It’s That Time of the Year for the Children and Families Commission

Yup. The time of the year when this little-known, virtually opaque level of government that was created by Rob Reiner’s tobacco tax hands out its PR and lobbying contracts to well-connected “small government” types like blabbermouth  Matthew J. Cunningham and Anaheim’s Mayor for Hire, Curt Pringle.

The hell with the kids. It's our turn at the trough!

I have previously documented the big government gravy being slurped up by Pringle and Cunningham here, and here. Were talking really big bucks here, Friends, and you get the feeling that not only is this Commission in existence to dole out the government largess to local repuglicans, but that its proprietors are a lot more interested in smiley face public relations and protecting their flow of tax revenue from Sacramento than they are in helping any kids. See, it takes a village to raise those children but unfortunately the bureaucracy and its spokesholes don’t come cheap.

Anyway, May and June are the months these contracts seem to come due and also seem to keep getting rolled over with almost no public scrutiny, or really any sort of performance audit for that matter. You can bet the family farm we’ll be reporting on the attempts to renew these contracts in the future.

10 Replies to “It’s That Time of the Year for the Children and Families Commission”

  1. Oh brother. Do as we say, not as we do!

    Reading Cunningham’s posts is becoming increasingly nauseating as the hypocrisy deepens. But it’s all about money, and for that Hanlon dude money is the ONLY thing.

  2. Remember May 5 is the next meeting of the commission. At the county building in Santa Ana.

    Grumblings inside have Campbell trying to change the time/location, probably to protect Matt’s business interests.

    WHY IS GROVER AND FRIENDS THE ONLY ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS? Where is Chip Hanlon, Martin Wiskol, Dan Chemmi and company on this????

    1. Ken, who is grumbling? That sounds like a post.

      I’m wondering if Michael Ruane, the guy who “oversees” this little fiefdom, will even let the agenda for May 5th be posted on their website.

      I wonder who’s in charge of the website. Oh that’s right, Cunningham is. Hmm.

  3. Damn. With these lucrative contracts this freak gets you would think he would invest some money on his teeth. And who in the right mind would hire this straight out of the Ozarks looking hillbilly to do PR. I thought PR was about improving images?

  4. Bill Campbell and Hugh Hewitt? Who elected/appointed/chose these people for this commission? Who do the commissioners answer to?

    “In 2008-2009, the Commission allocated more than $57 million to programs that served more than 205,000 children. The programs we support are grouped according to how they advance our four goals of healthy children, strong families, readiness to learn and quality services.” http://www.occhildrenandfamilies.org/FactSheet.aspx

    It’s like the Fullerton Collaborative but with a lot more money!

    Commissioners:
    Bill Campbell: Commission Chair
    Sandra Barry: Commission Vice Chair
    Kimberly Chavalas Cripe
    Ingrid Harita
    Hugh Hewitt
    Crystal Kochendorfer
    Maria E. Minon, M.D.: Commission Chair Pro-tem
    David L. Riley
    Sally Snyder, R.N.

    Staff:
    Michael Ruane, Executive Director
    Jennifer Berthon, Financial Analyst
    Anna Brendle, Program Officer
    Rhonda Diaz, Staff Specialist
    Michael Garcell, Financial Manager
    Kim Goll, Program Operations Director
    Roberto Gonzalez Jr., Program Assistant
    Susie Kim, Contracts Manager
    Steve Kozak, Chief Operations Officer
    Manita Manhnavong, Projects Administrator
    Brenda Manriquez, Director of Finance
    Jennifer Martinez, Projects Administrator
    Tillie Martinez, Contracts Administrator
    Alyce Mastrianni, Program Development and Evaluation Director
    Armida Nuno, Executive Assistant/Office Manager
    Barbara Phillips, Contracts Director
    Kelly Pijl, Assistant Executive Director
    Nicole Preciado, Contracts Administrator
    Janiece Teegarden, Contracts Manager
    Perlee Trout, Evaluations Manager

    Programs:
    Bridges for Newborns
    Child Health and Safety/Community Education
    Children’s Dental
    Community Clinics
    Fitness/Nutrition
    Health Access
    Healthy Children Collaborative Projects
    Healthy Children Collaborative Projects
    Pediatric Health Services
    Project Connections
    Project Connections/Home Visitation
    School Readiness Nursing
    Healthy Children Program Grants
    Miscellaneous
    Early Literacy
    Local School Readiness
    Ready to Learn Program Grants
    School Readiness Expansion Program
    Special Needs Program
    State/Local Partnership School Readiness
    Boys and Girls Club Project
    Homeless Prevention
    Strong Families Program Grants
    Capacity Building Grants (Supports a joint venture between various partners linking with a broad spectrum of volunteer service efforts statewide to coordinate the various organizations using their services and assuring necessary matching funds, providing technical support and administrative support, and fiscal coordination)
    AmeriCorps/ VISTA
    AmeriCorps/VISTA
    State First 5 Service Corps
    Technical Assistance
    New Program Research and Development

  5. what does anyone wish to wager that eli home is getting first five $$from the commission??

    transparency is the key here….jerbal is very close to the pinoy princess…..the polish peashooter will try to deflect the inquiries

  6. It’s bad that this commission is a HUGE waste of money, but what makes it worse is Bill Campbell, the Republican elected supervisor, is doling out the money to his buddies like Matt and Hugh.

    I suggest the FFFF and all of us dig deeper into Campbell’s alliances, perhaps check out who makes Matts house payments, We know Laura took in a shit pot of $$ from Prop 8 but GAVE NONE.

    How much money have the Cunninghams givem to REPUBLICAN canidates? ZERO.

    Campbell is being termed out and is likely looking for a job with Matt’s boss, Lewis.

  7. look at the scope of work in the contracts….translation into spanish and working with spanish speaking families….since when did jerbal speak spanish?…last we alllooked laurita did the spanish speaking outreach on prop 8….make work for laurita?

  8. First 5 is not part of the state budget…this is directly funded by the taxes paid on the purchase of tobacco products…there is no general funds as part of the first 5 commission…that all goes for the individual 58 first 5 commissions (each county has one-OC families and childrens commission is the first 5 commission for OC)

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