns from First 5 Commission; Schwarzenegger Replaces Him With Reiner Clone
by Matthew J. Cunningham – Orange County
3-29-2006 3:03 pm
The good news is Rob Reiner has finally done the right thing and resigned as chairman of the California Children and Families Commission, colloquially known as the First 5 Commission. It would have been nice if Reiner was resigning because he knows it is wrong to use tax dollars to promote his universal government pre-school ballot initative, but the world is an imperfect place. We’ll have to content ourselves with a resignation letter equal parts self-pity, self-congratulation and moral obliviousness (probably penned by Reiner’s new smashmouth PR guru, Mark Fabiani).
The bad news is our Governor has replaced Reiner with a political clone (of Reiner, not Schwarzenegger) named Hector Ramirez, head Para Los Ninos (Spanish for — what else? — For The Children). Here’s what Bill Bradley, who’s been the news source on this controversy, has to say about Ramirez:
UPDATE: Schwarzenegger may have created another controversy for himself with the appointment of Hector Ramirez as First 5 Chairman. Ramirez is a political associate of Reiner’s. The Proposition 82 campaign was launched at an event outside Para Los Ninos.
Ramirez served on the executive committee of the First 5 LA’s Preschool For All Initiative, which was, as I reported earlier, Reiner and First 5’s initial attempt to institute a publicly-funded universal preschool program and served as a model for Prop 82. After it was discovered that the Prop 10 tobacco tax money was inadequate for the task, Reiner’s thoughts turned to a new statewide initiative to fund Preschool For All at the state level. That initiative is now Prop 82. Ramirez is also a leading member of the National Council of La Raza (“The Race”), an advocacy organization on a variety of issues, including immigration reform.
La Raza! Fant-ah-stic!
In other words, nothing has really changed at the First 5 Commission — other than they will presumably stop spending tax dollars to fund a political campaign.
It’s getting to the point where I’ll be surprised if I’m not disappointed by the Governor’s actions.
Nice find!
One also wonders what Jerbal might have written on the old OC Blog, before it was sold to the OC GOP. Not sure all those posts can be found.
Hey. What’s the big deal. The Chipmunk and Jerbal rodents know what to do when the red light is on.
Matt Cunningham outed sex-abuse victims.
It’s unfortunate that many in the political party I share, make a “deceitful” living defending issues that they tell others they are morally, socially and politically against.
Can a Real Republican stand up be concerned with the direction our country is going to first rather then the affluent direction their paycheck is going?
Hypocrisy… to the worst degree!
SACRAMENTO (from Sacramento Bee)
1. Critics: Art-exhibit plan ‘egregious’ while budget cuts imperil Sacramento County kids Monday, May 1, 2010
RIVERSIDE First 5 (from Riverside Press-Enterprise)
2. Fair bidding? Monday, December 15, 2008
3. Changes urged for ‘dysfunctional’ First 5 Riverside commission Wednesday, December 17, 2008
4. State deficit debacle threatens First 5 Friday, January 23, 2009
5. First 5 Commission looks at perception of conflict of interest Wednesday, February 25, 2009
6. Riverside County supervisors want to make First 5 Riverside a county agency Tuesday, March 17, 2009
7. First 5 grant probe could take another month Wednesday, March 25, 2009
SAN DIEGO First 5 (from San Diego Union Tribune)
1. First 5’s fund focus of county attention, Sunday, May 24, 2009
2. Member of First 5 Commission steps down, Wednesday, June 3, 2009
3. Deeper conflicts emerge in First 5 funding, Thursday, June 4, 2009
4. Glaring conflicts: First 5 grant program needs thorough overhaul, Friday, June 5, 2009
5. First 5 tightens funding policies: New bylaws target conflicts of interest Tuesday, June 30, 2009
6. New rules prompt 9 to quit First 5 advisory panel, Tuesday, August 18, 2009
8. First 5 spending plan has old ties, Sunday, September 13, 2009
FRESNO First 5 (from Fresno Bee)
1. Fresno Co. finds it hard to measure First 5’s results, Saturday, Dec. 26, 2009
2. Fresno Co. First 5 faces conflict-of-interest worries, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO First 5 (from San Francisco Chronicle)
1. Not all First 5 grants are helping poor kids, April 19, 2008
TULARE First 5 (from Visalia Times-Delta)
1. First 5 spends $18k on invitations for a $486 party, just weeks before election, April 21, 2009
Thanks for that, Max. If State law allows it these Commissions should be controlled directly by the BOS as suggested in Riverside (#6). Can you post a link to the article?
And subsumed by the Health Care Agency.
one more time? I think it will work if it does not think it is a link
here it is – delete the $ before the link
$http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_firstfive18.3c5e6b5.html
Look, for whatever reason, I am trying to post the links but it is not picking up my posts, so if you are interested, please just copy/paste the articles into google and you will get there …
sorry I could not figure out this blog’s idiosyncracies.
I think they did in fact convert the First 5 in Riverside to a county department. From what I’ve read, it’s the only way to get rid of the conflict of interest.
Arnold’s trying to re-direct half the First 5 annual cash and the state level reserve in the May budget revise:
http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/StateAgencyBudgets/4000/4250/department.html
Let’s hope he gets it done this year.
A First 5 Commissioner comes out about problems with his own First 5 – it’s about time:
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/05/16/2752196/another-view-first-5-needs-to.html
Also, a new data point on how $200 per hour can be spent:
http://www.fullertonsfuture.org/2010/pacific-strategies-this-lunch-with-greenhut/#comment-14416
Here’s another First 5 Commission in trouble:
Amongst other serious issues in the report link below, the Contra Costa Grand Jury recommended that First 5 Contra Costa be converted to a county department, as was Riverside just last year. Though they are not a criminal Grand Jury, they did give a laundry list of many many issues that had been brought to the Grand Jury’s attention:
“Complaints received by the 2009-2010 Grand Jury regarding the First 5 Commission alleged Board of Commissioners’ self-dealing, conflicts of interest, misappropriation of funds in the awarding of contracts, general dereliction of fiduciary duties, and unethical conduct. In addition, complaints alleged illegal or inappropriate employment practices, including discrimination, manager bias and favoritism, sexual harassment and the cover-up of such behavior. Due to the number and nature of the complaints, the Grand Jury conducted an investigation.”
access the report (#1007) here:
http://www.cc-courts.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewpage&pageid=5093
And… the situation may not be over. A Civil Grand Jury may choose to leave conclusions about illegal activities to an assessment made by the District Attorney’s office, which has 3 years or so within which to press charges.