Kaplan in Running for Consulting Post

Former mental health chief Stephen G. Kaplan is a contender for an $80,000 consulting job to help the county set up a commission to distribute nearly $12 million a year in tobacco tax revenues.

Kaplan and two other consulting groups, Garcia & Simon of San Francisco and Third Party Associates of Oakland, will be told who wins the contract at Friday’s meeting of the county’s Children and Families Commission.

The commission will meet at 8 a.m. in the county Superintendent of Schools Office in Camarillo.

An estimated $690 million will be distributed annually to California’s counties as the result of voter-approved Proposition 10, which adds a 50-cent tax to each pack of cigarettes. Ventura County’s share is about $11.7 million.

The initiative created a statewide commission to set policy, but leaves most spending decisions to local commissions.

Supervisor Kathy Long, who is leading the formation of Ventura County’s commission, said the consultant will be paid with part of the $147,000 in planning dollars that the county has already received from the state.

The consultant will use the remaining money to hire other contractors to hold focus groups and town hall meetings to determine the best way for Proposition 10 dollars to be distributed, Long said.

The money must be spent on programs serving young children.

Kaplan, a Ventura resident, has been doing consulting work for government agencies since resigning from the Behavioral Health Department in March. His ouster came on the heels of a failed attempt to merge the county’s social services and mental health agencies.