Jeff Stone takes “Slush Funding” to a New Level
Just when we thought the San Diego County Board of Supervisors was as blatant as it could get in spreading their “discretionary” taxpayer monies (slush funds, to be exact) around the community as a way to promote their names and curry favor, then we take a look next door.
Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone has taken the use of taxpayer slush funds to benefit his name to a new level. San Diego County Supervisors can’t even begin to hold a candle to him.
Riverside Supervisors each have a $1 million slush fund that they use to fund various organizations and pet projects. That alone is not much different than San Diego County. Yet, in Riverside, Stone’s pet project is actually entitled “Third District Supervisor Jeff Stone’s Race for Humanity,” a non-profit started by his sister Lori Stone.
The organization was launched as a non-profit corporation on October 25, 2006, according to the Secretary of State. Shortly before the launch of the organization, Lori Stone wrote two letters to the FPPC wanting to know how much Supervisor Stone’s name could be used on mail and handouts and if the donations solicited by Stone are subject to reporting requirements. Seems like a rather odd question considering Supervisor Stone’s recent call for 150% transparency concerning a county contract.
Stone has “given” the Race for Humanity $323,025 from “his” slush fund and the county has donated an additional $115,374. Out of that $438,399, all but $37,500 was for the first three races. When you back out the taxpayer contributions, the Race for Humanity has only donated an average of $26,809 a year back to the community in the first three years (2007-2009).
Seems like a lot of work for only $27,000 a year, unless of course the non-profit’s main concern is to promote the Supervisor’s name with an organization named after himself, and to circumvent the regular overview of the County as to which organizations receive donations by going the slush fund route.
Let’s face it, the organization would probably not exist on 27k per year, not at the level they are providing services, if it weren’t for the money flowing in from the County. No wonder the race is named after Stone. But, shouldn’t it be named after the taxpayers who are truly footing the bill?
Maybe this is why the treasurer for the organization was hesitant last year to allow a Riverside Press-Enterprise reporter to see their tax filings as required by law. CEO and sister Lori Stone did not reply to the same reporter’s inquiries into the organization.
By the way, Lori Stone works out of Jeff Stone’s supervisorial office a number of hours per month.
So how about starting some real transparency in your own backyard, Supervisor Stone, before going next door and telling San Diegans how transparent you are?
Steve Gramm writes about California politics, when he is not trying to earn a living dealing with the business impacts created by California politics.
This is rich. Up til now all we’ve heard is how ethical and transparent and what a taxfighter Stone is, based on what info from his supporters? His own website info. LOL!
I thought this comment posted elsewhere on the site was interesting.
http://sdrostra.com/?p=4399&cpage=1#comment-51334
I am a victim of the Cult of Scientology. When we protested the abuses occurring in Riverside, Jeff Stone called us Nazis and Klansmen.
I will never be able to express the pain that Jeff Stone caused me and my family. He waved cult propaganda at the audience, and belittled the victim’s tales of child abuse, coerced abortions, and the destruction of families.
We were exercising our rights to free speech, and Jeff tried to shut us up. Thankfully, Jeff was unsuccessful in his attempt to shield the cult from its victims.
Now, as he sees it was a very bad decision, Jeff Stone is trying to blame the whole thing on gays. Worst attempt at damage control, ever.
Anyone but Jeff Stone.
-David Miscavige
Steve, perhaps a link to the article you cite would be helpful….
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_race17.4baeac0.html
Thanks for joining the blogpen at SD Rostra.
Interesting, the article referenced above really troubles me. It seems that it would be no big deal for Jeff Stone or Lori Stone to answer a couple of simple questions from a reporter, yet they both did not return the reporter’s phone calls.
What do they have to hide? Why not just let the county give the money to the organizations directly instead of diverting it to a nonprofit that has the elected officials name on it?
I write this at the risk of being “A Nnoying”. This is silliness, Mr. Gramm. You are criticizing Mr. Stone for having a trusted staff member check and double check FPPC rules before using discretionary funds to promote a race that gets the community active in raising more money to help veterans, build houses for the poor, help special needs children, promote independence for the disabled, keep tabs on sexual offenders, help sexual assault victims, help breast cancer victims, treat substance abusers, create awareness for autism, promote NOT having an abortion, and support the Boys and Girls Club? Oh, and he put his name on the project. Heaven forefend.
I am pretty sure that if you were to ask people what County Supervisors should be doing with their discretionary funds they would say something like, “they should have a trusted staff member check and double check FPPC rules before using their discretionary funds to promote a race that gets the community active in raising more money to help veterans, build houses for the poor, help special needs children, promote independence for the disabled, keep tabs on sexual offenders, help sexual assault victims, help breast cancer victims, treat substance abusers, create awareness for autism, promote NOT having an abortion, and support the Boys and Girls Club.”
This is really grasping at straws. As the article posted by Thor’s Assistant points out, none of the money was spent inappropriately, it helped the community! Mr. Gramm, call Mr. Anderson back and let him know posting this didn’t really work. In fact it just drew more attention to how involved Mr. Stone is in his community and foreshadows how involved he’ll be all over the 36th District when elected.
Then ask Mr. Anderson why he is afraid to debate Mr. Stone, why he spends taxpayers money on flyers I keep getting in my mailbox that are obvious attempts to raise name recognition while he campaigns for higher office, why all his campaign donations are from unions, and why he didn’t get a trusted staff member to check and double check with the FPPC before he laundered money.
-Michael
http://www.race4humanity.org/index.php/Beneficiaries/recipients.html
Mr. Schwartz,
No doubt, the stated mission of “Third District Supervisor Jeff Stone’s Race for Humanity” is a noble one. If the stated mission of the charity was the only apparent reason for its existence then there would be nothing but kudos for Jeff Stone.
However, it is not unreasonable to suspect that this charity also has the unstated mission of using taxpayer funds and private charitable contributions to promote the political career of the person it is named after.
After all, as an elected official, Stone has used his office to direct over $438,000 in taxpayer funds to a charity that prominently carries his name.
So it looks as though Stone is laundering county money . Good times.
Also Anderson and Stone have gone head to head at a CRA event.
After Anderson was finished Stone looked like a scared beat dog.
From TheCalifornian, May 5, 2010
Riverside County spreads money around to local groups
Riverside County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to distribute more than $30,000 to county agencies and area groups, at the urging of Supervisor Jeff Stone of Temecula.
The awards include $10,000 to the county Transportation and Land Management Agency, to boost funding for development of a Wine Country plan; $10,000 to the county Probation Department, for its Twin Pines Ranch facility near Idyllwild; $5,000 to Friends of Valley-Wide Foundation of Hemet, for a park at Diamond Valley Lake; and $5,000 for the Third District Community Fund.
Other awards included $1,500 for a veterans program of the Debbie Chisholm Memorial Foundation of Yucca Valley; $1,000 for Valley Restart Shelter in Hemet; and $250 for Special Kids Interested Partners in Riverside.
Looks like the Riverside Press knew what this clown was up to a while back but only scratched the surface!
Looks like we’ve all been bamboozled by Stone, who has a pile of ethics problems.
http://www.pe.com/columns/danbernstein/stories/PE_News_Local_N_dan19.48367ec.html
I noticed on the 2010 Race for Humanity brochure I picked up they list the top two sponsors as the Board of Supervisors and Economic Development Agency, which are both taxpayer funded.
The Board of Supervisors is listed as a sponsor under the “Ultra Marathon” level which according to their website costs $100,000 – $50,000.
The Economic Development Agency is listed under the “Promenade” level which according to their website costs $45,000 – $25,000.
So it would appear that $75,000-$145,000 of taxpayer funds were used for this year’s race.
I hope someone starts asking some questions and more importantly, that the Stone’s are not given a free pass this time.
Clicking the link to Dan Bernstein article, “The Great Bamboozler” didn’t work on my browser but is worth reading, because of the number of starry eyed sheep in San Diego that have been taken with this guy, but have no clue about him.
Riverside Press-Enterprise
by Dan Bernstein
I’m not quite ready to endorse RivCo Supe Jeff Stone for state Senate, but I’m tempted. I can’t think of anyone more qualified to join that merry band of budget bamboozlers up in Sacramento.
My conviction was cemented by our Wednesday story about Stone and the Race for Humanity.
Stone and his sister regularly promote this event to raise money for charity. The 2009 race bolted out of the blocks in April at Mt. San Jacinto Community College’s Menifee campus. It raised $157K for seven nonprofits! As Martha would say, “That’s a good thing.”
Story continues below
Then Stone did what he does best: started talking. He proclaimed in bare-naked public: “One hundred percent of the funds that are raised go back to the nonprofits that we had identified in the race.”
Huck Finn would call that a stretcher because it ain’t true. Our story reported about 30 percent of the $228K raised for this race paid for overhead. That’s not scandalous. But it’s not 100 percent, either.
Stone’s spokesman pooh-poohed all that (Stone refused to talk), suggesting any idiot knows the supervisor meant 100 percent went to the charities after expenses. Golly. Even the lousiest fund-raiser can claim 100 percent of its take goes to charity after expenses; the Great Bamboozler’s proclamation wasn’t exactly headline news.
We’ll move on to his next bamboozlement after a recap of our story. This Race for Humanity raised lots of money for charities in a most unique fashion: Slush funds! Pardon moi. “Community improvement designation” funds. Each supe gets about $1 million of this taxpayer loot to allocate to pet causes. (Supe Bob Buster recently donated $500K to the county’s ailing general fund.)
Stone gave $100K of his community slush to the Race for Humanity. Seven charities received nearly $160K. So here is what he said:
“This is a case where you take $100,000 of taxpayer money that is going to nonprofits, and we multiply it times 1.6 so we get a 60 percent return on investment. So it’s a good public-private partnership.”
Bam-bam-bamboozle!
Stone’s $100K donation was just one slice o’ taxpayers generosity. Supe Marion Ashley kicked in $18K of his community slush. Stone’s office prevailed upon the county’s Economic Development Agency to peel off $35K. Supe John Tavaglione was good for a grand.
Here’s what the Great Bamboozler should have said: “This is a case where you take $154,000 of taxpayer money and multiply it times 1.02 so we get a 2 percent return ($157,000) on investment.”
Doesn’t quite pack the same wallop, does it?
As far as raising money for charity — whatever happened to good old-fashioned private donations? And if public money is used, can taxpayers now claim a charitable tax deduction? What saith the Great Bamboozler to that?
Supervisor Stone is right about one thing:this processhas been 150% transparent….and 150% corrupt.
“Lori Stone wrote two letters to the FPPC wanting to know how much Supervisor Stone’s name could be used on mail and handouts and if the donations solicited by Stone are subject to reporting requirements.”
Stone has funneled boatloads of taxpayer money to promote himself and skirt legal restrictions.
Thank you Supervisor Stone for meeting the standards you set for the rest of us….I’m not sure your public money-funneling could be any more transparent.
I’ve looked at the information from Riverside. Stone has apparently been using these foundations and his public office to enrich himself and his sister. That’s a serious ethical issue, by far the most serious of the campaign.
If the foregoing hasn’t persuaded Mike and others that this guy is bad news, it at least ought to convince them not to support a non-local candidate you don’t know well.
I noticed that Supervisors Horn, Slater-Price & Cox all endorsed Stone. At first I was curious how Stone even knew these Supervisors – but then it hit me. ..They must have met at the “How to Promote Yourself with County Tax Dollars” Seminar that Supervisor Stone must have instructed. The San Diego Sup’s have made a good effort with their own slush funds, they’ve never been able to match the master! Give me a break!
I Suspect that based on all his achievements, the Moores family and whomever else was part of the discussion decided to commission a bronze statue of Tony Gywnn. I would bet the farm that Tony Gywnn did not walk into John Moores’ office and say “hey wouldn’t Petco Park look great with a huge, bronze statue of me?” Well that is the difference between a truly humble public figure and one who has an oversized ego. I am just wondering what park Jeff Stone is pitching for them to build a bronze monument to him.
Can’t wait for Jeff Stone to explain this during the debate.
It’s typical for elected officials to have big egos. But anyone who would start a charity and name it after himself has a completely out-of-control ego; even for a politician.
I mean what if the founders of other charities did what Jeff Stone did. Instead of the American Red Cross, Salvation Army and Special Olympics we’d have Clara Barton’s American Red Cross; William and Catherine Booth’s Salvation Army and Eunice Kennedy’s Special Olympics, etc…
The Joel supporters on here are morally and ethically bankrupt. Everything I’ve read on here says that Jeff Stone supports charities and Joel Anderson had to pay a fine for breaking the rules. I do not understand what case you are trying to build against Jeff Stone is. You hear about how dirty politics can be, but seeing it in action is amazing.
To Wow:
You seem to not understand the issue at hand here so let me point it out. Jeff Stone does not support charities – TAXPAYERS are supporting the charities and Jeff Stone is taking the credit for it so that people like you think HE is supporting the charities. Let’s see the checks that Jeff Stone has written out of his personal bank account and then we can claim that he supports charities.
And the reality is that there are four candidates in this race. Not everyone is either an Anderson or a Stone supporter. I would be willing to bet that the other two candidates are not supportive of Stone using taxpayer money to promote himself.
By the way, I would accuse you of being Jeff Stone except I know he would have most likely used the moniker “Third District Supervisor Jeff Stone’s Opinion on Jeff Stone.”
It’s pretty evident that Greg Stephens is the only candidate worth supporting for the conservative vote. GO GREG!
Lori Stone is the Chief Executive Officer of the race? Stone’s directing county funds to her again?! I’m sorry… this relationship is weird.
How self aggrandizing can one get? I would have loved to have been a fly in the room when someone said let’s call it “Third District Supervisor Jeff Stone’s Race for Humanity” and Jeff Stone did not even have the humility to say that sounds too self serving. It would be perfectly acceptable if Jeff Stone was the personal funder of the organization and not the taxpayer. Instead he wants to promote himself with taxpayer money.
“Rocket” also asked why candidate Greg Stephens does not have a guest column here on the site. As noted at the top of each of the guest columns, “SD Rostra invited the Republican candidates competing in the 36th State Senate District race to submit a guest column.” That means ALL of the candidates were invited. Although his campaign did not initially respond, a staffer for Mr. Stephens recently indicated that a guest column was forthcoming. Here are all the posts on this race, including the candidate columns rc’d thus far:
http://sdrostra.com/?tag=36th-senate-district
This is by far the weakest attempt to disparage a candidate/elected official I have ever seen. He named the charity after the office he held! Hello??? And the funds that started this thing came from the discretionary funds from that office that he held. It is tax money, yes, but how far back should he have followed the dollars?
Should he have listed each tax payer in the name? Maybe he could have listed each employer that paid the employee who paid the tax to the County that was a line item in the county budget for Supervisor Stone’s discretionary fund that went to the charity group in a boat with a hole in the bottom of the sea?
It wasn’t even an unethical or illegal way to spend the discretionary funds. You’re just mad that his name is somewhere associated with the project? Clearly only because you support the other guy and not a sincere concern. And you are the same folks who support Joel Anderson who just spent TENS of Thousands of money from his assembly budget to send out flyers for name recognition while he runs for senate.
Come on guys. This is the best you can come up with? Pull it together.
This silliness and the fact that in the district, Mr. Anderson lives a few miles closer to you than Mr. Stone are the only reasons I have heard that you are supporting Mr. Anderson. Pretty thin. I will just tell you honestly and openly why I will not vote for him:
•While I was raising money for a charity dinner Mr. Anderson told me he’d buy a table or at least a ticket and then had his staff call above me to see if he could get in for free. When I asked Mr. Anderson about this he stammered and then said his staff just calls people randomly to do that and that he’d buy a ticket. He never did.
•A lobbying organization (where I have friends) contacted me and told me that Mr. Anderson asked for them to give him an award to promote his run for the state senate. They refused.
•I approached Mr. Anderson’s field rep. at an Albondigas meeting to tell him about AB357. The rep. asked if the bill had any Democrat support. I said I did not think so he put away his pen and pad and told me that Mr. Anderson would not support it then. this was before I had a chance to tell him about which bill.
• I spoke to Mr. Anderson at a Tea Party in El Cajon and asked about strategy for expanding gun rights in California. He told me the only way to beat them is to fight dirty and unethical rather than win the argument.
• Mr. Anderson was fined for laundering money.
• The majority of Mr. Anderson’s donations are from unions.
• I’ve met former colleagues of Mr. Anderson from the Padre Water Board and have never heard such harsh criticism of a former colleague including publishing a statement calling him “morally unfit” to hold office.
• I got a bulk mailer from Mr. Anderson that was clearly only sent to raise name recognition while he runs for the senate.
I think we have a real chance to elect a leader in Mr. Stone and oust someone who continue to proves he pushes the limits of ethics. For every time you complain about how dirty politics is, don’t vote for Joel.
-Michael
This is public information, being repeated. If readers think it’s weak, so be it. But there is nothing un-newsworthy about it. In San Diego, we now have a law that bars the supervisors from taking direct credit for their use of taxpayer discretionary funding, due to the very fact that abuses were taking place. It appears Jeff Stone did fund the race within the law in Riverside. That makes it legal. It is up to the reader to determine whether it is right. If readers believe it spells out that Stone is hugely supportive of a quality charity, how is that disparagement? This is simply factual information. What’s there to be afraid of?
To reiterate, I said it was an attempt, Mr. Larkin. I agree with you that it was unsuccessful.
Most of you have said it so well, I won’t even take the time to rebut the people that don’t get it. I know nothing of Anderson or Stephens, other than what I’ve read (mostly Anderson), but as a former Riverside resident, I know a lot about Stone and Dickson. I’m tired of Stone getting a nearly free pass on this kind of story, except when the PE takes issue. He seems to be getting a free ride in San Diego. I don’t plan on idly ignoring it. Dickson would be my and a lot of other’s choice if he can muster a campaign.
Mr. Schwartz,
Nice try in your attempt to equate the decades old and routine practice of legislators sending out franked mail to Jeff Stone’s act of funnelling hundreds of thousands of dollars to charity run by a sister and named after himself. Nice try, but it doesn’t fly.
Legislators sending out unsolicited mail to constituents at taxpayer expense is a customary practice that has gone on for decades. In fact two former Assemblymembers who now endorse Stone routinely did it when they were in the Assembly.; Jay LaSuer and Rod Pacheco. There’s simply nothing out of the ordinary about it. And this practice is directly related to an Assemblymember’s responsibility to keep his constituents informed on pending business before the Legislature.
However, it is very out-of-the-ordinary to do what Stone did; which is to set up a charity named after himself and then use his office to funnell $438,000 to that charity; then bask in the gratitude that should rightfully be directed toward taxpayers who unwittingly had their taxes go to the “Third District Supervisor Jeff Stone’s Race for Humanity” rather than county government services.
Mr. Schwartz,
You must be orbiting some planet in a far away galaxy because I do not have a clue where you got the information that a majority of Joel Anderson’s donations are from unions. I just looked at the campaign disclosures on-line of both Anderson and Stone. Although I did not do a calculation, I would say less than five percent of Anderson’s donations are from any organization linked to organized labor. And by the way, Jeff Stone also has accepted at least one contribution from organized labor.
Well I can figure out where you get your information. It must have been the radio broadcast where Jeff Stone claimed that 95% of Anderson’s donations are from unions. Nice to know that the radio waves from Earth have reached your planet.
Clearly Jeff Stone is willing to lie to voters and that is a FACT that can be proven. Look at the disclosures and listen to what Jeff Stone said and prove me wrong. I dare ya….I double dog dare ya!
The Stone supporters get their information the same places…from his website and his lips. They believe whatever the “Great Bamboozler” says, and don’t have the tenacity to check it out on their own.
Red Rider,
You are totally right to call me out on that. I was totally wrong. My intention was to type that the contributions (at the time I looked) came from “Sacramento”. NOT unions. In other words, Mr. Anderson’s money came from out of the district.
It is not my intention to spread false information. I should have caught my mistake when I proof read it. My sincerest apologies. I am just trying to have a spirited debate. Folks here are bashing Mr. Stone for not living in East County (though he lives in the 36th District) and I am making the case that Mr. Stone’s interests are in the district, as evidenced by where his contributors are from.
Parker,
My concern is that I’ve lived in his district for years and never received anything until he ran for the senate and then out of the blue I have 3 mailers asking for my name and address after he announced he was running. What’s worse is in the same time period Republican Party leaders sent less than 1/3 of what Mr. Anderson sent. Followed the letter of the law? Yes, and it was expensive. But if you are going to bash Mr. Stone for using discretionary funds for a charity that he named after his office, then you must hold Mr. Anderson’s expensive 150,000 mailings against him as well. Or risk looking hypocritical.
Again, my apologies for the misinformation. I am here to debate and exchange ideas. Not name call or give bad information.
“Imominous”…
Those descriptors may be your opinion, which is fine, but on this blog we engage in debate over issues, differences in policies, and civil discussions over why we support one candidate vs. another. By virtue of your comment, you clearly have the ability to effectively do those things while getting your message across, without the name calling. Please consider resubmitting your comment. Thank you.
Your comment in response to Mr. Schwartz has been removed for violating the rules, which I have posted as recently as this morning. Please make comments without name calling. To clarify, your comment about a particular candidate was fine, even with the serious and harsh tone, EXCEPT for the use of terminology to describe him that is better suited for the gutter blogs, not one as esteemed as this one.
Quite a bit of discussion on SD 36 under a recent Steve Baldwin post as well, including an exchange between Baldwin and candidate Greg Stephens:
http://sdrostra.com/?p=4780&cpage=1#comment-51972
Michael wrote, “I think we have a real chance to elect a leader in Mr. Stone and oust someone who continue to proves he pushes the limits of ethics. For every time you complain about how dirty politics is, don’t vote for Joel. ”
You don’t know much about Stone, do you Michael? If you did some research, you’d know what kind of person he is.
While he pastes his name on a “Race For Humanity,” he has the opportunity to correct vicious human rights violations in his own back yard and has failed to do so, because the human rights violations are perpetrated by his “special friends” the Scientologists. He even launched an ordinance at their request, because they don’t like it when protesters show up to expose their criminal behavior.
While Stone claims to champion women’s rights, coerced abortions at the Scientology compound are being carried out. People are being starved, beaten, maltreated and treated like slaves.
And Stone does nothing. Indeed, he persists in calling these human rights activists who protest Scientology abuses “terrorists, criminals, anti-Semites and racists.”
Do your homework and decide for yourself whether he should go to Sacramento. I think not.
From time to time, some posts get an inordinate amount of “spam-bot comments” and we need to turn the comments off on those particular posts, as a means of reducing our time dealing with the auto-spam. This post is one. To post continued comments on this subject, please go here:
http://sdrostra.com/?p=4399