The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday signaled its intent to take greater control of First 5 LA, an independent voter-approved agency that uses cigarette taxes to fund health, safety and educational programs for children.
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said First 5 LA was sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of unspent taxpayer funds, and criticized the staff for a lack of transparency, accountability and competitive bidding.
"It's sitting on over $800 million," Yaroslavsky said. "And some of it for good reason, and some of it for no apparent good reason. It's just been sitting there and accumulating." First 5 LA's annual operating budget is about $180 million a year.
An audit by Harvey M. Rose of San Francisco found First 5 LA's commission was unable to monitor money that was being spent "since monthly programmatic expenditures are not presented relative to a budget." Auditors also concluded the agency was overstaffed while under-spending on programs for children.
Additionally, First 5 LA staffers failed to report even basic information to its commissioners, such as details of more than $200 million in contract and grant awards received by the agency in the last fiscal year, the report said. The auditors said the lack of oversight means there is no way to determine if the agency has signed agreements "for inappropriate purposes or with unqualified vendors or grantees."
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