A government ethics watchdog is asking California’s state auditor to investigate a multimillion-dollar diaper deal championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom — alleging political favoritism and potential waste of taxpayer dollars.
Washington D.C.-based Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) asked State Auditor Grant Parks to probe California’s $6.2M no-bid contract with Baby2Baby, a nonprofit with ties to Newsom’s wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom, alleging the state may have skirted a typical competitive bidding process and concealed records about the free diaper deal.
“Immediately after the contract was announced, there were public concerns over whether the contract was awarded in a fair and impartial manner and whether the state was overpaying for the diapers and the program was operated at an unreasonable cost,” Kendra Arnold, executive director of FACT, wrote in a letter to Parks.
“The facts relating to both of these issues should have been publicly available, but the Newsom administration has been misleading about whether the contract was awarded in a competitive process and and has mired the entire situation with a complete lack of transparency,” Arnold added.
Newsom’s free diaper program, which was announced in a San Francisco press conference just ahead of Mother’s Day, provides 400 free diapers to families discharged from participating California hospitals, regardless of family income.
The California Department of Health Care Access and Information awarded a $6.2 million contract to Los-Angeles-based Baby2Baby to administer the program, and a $12 million contract extension was tucked into Newsom’s budget proposal for the coming year.
Baby2Baby’s co-CEO Norah Weinstein sits on the board of Siebel Newsom’s nonprofit, the California Partners Project — sparking allegations of cronyism.
Baby2Baby’s other co-CEO, Kelly Sawyer Patricof, is a “prolific political donor,” FACT noted in its letter.
Republicans and Dems alike have raised questions about the diaper deal, which was pitched as a cost-effective means of distributing free diapers to California families of varying income levels.
“I will say the optics of this vendor is not good at all,” State Sen. Caroline Menjivar, a Democrat from San Fernando, said at a hearing about the diaper contract last month.
“The administration and the governor is going to be gone, and we’re going to continue to get hit on this,” Menjivar said.
Republicans such as state Sen. Tony Strickland have claimed the state is overpaying for the diapers.
“You can go to Target and find diapers for 16 cents apiece. That just shows the waste and inefficiency of government,” Strickland told The Post last month.
FACT further stated in its letter that state officials have not been forthcoming about the details of its Baby2Baby contract.
California officials have not released the Baby2Baby contract or bidding documents surrounding the controversial deal more than two months after it was announced, CBS News reported last week.
Newsom’s office requested an exemption to the state’s typical procurement rules in a letter to the legislature in May, saying the carve-outs were needed to ensure the continuity of the program.
Officials have claimed that diaper banks, manufacturers and other firms were invited to participate in the program and vendors were fairly evaluated.
Baby2Baby officials have said any relationship with Siebel Newsom had no role in the diaper initiative and that Weinstein volunteers on the California Partners Project board without pay.
