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First 5: Who's in charge?
| Saturday, Oct 28 2006 8:30 PM
Last Updated: Saturday, Oct 28 2006 10:11 PM
Two public agencies, a stream of public money and a contract.
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Editor's note: Some of these documents have been altered to protect privacy or to enhance clarity.
Car payment
First 5 reimbursed Nyberg's car payments for three years. The research center paid the remaining $50 each month. The deal was apparently never formalized in writing.
Lease agreement
Nyberg's 2004 lease agreement for a convertible Solara, with the "personal use" box checked.
Free car, plus mileage?
Nyberg billed hotel and food to First 5 for a Sacramento trip in 2003; he'd stopped claiming mileage when First 5 provided him a car allowance. But on a separate claim filed the same day, he billed mileage to a state drug abuse program for a Sacramento trip with the same return date.
New York computer
Cal State researchers shipped a new computer directly to the home of a New York state consultant. Later, they also charged First 5 for this software package, among other items. The consultant's claims show only 32 hours of work for the research center.
Charter flight
A charter flight brought the director of Inyo County's First 5 to a Morro Bay retreat hosted by Cal State researchers. Researchers held five overnight retreats on the public's dime, four of them in Morro Bay, through the First 5 evaluation contract.
Satchels and such
University researchers charged $1,300 worth of logo goods, including embroidered handbags to First 5.
Office furniture
A sofa and bookcases were shipped to Dr. Nyberg at Cal State Bakersfield.
News from First 5 Kern
Read executive director Steve Ladd's special edition newsletter debunking The Californian’s story. Some information in the newsletter, sent by First 5 Kern Oct. 26, differs from answers Ladd originally provided The Californian for this story.
Now, $5 million or so later, it's not clear who is ultimately responsible for the spending.
If you ask officials at Cal State Bakersfield and First 5 Kern, you wind up with he-said, she-said confusion.
Consider these exchanges with Cal State administrators, for example.
W. Michael Chertok, who heads the campus foundation that oversaw research contracts until last year, had this to say:
Question: Who's ultimately in charge of these public funds?
Answer: First 5.
Several minutes later, Chertok said it was "a shared responsibility" with an approval process in both places.
Or take this conversation with Michael Neal, a top business administrator with the university. (Research contracts are generally referred to as "grants" by campus officials.)
Q: If a grant authorizes it, Cal State's position seems to be that it's appropriate?
A: That's correct.
Q: ... (Are you) saying that what sets the rules is the grantor, in this case First 5?
A: Absolutely. And we just try to follow those guidelines.
Both Neal and Chertok emphasized that the researchers had a "reimbursement" contract, meaning First 5 could deny payment of any claim it didn't like.
First 5 Kern's executive director, Steve Ladd, has a different take.
Despite assurances from Ladd that ARC's spending was appropriate, behind the scenes, he and/or some of his commissioners are apparently trying to wash Ladd's hands of accountability for the contract with Cal State.
"Mr. Ladd is not responsible ... for the oversight of Dr. Ken Nyberg's activities at CSUB," four commissioners wrote in a recent letter to fellow Commissioner Jeff Green.
Green had originally complained in September because his comments about ARC's spending were excluded from Ladd's annual evaluation; he'd been given no explanation other than the comments "did not warrant inclusion," Green wrote in a Sept. 7 letter to the commission.
The dispute has since widened to include the larger question: Who, exactly, is responsible for the Cal State spending?
On Oct. 19, Green faxed a letter to the commission requesting a public discussion of the matter at the Nov. 1 meeting.
On Wednesday, commissioners got an e-mail from Ladd saying a closed-door discussion had been scheduled for Dec. 6.
Ladd told The Californian on Thursday Green's request concerned a performance evaluation, making it a personnel matter requiring closed doors.
When asked who has responsibility for the Cal State contract, Ladd said: "I guess the commission is responsible for its part in the contract."
However, Ladd said earlier that the commission had nothing to do with at least one portion of the contract, the car allowance for head researcher Kenneth Nyberg. The commission was never even told about the car allowance, Ladd said.
When asked who was responsible for approving receipts and claims submitted by the Cal State researchers, Ladd said he assigned that job to finance staff.