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Reporters Grill Reiner Over First 5 Preschool Ad Spending Written for the web by C. Johnson, Internet News Producer Film director and children's activist Rob Reiner defended himself Tuesday over the alleged misuse of taxpayer money to promote his universal preschool initiative. Answering reporter questions today at the Sacramento Press Club, Reiner said neither he nor the First 5 Children and Families Commission has done anything wrong. "We've been audited every year," he said. "We've been audited seven or eight times. Clean bill of health every time. Contracting is clean as a whistle. Everything we've done has been above board."...

BEVERLY HILLS - Facing a state audit and possible criminal investigation of the state commission he chaired, movie director Rob Reiner on Monday said his opponents are targeting him for attacks to avoid discussing the merits of the universal preschool initiative he put on the June ballot. "They will do whatever it takes to knock this thing out," he said in an interview with The Bee. "So they will attack me because they know they can't talk about the initiative." Opponents responded that they have discussed the shortcomings of Proposition 82, including their argument that raising taxes on the wealthy...

Legislators have decided to launch a formal audit of the spending practices of the state commission led by actor/director Rob Reiner, in the wake of news stories examining whether the commission spent taxpayer dollars for an ad campaign that promoted Reiner's political efforts at universal preschool programs. The audit, which officials say could take 4 or 5 months, was approved this afternoon by the Joint Legislative Audit Commitee. Reiner, the driving force behind June's Proposition 82 to create taxpayer-funded preschool for all children, has served for several years as the chairman of the state First 5 Commission, which focuses on...

Attorney General Supports Poochigian’s Request for Review of First 5 Commission’s Use of Taxpayer Funds Citing Conflict, Lockyer Refers Investigation to Sacramento County District Attorney “Attorney General Bill Lockyer has acknowledged that allegations that the First 5 Commission may have misused taxpayer funds in connection with campaign advertising for Proposition 82 warrant a prompt review. Although the Attorney General’s office has investigated and prosecuted other state entities and officers in the past, he has decided to refer this case. I believe that Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully will fully investigate the matter and, if warranted, prosecute any civil or...

Do you remember Chuck Quackenbush? He was the insurance commissioner who lost his job because he used fines that he collected from insurance companies to buy television commercials to promote his political career. It was a huge scandal at the time, and Quackenbush, who was a colleague of mine in the Assembly, left his job in disgrace, having been run out of office by Legislative Democrats for abusing state money. Another boondoggle is brewing, only this time Legislative Democrats are strangely silent. A few years ago, Rob Reiner (“Meathead” from the old television series, “All in the Family”) sponsored an...

Assembly Majority Leader Dario Frommer, a Los Angeles area Democrat who was also a high-ranking aide to then Governor Gray Davis, has formally joined forces with state Senator Dave Cox, the Sacramento area Republican, in requesting a state investigation of the Rob Reiner-led California Children and Families Commission. This as a result of a letter to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee dated February 24th and recently uncovered. The committee meets on March 8th. During that meeting, as committee chair Nicole Parra, an ally of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, told me on Wednesday, the committee is expected to authorize an investigation...

SACRAMENTO — Police sirens wail as a scruffy teenager, clutching a bag, runs frantically through the streets. Entering a schoolyard, he reaches into the bag. Out comes … a graduation gown, which he dons to receive a diploma. The scene is from a television ad, paid for with tax money and made by consultants close to Hollywood producer Rob Reiner. It aired across California this winter, touting the benefits of preschool. "When kids go," the narrator says, "we all benefit." The release of the ad, and two others, by a state commission Reiner heads coincided with his launch of a...

Governor Must Immediately Replace Reiner Strickland: “Controller needs to freeze Reiner funding and conduct immediate accountability audit” Sacramento, CA– Taxpayer Advocate Tony Strickland today called upon Governor Schwarzenegger to “immediately replace Rob Reiner on the First 5 California Children and Families Commission. His term has expired and nothing prevents the Governor from selecting an appointee who will restore the transparency and credibility to taxpayers when it comes to how government spends their tax dollars.” The firestorm of controversy has continued unabated since a Los Angeles Times story on Monday exposed a series of abuses orchestrated by Reiner and a small...

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Hollywood director Rob Reiner denied any wrongdoing Thursday in response to recent scrutiny about the potential misuse of taxpayer funds for a June ballot initiative he is spearheading. Reiner, who heads the state's First 5 California Children and Families Commission he helped create, is now leading a campaign for a ballot initiative that would establish a state constitutional right to preschool for all 4-year-olds and raise income taxes for wealthier households to fund a preschool program. A Los Angeles Times story earlier this week detailed, however, how the commission spent $23 million on ads to...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Hollywood director Rob Reiner has taken a leave as chairman of a state commission that spent $23 million on ads touting the value of early education programs while he is promoting a statewide preschool initiative. In a letter Friday to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Reiner said the leave will take effect and will last until June 7, the day after voters cast ballots on Proposition 82. The proposition would establish a state constitutional right to preschool for all 4-year-olds and raise income taxes for wealthier households to fund preschool programs. Reiner is stepping down from the state's First...

LOS ANGELES - Republican activists on Saturday increased their pressure on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace movie director Rob Reiner as head of California's First 5 Commission, saying Reiner's decision to take a leave from his state post wasn't enough. Reiner on Friday took a leave of absence from the chairman's job until after the June 6 election in hopes of defusing a growing controversy about the state commission's $23 million ad campaign for preschool. The ad campaign, first reported in The Bee in December, generated an outcry that the commission was using tax dollars to benefit the campaign for...

Actor-director Rob Reiner is taking a lot of well deserved media and political heat--from politicians in both parties, for a change--over a lavish promotional program for preschool education financed by tobacco tax money controlled by a commission he heads. Although Reiner and the First 5 California Children and Families Commission insist that he didn't play a direct role, it's perfectly clear that the commission was using public money to boost a Reiner initiative to tax the wealthy for preschool programs. (snip) The bigger issue is the emerging syndrome of wealthy Californians pursuing their pet causes through the initiative process, spending...

Strickland Files “Public Documents” Request for Reiner Documents “The public has a right to know how their money is being spent” (Sacramento) – Taxpayer Advocate Tony Strickland has filed a request pursuant to the California Public Records Act for all documents surrounding the decision of a California commission to funnel millions in public funds into a television advertising campaign that may have been designed to boost an initiative petition being circulated by a member of the commission. The Sacramento Bee broke the story in December, with a more recent Los Angeles Times story highlighting the fact that more than $23...