Simon Promises to Fight for More Foster Care Money

Calling California’s foster care system dismal, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr. said Monday that he would seek federal assistance to increase the amount of money for families that take in children with nowhere else to go.

Simon said the state should ask the Bush administration to waive a portion of the fines California pays to the federal government because it lacks an automated child support collection system. That money--about $50 million a year--could be used to provide foster parents with more resources, he said.

“The result would be a new day for the state’s foster children, as more foster parents would emerge, increasing both the quantity and quality of care,” Simon wrote in a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.

Meanwhile, Gov. Gray Davis’ reelection campaign touted Davis’ record on help for foster children, while attacking his challenger’s environmental credentials.

On Monday afternoon, Simon toured the Loomis office of Koinonia Foster Homes, a nonprofit that helps train foster parents and place foster children in California and Nevada. He met with a half-dozen parents who told him about their challenges.

Simon cited his charitable donations to adoption and foster care programs, and charged Davis with neglecting the foster care system in favor of courting financial donors. “Perhaps that’s because troubled youths can’t afford to hire high-priced lawyers,” the GOP candidate said.

Aides to Davis said that the governor has made the foster care system a major priority during his administration. Davis has provided additional funding for programs that assist older foster children and expand benefits for former foster-care youths 18 to 21 years old, according to Blanca Castro, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Social Services.

Davis also supports a bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Robert Matsui (D-Sacramento) that would allow California to redirect the penalties it pays for its lack of an automated child support collection system back into child support services.

“While Bill Simon talks about these things, the governor has acted,” said Davis’ campaign spokesman, Roger Salazar.

Meanwhile, the Davis campaign released a new television commercial touting the governor’s endorsement from the California League of Conservation Voters and accusing Simon of being captive to oil and gas interests.

The Davis ad, which will be running in coastal communities, notes that Simon held positions with offshore drilling companies and says that the Republican candidate has proposed overturning California’s Environmental Quality Act.

The Simon campaign said that, although the candidate supports reforming the act, he does not favor eliminating it.

During a news conference at a Sacramento hotel, Jon Rainwater, of the League of Conservation Voters, said the organization is backing the governor because of his support for park bond measures and his decision to sign legislation to reduce emissions.

Rainwater dismissed a recent report in the San Jose Mercury News that a board with Davis appointees approved the release of toxins into San Francisco Bay by the Tosco refinery shortly after it donated $70,000 to Davis’ reelection.

“In any relationship, there are disappointments,” Rainwater said, adding that the group was focusing on Davis’ “record as a whole.”

In a demonstration outside the hotel, Simon partisans carrying signs depicting a three-eyed fish denounced the administration’s action on the Tosco discharge.

“He paints himself green, but the only green he has is toxic campaign cash,” Simon spokesman Mark Miner said in a statement.

As he campaigned in Northern California, Simon continued to field questions about a $78-million verdict that a Los Angeles jury imposed on his family investment firm last week for defrauding a convicted drug trafficker when it invested in his company.

During an interview on a Sacramento talk radio station, Simon said his firm had made a mistake by investing in pay phones and trusting P. Edward Hindelang, the head of Pacific Coin.

But Simon said that his firm had committed no fraud, and that he was confident the verdict would be set aside or overturned.

In Los Angeles, Judge James C. Chalfant agreed to hear arguments on the matter Aug. 20.

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Times staff writers Michael Finnegan and Dan Morain contributed this report.