Oh great, this guy is running for 5th District Supervisor? As much as I can't stand John Flynn, I'd take five Flynn's on the Board of Sup's compared to one of this guy. All you have to do is listen to what he has to say about the civil service to know this guy is from the dark ages. "At Will Hiring" ensures that someone hired in a top level executive or management level position in county government (or any organization) has the ability to be fired if they screw up. And what's wrong with that?

Don't worry, O'Leary, there are still thousands of civil service/union members remaining in the County government that can vote for you!

Denis, how do you plan to overcome the advantages of your opponent? He has years of name ID, press coverage, and I assume money in the bank to run again.

Boba Fett first appeared in Star Wars V - Empire on the bridge of the Imperial Flagship Star Destroyer. Although he was added in a scene in the special edition of Star Wars IV - New Hope with Jabba the Hut.

Does this make me really rare Brian?

Guess I'm not. Never even knew about the Christmas Special.

Dear Denis,
Thank you for providing the community with an opportunity to make a educated decision in regards to the County election.

What experience do you have in regards to addressing the fiscal needs of the County?

I remember reading that you were an advocate of bi-lingual education in our schools. Will you be putting that on the back burner or is it something you are still actively trying to establish.

Michael,
The position of County Supervisor does not make decisions concerning the academic methodologies used in our schools. In the past, my predecessor has not only offered help to the Oxnard School District and Rio School District, but he has also interfered in their decision making. Note the name of "John K. Flynn" on the gymnasium at the Rio del Valle Junior High in El Rio.

I plan on focusing on bringing needed accountability to our County Departments, needed infrastructure to the greater Oxnard area and a sound representation to the Fifth District.

The appointment of County Management and Supervisors in what the county calls “At Will Hiring� does not allow the county to look beyond the old buddy system of recruitment. As a government body, we must always look for the best employees who will respond to and be accountable to the public, not friendships.

Denis O'Leary

¿Usted habla español como nuestro supervisor actual ? Díganos porqué usted es orgulloso vivir en Oxnard en español por favor.

Je pense que Scott Blough devrait venir en France et étudier nos conceptions du trafic. Peut-être les cercles calmants du trafic l'aideront à apprécier concevoir de ville.

Sí soy bilingüe y puedo comunicar con la mayoria que viven en Oxnard. Espero representar todos que viven en el Quinto Distrito del Condado de Ventura.

Segunda parte de la respuesta: Si estoy orgulloso de vivir en Oxnard. Espero mejorar la calidad de vida para los residentes. El actual Supervisor ha estado en su puesto 32 anos, y lo que veo es que estamos quedandonos estancados en una comunidad sin progreso mientras que las otras comunidades a los alrededores avanzan. Las discusiones entre el actual Supervisor y los otros cuatro Supervisores nos dejan inmoviles mientras que leemos que debemos ser felices que Flynn no cambia su forma de gobernar.

Denis O'Leary

Jaque,
Traffic is a major issue in Oxnard. Planning seems to not be connected and building seems to be permitted upon request.

Much of the traffic problems are issues to be taken up by the Oxnard City Council, but I believe that infrastructure should meet the needs of our community before additional congestion is brought to the greater Oxnard area and the Fifth District. We can grow and should grow, but it should be in a manner that will improve our community. Better is more important than bigger. I will work have to make the Oxnard area of Ventura County the jewel of Ventura County.

Denis O'Leary

What ideas do you have in regards to providing parents tools to combat the gang problem?

How would provide young people in your district an opportunity to feel a part of the community instead of having to join gangs to feel a sense of belonging?

Michael,
Thank you for the great question. As you know, I will not be able to solve this complex situation with a short answer and I will need the support of our community.

I have been a teacher for 18 years now. I have seen disillusion and I have seen kids just trying to figure things out. I have seen students rise above the gang trap and others, try as I might to stop them, fall into the gang life.

I believe that parental involvement is the largest missing element in many of the youth’s lives. Parents often want to help their sons and daughters in school but don’t know how to go about it. Two weeks ago I attended a graduation of sorts for parents in the Oxnard School District. Some 80 plus parents finished classes which lasted eight weeks in empowering parents with the “how to help� situation which many are looking for. It will take time, but I hope that such programs will strengthen families and help keep our youth out of gangs.

School programs and positive youth activities can be a big help, but a family with the security of a livable family income, health benefits and security of employment will make a big impact. I have supported the Living Wage inicatives in the City of Oxnard, Port Hueneme and the County of Ventura, (though the Living Wage for the County of Ventura needs to be improved upon). I have also presented a plan for a Living Wage in the Oxnard School District. If this policy is approved upon, the OSD will be only the fourth school district in the country to have a Living Wage.

Prevention is important. Counseling and teaching social skills are often what the youth is looking for, but too often cannot find. I have actively supported the Keys Program which provides just this kind of support. I know that other programs are also constantly searching for participants. We must support these efforts.

Supporting law enforcement is also a major factor in lessening gang problems in Ventura County as well as beyond. We must provide wages and benefits to our County Sheriffs as to be competitive for those looking for employment. We need to keep our experienced officers by offering competitive wages and benefits as well. We need to hire more law enforcers and place them where they are missed today. We also need to bring public cooperation, oversight and support into law enforcement.

Directing parents and youth away from gangs while providing a strong law enforcement element will, I believe, bring positive change.

No one element is more important than another. The elements I have listed and surely others need to be enacted at the same time. Law enforcement, prevention, counseling, family empowerment and community support are all just as important as the other facets in the list.

I can only wish I could say that it would be as simple as what I have written. As you know, it has not been easy in the past and will continue to be difficult in the future. In the end, the goal of little to no gang activity is do-able. I will continue to work hard to better the lives of all. As a County Supervisor I will work to bring more and better resources to stop gang activities in our county.

Denis O’Leary

Dude, you're boring. You'd better put a little pizzaz in your game, my man, or Flynn is gonna mop up the floor with you. Don't forget, this is one of the all-time master politician's in Ventura County history. He knows how to grab headlines, grandstand with the best of them, and he knows what catches people interest and keeps them interested. As much as I despise his politics, I do have the utmost respect for him as a political operative. Get yourself a good campaign manager, my friend. It's going to be an uphill battle.

Denis, thanks for your willingness to answer questions. Not suprisingly, I disagree with you completely on the Living Wage model but I do agree with you focusing on education and the importance of parental involvement. I think Oxnard is really hurting in this regard. I think much work could be done bridging the gap between high school and Oxnard College but I don't know if this is in the BOS areana or not. Good luck with your campaign. It will be tough and I don't think you are going to be boring.

Where's the stadium going, Michael? Is that the one proposed for Oxnard? If so, I like the idea. We need more recreational venues in the County. A casino would be good too. I say Oxnard for the casino too. We already have a card club in Ventura.

Michael,

The Oxnard City Council voted two weeks ago to add another Cineplex to Oxnard as well as the Big League Dreams sports complex.

The vote to place another Cineplex in RiverPark goes against a city ordinance forbidding a Cineplex outside the Oxnard downtown business district. This exception also goes against the City Planning Commission which voted 5 – 2 just two weeks before in which commissioners expressed worries about jeopardizing the revitalization plan of Oxnard’s downtown area.

The ordinance to not place another Cineplex in Oxnard was to allow the new Plaza Cinema and other businesses in Oxnard the chance to establish themselves and revitalize the downtown area.

Plaza Cinema has borrowed $187,000 in the past year from the city of Oxnard to meet expenses, invoking a little-known clause in his contract. The theater posted $600,000 in losses in its first 13 months.

What a deal: to run a business and have the city of Oxnard guarantee that it will stay out of the red for 25 years. Now, the city of Oxnard has given the same developer the opportunity to build its own competition.

I believe that Oxnard can sustain more than one movie-theater, but we are now subsidizing the first theater to compete with the second theater.

We can do better for the economic stability and growth of Oxnard.

In another vote Oxnard ’s City Council voted to support the building of a privately operated sports complex. The price tag for a Big League Dreams sports park is $41.5 million compared to $36.5 million for a complex had the City of Oxnard built and operated the park itself.

As Supervisor, I will not interfere with city policies. I will work on providing needed services to the Fifth District and shore up the long ignored lack of infrastructure which plagues our neighborhoods.

Better Sheriff and Fire protection, storm drainage, lighting and paved streets are just a few of the services lacking in many past developments. Future positive growth is good, but we must first make our past developments livable. A matter of the County Board of Supervisors is also the Channel Islands harbor which has lost to dry rot while the four Supervisors fought the Supervisor who I plan to unseat. Doing nothing for years has only hurt what can be a jewel of the county. I hope to make our Channel Islands Harbor just that: a location where people will want to visit.

Change is good, but we need better, not just more. Tax dollars must be spent wisely to better our community. We are spending $5 million dollars to have a private company to operate and make a profit in our coming the baseball complex. There are still many questions on the benefits this sporting complex will bring to our neighborhoods.

Denis O’Leary

Jill,

I can't say much about the hair line, (it's mine), but please let me mention that the photo I provided was widened to fit the format of this blog.

I will let you argue amongst yourselves about the pizzaz issue.

Denis O'Leary

Since Denis chimed in so good-naturedly (ahh, a politician with a sense of humor, how refreshing), how about others weighing in (no pun intended) on the "looks" issue as it pertains to electability? Laura Winchester, I'd be especially interested to hear what you have to say, since you're always willing to throw your 2 cents into just about any subject matter.

Flynn has turned Bennett upsidedown:

Stripping away everything else a poem is about the relationship between the poet and the subject

Cowgirl I he{a}rd you in the wind

Buffalo Will
target shoot 'n his quill

Bennett Up Flynn

The highest mountain the highest peak mercy mercy this ain't grandstanding this is Tuesday week

Cowboys and Indians Lone Ranger and Tonto I suggest chief peak and fight it out pronto

Cowgirl Long cried out “a veil threat� skirts howdy it couldn't be said any plainer or in more depth

Dueling was outlawed in the republic early on but chief peak is a'waiting till Kathy and Steve is gone

Long time supervisor Flynn is after your hides well I wonder if ex-supervisor Mikels still cries

Chief peak is a'waiting for these two foes Ventura County ain't big enough for these two souls

The highest mountain the highest peak mercy mercy it's the count down to election week

---Copyright © 2007 Buffalo Will - March 25, 2007
Carroll Dean Williams

Accordingly a function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it presses for acceptance of an idea. (Terminiello v. City of Chicago (1949) 337 U.S. 1, 4-5, 69 S.Ct. 894, 896, 93 L.Ed. 1131)

The Brown Act specifically provides that this board may “not prohibit public criticism of the policies, procedures, programs, or services of the agency, or of the acts or omissions of this board.� (California Government Code §54954.3(c).)

Hey Pappa Bear, do have a Mamma Bear with you somewhere? I suggest you two little Oxnard bruins start hitting the confessionals hard and heavy over the next few weeks, since the Flynn Irish mafia machine is in full swing already, with Big John/Boss Hogg/Big Daddy/Don Corleone leading the way and Timmy the clone closing in right behind him.

Please ask why Dennis O' Leary does not wish to respond or if he wishges to do so now?

Below is correspondence you might wish to share with you readers.

Could the no response be that if we had a proper accouning then more books and teachers would be not funded due to "real" attendace data being known?

Get the pciture; and Dennis will you now respond for the voters in Ventura County?

Thomas D. Carter, CPA - AKA Mr. Flashlight shining hsi light on the "truth"

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas D. Carter [mailto:tdc.cpa@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2008 8:57 AM
To: 'Ted Myers'
Cc: 'John Flynn'; 'John Johnston'; 'Marty Robinson'; 'denissisepuede@xxx;
Subject: RE: Parents of Latina and or Latino youth "not in school" rewarded by the welfare system - why, get the picture and an aswer discussed below?

Second request; and now also sent to Dennis O'Leary, who I am told is supported by LULAC, running for office in Ventura County, making this now a political issue on behalf of the Latino and Latina community.

Thomas D. Carter. CPA

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas D. Carter [mailto:tdc.cpa@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2008 3:48 PM
To: 'Ted Myers'
Cc: 'John Flynn'; 'John Johnston'; 'Marty Robinson'
Subject: RE: Parents of Latina and or Latino youth "not in school" rewarded by the welfare system - why, get the picture and an aswer discussed below?

Mr. Myers and others:

Thank you for your response.

Please call me next week at 818.521.0072 to discuss how Ventura might move on from here, with a little 21st Century automation and having an accounting more that one time per year.

Yours truly,

Thomas D. Carter, CPA

-----Original Message-----
From: Ted Myers [mailto:Ted.Myers@ventura.org]
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 1:34 PM
To: tdc.cpa@sbcglobal.net
Cc: John Flynn; John Johnston; Marty Robinson
Subject: Re: Parents of Latina and or Latino youth "not in school" rewarded by the welfare system - why, get the picture and an aswer discussed below?

Dear Mr. Carter,

At Supervisor Flynn's request, my staff and I have researched your concerns. Here is what we found:

All school age children receiving CalWORKS benefits must regularly attend school. Proof of enrollment must be obtained by the County's Human Services Agency for children 6-18 years before the family can receive CalWORKS benefits. The School Attendance Informing Notice (56-0-42) is required to be included in the CalWORKs intake packets and must be provided to all applicants. Verification of school attendance is requested for new applications and re-applications. For new applications, clients are not required to provide school attendance verification prior to approval and/or authorization of benefits. However, a 10-day deadline is given for clients to provide verification upon case approval. As part of the ongoing eligibility redetermination procedure, verification of school enrollment for each benefitting child must be provided at the yearly renewal or when there is a change of address or change of school.

HSA management is confident that these policies are consistently applied. In fact, CalWIN (our automated case management information and benefits issuance system) forces the case worker to verify proof of school enrollment. If a client does not provide verification, or if a school was to provide proof that a benefitting child was no longer attending, a penalty would start on the first of the month following the 10 day notice and the CalWORKs grant would be reduced by the parent's portion. For example, a family of three (mom and two children) receives $723 per month. With the penalty, the grant would be reduced to $584 - which is the amount for a family of two. Approximately less than 2% (roughly 100) of CalWORKs in Ventura County are in this status. California recently went through the federal OIG audit and our school attendance policy and procedure was part of a thorough review. The review of the one sample case from Ventura County found no errors.

As for non-CalWORKS linked Medi-Cal or Food Stamps benefit programs, school attendance is, for the most part, not a requirement for Medi-Cal or Food Stamps. The exception is for youth, ages 16-19, who must be enrolled in school.

As for information sharing between school district and County social services agencies, Ventura County HSA is allowed to share certain eligibility information with requesting school districts for students who are enrolled in our programs and wish to receive a free breakfast or lunch at school. The schools indicate the type of information needed such as, type of aid received, age, ZIP code, etc. If we verify the student is receiving Medi-Cal or Food Stamps, he or she is automatically eligible for the school breakfast or lunch program. HSA staff run such reports at the schools request, typically at the beginning of each semester.

It is probably true that while HSA diligently verifies income and property to ensure eligibility, school districts are neither required, nor equipped, to do so for their non-HSA students who are enrolled in school breakfast or lunch programs. Interestingly, legislation exists that would allow HSA to obtain information about such students in order to enroll those children in Medi-Cal. The rumor is that school districts are reluctant to participate in this information exchange because HSA would be required to verify eligibility (income, property, citizenship) which might cause some children to be deemed ineligible for the school lunch program.

In conclusion, I don't think we have fraud issues related to school attendance in our programs, though we would not be opposed to receiving more frequent school attendance reports to ensure program compliance. On the other hand, we would support better information sharing between HSA and the school districts if it would help increase Medi-Cal enrollment for eligible children.

Ted Myers, Director
Human Services Agency
County of Ventura
855 Partridge Drive
Ventura, CA 93003
(805) 477-5301

"Investing in people to create a better future"

>>> "Thomas D. Carter" 1/6/2008 4:56 PM >>>

Good Day Supervisor in Ventura County:

Several LULAC members, a large voting group in your County I am told, have
suggested I contact you to ask how your County is handling and tracking of
those students whose parent has applied and possibly is receiving for
welfare, and their progeny must be in school for their welfare to continue.

Below is my answer and proposal to a problem that exists in LA County and I
assume in your County possibly also.

Attached is an editorial published recently in support of my concern.

And for your knowledge Kern County is one County in our State that has begun
to account for students in a manner similar to what I propose, thus my idea
is not new, but only updated for the 21st Century using the computer
information, with a few modern software programs, to thus prevent "privacy"
to be an issue, by only reporting on exceptions for those "not-in school".

And can you ask the Assembly members in your County why they did not vote to
have AB 1656 passed last year and thus fund my proposal via the back door
via the State CalWORK's system?

I also was told San Diego County was going to implement a plan similar to
mine but it never was implemented. Can you share with me why?

Please feel free to call me at 818.521.0072 if you think my proposal has
value in your County and you wish I discuss in further details how to
accomplish my wish for improving how we account for students and bring them
back to the classroom and off the streets.

Yours truly,]

Thomas D. Carter, CPA - AKA Mr. Flashlight shining his light on the "truth",
and a member of LULAC

_____

From: Thomas D. Carter [mailto:tdc.cpa@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 8:15 PM
To: 'tdc.cpa@sbcglobal.net'; 'DNforum@dailynews.com'
Cc: 'Naush Boghossian'; 'lisa.friedman@langnews.com'; 'editor@dailynews.com'
Subject: My opinion for printing - thank you

SI SE PUEDE LAUSD:

Letter to the Editor, LAUSD Board Members and Superintendent Brewer III and
LA County residents and taxpayers:

Ladies and Gentlemen do you know where some 500,000 are on a given day
LAUSD students (700,000 estimated as enrolled students, of which an
estimated are 75% eligible students for the meals' programs) are on a daily
basis who are coded possibly as "not-in school" or at least coded as not
"eating" meals?

If yes, KUDOS for your knowledge and concern to have them be in
the classroom!

If no, then please read on and realize some might maybe the "drop-out"
student, the student accounted for in error as "not in school" and or a
fraudulently listed name is in the system - get the picture!

According to the editorial - Our Opinion - No free lunch - LAUSD's meals
program has problems - as printed in this fine Daily News newspaper on
Friday, December 22, 2007. It is stated that there are "no easy answers to
this problem" at LAUSD in the funding of the federal "meal program", using
the CalWORK's processing funding mechanisms, and as is administered by the
LA County DPSS based agency, whose Director is Phil Ansell, that uses
attendance in the Districts as the "tracking" tool, or the lack of a tool,
in a timely and accurate manner, in my opinion, creating approximately a
loss to LAUSD of $100,000,000.00

In my opinion, there is a simple answer and it is called ACCOUNTABILITY.
And as is pointed our by the Daily News staff (principally Naush Boghossian
and Lisa Friedman) in various articles in the past two years and stated in
this editorial that is the problem "that the federal government uses the
number of students receiving subsidized meals to determine how much special
funding districts can get for everything from books to teachers. That gives
schools little incentive to crack down on fraud." - get the picture?

And as we know the fraud number is estimated at approximately
$350,000,000.00 per year, in this welfare system, according to the Fifth
District Supervisor and James Baker an attorney, within the County, as
printed in the media.

Therefore the answer is a more timely accounting is needed at LA County DPSS
and a little collaboration is now required from the School Districts in the
County as following:

1. At LA County DPSS they add to the tape it sends to
Districts quarterly per year the name of the school and the school code.
Currently LA County DPSS sends a tape, semi -annually, according to Esther
Wong, at LAUSD, split only by ZIP code, according to Fran Wong, from LA
County DPSS, and according to her LA County DPSS does have the ability to
make the change proposed here.

.

2. LA County request from the Districts they do the
following:

a. Return to LA County DPSS quarterly per year those
students not listed as attending a School District but listed as attending
by the County. These are then errors and or fraud situations for the County
to review.

b. Return to LA County a name of a student when he or she
is "not in school" as is approved be done by a parent on CalWORK's Form PA
1725, after the progeny is "not in school" for nine days. The County can
then contact the parent or sanction them accordingly. Currently LAUSD can do
this via the ISIS software implemented to "track" students from grade 7-12
by period, also called the Diploma Project in place at a cost of
$10,000,000.00 per year to LAUSD.

3. Los Angeles PD and other law enforcement agencies
request that the School District send a data transmission (beginning as a
test, at first, at LAUSD whose student population is approximately 50% of
the total County welfare eligible population) to any agency this
information when a law enforcement agency requests data, via the computer
in a squad car, when a progeny of a welfare recipient is "truant" in
accordance with Local, County , State and or Federal law and then this will
allow an officer in the vehicle to "match" the data with the ID that a young
man and or lady makes available to the officer when stopped for cause - get
the picture?

Thus in closing, this process would be without any significant or any
material cost increases to the taxpayer, but could save DOLLARS AND LIVES,
leaving NO Child or Dollar behind - get the picture?

Thomas D. Carter, CPA - AKA Mr. Flashlight shining his light on the "truth

Please ask why Dennis O' Leary does not wish to respond or if he wishges to do so now?

Below is correspondence you might wish to share with you readers.

Could the no response be that if we had a proper accouning then more books and teachers would be not funded due to "real" attendace data being known?

Get the pciture; and Dennis will you now respond for the voters in Ventura County?

Thomas D. Carter, CPA - AKA Mr. Flashlight shining hsi light on the "truth"

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas D. Carter [mailto:tdc.cpa@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2008 8:57 AM
To: 'Ted Myers'
Cc: 'John Flynn'; 'John Johnston'; 'Marty Robinson'; 'denissisepuede@xxx;
Subject: RE: Parents of Latina and or Latino youth "not in school" rewarded by the welfare system - why, get the picture and an aswer discussed below?

Second request; and now also sent to Dennis O'Leary, who I am told is supported by LULAC, running for office in Ventura County, making this now a political issue on behalf of the Latino and Latina community.

Thomas D. Carter. CPA

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas D. Carter [mailto:tdc.cpa@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2008 3:48 PM
To: 'Ted Myers'
Cc: 'John Flynn'; 'John Johnston'; 'Marty Robinson'
Subject: RE: Parents of Latina and or Latino youth "not in school" rewarded by the welfare system - why, get the picture and an aswer discussed below?

Mr. Myers and others:

Thank you for your response.

Please call me next week at 818.521.0072 to discuss how Ventura might move on from here, with a little 21st Century automation and having an accounting more that one time per year.

Yours truly,

Thomas D. Carter, CPA

-----Original Message-----
From: Ted Myers [mailto:Ted.Myers@ventura.org]
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 1:34 PM
To: tdc.cpa@sbcglobal.net
Cc: John Flynn; John Johnston; Marty Robinson
Subject: Re: Parents of Latina and or Latino youth "not in school" rewarded by the welfare system - why, get the picture and an aswer discussed below?

Dear Mr. Carter,

At Supervisor Flynn's request, my staff and I have researched your concerns. Here is what we found:

All school age children receiving CalWORKS benefits must regularly attend school. Proof of enrollment must be obtained by the County's Human Services Agency for children 6-18 years before the family can receive CalWORKS benefits. The School Attendance Informing Notice (56-0-42) is required to be included in the CalWORKs intake packets and must be provided to all applicants. Verification of school attendance is requested for new applications and re-applications. For new applications, clients are not required to provide school attendance verification prior to approval and/or authorization of benefits. However, a 10-day deadline is given for clients to provide verification upon case approval. As part of the ongoing eligibility redetermination procedure, verification of school enrollment for each benefitting child must be provided at the yearly renewal or when there is a change of address or change of school.

HSA management is confident that these policies are consistently applied. In fact, CalWIN (our automated case management information and benefits issuance system) forces the case worker to verify proof of school enrollment. If a client does not provide verification, or if a school was to provide proof that a benefitting child was no longer attending, a penalty would start on the first of the month following the 10 day notice and the CalWORKs grant would be reduced by the parent's portion. For example, a family of three (mom and two children) receives $723 per month. With the penalty, the grant would be reduced to $584 - which is the amount for a family of two. Approximately less than 2% (roughly 100) of CalWORKs in Ventura County are in this status. California recently went through the federal OIG audit and our school attendance policy and procedure was part of a thorough review. The review of the one sample case from Ventura County found no errors.

As for non-CalWORKS linked Medi-Cal or Food Stamps benefit programs, school attendance is, for the most part, not a requirement for Medi-Cal or Food Stamps. The exception is for youth, ages 16-19, who must be enrolled in school.

As for information sharing between school district and County social services agencies, Ventura County HSA is allowed to share certain eligibility information with requesting school districts for students who are enrolled in our programs and wish to receive a free breakfast or lunch at school. The schools indicate the type of information needed such as, type of aid received, age, ZIP code, etc. If we verify the student is receiving Medi-Cal or Food Stamps, he or she is automatically eligible for the school breakfast or lunch program. HSA staff run such reports at the schools request, typically at the beginning of each semester.

It is probably true that while HSA diligently verifies income and property to ensure eligibility, school districts are neither required, nor equipped, to do so for their non-HSA students who are enrolled in school breakfast or lunch programs. Interestingly, legislation exists that would allow HSA to obtain information about such students in order to enroll those children in Medi-Cal. The rumor is that school districts are reluctant to participate in this information exchange because HSA would be required to verify eligibility (income, property, citizenship) which might cause some children to be deemed ineligible for the school lunch program.

In conclusion, I don't think we have fraud issues related to school attendance in our programs, though we would not be opposed to receiving more frequent school attendance reports to ensure program compliance. On the other hand, we would support better information sharing between HSA and the school districts if it would help increase Medi-Cal enrollment for eligible children.

Ted Myers, Director
Human Services Agency
County of Ventura
855 Partridge Drive
Ventura, CA 93003
(805) 477-5301

"Investing in people to create a better future"

>>> "Thomas D. Carter" 1/6/2008 4:56 PM >>>

Good Day Supervisor in Ventura County:

Several LULAC members, a large voting group in your County I am told, have
suggested I contact you to ask how your County is handling and tracking of
those students whose parent has applied and possibly is receiving for
welfare, and their progeny must be in school for their welfare to continue.

Below is my answer and proposal to a problem that exists in LA County and I
assume in your County possibly also.

Attached is an editorial published recently in support of my concern.

And for your knowledge Kern County is one County in our State that has begun
to account for students in a manner similar to what I propose, thus my idea
is not new, but only updated for the 21st Century using the computer
information, with a few modern software programs, to thus prevent "privacy"
to be an issue, by only reporting on exceptions for those "not-in school".

And can you ask the Assembly members in your County why they did not vote to
have AB 1656 passed last year and thus fund my proposal via the back door
via the State CalWORK's system?

I also was told San Diego County was going to implement a plan similar to
mine but it never was implemented. Can you share with me why?

Please feel free to call me at 818.521.0072 if you think my proposal has
value in your County and you wish I discuss in further details how to
accomplish my wish for improving how we account for students and bring them
back to the classroom and off the streets.

Yours truly,]

Thomas D. Carter, CPA - AKA Mr. Flashlight shining his light on the "truth",
and a member of LULAC

_____

From: Thomas D. Carter [mailto:tdc.cpa@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 8:15 PM
To: 'tdc.cpa@sbcglobal.net'; 'DNforum@dailynews.com'
Cc: 'Naush Boghossian'; 'lisa.friedman@langnews.com'; 'editor@dailynews.com'
Subject: My opinion for printing - thank you

SI SE PUEDE LAUSD:

Letter to the Editor, LAUSD Board Members and Superintendent Brewer III and
LA County residents and taxpayers:

Ladies and Gentlemen do you know where some 500,000 are on a given day
LAUSD students (700,000 estimated as enrolled students, of which an
estimated are 75% eligible students for the meals' programs) are on a daily
basis who are coded possibly as "not-in school" or at least coded as not
"eating" meals?

If yes, KUDOS for your knowledge and concern to have them be in
the classroom!

If no, then please read on and realize some might maybe the "drop-out"
student, the student accounted for in error as "not in school" and or a
fraudulently listed name is in the system - get the picture!

According to the editorial - Our Opinion - No free lunch - LAUSD's meals
program has problems - as printed in this fine Daily News newspaper on
Friday, December 22, 2007. It is stated that there are "no easy answers to
this problem" at LAUSD in the funding of the federal "meal program", using
the CalWORK's processing funding mechanisms, and as is administered by the
LA County DPSS based agency, whose Director is Phil Ansell, that uses
attendance in the Districts as the "tracking" tool, or the lack of a tool,
in a timely and accurate manner, in my opinion, creating approximately a
loss to LAUSD of $100,000,000.00

In my opinion, there is a simple answer and it is called ACCOUNTABILITY.
And as is pointed our by the Daily News staff (principally Naush Boghossian
and Lisa Friedman) in various articles in the past two years and stated in
this editorial that is the problem "that the federal government uses the
number of students receiving subsidized meals to determine how much special
funding districts can get for everything from books to teachers. That gives
schools little incentive to crack down on fraud." - get the picture?

And as we know the fraud number is estimated at approximately
$350,000,000.00 per year, in this welfare system, according to the Fifth
District Supervisor and James Baker an attorney, within the County, as
printed in the media.

Therefore the answer is a more timely accounting is needed at LA County DPSS
and a little collaboration is now required from the School Districts in the
County as following:

1. At LA County DPSS they add to the tape it sends to
Districts quarterly per year the name of the school and the school code.
Currently LA County DPSS sends a tape, semi -annually, according to Esther
Wong, at LAUSD, split only by ZIP code, according to Fran Wong, from LA
County DPSS, and according to her LA County DPSS does have the ability to
make the change proposed here.

.

2. LA County request from the Districts they do the
following:

a. Return to LA County DPSS quarterly per year those
students not listed as attending a School District but listed as attending
by the County. These are then errors and or fraud situations for the County
to review.

b. Return to LA County a name of a student when he or she
is "not in school" as is approved be done by a parent on CalWORK's Form PA
1725, after the progeny is "not in school" for nine days. The County can
then contact the parent or sanction them accordingly. Currently LAUSD can do
this via the ISIS software implemented to "track" students from grade 7-12
by period, also called the Diploma Project in place at a cost of
$10,000,000.00 per year to LAUSD.

3. Los Angeles PD and other law enforcement agencies
request that the School District send a data transmission (beginning as a
test, at first, at LAUSD whose student population is approximately 50% of
the total County welfare eligible population) to any agency this
information when a law enforcement agency requests data, via the computer
in a squad car, when a progeny of a welfare recipient is "truant" in
accordance with Local, County , State and or Federal law and then this will
allow an officer in the vehicle to "match" the data with the ID that a young
man and or lady makes available to the officer when stopped for cause - get
the picture?

Thus in closing, this process would be without any significant or any
material cost increases to the taxpayer, but could save DOLLARS AND LIVES,
leaving NO Child or Dollar behind - get the picture?

Thomas D. Carter, CPA - AKA Mr. Flashlight shining his light on the "truth