Sharing Cigarette Bonanza

Like many toddlers, Vincent Hsueh would rather fidget and squirm than hold still during a checkup at a doctor’s office.

Born 2 1/2 months premature, Vincent was only 2 pounds at birth. But despite that tough beginning, Vincent, now 14 months, has progressed and become a healthy survivor under the care of the High Risk Infant Clinic at Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

“Last year the clinic had 300 visits by children like Vincent, but we just got $2.5 million that will allow us to have 1,000 patient visits,” said clinic coordinator Diane Baker, referring to a grant recently allocated by the Proposition 10 Children and Families Commission.

“We’re grateful for the money.”

More than $25 million has been distributed by the county’s tobacco commission, which was created by the 1998 statewide tobacco initiative that imposed a 50-cent tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products. The commission has concentrated on strategic planning, which has resulted in the speedy distribution of funds. Only 12 of 58 county commissions have allocated Proposition 10 funds.

Recently, the commission received county approval to create an independent governmental layer to funnel an estimated $50 million a year from cigarette taxes to help fund many child-development programs.

The commission’s independence is significant in a county that has found itself in political turmoil over spending a separate $30 million a year expected from the tobacco industry’s settlement of lawsuits filed by various states.

The settlement debate focuses on the Board of Supervisors’ decision to spend the windfall to help pay down the county’s 1994 bankruptcy debt and pay for more jail beds rather than pay for health care.

Disagreement over how to spend the settlement funds has resulted in two initiatives on the Nov. 7 countywide ballot. Measure H, which is supported by the county’s health-care community and the majority of the county’s elected state and federal officials, would use 80% of the county’s settlement for health care.

Measure G, on the other hand, allocates more for debt and jails and was drafted by county Treasurer-Tax Collector John M.W. Moorlach and is supported by a majority of supervisors.

County government observers, including John Chamberlain of the Orange County Taxpayers Assn., have criticized creation of the commission to allocate Proposition 10 funds, saying it adds another agency and raises the potential for overlapping services in the community.

In addition, Proposition 10 and its funding is being challenged in San Diego Superior Court in a case that went to trial recently. The lawsuit, filed by some of the state’s most powerful cigarette retailers, argues the law is unconstitutional and has no governmental oversight.

But the commission’s co-chairman, Chuck Smith, who is chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said Proposition 10 funding has safeguards to prevent duplication of services.

“The two issues, county health funds and Proposition 10 funds, are two separate and independent things,” Smith said. “We’re giving the hospitals money from the commission for programs that are not funded by the county. Under Prop. 10, we cannot use that money to supplant existing programs. We need to fund only new programs.”

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In addition, Proposition 10 funding goes beyond medical programs. The commission has distributed money for everything from parent training to feeding children who live in motels and offers a spectrum of programs for helping children ages 5 and under--the mandated target of the commission, said Michael Ruane, the commission’s executive director.

For example, officials at Children’s Hospital’s high-risk clinic also want to strengthen home services for parents of high-risk infants, said Kathy Kolodge, executive director of the hospital’s ambulatory services.

Kolodge said if the hospital receives more funding, it will create a high-risk infant office at its South County branch at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo.

At Santa Ana’s Delhi Center, $300,000 was received to train and license the operators of 100 new family child-care homes.

“There’s a great need for child care,” said Irene Martinez, Delhi’s executive director. “We will only help 100 women, but we had 200 on the waiting list. Our program will train 100 women with CPR and first aid over the next two years so they can be licensed child-care providers and start their own home businesses.”

Another $1.1 million will help fund “Strong Beginnings,” a partnership between the Salvation Army and Orange County Rescue Mission that focuses on feeding and helping homeless and at-risk children, especially those living in motels.

“We are also providing a mobile medical clinic with a doctor visiting the motels, and we have a teacher going to the motels,” said Jim Palmer, the mission’s executive director.

The Salvation Army, which has been limited to offering a rent stipend of $100, will begin providing first and last month’s rent for families living in motels to help them move into apartments and stabilize their often-transient lives, said Beverly Freeman, the army’s director of social services.

“We will be hiring a case manager whose job duties are to follow targeted families for a year or longer to help with referrals and assistance,” she said.

The commission, which has been borrowing county office space, is expected to move to an Irvine office building soon, signaling formal separation from the county, said Ruane, 42.

Ruane is expected to leave county government and become the commission’s permanent executive director at the commission’s meeting Wednesday.

Ruane has worked in county government for two decades and has served as director of the county’s environmental management agency and as assistant county executive officer during the post-bankruptcy years.

“Mike has had a diverse career with the county,” said Michael Schumacher, interim county executive officer. “Mike is knowledgeable and committed to the vision of the Children and Families First Commission. We’ll miss him here at Civic Center, but he’ll do a great job.”

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* HELPING HAND

Area organizations benefiting from $25 million in early childhood Proposition 10 funds. B4

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Where the Money is Going

The Orange County Children and Families Commission has distributed about $25 million in grants since the 1998 passage of Proposition 10, which raised the cigarette tax by 50 cents. The commission provides programs for childhood development from the prenatal stage to age 5. It recently allocated $17 million to 44 organizations, including:

* $2.5 million to UCI Medical Center to develop a variety of projects, including one to help combat the lack of early intervention for children with autism.

* $2.5 million to Children’s Hospital of Orange County’s Foundation for a variety of projects, including the hospital’s High Risk Infant Clinic, in an effort to increase visits from 300 to 1,000 per year.

* $1 million to the California American Academy of Pediatrics to fund an injury-and-illness-prevention program for health-care professionals in a variety of health settings.

* $728,287 to Catholic Charities of Orange County for comprehensive, family-friendly health and social services to children and their families through its Family Resource Center in south Orange County.

* $600,000 to the Orangewood Children’s Foundation to help fund projects that would provide families with an array of services through 13 family resource centers countywide.

* $533,955 to the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation to provide a new, comprehensive family-advocacy program at the foundation’s Santa Ana office and to help reach underserved families and link them into the health-service network.

* $300,000 to the Saddleback Valley Unified School District to work with families and help prepare children for school at an earlier age.

Source: Orange County Children and Families Commission