Public Oversight Is the Key

While Ventura County engages in a mighty tug of war over $260 million in tobacco lawsuit settlement money, a different pot of tobacco money--this one from the Proposition 10 tax on cigarettes--is in danger of going up in smoke.

Critics of the Children and Families First Commission of Ventura County, the quasi-public panel set up to decide who in the county should get the $12 million a year, are troubled by what they see as conflicts of interest and a lack of oversight.

The commission and others like it were created in counties throughout the state after the passage in 1998 of Proposition 10, which added a 50-cent per pack tax on cigarettes. Although not officially part of county government, it is chaired by Supervisor Kathy Long, and its nine members include county Human Services Agency Director Barbara Fitzgerald, county Health Officer Robert Levin, county Supt. of Schools Charles Weis and county Work / Family Coordinator Debbie Bergevin.

Yet neither the Board of Supervisors nor the public can veto the commission’s selections once they are made--and the only requirement for bidders is that they promise to use the money to benefit children 5 and younger.

“I’m becoming more and more concerned about that commission,” Supervisor John Flynn told The Times. “I see a rather politically cohesive group that’s going to covet this money and send it in certain directions--a buddy-buddy system.”

Exhibit A for the skeptics was the hiring of Kaplan & Associates as primary consultant. That firm, which submitted the highest of six bids, is headed by Stephen G. Kaplan, who was the most senior bureaucrat to be ousted in the fallout of the county’s mental health debacle.

Long, Fitzgerald and Supervisor Susan Lacey--a member of the statewide Children and Families First Commission--were among Kaplan’s strongest supporters when he was director of the county’s Behavioral Health Department, working to engineer the 1998 merger of the county’s mental health and social service agencies. That merger touched off a chain of revelations, investigations, audits and fines that have surpassed $25 million.

So far, most of the Proposition 10 money has been spent on deciding how to spend it. Under a six-month contract, Kaplan & Associates has held more than 20 focus groups, hosted a series of public forums and conducted a countywide parent survey. Price so far: $112,000.

The commission is expected to approve its spending plan when it meets Monday 4/17 at Oxnard City Hall. It includes $1.1 million to create a university think tank on child development issues, $13 million toward an endowment to perpetuate programs even if smoking--and hence Proposition 10 tax revenue--declines, and $643,500 per year for administration.

Supervisor Long has said she would like to see three goals emphasized by the commission’s programs:

* Children emotionally, socially and academically ready for school.

* Children physically and mentally healthy.

* Families provide an environment that supports the physical, mental, emotional and intellectual development of their children.

Those are certainly worthy goals that everyone in Ventura County would support. But every dime steered to political cronies or divvied up without vigorous public oversight reduces the public’s confidence in this process.

As with the dispute over the money from the tobacco settlement, the danger is that so much of the windfall will be burned up by politics, bureaucracy and legal fees that the intended beneficiaries will be left with little but ashes.