The California Children and Families Commission, popularly known as First 5 California, is dedicated to the education, health and development of children from the prenatal stage to age 5. Its stated purpose is to provide “services and support (that) are designed to ensure that more children are born healthy and reach their full potential.” Much of its focus is on health care, preschool, special needs, child care and nutrition. First 5 California and the 58 county commissions it supports were established in 1998 with passage by the state’s voters of Proposition 10, the California Children and Families Act. It is funded by a 50-cents-per-pack tax on cigarettes that generates approximately $500 million a year. First 5 California oversees and distributes funds to the county commissions, which by and large determine what programs they will use in their communities.

The California Children and Families Act (First 5 California website) (pdf)

School Readiness Program (First 5 California website)

Welcome to First 5 California (First 5 California website)

Interactive Map of Counties (First 5 California website)

Results Accountability for Proposition 10 Commissions: A Planning Guide for Improving the Well-Being of Young Children and Their Families (by Mark Friedman, Fiscal Policy Studies Institute, Baltimore) (pdf)

Voters passed Proposition 10, the California Children and Families Act, in November 1998, with the goal of improving the early development of children from prenatal to 5 years of age. Prop. 10 led to the creation of the First 5 California Children and Families Commission and financed it with a 50-cents-per-pack tax on cigarettes.

The initiative was spearheaded by Hollywood producer and political activist Rob Reiner, originally known as Archie Bunker’s son-in-law “Meathead” on the 1970s comedy “All in the Family.” The act authorized the establishment of local commissions in each of the state’s 58 counties and specified that the program’s goals be accomplished through emphasizing community awareness, education, health care, social services, child care, nurturing and research.

The money raised from cigarette tax revenue was placed in a trust fund and distributed by the state commission to the counties. In its first fiscal year, 1998-1999, the tax brought in about $400 million.

Reiner was named the commission’s first chairman in 1999 by Democratic Governor Gray Davis.  He continued in the position after Davis was replaced by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Reiner resigned the unpaid post in 2006 because of accusations that he had used  commission funds to promote a political campaign for Proposition 82, a measure that would raise income taxes on wealthy Californians to pay for preschool for 4-year-olds.

In 2011, Governor Jerry Brown attempted to divert $1 billion of First 5 money to the Health and Human Services Agency to help close a $26 billion budget gap. He was sued by local First 5 commissions, lost in Superior Court and did not appeal the decision.

Proposition 10 (Official title and summary prepared by the Attorney General)

Reiner Quits First 5 Panel (by Dan Morain, Peter Nicholas, Carla Rivera and Evelyn Larrubia, Los Angeles Times)

2009-10 Annual Report (First 5 California website) (pdf)

California Children and Families Commission (State Auditor, 2006) (pdf)

It has long been widely accepted that children’s early development contributes greatly to chances for success in elementary school and later in life. But it has only been in recent years that early childhood development has become a fundamental priority of society.

First 5 California provides services to all children up to 5 years of age regardless of their residency status or income level. It works with existing social service agencies, parents, educators and other parties to provide programs whose focus includes preschool, health care, social services education and special needs.

The state commission is comprised of seven voting members appointed by the governor, the Assembly speaker and the Senate Rules Committee, along with two ex officio nonvoting members.

The state commission executes its programs primarily through 58 county commissions. Each local commission consists of members appointed by county supervisors and includes two members from among county health officers and local government health-related service agencies.

While the state commission allocates funds to the county commissioners, most of the projects are generated at the local level based on what those county officials think are their most pressing needs.

The state and county commissions pursue a number of initiatives, including:

The School Readiness Program, a core investment of First 5 California, launched in 2001 as a 4-year $400 million cooperative effort with county commissions. The statewide program prepares “children for school and schools for children.”

Power of Preschool (POP) has a goal is to increase the number of high-quality preschool spaces, while providing demonstration projects to help guide efforts toward creating a statewide preschool system. POP is a free, voluntary part-day preschool program available to 3- and 4-year-olds.

Health Coverage for Kids aims to provide health care coverage to 202,000 uninsured California children under the age of 5. It is estimated that three-fourths of the state’s uninsured children qualify for programs like Medi-Cal and Healthy Families, but their families are unaware of them. The commission provides funds to help link families with beneficial programs and helps subsidize the health care of families that don’t qualify for them.

CARES Plus is designed to improve early learning programs for children under 5. The state commission approved $36 billion in funding for the Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Education Standards (CARES) for three years, through 2013.

First 5 California raises around half a billion dollars each year from cigarette tax revenue and funnels 80% of that back to the 58 counties for disbursement among various programs. The state commission spends the rest on mass media communications, education, child care, research and development and administration.

County commissions develop spending plans with public input. Allocations to each county are based on its number of births based on the birth mother’s residence.

Los Angeles was the largest county recipient of First 5 funds in fiscal year 2010-2011, receiving $136.9 million (about 31% of available money). San Diego received $34.9 million, Orange $28.8 million, San Bernardino $24.9 million, Riverside $24.6 million, Santa Clara $18.7 million, Sacramento $16.3 million, Alameda $14.2 million, Fresno $12.8 million, Kern $11.6 million, Contra Costa $10.4 million, San Francisco $9.5 million, Ventura $9.3 million, San Joaquin $8.2 million and Tulare $7 million.

Altogether, about 7.9% of First 5 revenue is set aside for staff compensation, which varies greatly between county commissions. Commission staffs include a total of 715 directly employed people, ranging from one to 103 employees each. Local commissioners are appointed by county supervisors and receive no pay or only small per diems.

But executive directors are paid salaries comparable to those at human services nonprofits. As of fiscal year 2009-10, the highest paid employees were Los Angeles commission Executive Director Evelyn Martinez, at $248,178, followed by her counterpart in Orange County, Michael Ruane, at $247,222. The median compensation for executive directors was $91,953.

Proposition 10 Facts (First 5 California website)

2009-10 Fiscal Audit (First 5 California website) (pdf)

2010-11 Disbursements to Counties (First 5 California website) (pdf)

Areas of Funding Database (First 4 Association website)

Pay for ‘First 5’ Directors Varies Widely by County (by Joanna Lin, California Watch)

3-Year Budget (pdf)

First 5 County Commission Sue to Stop Governor

Shorthly after taking office in 2011, Governor Jerry Brown announced he wanted to divert $1 billion of money from First 5 to fund child services in the Health and Human Services Agency while helping close a $26 billion budget gap.

He was immediately sued by several First 5 county commissions who contended that funding for First 5, which was specifically earmarked by voter-approved Proposition 10 in 1998, could not be spent elsewhere. Most of First 5 funds are dispursed to local its 58 county commissions and the Los Angeles agency stood to lose $424 million. It decided to delay allocating the money until the court case was decided, while other localities like Fresno elected to roll the dice and dole out the money. “Our commission, on a hope and a prayer and a strong bout of confidence and our attorneys, we withheld any action to make any reductions pending the verdict because we knew the consequences would be devastating,”  said First 5 Fresno Executive Director Kendra Rogers.

The Brown administration argued that Prop. 10 money could diverted from First 5 as long as it fulfilled the mandate of helping children. But Fresno Superior Court Judge Debra J. Kazanjian ruled otherwise and in March the state decided not to appeal the decision. The 10 local commissions that contested the transfer applauded the decision and sued the state for reimbursement of $586,000 in legal fees.

California Will Not Appeal Ruling Against First 5 Funding Shift (California Healthline)

State Won't Appeal Court Ruling on First 5 Funds (by Joanna Lin, California Watch)

Rob Reiner And Conflict-of-Interest

Writer/actor/director/producer and political activist Rob Reiner was used to the spotlight before he chaired the campaign committee for Proposition 10 in 1998, and was named First 5’s first chairman after the initiative passed. 

But in 2005, Reiner and the commission came under a different kind of spotlight. Some state lawmakers asked California’s state auditors to investigate whether Reiner used commission money to help fund advertising for another initiative he was promoting, Proposition 82, which would have financed universal preschool education in the state.

The alleged use of tax money for an advertising campaign for Prop. 82, also called “Preschool for All,” led to Reiner’s resignation in March 2006 as chairman of the commission. 

In his resignation letter to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Reiner said that the two of them “agreed that we cannot let personal political attacks get in the way of doing the best we can for California’s children.”  The governor replaced Reiner with Hector Ramirez, a vice president for a nonprofit organization serving poor children in Southern California.

The audit concluded that Reiner and the commission had not violated the law and that they had the legal authority to conduct the publicity campaign. But it also found that “the state commission could not demonstrate that payments it made for a period of almost four months in 2004 to three individuals who worked for both a media contractor and campaign committees were appropriate.”

Prop. 82 lost 60.9% to 39.1%.

California Children and Families Commission (State Auditor, 2006) (pdf)

Rob Reiner Quits Panel on Children (by Mark Martin, San Francisco Chronicle)

Rob Reiner Steps Down from California Preschool Commission (by Michael R. Blood, Associated Press)

Audit Largely Clears Panel Founded by Rob Reiner (by Lynda Gledhill, San Francisco Chronicle)

Hugh Hewitt and the Orange County Commission

Orange County ranked third among First 5 local commissions in terms of funding in 2010-11, receiving $28.8 million from its state parent. It augments that funding with money from other sources and in its 2009-10 annual report showcased a laudable list of accomplishments, including: health care for 4,985 children who previously had none; assistance with health insurance for 35,907 children; enrollment of 11,181 children in school readiness programs; and 161,366 shelter bed nights for homeless pregnant women, mothers and young children.

But in 2006, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times zeroed in on a couple of suspect program initiatives that he said were emblematic of local First 5 commissions, which had “become a feeding trough for people flogging pet projects and for outside consultants of every stripe.”

Three years earlier, the commission in conservative Orange County had awarded a no-bid $250,000 contract to a consulting firm called the White House Writers Group. True to its name, the lobbyist group was made up of former speechwriters and staff members in the George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan administrations. The contract was proposed by the commission’s vice president, right-wing political pundit and a former Reagan White House staffer himself, Hugh Hewitt.

Hewitt denied knowledge of the high-powered PR group’s political makeup, saying, “I don't know and have never inquired about the political affiliation” of the firm's partners and staff.

In November 2005, the OC commission allocated $2.3 million to a cause near and dear to Hewitt’s heart: avian flu. Hewitt often blogged about the threat of a pandemic and urged the commission to allocate funds for a flu preparedness program. It was the only county commission to deem the program worthy. The virus is rarely transmitted from birds to humans and even more rarely from humans to humans, a prerequisite for a pandemic. Although scientists don’t rule out the possibility of virus mutation leading to a true human threat, it is generally not regarded as such.

But why a First 5 program? Hewitt said if there is an outbreak of avian flu, children will be “among the most vulnerable groups to the deadly virus.”

Hugh Hewitt Blog

Annual Report (Children and Families Commission of Orange County)

Commissioners (Children and Families Commission of Orange County)

Funds Meant for Kids Need Minding (by Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times)

Why Hugh Hewitt Belongs on the First Five Commission (Friends for Fullerton’s Future)

A New Strategic Plan

Much of First 5’s work is accomplished at the county commission level. Each commission is encouraged to be innovative and shape its programs and processes to fit the community it serves.

First5LA announced a strategic plan for FY 2010-2015 that it hoped would bring greater accountability and understanding of what works in Los Angeles County. “Our existing approach to funding programmatic initiatives through grants to individual organizations across the County is not producing the level of change we desire for children and families,” the commission wrote in its introduction to its First5 LA’s Accountability and Learning Framework.

The commission also said its focus on studying each programmatic initiative separately didn’t allow it to properly demonstrate the collective impact of its projects.

The commission decided to switch to an “integrated place-based and countywide-funding approach” that emphasizes in a more general way the impact its programs are having. New ways of measuring outcomes and investments will be pursued, as well as new data collection methods that will facilitate analysis in-house and sharing of results with the public.

“A major goal of the FY 2010-2015 Accountability and Learning Framework is the timely dissemination of findings to community partners, First 5 LA staff, Commissioners, and the general public,” according to the strategic plan.

First5 LA’s Accountability and Learning Framework (First5LA website) (pdf)

State Budget Raid

Faced with a budget shortfall of $26 billion in 2011, the state of California made a bid to tap the Prop. 10 cigarette-tax revenue that funds First 5 California. Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill (AB99) into law in March that required commissions to send a total of $1 billion to the state by June 30, 2012—$950 million from individual counties and $50 million from the state commission.

First 5 California and the county commissions cried foul, and sued to overturn the law. Legal challenges were filed in Fresno, Orange, Marin, Sonoma, Los Angeles, and San Diego counties, while several counties elected to join existing suits. The challenges were consolidated in Fresno Superior Court.

The state stood firm.

The State Should Get the Money

Proponents of the move say it’s not like the state is going to blow the money on fast trains, technological boondoggles and other unrelated projects. AB99 mandates that money diverted to the state’s General Fund would be “used to provide health and human services” to “children from birth through 5 years of age.”

This isn’t the first time it has been suggested that First 5 funds be redirected through state resources. In 2008, 10 years after passage of Prop. 10, the independent Legislative Analyst’s Office proposed eliminating the state commission, reducing local funding by 50% and reallocating the money to state children’s health or child care programs. The analyst’s office noted that voters would need to approve these changes.

Critics of the original proposition passed in 1998 creating First 5 warned that mandates passed at the ballot box when the economy was healthy would hamstring the state in tough fiscal times and complicate the search for budgetary solutions that don’t disrupt ongoing services. They might very well feel vindicated.

So might the critics who wondered about the lack of oversight built into the proposition. First 5, by design, delegates to the county commissions a large measure of responsibility for deciding how to spend their allocations, as well as monitoring and reporting their activities. Sometimes those expenditures can be questionable, as when conservative political pundit Hugh Hewitt, vice chairman of the Orange County commission, helped steer a no-bid $250,000 PR contract to a consulting firm called the White House Writers Group. The Washington-based outfit was mostly comprised of former staffers in the George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan administrations.

Proponents of shifting the First 5 money say legislators and the governor are trying to preserve the social safety net for children by keeping alive programs and services they rely on in the face of a crushing budget deficit. The money is being sought directly from the county commissions, they say, because many of them are sitting on substantial surplus funds.

Hands Off First 5 Funds

The state has tried to transfer money from the First 5 California state and county commissions before and was rebuffed. By a 66%-34% margin in May 2009, voters rejected taking $268 million a year in annual tobacco tax revenue from First 5 California and another $340 million from county commission reserves to use in state health and human services programs that serve children.

First 5 advocates say nothing has changed to make it okay now.

Voters overwhelmingly approved First 5 because the state Legislature and governor were doing a lousy job of providing services to children. They wanted a set-aside for kids and local control of programs so they could be tailored to communities. Defenders of First 5 say that early criticism of the agency’s transparency and accountability was largely addressed in 2005 when two laws were passed that established procurement and conflict-of-interest provisions, spending guidelines for county commissions and auditing functions that involve the state Controller’s office.

The governor’s proposed 2011-12 budget called for a ballot measure that would ask voters to amend Prop. 10 and allow the state to take around $1 billion from First 5.

The governor signed AB99 in March 2011 when it looked like Prop. 10 money would be needed to balance the budget. But, his revised May budget stated that Prop. 10 money had been dropped from the document because of pending litigation. The Department of Finance, however, refused to recommend that the Legislature repeal the law.

 The result was that county commissions and hundreds of programs were left in limbo while a costly legal battle unfolded. First 5 commissions point out that the funds being sought by the state are not “reserves,” but rather money committed to multi-year initiatives. The commissions were being forced to spend time determining where to make painful program cuts to free up the cash.

Opponents of the cash grab make two legal arguments. The state can’t touch the money unless citizens vote on it at the polls or two-thirds of the Legislature make changes that further the act and are consistent with its purpose. Also, First 5 money cannot be used to pay for already existing programs. Prop.10 states that “revenue can only supplement services or fund entirely new programs; it cannot replace state or local general funds, or pay for existing levels of service.”

Proposition 10 Early Childhood Development Programs (Legislative Analyst’s Office)

Brown Sends Mixed Message on First 5 Funds (by Joanna Lin, California Watch)

Californians Decisively Reject Budget-Related Ballot Measures (California Healthline)

Commission Compliance With AB 99 (First 5 Association)

First 5 Still Threatened by AB99 (First 5 Association)

A Unique Democratic Experiment: the Civic Engagement Project for Children and Families (by Scott London)  (pdf)

First 5 Cuts Loom as Struggle to Fill State Budget Holes with Local Dollars Heats Up (Solano County website)

Proposition 10 Analysis (Legislative Analyst’s Office)

California Assembly Bill 99

Governor Signs Fiscal Standard Bills to Increase Oversight of First 5 Commissions (First 5 L.A.)

Jane Henderson 1999-2005