Scab Pulled off OC Rob Reiner Commission Compensation. Ouch. That Hurt.
The OC Register’s Tony Saavedra penned a nice little piece today exposing the Orange County Children and Families Commission Executive Director’s fabulous salary. Mike Ruane, the guy in question, pulls down a nifty $327K by the time everything is said and done. He has a grand total of 23 employees.
In the past we have explored the huge sums of money this tax-and-redistribute operation has paid out to political PR operations like Kurt Pringle; and we have detailed the idiotic $200 an hour payments to one Matthew J. Cunningham for doing thngs like listen to the radio and publicize toothbrush handouts.
It turns out that Ruane and his well-connected repuglican pals are not the only folks doing well by doing good. According to Saavedra over half of Ruane’s small posse pulls in over a hundred Gs per annum!
So who’s in charge? Well, nobody, of course. This is the worst kind of unaccountable government. The Board members are all appointed, but don’t answer to anybody. They can basically do any damn thing they want so long as the word “child” is mentioned somewhere. Atop the pyramid of power sits Supervisor Bill Campbell. You remember him. The one who actually wept here on the dais contemplating the good works of the Human Relations Commission. The Kids Commission is his pet project and damned if he isn’t going to do his God-ordained good works with your tax dollars.
Campbell’s respone to Saavedra is just comical and suggests that this idiot is probably just as profligate with County resources as he is handing out tobacco tax dough to kiducrats.
Damn…Who is minding the store?
So much for OC being Republican territory begs for limited government, but doesn’t apply in the Orange backyard!
Campbell and Cunningham are GOOD buds, or course.
I saw this article, and my first thought was this NEVER in a million years have been exposed if it was’nt for the FFFF.
You set up the oninion and the layers are being pulled back.
Something tells me you won’t be sharing cocktails with the Cunninghams and Chmilewinski’s this weekend!
Admin,
Thank you for revealing the gross graft these repuglicans score. They are parasitic scions draining the life of the public stock. These whigs should be pruned.
The funniest quote from this Ruane character:
“We’re not a think tank. We’re a ‘do’ tank.”
Well he’s close. It’s a doo-doo tank, and it’s about time somebody flushed out this septic system. How about it Supervisor Nelson? You up for it?
Sorry Joe. The Commission doesn’t answer to the Board.
Who do they answer to? If they spend public dollars there must be some oversight, even at the State level (which is pathetic at best, see CHSRA for example) but there has to be SOMEONE to protest to. Right?
The various commission and the State Commission were created by legislation enacting the Prop 10 initiative.
Good luck with accountability. The whole thing was created to dodge oversight by electeds.
But I guess you could try the Legislature or the Governor!
supervisor bill campbell, no matter how often he practicies it in the mirror, can’t turn his predatory teeth into a sweet smile because this is his soul.
“Those fellows, they’re always crying over killers. Never a thought for the victims.”
— Truman Capote (In Cold Blood)
There is a history on these people spending money in just about every way but how voters intended – published, well, just about everywhere:
Sacramento Bee
1. Kids panels hold $2 billion Sacramento Bee, January 17, 2008
2. Program critics claim abuse, want to seize funds, January 13, 2009
RIVERSIDE (Riverside Press-Enterprise)
1. Fair bidding?, December 15, 2008
2. Changes urged for ‘dysfunctional’ First 5 Riverside commission , December 17, 2008
3. State deficit debacle threatens First 5, January 23, 2009
4. First 5 Commission looks at perception of conflict of interest, February 25, 2009
5. Riverside County supervisors want to make First 5 Riverside a county agency, March 17, 2009 (and they did it)
6. First 5 grant probe could take another month, March 25, 2009
SAN DIEGO (San Diego Union Tribune)
1. First 5’s fund focus of county attention, May 24, 2009
2. Member of First 5 Commission steps down, June 3, 2009
3. Deeper conflicts emerge in First 5 funding, June 4, 2009
4. Glaring conflicts: First 5 grant program needs thorough overhaul, June 5, 2009
5. First 5 tightens funding policies: New bylaws target conflicts of interest, June 30, 2009
6. New rules prompt 9 to quit First 5 advisory panel, August 18, 2009
7. First 5 spending plan has old ties, September 13, 2009
8. Fix First 5 – now Use funds on health care, not belly dancing?, November 21, 2008
FRESNO (Fresno Bee)
1. Fresno Co. finds it hard to measure First 5’s results, Dec. 26, 2009
2. Fresno Co. First 5 faces conflict-of-interest worries, Dec. 27, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO (San Francisco Chronicle)
1. Not all First 5 grants are helping poor kids, April 19, 2008
TULARE (Visalia Times-Delta)
1. First 5 spends $18k on invitations for a $486 party, just weeks before election, April 21, 2009
ALSO:
Time to End the Children and Families Commission’s Autonomy May 6, 2010 (http://www.fullertonsfuture.org/2010/time-to-end-the-children-and-families-commissions-autonomy/#comment-13984
[AUDIO] First 5 Consultant receives $200 per hour for listening to radio KFI (May 7, 2010) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3-nP9Hxvjw&fe…!
[VIDEO] $4 million is spent on a national cartoon show KCRA (11-18-08)
A childcare facility in Riverside County is purusing a civil lawsuit against the County regarding First 5 Riverside breaking their own rules in order to provide a $750K grant to a County Agency (RDA) rather than the small childcare corporation who should have been been recommended for funding. Civil Suit (RIC 10024410)
@Tee – now that’s something that should hit the front page of the newspaper – or at least Jerry Brown’s links page on his FB page
or his own page:
http://gov.ca.gov/m_contact.php
Write him an email man!
Ruben, I wrote him via the link you provided.