Another Fabulous “First Five” F-up
FFFF has documented how the Orange County version of Meathead Rob Reiner’s First Five Commission known as “The OC Children and Families Commission” has squandered hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past several years on PR and lobbying contracts to political operatives. We have shared how the Riverside County chapter of the Tax and Redistribute Society was busted for numerous conflicts of interest and was finally corralled by the RC Board of Supervisors. Here’s a link generously provided by Friend “Max” to a news report in May about the Contra Costa County Grand Jury about more misbehavin’ by their First Five Commission.
The key recommendation is the employment, by competitive bid, of an independent external auditor (i.e. not hired by the staff and Chairman with a wink and a nod) to clean up the cronyism and self-interest.
I really have to wonder what would happen if all 58 county grand juries did their jobs vis-a-vis the First Five Commissions. Would a single county emerge unscathed from political corruption and “jobs for the boys” kickdowns of the sort we’ve seen right here in OC? Or Riverside? Or Contra Costa?
Doubtful. The corruption is probably endemic.
The County has a Performance Auditor. Can anyone say sic ’em.
He Grover – thanks for the clear stories down there – the link is off right now for some reason.
Here’s the county Grand Jury reports page – it’s #1007 – Hopefully the blog will be back up soon so you all can see what people up north think about the First 5 and this report:
http://www.cc-courts.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewpage&pageid=5093
Here’s another link about it – three articles have surfaced so far – –
http://www.eastbaydaze.com/2010/05/first-5-praised-then-comes-under-grand.html
Matt Cunningham outed sex-abuse victims.
The Jerbals of the world are results of the “program”, so go after the “program” not the Jerbals.
I hope that conservative politicians, bloggers and lobbyists take every dime of rotten Prop 10 money they can get – otherwise that money will go to liberal politicians, bloggers and lobbyists.
As Balthasar said, “.. go after the program ..” – not those taking advantage of it.
If you take the money you are not a conservative, you are a liberal politician/blogger/lobbyist/whore. Now go away.
well here’s another link for you guys then if you want to do that:
http://cssrc.us/web/1/firstfive.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
Senator Dave Cox has been tracking their problems for a while. I am guessing he’d be interested in knowing about ol’ Cuningham’s bills.
Here’s the next story in the First 5 Contra Costa series
http://www.halfwaytoconcord.com/contra-costas-first-five-commission-investigation-panel-is-flawed/
Looks like the site is undergoing some maintenance… so if not tonight, tomorrow
More Contra Costa First Five
Hey ya’ll –
the local rag got it together just enough to show how ignorant they are of the First 5 situation:
http://forums.contracostatimes.com/topic/first-five-preschool-program-draws-criticism?source=article#comment-268273
AND
http://www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_15385376?source=pkg
The comments are just stellar!
Come see what’s up these days at the First 5 commissions, including that one of them distributed lead contaminated toys and then did not tell everyone:
http://www.flopped5.org/hot-off-the-press.html