In California, which organizations get nearly $4 billion and don't have to tell anyone exactly how it's spent? The answer: the state’s 21 "regional centers," a group of private non-profits that dole out millions to organizations that serve the disabled.
A bill that would have mandated more transparency from the centers died in an Assembly committee last week, after it failed to meet a key deadline.
It flamed out even after Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, D-South Gate, called for greater transparency during a June hearing about conflicts of interest and retaliation at the centers.
“When we are making cuts everywhere, we have to maximize every single dollar so it is going directly to the consumer," De La Torre said.
Assemblywoman Audra Strickland, R-Moorpark, a co-chair of the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review, also weighed in.
“It’s really unclear to me if we’re really spending our money wisely,” Strickland said. “Are the dollars really making it to the disabled community or are they stuck in the 21 different layers of bureaucracy in each of these regional centers?"
The hearing also featured testimony from Dr. Jose Fuentes, a pediatrician and the director of an Inland Empire regional center contractor, Fuentes Family Counseling. His testimony started with an intriguing confession: “I really don’t want to be here," Fuentes said. "I feel I need to be here.”
He went on to describe apparent favoritism to his closest competitor. He said he know of one regional center “chief” who awarded a lucrative contract to a relative. “Without transparency, it creates just a hotbed for rumors,” Fuentes said. “And a lot of time rumors are a lot worse than the truth. So let’s get it out in the open.”
The bill aimed to remedy some of the concerns raised in the hearing and would have dealt with some of these issues that weren't anticipated when the centers were established in 1969 under the Lanterman Act. The bill would have:
- Given regional center employees whistle blower protections not currently afforded to non-profit workers.
- Created penalties for acts of retaliation against regional center employees who report violations of consumers’ rights.
- Required regional centers to report on their web sites the contracts or money flow between the center’s leaders (directors or boards of directors) and other community agencies.
There’s evidence outside the hearing that suggested that transparency might reveal questionable spending. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Mattier & Ross uncovered an effort this summer by Fresno's regional center to give $500,000 in bonuses to staff – even after the regional centers took a $100 million state-mandated budget cut. More from the columnists:
When we first spoke to [Robert Riddick, director of the Central Valley Regional Center] several days back, he insisted the Fresno center could afford the bonuses, saying the money was left over from last year's budget. 'We have taken action to live within our means,' he said.
Not everyone saw it that way.
'It's repulsive,' said Chuck Genseal, vice president of Families for Effective Autism Treatment, a Fresno outfit that advocates for autism patients.
Despite all of this, the bill seemed to tank shortly after a price tag was placed on the cost of transparency: a $5 million one-time cost and up to $700,000 a year, mostly from the state general fund.
Even if that's what it would cost to shine some light, is it possible that the state would save millions by peeking behind the regional center curtain? We may soon find out.
Although the regional centers are not bound by the Public Records Act, a state audit of the centers and their supervising bureaucracy may reveal new information. Auditors report that they’ll survey for instances of retaliation.
They’ll probe for conflicts of interest in contracting. And they’ll determine whether the state department overseeing the centers, the Department of Developmental Services, is doing its job.
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