Archive for May 2011
CA SB 557 — “Just say NO!” or at least “Whoa!!” (show me the money…) to Scandalous San Diego’s One Stop Justice Shop Pyramid Scheme
Post Title:
CA SB 557 — “Just say NO!” or at least “Whoa!!” (show me the money…) to Scandalous San Diego’s One Stop Justice Shop Pyramid SchemeShortlink with case-sensitive ending: http://wp.me/psBXH-HG. [click on either title or that link] About 8,400 words with 2023 updates.
A Family Justice Center (like a Family Physician?) — what a warm and fuzzy concept!
The ‘California Initiative” (per graphic) has a motto: “Bringing Hope to Hurting Families Across California.”
Hope of what? I didn’t ask for hope. I would’ve settled long ago for simple enforcement of existing court orders!
How warm and fuzzy is it? Was the public asked whether it’s a good idea, before, during, or after its conception, the labor ($3 million grants, etc.) to bring it forth, and the subsequent cloning actions?
Let’s consider (and then, I’ll get to the colors and graphics part, don’t worry….)
- First, the “Family Justice Center Initiative” in San Diego (#1 site) is the project and brainchild of a City Attorney whose handling of the City’s pension funds (see below) has been labeled “negligent” and eventually brought the FBI and US Attorney’s Office investigating the corruption. In Alameda County (#2) it is a District Attorney Dubious Doing (see my post) and was pushed by this person to get a founding grant, and promptly install a crony, that, improperly.
- Second, the concept of combining “services” and “collaborating” is questionable — I question it, for one. It has a dark side.
My post is long, but don’t forget to read THIS site (hover, I’ve copied text of Obstacle #4 (relevant here) onto the URL description) from Sonoma County, where another proposed Justice Center is to start (or has already, perhaps). “Mapping the Obstacles to Criminal Justice for Women” :
The six principle obstacles to protection and justice for women in the criminal justice system are:
1. A near absolute police and prosecutorial discretion to pick and choose which crimes the system will treat seriously and which they will ignore, and to do so with impunity. The exercise of this enormous discretionary power is virtually outside the rule of law.
2. An intractable, deep-rooted sexism and racism that remains institutionalized throughout the criminal justice system. This sexism and racism, combined with the system’s absolute discretion to ignore crimes whenever they wish, means that violence against women cases are the cases most often ignored, dumped, or given short shrift.
3. Society’s failure to answer the question of who polices the police, and the failure to even ask the question in regard to district attorneys, means the criminal justice system is not only legally unaccountable when dumping cases of violence against women. In addition, there is also virtually no other viable social mechanism by which the public can make the system implement its powers on behalf of victims of violence against women.
4. The repression of effective victim advocacy due to increasing criminal justice system controls over the funding and functioning of rape and domestic violence centers.
5. The invisibility of denial of protection and justice to victims of violence against women to the public, often to the victims themselves, and even to the officer’s supervisors who review the officers reports.
6. The failure to target the district attorneys.** Advocacy groups, social justice groups, and civil rights groups that aim to correct abuses in the criminal justice system usually do so by focusing on the police, while completely ignoring the District Attorney. This is monumental and puzzling mistake, since the District Attorney is the most powerful law enforcement official in your community.
[Below]. Does its pretty purple-bordered website with vivid graphics look nice? Sure.
See? http://www.familyjusticeinitiative.com/
[Images could be looked up and replaced I’m not going to do that just now, trying to get some current posts at — LGH/2017] [Six years later, I decided to look it up again:…] (Former Image html pointed to: “www.FamilyJusticeCenter.org/…/fjcinstitutessmall.jpg”)
(Updating Broken Link, MARCH 31, 2023; I am still referring to this and nearby posts on Twitter):
I took the above link to Archive.org (the Internet Archives or “Wayback Machine” and among the options to search, one of them showed how (seldom) it had been crawled (by the archives “bots”) — only twice. Once in February, 2011, I then posted as above, May, 2011, and again later in that year…). If possible, I’m going to insert two images showing (though in far less focus, they are fuzzy snapshots in Archive.org) what I was looking at then, with this quote from the main text on the page: Text First, then Image Upload, if I can pull it off on a different device now…]
FamilyJusticeInitiative.com ℅ WayBackMachine (Archive.org) — saved 15 times between Feb. 2, 2011 and August 1, 2015. For 3/31/2023 reference to post http://wp.me/psBXH-HG (May, 2011) In two images..
(The main content on this page reads (copied from Internet Archive page, as shown above. I added some check marks, a link to this post and other markings, but this text is a select, copy & paste action. //LGH 3/31/2023)
This exciting new Initiative has been funded by the Blue Shield of California Foundation and involves the development of six “learning laboratories” across the state where multi-agency, co-located service delivery models will be supported and expanded. Three regional training sites have been created to assist expanding and developing multi-agency service delivery models around the state including the six new sites.
The three regional training centers are: Alameda County Family Justice Center; Anaheim Family Justice Center; and the San Diego Family Justice Center. The six communities selected to participate as “learning laboratories” are: Shasta, Sonoma, South Bay (San Diego), Stanislaus, Valley CARES, and West Contra Costa County. The Initiative includes a learning collaborative model with teams from each selected site, grant funding for each selected site in the second year of the initiative, and technical assistance and strategic planning support for two years for the participating sites.
The California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, Blue Shield of California Foundation, and the Family Violence Prevention Fund are represented on the Initiative’s Advisory Committee along with representatives from each of the regional training sites.
For more information, please call (619) 236-9402.
FamilyJusticeInitiative.com ℅ WayBackMachine (Archive.org) — saved 15 times between Feb. 2, 2011 and August 1, 2015. For 3/31/2023 reference to post http://wp.me/psBXH-HG (May, 2011) In only images..
Do (and should?) public stamps of approval from:
a former San Diego City Attorney, a current Alameda County District Attorney, Verizon, Blue Shield of California Foundation, at least one prominent Domestic Violence Professional** — and in 2003, even former U.S. President George Bush
earn OUR stamps of approval? Because we will be helping to pay for it….
(And, should we encourage our local CA legislator to vote “YES” on SB 557, which seeks to legitimize and expand these, naming specific cities)
**Domestic Violence Professionals should be clearly distinguished from Domestic Violence Victims, although in some cases, the latter have become the former. The way you can tell them apart – DV Professionals generally have a paycheck, DV victims are often losing theirs.
The Professionals profess things at conferences, and sometimes even interview each other on TV. The steady stream of DV victims, new, and ongoing, provide ample material to practice on (practice makes expert, right?) and talk about. …
Another way you can find domestic violence professionals, is going to TAGGS.hhs.gov and looking up the CFDA category relating to “Family Violence Prevention and Services” which often has the word “discretionary” attached. Or, it goes to a [statewide] coalition. If you [i.e., your organization that you run, founded, and work or volunteer for] get a grant or two, you are viewed as (and may be, but the grant sure helps lend authority) a professional. So Here’s a TAGGS.hhs.gov summary (from 2005 forward, only, nationwide) of two types of violence prevention grants:
Showing: 1 – 2 of 2 CFDA Programs
[CFDA#] 93591 [CFDA#] 93592
CFDA Prog. No. OPDIV Popular Title Number of Awards Number of Award Actions CAN Award Amount 93.591 ACF Family Violence Prevention and Services/Grants for Battered Women’s Shelters: Grant to State Domestic Violence Coalitions 219 271 $50,573,527 93.592 ACF Family Violence Prevention and Services/Grants for Battered Women’s Shelters: Discretionary Grants 324 624 $165,460,776 Page Total 543 895 $216,034,303 Report Total 543 895 $216,034,303
Ellen Pence compatriot Denise Gamache, for example, shows up on a similar search, with more fields. Last time I looked at this, the amount was only $1.78 million,
I see that there has been great success in stopping violence (either that, or failures) hence, more funding to prevent it in the same manner — conferencing, and figuring out best practices, and of course collaborating and training. See? Also note this is a “Social Services” (not legal, criminal) activity, preventing violence.
[UPDATE: NOTE re: this chart: The report could be re-run at TAGGS.HHS.Gov (Advanced Search) and should be; it would generate a url link to share. I have recently (2017) blogged on these CFDA Numbers and this topic for further information). I see the column headings do not match the contents. A re-run would present an easier to read format; fixing it from this stage is not a good use of my blogging time… I also learned that some of these categories were, at least by year 2010, written into the FVSPA Act, which is under CAPTA (Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act). See my later posts for more info. //LGH]
At some point the “MPDI” (Minnesota Program Development, Inc.) I see below was renamed “Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs” or whatever TheDuluthModel.org says its current name is.
| Program Office | Grantee Name | City | Recovery Act Indicator | State | Award Number | Award Title | CFDA Number | Award Activity Type | Principal Investigator | Sum of Actions | Award Abstract |
| FYSB | MINNESOTA PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT, INC ** | DULUTH | NON | MN | 90EV0375 | FOUR SPECIAL ISSUE RESOURCE CENTERS FOR INFORMATION & TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE | 93592 | SOCIAL SERVICES | DENISE GAMACHE | $ 2,407,624 | |
| FYSB | MINNESOTA PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT, INC | DULUTH | MN | 90EV0248 | FAMILY VIOLENCE PREVENTION & SERVICES | 93592 | SOCIAL SERVICES | DENISE GAMACHE | $ 2,686,366 | Abstract Not Available | |
| FYSB | MINNESOTA PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT, INC | DULUTH | MN | 90EV0375 | FOUR SPECIAL ISSUE RESOURCE CENTERS FOR INFORMATION & TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE | 93592 | SOCIAL SERVICES | DENISE GAMACHE | $ 3,536,432 |
| OCS | MINNESOTA PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT, INC | DULUTH | MN | 90EV0104 | FAMILY VIOLENCE PREVENTION & SERVICES – SPECIAL ISSUE RESOURCE CENTER | 93592 | SOCIAL SERVICES | DENISE GAMACHE | $ 3,925,981 | Abstract Not Available | |
| OCS | MINNESOTA PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT, INC | DULUTH | MN | 90EV0248 | FAMILY VIOLENCE PREVENTION & SERVICES | 93592 | SOCIAL SERVICES | DENISE GAMACHE | $ 3,957,873 | Abstract Not Available |
The “93591” category is grants to “domestic violence coalitions” which must be how everyone gets their terminologies, communication lines, and practices nice and coordinated. Meanwhile, others who have worked at street level (but had less backing), take a different point of view than “Constant Collaborations.”
Here’s a San Antonio, TEX Family Justice Center (2010) Conference List of materials one can purchase. After all, these are professionals… I missed that conference — somehow are not on their email alert “cc’s” and at the time, didn’t have airfare, either….
As to BUSH:
I think I made my feelings known about former President Bush, and his concept of “Family” in my last post. The actual “Families” in this case are the associations and collaboratives of people who get the funding.
If Bush had required that all — without exception — STOP VAWA grantees inform ALL — without exception — female clients with children where the perpetrator of violence against them was the father of the FATHERHOOD.GOV infrastructure, and that this was actually enabled by the federal office of child support enforcement (OCSE) — then it would’ve been OK. There’s no question that fatherhood groups know about VAWA, they are constantly complaining about it.
If all grantees would’ve been required to alert women of pro-VAWA and anti-feminist (feminists are destroying the country, of course) “family” courts lay ahead between them and freedom, that’d be one thing. But apparently, the two sets of untraceable grant expenditures go along side by side quite nicely, watching the genders war it out themselves on-line, in the streets, and lobbying legislators to change the law sin their favor.
Well, now, let me think a moment on that last one…. in fact, let me ask Josie Clark:
- Statement of City Attorney Casey Gwinn re: Family Justice Center Lawsuit:
September 28, 2004
“The Clark lawsuit deals with personnel matters, involving employees who are on my staff. The courtroom is now the appropriate place to respond to these allegations where I believe my office and staff members will be cleared. Therefore, I decline to be interviewed. I am referring your call to our outside legal counsel, Kathryn Bernert, who is handling the case. Here is her phone number which was provided to you last Friday morning by Maria Velasquez.”
Statement by Kathryn Bernert
Outside Legal Counsel for the City of San Diego
Partner with Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps LLP
Sept. 28, 2004
?? What Lawsuit?
This Family Justice Center isn’t even that old….
Lawsuit Alleges Cover-up at Family Justice Center
September 29, 2004
Clark is suing the city and Gwinn, not for what happened to her co-worker, but for the way she said she was used to cover it up. Official records show that police responded to numerous calls at the victim’s former home on Armacost Road. Several workers at the City Attorney’s Office and the Family Justice Center told 10News that the victim came to work with broken bones, bruises, cuts and black eyes.
“If Casey Gwinn didn’t notice that on one of his own — seeing her every single day — then what is he doing at the Family Justice Center?” questioned Clark. According to the lawsuit, a long history of severe abuse against a Family Justice Center employee was going to be made public when the woman threatened to kill her husband and was arrested. Clark was then assigned a special project to quietly help the woman.”(Gwinn) said that my job was going to get her into rehab, because that was the only way she was gong to be able to keep her job,” Clark said. The assignment came from Gwinn, (pictured, [below]), 10News reported.
[Missing image/broken link deleted]Clark took on the new responsibilities that lasted more than two months. She said the woman called her seeking help day and night — once every half hour at work and at home at 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Late last year, Clark said the woman’s estranged husband threatened her life.
“Her husband basically said I was going to regret it for interfering and said he was going to come after me and that he was going to kill us both,” Clark told 10News. After her arrest [and obviously, release], Gwinn had the woman working as a receptionist on the 16th floor near his office. But when the death threat allegations against Clark surfaces, the woman was moved to the 11th floor, just 30 feet from Clark.
“She still comes to the office beaten up, and Casey Gwinn has done absolutly nothing to help her,” Clark said. The lawsuit itself, the plaintiff’s attorneys say, is about how Clark was forced into the mess and then discriminated against after she had nervous breakdowns and clinical depression. Conditions, they say, came directly from her “special project” to basically act as a drug, alcohol and abuse counselor for a co-worker.
If what she says is true (and there seems some backup corroboration), then why didn’t such a highly connected individual so concerned about Domestic Violence as Casey Gwinn is, talk with some of the District Attorneys — or the abused woman — about getting some criminal prosecution of her husband’s behaviors, rather than wait til the situation got to death threats, and then watch his own employee be arrested for someone driven to threaten back to get free from ongoing broken bones and beatings? I mean — is this who you want spearheading nationwide, nay, global, justice centers? Charity begins at home, brother….
Here’s the self-report of how great this justice center is:
At least they acknowledge it’s a personal narrative: ”
Acknowledgements
This story focuses on the evolution of the criminal justice system’s response to domestic violence in San Diego. It does not develop the entire history of the battered women’s movement in San Diego. We should also note that “The San Diego Story” in this book was written primarily from the recollections of Ashley Walker, Casey Gwinn, and Gael Strack. Many others in San Diego County have played powerful roles and would clearly highlight other aspects of San Diego’s criminal justice system journey based on their own experience.
I have a little more background on this than some, including how the justice center followed Mr. Gwinn from his role as City Attorney, out to an exterior location (I think originally at the Y). You can also see here, Task Forces, a Council and some heavy funders who are thinking in terms of Collaboration that did not come right from within San Diego City Attorney’s Office. (Just for a little background):
Philanthropists and funders like Joan Kroc (wife of Ray Kroc, the Founder of McDonalds) also played a powerful role. They encouraged members of the domestic violence, child abuse and substance community to work together. As a substantial funder of these programs, in 1990, Joan Kroc made collaboration a part of her granting process.{{i.e., you want our money? You will collaborate!}} She paid all expenses for twenty community activists in these fields to spend a week at the family program at Hazelton in Center City Minnesota. She also held special fully-funded trainings at her ranch at Santa Ynez Valley to encourage collaboration.
During this same time, Dr. David Chadwick, a pediatrician, at Children’s Hospital, also dedicated major resources by creating the Family Violence Program, under the leadership of a social worker named Sandy Miller. Dr. Chadwick too had a strong vision for focusing on the co-occurrence of child abuse and domestic violence. Sandy Miller developed a close partnership with Deputy City Attorney Casey Gwinn and even housed a portion of her staff in the City Attorney’s Office in the early 1990’s.
Pause. Because later on, I have a post from the succeeding City Attorney, Mike Aguirre, who had to clean up a lot of the accounting (over-billing) from Mr. Gwinn’s office, and wrote an interim report in the practice of over-billing (for work that did not happen) as part of the “SLA” (Service Level Agreements) and “MOU” (Memo of Understanding). This July 28 2006 this report on “IMPROPER BILLING PRACTICES BY THE CITY ATTORNEY’S OFFICEmentions the Justice Center a few times. For example, ”
Gwinn ran unopposed for City Attorney in 1996 and 2000. Prior to assuming office in 1996, Gwinn was allowed to put his leadership team in place and begin making policy. It is around this time that billing to SLAs was modified (Exhibit 5), and as time went on the program was expanded to increase staff and services.
In 7-21-06 phone contact was made with Investigator Brendan McClory at the Family Justice Center. The following is a summary from a statement taken from McClory:
During 2002 – 2004 McClory worked for the City Attorney’s Office Civil Division. He was assigned to bill 60 hours per pay period to MWWD due to the fact that he was assigned to Kelly Salt, Ted Bromfield, and Tom Zeleny. McClory noted that he was directed to bill 60 hours to the enterprise Department even though in actuality he only worked on average 10 hours per pay period for these individuals. The vast majority of his time was working for Trial Unit attorneys. He noted that he advised Robert Abel that this was the case, and Abel responded that he should bill the hours anyways per office policy.
In 2004, soon after Aguirre took office, this policy changed and McClory was directed to only bill for hours worked
or, ….
Maria Velasquez
On 7-28-06 personal contact was made with City Attorney Director of Communications Maria Velasquez at the Offices of the City Attorney. The following is a summary from a statement taken from Velasquez:
Velasquez was hired by the City Attorney’s Office as Casey Gwinn’s Press Secretary in May of 2001. She was assigned to handle community and media relations for the Office. Her daily responsibility was to handle all calls from community members and press regarding the Civil and Criminal Divisions. She was responsible for coordinating and responding to community events. In 2004 she worked almost exclusively on developing the Family Justice Center by educating the public, attending community functions, and media events. She billed all her time to the City Attorney’s general fund.
These key steps helped lay the groundwork for the Family Justice Center and for the close working relationship between the Center for Child Protection, the local child advocacy center (now the Chadwick Center), and the domestic violence community. [sic]
The Domestic Violence Council was created in the November, 1991. A number of key events occurred in those early years.
In 1992, the Council became part of the Mayor’s Office under the leadership of Mayor Maureen O’Connor
In 1994, the Council was asked to leave the Mayor’s Office by Mayor Susan Golding and soon re-established itself as a private, non-profit organization housed in the San Diego City Attorney’s Office
In 1996, the Council suspended its non-profit status, electing to return to a grassroots approach consistent with its beginning in 1987…[[Continued below next comments..]]
[[March 2023 interjection/commentary: “whatever that grassroots approach means.” Status is one thing (entity, or not. Part of local government or not). “Approach” is not relevant in comparing status (a) to status (b). The description above (from what I can see) doesn’t reference “1987” beginnings, but it DOES 990 funding by McDonalds/Kroc family wealth, and a 1990 conference OUT OF STATE (in Hazelton, MN) to rehearse the “let’s combine three causes” concept.
Between the lines, it might mean that the State of California suspended it, i.e., SOS/FTB suspended for failing to file. I thin, it would take more than three years too get IRS-suspended… Key concept here (I’m speaking in 2023): nonprofits housed in public offices and run by public officials. Reminds me in several ways of how AFCC had operated for years… “under cover” and in and out of entity integrity… That’s why it’s so essential, regardless of what any thing (or, non-entity) CALLS itself: Council, commission, initiative, institute, etc., to find and identify the legitimacy (if as a nonprofit, from its filings, as part of some government operations, from relevant government reports, too). The concept of “Domestic Violence Coordinating Council (fashionable later?) seems related. Those “Coordinating Councils” forms of centralized control of programs which, ultimately, will impact people’s personal safety and ultimately, at most points, will be public-funded one way or another.]]
Casey Gwinn led the Council until 1999 and hosted the Council out of the City Attorney’s Office. His secretary, Jean Emmons, provided the administrative support to the Council and handled all mailings, meeting notices, and coordination of all committee meetings. The Council did hire an Executive Director, Denise Frey, for some of the early years of its development. Denise worked at the City Attorney’s Office and played a very significant role in helping to organize the committees, the structure, and the advocacy agenda of the Council.
In 1999, Assistant City Attorney Gael Strack became the President and Gael’s tenure for two years played a critical role in the early planning stages of the Family Justice Center. The entire Domestic Violence Council and all member agencies endorsed the vision for a “one stop shop” Center and much of the focus of the Council in 2000, 2001, and 2002 was on the development and opening of the Center. Subsequent Council Presidents, Verna Griffin Tabor and Diane McGrogan, made the Family Justice Center a high priority during their tenures.
There are more than two serious red flags in this Family Justice Center Alliance (starting in San Diego) concept. I’d say one indicator that the guy didn’t help someone in his employee is a huge one. The second one, Alameda County, another author believes seriously exaggerates their “people served” figures (see my “Dubious Doings by District Attorneys” post), and I would have to tend to agree, as I am local to the area and courts. Moreover, these nonprofit 990s need to be scrutinized better in ALL the little reproduced family justice centers which are taking, for example, public (government) employees, forming nonprofits and then where, exactly is the funding coming from and going to?
Fiscal (dishonesty) in San Diego was not limited to the Water and Sewer Departments, but also the Pension, which (among other reasons) is why I sarcastically refer to this collaborative as “Casey Gwinn’s Retirement Plan.” (Someone has to do it!) His city attorney’s salary was $175K (it says below) — like a CA judge. His “measly” pension, only $79K (a great perspective from which to understand domestic violence issues). He’s canvassing all over for this model and so are like-minded individuals, as we have seen.
My question is, are they like-minded in (1) failing to actually provide service to victims; (2) overbilling (3) over-reporting the impact of the services provided?
- NEGLIGENCE IN CITY PENSION FUND SCANDAL REPORTED :
THE KROLL REPORT
Ex-City Attorney Gwinn called ‘negligent’ in pension fund messBy Mark Sauer
STAFF WRITERAugust 16, 2006
Past and present city officials cited last week for acts ranging from malfeasance to mischief in the long-awaited report by Kroll Inc. on the city’s pension mess are ranked according to culpability.
NADIA BOROWSKI SCOTT / Union-Tribune file photoThen-City Attorney Casey Gwinn (right), with former Mayor Dick Murphy at his side, was criticized in last week’s Kroll report on city finances.In the top tier are those who acted with “wrongful intent,” a violation of civil law, in hiding from bond investors the pension fund’s severe underfunding and the city’s twisted sewer-rate structure.
One step down are those found to be “negligent” in carrying out their responsibilities. It is in this section that former City Attorney Casey Gwinn appears.
The report is blunt: “The City Attorney’s Office failed the City.”
In singling out Gwinn, the report said, “As the top official in the City Attorney’s Office – which certified to the accuracy of incomplete and misleading disclosures – City Attorney Casey Gwinn negligently performed his disclosure responsibilities to the City, and failed to supervise other attorneys” under him.
Among the lapses by Gwinn’s office cited in the Kroll report:
Its certification of the city’s financial disclosures to the “investing public” without independently verifying the accuracy of the information.
It kept quiet about the city’s potential obligation of up to $370 million for breaking “grant and loan covenants” while in violation of the federal Clean Water Act. (“the city” is supported in part by taxes from wages of its residents, right)
Gwinn’s deputies failed to identify “the central illegality” of underfunding the city’s pension plan as officials made those decisions.
Like it seems he also “failed to identify” that an employee showing up with bruises and broken bones and her husband calling her constantly at work is a domestic violence victim . . . . . .
It also chastised Gwinn’s office for years of falsifying billing records to the city’s water and wastewater departments for legal work.
Kroll, a risk-management firm based in New York, spent 18 months investigating the city’s financial practices. Kroll was paid $20.3 million for the report.
Who pays for that? This is starting to add up — $370 million risk, $20.3 to audit something that shows up as needing an audit….
The company’s investigators didn’t get to query Gwinn about his actions during his 1996-2004 tenure as city attorney. He was among 53 city officials and employees who refused to be questioned.
“But he was not known around town as a good attorney. He didn’t want to get bogged down in pensions and water rates and all that confusing stuff,” Stutz said. “It was, ‘Let me deal with guys who smack their wives and I can get on TV.’ ”
The description does seem to hold. Some people just love the limelight….
After term limits forced Gwinn out as city attorney, he has devoted himself to his anti-domestic-violence cause.
I have been trying to tell us — this is a personal retirement project of what now looks like a negligent and dishonest City Attorney, who became City Attorney running unopposed, partly because his predecessor (John Witt, who seemed to favor him) delayed announcing his departure so long it was hard to prepare a campaign against him. I”m remembering how it seems Alameda County’s Tom Orloff, similarly, handed over the reigns to Nancy O’Malley by retiring early and assigning her as interim D.A., thereby skirting the open election process neatly. She then stacked the decks (per “Steve White” of indymedia report) to make sure another crony, Nadia Davis-Lockyer, Esq., got the plum job as Executive Director of THEIR Family Justice Center. The question comes up — who is in “The Family” here ???
In addition to being a trustee for the San Diego Family Justice Center, Gwinn works part time on special projects for District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, who stands behind him.
“I hired Casey because he is a well-known and respected expert in domestic-violence matters,” Dumanis said. “He’s doing a great job in that area for us.”
She said Gwinn, who began working for her in December 2004, originally was a manager for the victim-restitution and crime-prevention programs, but now is a contracted employee.
“He works on special projects, mainly the regionalization of family-justice centers,” Dumanis said. The main Family Justice Center in downtown San Diego is a one-stop facility for domestic-violence victims, with police officers, social workers and medical personnel available.
Well, it’s in on the VAWA grant streams, so there’s some potential financial reward in the model. It’s an identified VAWA “purpose model.”
There’s more, but probably too much for one post. Casey Gwinn’s negligence as City Attorney was not limited to water and sewer matters, but also — well this NYT article says it much better, and SHOULD be read if we want to begin to understand family justice centers, their originators and promoters, and get a sense of how they’ve handled previous, smaller, responsibilities — like heading up the City Attorney Department and reporting honestly what was going on in it:
Sept. 7, 2004 NYT article (notice, around time of Josie Clark lawsuit)
Sunny San Diego Finds Itself Being Viewed as a Kind of Enron-by-the-Sea
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: September 7, 2004Correction Appended
SAN DIEGO, Sept. 1 – In the summer of 2003, Diann Shipione, an investment adviser at UBS Financial Services in San Diego and a trustee of the city’s employee retirement system, was scanning a prospectus on a proposed San Diego sewer bond issue when alarm bells began to ring in her head.
Important financial information was missing. The prospectus did not mention that the city had for years been shortchanging its public pension fund, leading to an unfunded liability of more than $1.15 billion, or that the city owed nearly $1 billion more in health care benefits to retirees and did not have the money. And it implied that the pension fund’s actuary had approved the underfunding when Ms. Shipione knew that he had not.
In a letter to city officials, and in a commentary in the local newspaper, Ms. Shipione blew the whistle.
“I had completely lost confidence in the city’s financial decision making,” she said in an interview on Wednesday. “I just couldn’t let this go forward.”
Jack Smith for The New York Times
Diann Shipione did not like the way San Diego was handling its employee pension system, and let the world know. Mike Aguirre calls the situation “a powder keg.” |
Well, I”m suggesting (and blowing a whistle) on the thing that came OUT of this department, called the “Family Justice Center Initiative” and all things associated with it. Just because things are central, doesn’t mean they are honest. Moreover, would you buy a used car — or program — from someone who’s last time in office was marked by having the FBI and US Attorney’s office investigating your city’s finances? That’s why I’m posting a lot from this article:
And the Securities and Exchange Commission and the United States attorney’s office in San Diego opened investigations this year into possible fraud in the city’s financial statements and potential political corruption. Subpoenas were served on a number of city offices and several people confirmed that they had been interviewed by the F.B.I. in connection with the inquiry.
“This is a powder keg, a major, major problem,” said Mike Aguirre, a securities lawyer and former financial fraud investigator for the United States Senate and the Justice Department who is running for San Diego city attorney.
Mr. Aguirre said that the city’s inability to produce a credible financial statement made it impossible to know just how severe the crisis was. He said that a corporation that behaved like the City of San Diego would be delisted from the stock exchanges. He suggested that the best solution might be reorganization under Chapter 9 of the federal bankruptcy law to allow the city to rescind pension benefits.
Mr. Aguirre blamed San Diego’s laid-back civic culture in which a handful of influential businessmen, union leaders and political figures called the shots while issuing reassurances to the public that everything was on the up-and-up.
“The basic story is that San Diego has become a thoroughly corrupt community in which the power players cut the deals, you don’t ask any questions, and everybody gets what they want,” Mr. Aguirre said. “People don’t realize that one of the largest cities in the United States is on the verge of bankruptcy, and it’s on the verge because of a massive amount of local corruption that has resulted in the thorough mismanagement of city finances.”
I realize Aguirre also was running for City Attorney — however look at his background. He’s qualified to say this. And the more I look at it (and I am a California resident, domestic violence survivor and family law veteran, I have been looking a LONG time, locally not just nationally) — would you buy a bridge from these guys? Corruption cannot bring forth justice, and if these centers are multiplying and expanding, I have to ask, just WHAT is being disseminated in the model?
A GREAT measure of how honest a person (or organization) is — is its financial statements, and their accuracy. Particularly when it’s public money.
NOW is the time to say “HALT!” — and not when it’s too late. Stop, Look, & Listen.
San Diego now ‘Enron by the Sea’
By John Ritter, USA TODAYSAN DIEGO — This laid-back city seems to have it all — stunning beaches, best weather this side of Honolulu, a national image as a vacation playground and top convention destination.Nearly a decade of fiscal shenanigans came to light when Diann Shipione, a pension board trustee, blew the whistle. But it took some doing. She wrote letters to the mayor, city officials and fellow trustees. She spoke up at City Council meetings. She wrote opinion columns in the San Diego Union-Tribune. [“Diann Shipione says her many warnings to the pension board were ignored.” photo by Robt Hanashiro, USA Today]
By Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY
Funny how often it’s women noticing and blowing the whistle, and how often they are just not heard, til it becomes a crisis…
But the City Council and the trustees ignored her. At one point the pension board bought an ad in the Union-Tribune that scoffed, “Chicken Little Would Be Proud.”
Only in September 2003, when Shipione alerted a lawyer handling a municipal sewer bond sale to facts the city hadn’t disclosed, did Wall Street pull the plug. The bond issue was canceled. Soon the Securities and Exchange Commission, the FBI and the U.S. attorney were asking questions. In January, the city admitted errors and omissions in its financial statements.
“The city’s conservative image is completely false,” Shipione says. “It’s reckless, it spends wildly and lavishly, it saves nothing and it hides the truth.”
SPEAKING OF WHICH REGIONALIZATION EFFORTS: — from the FamilyJusticeCenter.com website on “The California Initiative.” This is about as much purple-framed plain text as you are going to get anywhere on the site, perhaps there just wasn’t a desire to really pull attention to this page. Read it, though!
The California Family Justice Initiative (CFJI) is funded by the Blue Shield of California Foundation under the leadership of the National Family Justice Center Alliance. {{headed by guess who…}} The Initiative aims to create shared learning, shared expertise, shared capacity building, shared on-line resources, and shared technology to achieve a statewide network of Centers using model protocols, best practices, and innovative strategies to meet the needs of women, children, men, and families exposed to trauma and abuse.
What has happened to the concept of “justice” here? However, one of the critical areas of need these populations still have, is understanding the FAMILY law system — about which little seems to be said here. OK, here comes that expansion — like it or not — and
CA SB 557 INTRODUCED BY Senator Kehoe
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Atkins and Fletcher)
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
An act to add and repeal Title 5.3 (commencing with Section 13750)
of Part 4 of the Penal Code, relating to family justice centers.
will certainly help this personal retirement plan of some key public figures. No wonder it’s catching on..
[Back to the FJC site….]
The CFJI consists of two 2-year phases. Phase I operated from March 2009-March 2011 and Phase II will operate from March 2011-March 2013.
You know why the “Crisis in the Courts” people aren’t paying attention to this and letting mothers know (nor do the justice centers, naturally, report on the Crisis in the Courts when women come on for restraining orders — which are certifiably insane, potentially lethal, … [Incomplete sentence in 2011, a dozen years later, I do not remember what the rest should’ve read, except to emphasize that these should’ve been reported on by the “Crisis in the Courts” people, several organizations of which came from California and were around when this model was being propagated. WITHOUT QUESTION they knew about it, and did not feature in either mailings, or websites.]
In Phase I of the Initiative, five communities were selected from across California to participate as “learning laboratory sites” where multi-agency, co-located service delivery models for victims of domestic violence were supported and expanded. The five founding centers from Phase I are: Shasta, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Los Angeles (San Fernando Valley), and West Contra Costa County. The Alameda County Family Justice Center, Anaheim Family Justice Center, and San Diego Family Justice Center served as Regional Training Centers, assisting sites in expanding and developing multi-agency service delivery models around the state.
I.e., if you weren’t in the loop, you just missed the roots spreading and establishing a presence in 3 California Counties — one north, one south, one Anaheim.
Phase II of the California Family Justice Center Initiative will maintain and expand a network of Centers across California.
Not if I have anything to do with this!
I suggest that they be forced — with supervised visitation monitors paid for from their last set of royalties or anywhere but a federal or foundation grants stream — to sit through classes from the “California Healthy Marriages Coalition” whether or not they have faith
(This $2.4 million/year grant from HHS was to establish a coalition of coalitions on the other side of the issue of DV _- i.e., it’s just a “family” matter, you guys should work it out…. stay (or get) married, marriage is good!).
Make everyone wanting to expand these centers take time (Get off a plane! Skip a conference!) and sit through a session of KIDS’ TURN SAN DIEGO at their own expense, and then publish narratives of it.
This (my proposed, hypothetical) meeting of the Family Justice Center Alliance staff with the Faith-based abstinence and marriage/fatherhood promoters should definitely be live and You-tubed, so we can see one trying to convert the other. OR, if they set up another mutually profitable “collaboration” we can catch them in the act and tweet it.
OR, have them hire Diann Shipione to audit Kids’ Turn books, too! There are a number of alternatives I can think of which might free up some public monies in these troubled times….
Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Ongoing support to the five founding centers created during Phase I will be provided. Five additional California communities will be selected to receive technical assistance and planning support for expanding multi-agency, co-located service deliver models for victims of domestic violence.”
[Good grief, read the language….]
Here’s SB 557 as of now, and an AROUND THE CAPITOL BILL TRACK link to it:
Existing law provides for various services and programs to assist victims of crime, including grants to proposed and existing child sexual exploitation and child abuse victim counseling centers and prevention programs, and the establishment of a resource center to operate a statewide, toll-free information service consisting of legal information for crime victims and providers of services to crime victims.
This bill would authorize the cities of San Diego and Anaheim, and the counties of Alameda and Sonoma, until January 1, 2014, to establish a multiagency, multidisciplinary family justice center to assist victims of domestic violence, officer-involved domestic violence, sexual assault, elder abuse, stalking, cyberstalking, cyberbullying, and human trafficking, to ensure that victims of abuse are able to access all needed services in one location and to enhance victim safety, increase offender accountability, and improve access to services for victims of crime, as provided. The bill would permit the family justice centers to be staffed by law enforcement, medical, social service, and child welfare personnel, among others.
Good grief — some of the hardest times women have is reporting to police officers or sherriffs, or DA’s offices, and getting a response. This is already documented in SONOMA COUNTY-based: “Women’s Justice Center.”
The police and enforcement profession historically has been rough on women — in 2000s, and ongoing.
Sexual Harassment at
SRJC Police AcademyMarch 17, 2001
Mr. Robert Agrella, President
Santa Rosa Junior College
Santa Rosa, CADear Mr. Robert Agrella,
We’re writing to express our concerns that months of unchecked sexual harassment at the SRJC Police Academy this past year resulted in the loss of five promising female cadets from the evening academy.
We are especially concerned that, according to a number of cadets, this harassment went on for months and that the director of the evening academy, Deputy Peter Hardy, repeatedly ignored or minimized cadets’ reports of the harassment. In fact, according to cadets, Director Hardy protected the perpetrator at the expense of the cadets, and allowed the perpetrator to graduate in December. The perpetrator is now eligible to become a police officer in California. The careers of the female cadets have been lost to the community.
Here’s some more from this public letter, although this is not my only concern about having “JUSTICE CENTERS” (which as we can see are nonprofit organizations, or foundations set up (ACFCJ) to channel $$ to nonprofit organizations) but sometimes staffed and working by public employees, as with Mr. Gwinn.
In fact, it could be said if anything, these centers might specifically have been designed to NOT allow the independence women need to protect themselves,
and later, their children, by demanding equal treatment by officers as well as in the family law systems (although, the family law system was set up for “wide discretion with judicial immunity” and nothing approaching equality. ). Read on:
Here are just some of the indicators of the problem:
- The national average of female sworn officers on police forces is 14%. The percentage of sworn females among the sum of police in Sonoma County is less than half the national average.
- In the last four years, at least ten female sworn officers have left the Santa Rosa Police Department, five of whom stated to us that they left because of the hostile work environment in that department against females. Santa Rosa Police Department has never had a female in any position of rank, not even a female sargent. As of August 4, 2000, Santa Rosa Police Department had only 13 sworn female officers (7%) out of a total of 173 sworn officers.
- In the same time period, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department has had at least 10 female deputies and corrections officers file sexual harassment complaints and lawsuits. As of August, 2000, the Sheriff’s Department had only 17 sworn female officers (7%) out of a total of 218 sworn officers.
- Sebastopol Police Department has never had a female sworn officer until this year,
- Sonoma State University Police two years ago paid off a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by a female officer who was sexually assaulted by one superior, and ordered by another to falsify a domestic violence report so that the report would favor the male suspect.
In addition to the gross injustice to the women in these situations, what’s equally disturbing is the intolerable cost to our communities. Two decades of research on women police is conclusive. Women officers exceed male officers on many of precisely the skills that are so sorely needed to correct chronic problems plaguing our police. The research shows that women officers have much lower rates of excessive use of force, they better handle rape and domestic violence, and they excel at de-escalating volatile situations.
Feel free to photocopy and distribute this information as long as you keep the credit and text intact.
Copyright © Marie De Santis,
Women’s Justice Center,
www.justicewomen.com
rdjustice@monitor.net
The bill would prohibit victims of crime from being denied services at a family justice center solely on the grounds of criminal history and would prohibit a criminal history search from being conducted during the client intake process.
The bill would require the family justice centers to submit a report to the Office of Privacy Protection for review and comment, and then submit the report to the Assembly Committee on Judiciary and the Senate Committee on Judiciary, no later than January 1, 2013, as specified. The bill would require each family justice center to maintain a formal training program with mandatory training for all staff members, volunteers, and agency professionals, as specified.
Sandra Ramos’ “StrenghtenOurSisters.org” image from a link on my May, 2011 post, http://wp.me/psBXH-HG. (Undated news article)
Goes with (near the bottom of) Post http://wp.me/psBXH-HG, that is a May 2011 expose protesting the rapid expansion of the Family Justice Center model (Case Gwinn/Gael Strack) but this group was present at a Battered Mothers Custody Conference the same (January)…//LGH 2023 update.
SB 557 is a personal project of politically connected people from Enron-By-the-Bay [San Diego County is Southern California, the very southern tip] and a county with some of the highest homicide rates in the country (Oakland, Richmond) [Alameda County is in Northern California, San Francisco Bay Area]. I have suffered for years in this county** and experienced multiple problems with honesty among law enforcement. Never during the years of severe abuse in one of those cities did anyone inform me of laws or legal options to have the batterer arrested for assault & battery (it was my husband). Then when I became independent and “off the system” the real troubles began — probably for those reasons. Again, police were called to help at times, and finally, in what the California calls a felony — but family law calls a “dispute” — and law enforcement, I learned later, calls a “wobbler” — meaning, the D.A. exercised HIS option not to prosecute — my children were illegally and permanently removed from my custody (as so often happens) with no judge, anywhere — giving a legal OR factual basis for doing so. This was done knowing that the method of removal was itself an act of violence and blatant violation of about 3 types of codes (Educational, Family, Penal) at a time — and that was just the beginning.It was done around the issue of child support (which pretty much eliminated child support from my kids). ALL of this happened with clear knowledge — and what sure seemed to me like complicit acceptance — by the county sheriffs, various police (not Alameda County) and eventually, theDADistrict Attorneys in two different counties, as initially I didn’t know which one had jurisdiction.
- 05/26/11 – Sen Appropriations: 9-0 (PASS)
- 05/10/11 – Sen Judiciary: 5-0 (PASS)
- 03/29/11 – Sen Public Safety: 6-0 (PASS)
To go back to the top of this post, Click on either link:
CA SB 557 — “Just say NO!” or at least “Whoa!!” (show me the money…) to Scandalous San Diego’s One Stop Justice Shop Pyramid SchemeShortlink with case-sensitive ending: http://wp.me/psBXH-HG. [click on either title or that link] About 8,400 words with 2023 updates.
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Look back, Look ahead: Why did they die? (Memorial Day, 3 Recommended Reads).
Memorial Day — my point of view — is for my Two Daughters that I miss.
I want them to understand that what soldiers died for, what’s left of it,
they deserve to have — but will have to value and fight for.
This may require serious un-learning, definitely
informed choice of
priority,
principle & process
(Promptly)
[I love you]
INTRO: 3 Recommended Reads
I ask readers to consider two books and one article today — all relate to the family law system. They represent, what kind of world — and what kind of forcible religion — can you live with? Because all of these are at hand.
(1) The Family, by Jeff Sharlett. (“Jesus and nothing else”)
You may recognize these names from recent headlines: Sen. John Ensign, Rep. Bart Stupak and Rep. Joe Pitts. Stupak and Pitts have become familiar names through the media’s health care overhaul coverage; theirabortion funding amendment introduced an 11th-hour twist as the House of Representatives approached a vote on a landmark health care bill. Ensign was the focus of media attention over his affair with a campaign staffer. Just last night, a Nevada man disclosed that he found out about his wife’s affair with the state’s junior senator — his best friend — via a text message.
The common factor among these political players is their involvement with the Family, a secretive fellowship of powerful Christian politicians that centers on a Washington, D.C., townhouse. Investigative journalist Jeff Sharlet has written extensively about the influential group in his book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.
(2) Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law
A series of three interviews FrontPageMagazine had with Nonie Darwish. She is the founder of ArabsForIsrael and co-founder of formermuslimsunited and grew up in Cairo and Gaza as a daughter of a high-ranking Egyptian army officer. She now lectures across the United States to civic organizations, universities, churches, and synagogues about (radical) Islam and has appeared on radio and television programs including CNN, Headline News, Fox, MSNBC, Al-Arabiya, National Public Radio and Israeli TV. Darwish has been published in the London Telegraph, Jerusalem Post, and New York Daily News. She is a frequent lecturer on college campuses including Harvard, Brown, Stanford, UCLA, University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown, Boston University, and the University of Southern California. She is the author of the books, Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror and Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law.
FP: Nonie Darwish, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
Tell us what inspired you to write this book.
Darwish: Every time I tried to find a solution to all the ills of Muslim society, such as jihad, oppression of women and minorities, I was confronted with an Islamic law that stood in the way of a solution. Having been born and raised as a Muslim who lived under Sharia for 30years of my life, I know first hand the destructive impact of sharia on the healthy functioning of society and its total disregard for basic human rights.
I decided to write this book in response to claims by some Muslim groups that Sharia is compatible with democracy and that it is simply a religious right. Canada allowed the practice of Sharia tribunals for 15 years and Great Britain is now allowing the practice of partial Sharia. Islamic propaganda for Sharia has reached such a high level of misinformation that I simply had to do something.
There was a recent article in Canada that said: “Canadian Muslims have a fondness for democracy, peace – and Sharia law.” Islamists are trying to fool the West into believing that Sharia is just as American as ‘apple pie’ and this could not be further from the truth.
US? Let’s see: In 2009, there was a 17 year old girl in Florida, who converted to Christianity from Islam, and is afraid of her life: “A Slow-Motion Honor Killing“)
“Rifqa is under threat both because of Islam’s apostasy law and because, as she herself explains, by converting to Christianity she has besmirched the family’s honor: “in 150 generations of my family no one has known Jesus. I am the first one. Imagine the honor in killing me. There is great honor in that.”
Rifqa appeared to be aware that many Westerners would be surprised to hear that she considers herself under the threat of death because of Islam’s stance toward those who leave the faith: “Islam,” she explained, “is very different than you guys think. They have to kill me. My blood is now halal, which means that because I am now a Christian, I’m from a Muslim background, it’s an honor. If they love God more than me, they have to do this. And I’m fighting for my life.”
[Nonie Darwish interview, cont’d.] To write the book I did not just rely only on my personal experience, but studied Sharia for eighteen months from mainstream Islamic legal books with the help of a Sharia Muslim expert, Mr. Hasan Mahmoud. The book is a warning to the West and hopefully it can also open the eyes of Muslims to the truth.
and
(3) –” Who Can Beat Obama?”
Posted By Phyllis Chesler On May 27, 2011 @ 12:04 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 79 Comments
President Obama’s election is due, in part, to the desire among many American liberals and leftists to be seen as “atoning” for the sin of racism and the crimes of slavery. The fact that Obama is bi-racial—his mother was white—matters little since he looks like an African-American. Indeed, the President’s own writing focuses on his African, Muslim roots, especially because his Kenyan father abandoned both him and his mother.
In an era of symbolic identity politics and affirmative action, only one kind of candidate could trump Obama’s credentials and that would be an African-American woman. Only such a candidate could symbolically address the sin and crime of sexism as well as that of racism. Ironically, the first woman who ever ran in a major party primary for the American Presidency did so in 1972. That was Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, whose parents immigrated from British Guiana and Barbados. In 2004, Senator Carol Moseley Braun, also an African-American woman, ran in a major party primary for the American Presidency. Both women failed in their bids.
Currently there are 31 African American men and 13 African-American women in Congress; there are no African-Americans in the Senate. In the past there have been only six such senators in American history. Currently, there are 18 women in the Senate. In all of American history a total of 39 women of all races, including the current 18, have served as Senators.
Given how many Americans confuse voting for the Presidency with voting for an American Idol; given how good so many Americans feel that we have “overcome” and have elected an African-American as our President; given how deep, high, and wide emotions are running in terms of racism (which trumps sexism as an issue even among establishment feminists), clearly, obviously, the next election is ripe for an African-American woman candidate. Obviously, she can be as inexperienced as President Obama was as long as she is charismatic, charming, eloquent, glamorous, and well connected to Hollywood, the media, and the academy. . . .
AND,
deally, my candidate would have to share my foreign policy views. She would have to cherish America and the West. She would have to understand that Islam has a long, long history of colonialism, imperialism, racism, and slavery and that America, while not perfect, is much more evolved in terms of an active anti-racist consciousness than is any Muslim country.
President Obama deeply dislikes, possibly even hates the Jewish state. His dislike is visceral and frightening.
My ideal African-American candidate would have to understand that the survival of Jewish Israel is paramount, that it is the world’s symbol of Western democracy and human rights, women’s rights, gay rights, etc. American ethics and laws, as embodied in our Constitution and legal concepts are derived from the Old Testament, not from the Koran.
(I’ll bring this up again, below). Mississisippi, the last state to ratify women’s right to vote, the 19th Amendment (the 14th Amendment set the pecking order — white men, black me, and lastly, women….) — did so only in 1984 )
So, Why did they Die? To preserve a lifestyle? Oil? Money? A set of values?
How about — to separate from tyranny?
“When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.”
-Declaration of Independence (1776)
I am going to take some time to study this site: LONANG.org. Most of us are so ignorant of law, and jurisprudence, that we can have senators, assemblypersons, presidents, and almost anyone else writing incoherence and punishing nonconformists to the latest theories of life.
LONANG is an acronym for the Laws of Nature and (of) Nature’s God, a phrase first used in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, 1776. The phrase is also a plural contraction; a somewhat shorthand way of saying “the law of nature and the law of nature’s God.”
Several authors of the foundational documents were “Deists” not traditional & rigid Christians. Their views were Enlightened for their time. They knew about religious domination, and didn’t want it. Contrast with religious “enablement” via a recent president’s “Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives,” which views all the lower varieties of human beings as in need of rescue and instruction — rather than recognizes who and what had caused them to come into this state. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution exalt, rather than debase, the vision of mankind — and by setting limits, assert that we can indeed control ourselves, and as such, should be held responsible.
But the concepts embodied in the phrase didn’t originate with Jefferson. The law of nature was a common term used by historic legal writers such as Grotius, Burlamaqui, Blackstone and others. The law of nature’s God, a lesser used term, was more commonly called the divine law, or the revealed law, meaning the laws of God revealed in verbal form. So what are these laws, and what can be known about them? This is our task . . .
Here’s a basic outline of some principles — are these taught in schools, or demonstrated? (Seems to me we’re lucky if basic literacy is accomplished). There are issues with bullying, rape, shootings, or lockdowns if there are nearby domestic violence hostage situations in the neighborhoods. There have been strip searches of minors on allegations, and molestations of minors by school staff. The grandiose picture of elevating the nation’s children through the public school system has become something else entirely — a means of breeding a new population with certain malleable characteristics, not much independence, and very inefficiently. Parent support is wanted, parent input — not so much. As John Taylor Gatto characterized so long ago (NY State teacher of the year award), in an acceptance speech which later became “Dumbing Us Down” — he says as a public school teacher, he taught, really, 7 principles, which I’ll review below.
In 1990 the New York “Senate named Mr. Gatto New York City Teacher of the Year. The speech he gave at that occasion, “The Psychopathic School,” amounted to a devastating indictment of public education (reprinted in BEL, May 1991, under the title “Why Schools Don’t Educate”). In 1991 Mr. Gatto was named New York State Teacher of the Year, at which occasion he gave a speech, “The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher,” so insightful of the wrong-headedness of public education that it will probably become a classic in educational literature
These two remarkable speeches, plus several others, including one entitled “We Need Less School, Not More,” were published in book form last year. And what a powerful book it is, only 104 pages long, readable in one or two sittings. With Outcome-Based Education being imposed on schools across America, we will get much more school, not less, and the content of that schooling will produce far more confusion than we already have.
Please contrast this with the endless trainings we are getting forced onto us and our kids, through family courts (and everywhere else).
THE SEVEN LESSONS WE HAVE MASTERED, in PUBLIC DISCOURSE:
- The first lesson I teach is confusion. Everything I teach is out of context. I teach the un-relating of everything. I teach dis-connections….
- The second lesson I teach is class position….The children are numbered so that if any get away they can be returned to the right class….My job is to make them like being locked together with children who bear numbers like their own.…If I do my job well, the kids can’t even imagine themselves somewhere else, because I’ve shown them how to envy and fear the better classes and how to have contempt for the dumb .
- The third lesson I teach is indifference….When the bell rings I insist they drop whatever it is we have been doing and proceed quickly to the next work station. They must turn on and off like a light switch….Bells inoculate each undertaking with indifference.
- The fourth lesson I teach is emotional dependency. By stars and red checks, smiles and frowns, prizes, honors, and disgraces, I teach kids to surrender their will to the predestinated chain of command.
- The fifth lesson I teach is intellectual dependency….It is the most important lesson, that we must wait for other people better trained than ourselves, to make the meanings of our lives….
- The sixth lesson I teach is provisional self-esteem….The lesson of report cards, and tests is that children should not trust themselves or their parents but should instead rely on the evaluation of certified officials. People need to be told what they are worth.
- Custody evaluations, much?
- The seventh lesson I teach is that one can’t hide. I teach students they are always watched, that each is under constant surveillance by myself and my colleagues….The meaning of constant surveillance and denial of privacy is that no one can be trusted, that privacy is not legitimate.
These lessons have been learned and need to be UNlearned. I think this is a good set of ideas to comprehend (from LONANG.org)
9. Due Process
10. Articles IV, V & VI
And here is a section on “When Judges Run Amok: The Lie of Judicial Lawmaking” under section 4, above.
- As you know, I repeatedly bring up the group “Association of Family and Conciliation Courts” (AFCC) and protest it. The typical makeup is Judges, Mental Health Practitioners (guess who they intend to practice on?) and Attorneys. An “Hon.,” a “J.D.” and a Psy.D. or Ph.D. if you can get one. If not, an LMFT, or an LCSW etc. will do. The intent is to “transform the old language of criminal law” and the conferences are basically about how to coordinate what this cross-section of experts (see “Dumbing Us Down” Lessons 2 & 5, above) want the rest of us to believe — (or else).
- In fact, this City Attorney’s successor it seems, spent a lot of time investigating common overbilling practices, and the entire city was under investigation from FBI and others. (see link). Then, LGBT legislators push LGBT sensitivity on everyone while, responding to that, and from federal through local institutions, those who fear and distrust LGBT people push the opposite on the nation, on behalf of “God” country, Fatherhood, and I suppose apple pie.
- In the last few posts, I have shown how Legislators are making laws to funnel business towards judge & attorney-founded nonprofits (Kids’ Turn) and yesterday, to my amazement, I found an Alameda County District Attorney (duties — enforcing laws / Executive Branch…) pushing (not authoring, but pushing) legislation (SB 557) that specifically endorses a certain business “family justice center alliance” whose origins and founder, from San Diego, are not, er, respectable. What is “justice” — and why would UNdoing separation of powers and allowing executive and judicial branch officials to take public agencies and functions, and outsource them to a collaboration of themselves have to do with getting it?
- One of the books I am recommending today talks about the particular brand of American religiosity that Jeff Sharlett’s “The Family” actually represented, which tolerates dictatorships and genocides with an intention towards the theocracy of “Jesus and nothing else.” There is definitely a connection between the “Healthy Marriage / Responsible Fatherhood” movement and the characteristics (and intents) of GWBush (and family) as related in this book. This is not traditional, healthy-style religion, but closer to a criminal-cult-enterprise, without concern for due process or constitutions.
By contrast, this segment recalls: (Bear with me, please….the information is timely.)
(*Copyright © 1997, 2006 Gerald R. Thompson. Used by permission. [I am using under Fair Use policy here, and recommending others read])
…we should reconsider a primary tenet of contemporary jurisprudence, namely, that judges make law.
BIBLICAL MODEL
The Bible indicates what is the nature of judicial power. The first recorded instance of civil judgment involves Moses, who judged the people of Israel as recorded in Ex. 18:16: “When they have a dispute, it comes to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and make known the statutes of God and His laws.”
Notice that Moses exercised his judgment consistent with the common law tradition. After all, Exodus 18 chronologically precedes the giving of the law in Exodus 20 and later scriptures. Since God had not yet verbally revealed His laws for Israel, how could Moses make known God’s statutes? Apparently, Moses was basing his judgments in a discernment of the laws of nature which God had impressed upon the creation.
Moses also waited for the disputes to come to him. He judged between individual parties in specific cases and controversies. He did not purport to make rules binding on non-parties.
(PRIOR VIEWS OF JUDGING INCORPORATED THIS:)
HISTORIC VIEW
This biblical view of judging was understood and endorsed by many of the historic legal scholars and commentators. In fact, the correlation between the historic understanding of judicial authority and the biblical pattern is quite remarkable. In the historic common law tradition, the role of the judge was to declare what law already existed. The standard legal maxim which guided judges for several hundred years was, Jus dicere, et non jus dare. That is, the province of a judge is to declare the law, not to make it.
This view of judging and judicial authority was embraced by William Blackstone, James Kent, Joseph Story and virtually all legal commentators in England and America prior to the U.S. Civil War. For example, The Federalist Papers (No. 78) declared:
“The judiciary . . . may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL but merely judgment . . .. The courts must declare the sense of the law; and if they should be disposed to exercise WILL instead of JUDGMENT, the consequence would equally be the substitution of their pleasure to that of the legislative body.”
This view of judging was even acknowledged by the U.S. Supreme Court, once upon a time:
[The judicial] department has no will, in any case. . .. Judicial power, as contradistinguished from the power of the laws, has no existence. Courts are the mere instruments of the law, and can will nothing. . .. Judicial power is never exercised for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the Judge; always for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the Legislature; or, in other words, to the will of the law. [Osborn v. The Bank of the U.S. (1824).]
. . . .
The modern view of judicial power is perhaps best summarized by John Chipman Gray, a Harvard law professor who was a contemporary of Langdell and Holmes:
Law is made up of the rules for decision which the courts lay down: That all such rules are Law; that rules for conduct which the courts do not apply are not Law; that the fact that the courts apply rules is what makes them Law; that there is no mysterious entity “The Law” apart from these rules; and that the judges are rather the creators than the discoverers of the Law
.
That’s NOT a situation worth dying on foreign lands for:
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America —
One Nation, Under God, with Liberty and Justice for All.”
And a place where the “we” is defined by truths we hold in common:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Once upon a time (: a certain lawyer sought to get Jesus to define how he might get eternal life — what was the program, what should he do?
Pointing to this law, Jesus replies, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” [Obviously an attorney was to know it…]
Proving he knew this, the attorney quoted it, but then perhaps had a specific application he was concerned about.
Answer: (Luke 10: 25ff):
25And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and made trial of him, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26And he said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. 28And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 29But he, desiring to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor?
And hence we get the parable of the so-called Good Samaritan. Nothing like a good story to make the point:
Luke 10:30-37 Jesus answered, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he traveled, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion, came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, and gave them to the host, and said to him, ‘Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return.’ Now which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?” He said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” (web)
The challenge of our country is not whether its founding documents are good enough — but who is in the “all” — when it comes to “liberty and justice for all.”?
Who, in application, qualifies as “man” in “all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator (notice it doesn’t say “my God….” or “THE God” but “their Creator”) with those unalienable rights?
This is where, in practice, an elevation and expansion of “WHO” was chosen to participate in this “we” is always necessary. In the first word in this document referring specifically to gender, female slaves were excluded from the right to vote. Even this description, from http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/15thamendment.html barely touches the omission of the women.
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African Americans. It would take the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote.
Four amendments later:
Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change of the Constitution. Few early supporters lived to see final victory in 1920.
”
Nineteenth Amendment
Passed by Congress June 4, 1919.
Ratified August 18, 1920. Section 1: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.Section 2: Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Last state to ratify sufficient to passage: Tennessee Last state to ratify it after it had passed — Mississippi — in 1984!:
In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson began to support the need for a constitutional amendment to which he had previously been opposed. When ratification by the states was begun on June 4, 1919 it only took six days for Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin to all ratify the amendment. Kansas, New York and Ohio followed on June 16, 1919. The last required 36th state to ratify was Tennessee, who barely ratified the amendment on August 18, 1920. The Tennessee vote to ratify hinged on one vote, the vote of a 24-year-old state legislator by the name of Harry Burn. He had originally voted against ratification. He changed his vote after his mother urged him to do so. Even after his vote, anti-suffrage rallies were held and anti-suffrage state legislators left the state so that a legislative quorum could not achieved. The Tennessee ratification was achieved and the required 36 states met the constitutional requirement.
The remaining twelve states of the Union took over sixty years to add their ratifications of the 19th amendment. Ten of these states originally had rejected ratifying the amendment. Mississippi was the last state of the 48 states to ratify the amendment when it did so on March 22, 1984.
Now — how surprising is it that (while the family law field had been meanwhile developing, starting in 1939, and in general introducing the psychopathic assessment of women who divorced) that after feminism was making some progress in alleging that women were people, too…. (or having in impact at least) in the 1970s, and 1984 Mississippi, belatedly, admits that women can vote — and laws against assault and battery of one’s wife were put into place — that by 1994, 1995, and 1996, 1998, & 1999 (that I’ve been able to identify so far) — FATHERHOOD propositions were running hot and heavy? (NFI, Clinton memo, Welfare Reform to accommodate fatherhood through access/visiation work, resolutions of both halves of Congress to validate and celebrate “fatherhood”) and so forth — are also in the works?
Human nature is always, it seems, to get out of applying even its own laws to real life situations. And, the challenge of what these Memorials are for — which is the concept of “Liberty and Justice for all” — will HAVE to look within to admit — theory aside, we were largely based on a slave economy, and basically still just about are….
All of us humans need to understand our common right to look at these institutions, question them, and CHANGE THEM (or declare independence, if necessary). However, without an understanding of how they have already changed, this will be difficult. And with a dumbed down populace, even harder.
In the last several days (and past few years), I”ve been again and again astonished at the level of corruption in “high” places (governmentally) and how little awareness of HOW this happens is available — or told — to the public. It is sickening, but necessary for someone to continue speaking.
Recently, I noticed many visitors (international) are so interested in my article “Women at war.” I wish they were as interested in the accounting trails, the organizational analyses. However, it’s MEMORIAL DAY — and I think it’s time to remember the ideals being fought for, and to insist that these are communicated and stood for. Later this week, I have more work to talk about: The Family Justice Alliance, Child Support (issues), and Parenting Coordination as a field.
TRUTH is simple once understood — because it’s based on principles; and then the question becomes application. Our school systems have taught too many to disconnect the dots, and to become intellectually and emotionally dependent, and to buy into the hierarchy (“class rank”) model — which leads towards subservience in citizenship (and back to slavery).
Financial, food, mobility (where you can live) and self-defense independence (let alone freedom of expression and freedom of religion) are PARAMOUNT. This is no tea party and those are not just Tea Party issues.
After another segment from what I deduce to be a Christian attorney sort (who is also struggling with the “Christanity” litigation, I bet), I’m going to post links to 3 books (actually, one is an article) I ask people to read (if they haven’t) and understand the option to understanding that unless we are all UNDER the same “law of nature and nature’s God” (meaning principles) — we are going to be subject forever to petty, self-defined gods and goddesses who insist on deliberating in private and closed-door sessions what to do with our earnings. If we don’t understand the chasm between the “Family/Unification Church” version of law (as practiced — what’s being on the books having become irrelevant), the reactionary “Shari’a law” and Islamic Jihad version of law, and how critical Israel is to what freedom we now have — well, things don’t look too good.
Other topics — the technology of Internet (enabling anyone to create a company that could easily be a front group, unless examined — and how the USA can pick favorites to help theirs look more professional and “real” (legitimate) because of simple technical support grants) and the worldwide technology of “money” (with the degraded US$$ set to no longer become the world’s reserve currency) — and how little time there is to waste with Dumbed down Passive Populations — well, these definitely concern me. Long ago, Jerry Mander wrote a book: “Four Arguments for the Elimination of TV.” Obviously, that’s not about to happen (til upgraded and replaced by things faster, more interactive and more audiovisual). Others wrote on the heavy influence of Foundations in government, and yet others on the character of Money (and IRS).
It’s necessary to understand some of these basic functions, AND “Jurisprudence” — and why “Therapeutic Jurisprudence” MUST be stopped as a bastard, a fraudulent upstart, in the legacy of sound ideas from the 1770s which need work in application — not in eradicating these ideas.
I look forward to reading more of John Locke (b. 1632, d. 1704) — I like this guy. Can you see why? Look at the times he lived in, and how this might have produced some real opposition to “authoritarianism” . . . and a platform to write about it. I realize it may be skimmed or skipped over, but here it is anyhow:
…For the individual, Locke wants each of us to use reason to search after truth rather than simply accept the opinion of authorities or be subject to superstition. He wants us to proportion assent to propositions to the evidence for them. On the level of institutions it becomes important to distinguish the legitimate from the illegitimate functions of institutions and to make the corresponding distinction for the uses of force by these institutions. The positive side of Locke’s anti-authoritarianism is that he believes that using reason to try to grasp the truth, and determining the legitimate functions of institutions will optimize human flourishing for the individual and society both in respect to its material and spiritual welfare. This in turn, amounts to following natural law and the fulfillment of the divine purpose for humanity…
This acceptance of a higher law is far from a theocracy, and you can see why he might have been opposed to it. I believe I have blogged elsewhere about that as late as 1689, one could be executed in America for failure to hold a certain mainstream religious view which (to this day) is still mainstream — and others who don’t hold it within these groups are considered cults (and it seems many are), however anything based on superstition backed by force IS a cult, however large it may be.
1. Historical Background and Locke’s Life
John Locke (1632-1704) was one of the greatest philosophers in Europe at the end of the seventeenth century. Locke grew up and lived through one of the most extraordinary centuries of English political and intellectual history. It was a century in which conflicts between Crown and Parliament and the overlapping conflicts between Protestants, Anglicans and Catholics swirled into civil war in the 1640s. With the defeat and death of Charles I, there began a great experiment in governmental institutions including the abolishment of the monarchy, the House of Lords and the Anglican church, and the establishment of Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate in the 1650s. The collapse of the Protectorate after the death of Cromwell was followed by the Restoration of Charles II — the return of the monarchy, the House of Lords and the Anglican Church. This period lasted from 1660 to 1688. It was marked by continued conflicts between King and Parliament and debates over religious toleration for Protestant dissenters and Catholics. This period ends with the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in which James II was driven from England and replaced by William of Orange and his wife Mary. The final period during which Locke lived involved the consolidation of power by William and Mary, and the beginning of William’s efforts to oppose the domination of Europe by the France of Louis XIV, which later culminated in the military victories of John Churchill — the Duke of Marlborough.
1.1 Locke’s Life up to His Meeting with Lord Ashley in 1666
Locke was born in Wrington to Puritan parents of modest means. His father was a country lawyer who served in a cavalry company on the Puritan side in the early stages of the English civil war. His father’s commander, Alexander Popham, became the local MP, and it was his patronage which allowed the young John Locke to gain an excellent education.
Well, most of us these days do not have an excellent education — and have to work for it, using all the faculties and time, even as we work. There is a real purpose behind attempting to structure one’s life so there is time to follow through this. And for that purpose, one should be learning to invest, sell, or own business — and obtain so financial literacy, versus ongoing “employment training” at public (government) expense. By at every turn, heading directly AWAY from all of the “7 Dumbing Down Lessons” (and hanging with people headed in that direction), who knows what is possible?
More from Mr. Thompson, I gather, under “Judicial Power Run Amok” segment:
A CALL TO ACTION
To the extent we have accepted conventional wisdom regarding judicial activism, we have become a part of the problem by encouraging its continuation. How often do we litigators make arguments, even in instances of ‘Christian litigation,’ that presuppose, and indeed invite, the court to make new law? Or openly rely on judicial precedents which are nothing more than a legislative act in the garb of a judicial opinion? How often do we as professors teach our students no other view of judicial power than the one propounded by the U.S. Supreme Court?
It’s no wonder the problem of judicial activism hasn’t gone away (and will not go away) merely by appointing new judges to the bench, whether Christian, conservative, or otherwise. The new judges think just like the old judges, and no one is training anyone to think differently – not any association of Christian lawyers, and not any so-called Christian law school. But, if Christian lawyers don’t advocate God’s law of judicial power, no one else will. For this, they must accept responsibility.
I suggest there is no long-term solution to the problem of judicial activism other than a concerted effort to advocate the laws of nature and nature’s God. No federal statute, no amendment of the Constitution, no replacement of judges on the bench, no limitation on court jurisdiction, no review of judicial decisions by political bodies, and no amount of civil disobedience will correct the foundational problem. Unless and until judges are willing to submit their own wills to the will of God and His law, the problem will only get worse. And unless we are willing to commit to the long-term process of raising up a generation of people who will do that, little will change
WE have to be the watchdogs at home. To understand the Containers of the Vocabulary
Which COntain the important Concepts of Liberty.
Then we also have to watch practice –
‘And who is my neighbor?” an attorney asked Jesus.
Both of them knew the law and what was right.
But only one was looking for an out in practice
The areas we can lose it fast in “practice” and have – includes FAMILY LAW SYSTEM & EDUCATION & OFFICE of FAITH_BASED
A slew of “helpers” and “educators” seeking global dominance — that’s all it is. Unlearn Gatto’s 7 schoolteacher lessons. Each one reach one.
Stop debating mental health. mental health may improve if one starts reading some of the founding documents, Locke, etc. Look back — Look head.
I can’t keep writing these posts — they are just GUIDE posts.
Walking one way or the other is up to you.
Robert Frost (1874 – 1963) recited and wrote a different poem in 1961, for JFKennedy’s inauguration.
The sun got in his 87 yr old eyes, so instead of what he’d written, Frost recited another. However, this is one of my favorites:
If only just a few more of us could take this road, and remember where we came from, and explore a different future —
not coached, trained, led by the nose and supervised — but independently, and able to reflect and observe along the way ….
THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED (1920)
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Ms. O’Malley goes to Washington, selling SB 557 (Legislating the “One-Stop-Justice-Shop”)
Memorial Day Weekend. Let’s remember that people who started out an organization pulling a fast one on the public -successfully – are likely to try the same thing, again.
Keep an Eye on our Public Servants: District Attorney’s Offices
Always.
Take for example (1), Los Angeles County‘s:
(By way of finding out WHY one better watch one’s local DA’s office..and make sure they know you are.)
For a clue what may happen when one doesn’t, see Gil Garcetti, L.A. D.A. (retired?)
BIOGRAPHY
Although Gil spent 32 years in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, eight years as the elected District Attorney, much of his life has been spent as an urban photographer. His first photo book, IRON: ERECTING THE WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL, (November 2002, Balcony Press), received much critical praise in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and other publications. The photographs emphasize the contribution of the ironworkers to the building of America, but they also document the beauty of the curved, angled, and bent raw steel of this building before being covered by its exterior skin.
Photographs from his second book, FROZEN MUSIC, (November 2003, Balcony Press), have been featured in multi page features in the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, American Photo, Newsweek, Time, Harvard Design Magazine, California Lawyer and other magazines. Gil’s second book is his interpretation of the abstract art created by the finished building. The book is a portfolio of 45 panorama lithographs.
How Nice.
I’d love to resume arts, leisure, writing activities like this, too — or even the concept that I might have some sort of “retirement” whatsoever. HOWEVER, thanks to this system, a lot of time is spent reconstructing where my kids, time, legal rights and finances went. Why does it keep leading back to these offices, in particular — whose function is to prosecute crime AFTER it happens fairly, and do it right & without corruption, to the extent of their budget. Just imagine in a world where crimes to & by men, women, and minors actually received prompt punishment as a deterrent and a message to others….
While Mr. Garcetti’s retirement plan includes urban photography and some book royalties, up here (and in San Diego), the retirement plan, I figure probably includes selling and letting someone else run, FAMILY JUSTICE CENTERS — which is why this post. If the demand isn’t great enough for a family justice center, it helps to have a nice District Attorney well-positioned to get funds to start one anyhow, and with connections to staff it — and it appears also even connections enough to then legislate it into a business model for all times (and counties).
But this is the Los Angeles District Attorney’s legacy, here:
Pre-Retirement (from the office):
WIKIPEDIA describes — clearly from a bit of a disgruntled fathers’ perspective (and with good cause — ) his “Life as (Los Angeles) District Attorney” – First and Second Terms, 1992-2000 starting right after Rodney King riots, prosecution of O.J. Simpson, Ramparts scandal, and, as it mentions:
In the late 1990s, Garcetti’s use of default judgments in child support cases were considered by many to be particularly heinous. Garcetti openly refused to rescind judgments against men who later proved through DNA evidence that they were not the fathers in question. By 2000, 79% of paternity judgements in Los Angeles County were assigned by default.
Which is why I bring him up, as representing a Southern California leading District Attorney’s legacy…
Wikipedia (voice of the people, or at least people who write Wikipedia articles) goes on about the child support issue, a bit of heartfelt passion enters into the narrative…
Gil Garcetti created so much chaos and heartache that even diehard feminist attorney Gloria Allred protested.
Gloria Allred was a single mother in need of child support — which she went after. As this was before the invention of the post-feminist (?) “fatherhood” movement to keep people like her in place, and also became pregnant because of a rape, possibly part of how she became a “protester” activist lawyer: “During her years in practice, she has successfully sued Los Angeles County to stop the practice of shackling and chaining pregnant inmates during labor and delivery; put a halt on the city of El Segundo from quizzing job applicants about their sexual histories, …”
Allred, who has perhaps done more than anybody to promote the phrase and concept of ‘deadbeat dads,’ called Garcetti’s office ‘an organization without a heart, without any compassion, and without a sense of priorities…[it’s] a system run amok’… Jackie Myers, a former Deputy District Attorney under Garcetti, said that she quit her job because ‘we were being told to do unethical, very unethical things.’
Allred didn’t find out about the $14 million of collected child support cooling its heels (and earning interest) in Garcetti’s office, instead of going straight to its recipients, the children. Richard Fine did. The law said, if they couldn’t find the mother (parent) within 6 months, it goes back to the father. Narrated briefly here: When Fine saw them dismiss the Silva v. Garcetti case, it led to the discovery of payments to judges in the County (Sturgeon v. County of Los Angeles). Funny the upset for fathers wikipedia guy didn’t mention this — but MSM silence on certain cases can be effective.
This was an unbelievable mess. Child Support collections was eventually (in CA at least) specifically removed from the province of the District Attorney’s Office, probably because of this, and now the practice of holding onto child support collections while they collect interest (at least 30 days before anything is considered “late”) and attempt to divert them for private crony use, or otherwise seriously mess with mothers (and fathers) — is in the hands of a different centralized agency in California — and “Local CSA’s” (child support agencies) by county, for the most part. They’re doing approximately as well when it comes to conflict of interest and honesty, but at lest someone else had a crack at screwing families financially for a change.
See? CA.Gov
Welcome to the Department of Child Support Services Website!
California’s Child Support Services Program works with* parents – custodial and noncustodial – and guardians to ensure children and families receive court-ordered financial and medical support. Child support services are available to the general public through a network of 52 county and regional child support agencies (LCSAs).
* this must be why it’s “Child Support SERVICES” not collections, or enforcements. How ‘holistic.’
and (from same website, different tab) a note about the administrative costs:
The May 2011 Revision updates the DCSS local assistance budget for State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2010-11 and SFY 2011-12. It provides the estimates of the administrative costs for the local child support agencies, as well as the detailed methodology for each estimate. The total administrative costs for local assistance are estimated to be $906.3 million ($277.7 million State General fund (SGF)) for SFY 2010-11 and $866.6 million ($270.8 million SGF) for SFY 2011-12.
and such financial concepts as:
Federal Performance Basic Incentives
DESCRIPTION:
This premise reflects the Federal Performance Basic Incentives. Pursuant to the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act of 1998, the federal incentives passed onto local child support agencies (LCSAs) are to be based on the five performance measures and Data Reliability Audit compliance. California’s historical performance is displayed in the Auxiliary Tables section of this document on the Historical Incentive Performance Measures chart (Chart A-10).
IMPLEMENTATION DATE:
The federal performance incentive methodology was implemented October 1, 1999 and phased in over three years.
OR, say, a measly almost $100,000 to keep the pipelines open to Strengthening Families and other Cross-Collaborations which many child support recipients (meaning payees/ payors) would be hard-pressed to comprehend, or track (if they even knew these existed). No doubt this is far better than having ONE corrupt District Attorney’s Office simply sitting on the stuff, Los Angeles Style, until caught at it and sued to stop it:
Partnership to Strengthen Families Grant
DESCRIPTION:
This premise reflects the funds for the Partnership to Strengthen Families Federal Grant. The project will support partnerships among state child support program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) agencies and university scholars and researchers. Research and data analysis will be performed to improve coordination between the state child support program and TANF agencies.
The child support program and TANF program serve many of the same customers and share a program goal of family self sufficiency. Cross organizational partnerships can support improved efficiency and effectiveness by bringing together program experts to evaluate policy making and to assess processes that cross both organizations. The policy choices of each program can have a significant impact on the other. Isolated decision making is not in the best interest of the child support program nor the TANF program. This demonstration grant will serve as the foundation for an integrated and more effective communication between programs.
This partnership will benefit both the child support and TANF programs with the help of university faculty and scholars to design and support data exchanges, store and analyze data, and conduct special studies or evaluations of program policies or practices. Additionally, the steering committee for the partnership will also involve local child support and TANF welfare directors so that all elements of the program leadership are included. A collaborative effort is expected to add substantial value to otherwise independent planning and actions by these organizations in isolation.
IMPLEMENTATION DATE:
This premise was implemented September 30, 2009.
KEY DATA/ASSUMPTIONS:
• Authorizing statute: Section 1115(a)(2), 1115(b) and 1115(b)(3) of the Social Security Act [42 United States Code 1315].
• This grant is effective from September 30, 2009 through February 28, 2011.
• The total project cost consists of Section 1115 grant funds, a required 5 percent state match, and federal financial participation. The 5 percent state match will be funded through redirection of existing resources. [from Childsup.ca.gov, various links]
Now, instead, they can figure out what to do with approximately $4 billion (per year) of federal funds to states intended to enforce child & family support (or, promote marriage, a.k.a. fatherhood), including Compromising Arrears (that they ran up to start with), jailing fathers for nonsupport of outrageous amounts — then letting them out into classes about “How to be a father” (including abstinence education — go figure) run by court-affiliated program promoters.
But that’s another topic.
Take for example (2), Alameda County’s:
Now, for ALAMEDA COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
I casually noticed that the Alameda County District Attorney actually had an Annual Report 2010, I figured, why not take a look? (note: I also look other places – so should we — such as vendor payments for this one, contracts, payrolls, etc.)
For Annual Report, read “Sales Promotion” for receiving more money for more programs. It’s basically going to be a Business Plan, or part of one, right.
Being the smart woman that I am, I went straight to “LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVES.”
I’ve been around the block a few times, and know what the word “initiatives” means
I find it odd that the law enforcement is so eager to write the law also. Kind of like the Executive Branch of the US changing the legal system (and adding a faith-based office to help the separation of church and state just a little more) and the Judicial Element forming nonprofits and directing traffic to them. Or the Legislative Element getting press for helping the homeless, while their wives are busy charging $225 an hour to subcontract work that probably should’ve been done by a public agency (which the public pays for) to start with.
Makes you kind of wonder where the criminal element of society really is, sometimes. I mean, what’s truly causing the level of poverty and street crime and disrespect for authority seen throughout this county (home to the 4th and 5th highest homicide cities in the country, last I heard — Oakland, and Richmond, California). Does no responsibility ever rest with this department?
So, here’s “Nancy (O’Malley) goes to Washington” — What a Wonderful Life it must be.
Once there she has some nice chats, by mutual request it seems, with Dianne, about SB 557 – instead of having this chat first with the citizens that actually live in this state and who don’t always have our U.S. Senators’ ear. They’re lucky, many times, if they can get law enforcement’s ear, if it’s just a “family matter” (aka domestic dispute), even though these matters can get both family and officers killed, and have.
And here’s SB 557. Glad I happened to hear about it. And guess who proposed it (sponsor, co-sponsor):
CORRECTED APRIL 27, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 25, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 05, 2011CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2011–2012 REGULAR SESSION
SENATE BILL No. 557
________________________________________Introduced by Senator Kehoe
(Coauthor(s): Assembly Member Atkins, Fletcher)
Wow —Senator(SB117) Kehoe (SB747) & Assemblyperson Atkins (SB 887): the Dynamic Duo strikes again
- This time, to help their cohorts get proprietary language to promote a certain concept promising “justice” coach parents suffering from domestic violence and separation, including with their kids, from abusers.
- This is not to say the same people don’t also propose better bills — like adding “strangulation” to the definition of “traumatic injury.” However, this still ain’t gonna change how little family law judges care about it, as opposed to pushing co-parenting, therapy and marriage & fatherhood to people who are, er, divorcing (etc.). Generally, they fall under the category of “special interests” it seems, including:
- SB 117 (Kehoe)
Public contracts: prohibitions: discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation. (see my last 2 posts on how Atkins’ partner got San Diego business…)
While this may be a good concept, common sense says to take it up with the California Healthy Marriage and the Bush-originator and perpetuators of National Fatherhood In Aeternum. Isn’t there some way we could lock the different factions into a single room — like is done with a sequestered jury — and duke it out while the rest of us get about our own business, and sex lives? Note: no minor children should be allowed into the room for any purpose during this time.
Actually, it was Kehoe sponsoring SB 2263 nine years ago, trying to one-stop shop an all-expense-paid (i.e., public funding through California Judicial Council) assessment of (Kids’ Turn). Has she had children? Has her partner had children? So what’s with this fascination with coaching others about how children feel about divorce, and what parents should tell them during the process?
Somehow I”m starting to wonder how these types of bills relate to each other.
So long as family court judges continue to exercise “wide discretion” and retain immunity for screw-ups, and so long as parents are too busy on on-line forums (arguing PAS or anti-PAS) and going to rallies to Washington, D.C. to plead for mercy — it doesn’t matter that Governor Gray Davis vetoed that one, saying gently that perhaps the highest judicial body in the state wasn’t, er, qualified to measure mental health (i.e., attitude adjustments that certain mental health professionals wish to see).
Family Law already makes just about any other law a moot point, no matter what gender you express this in — it’s possible to get permanently screwed in 2o minutes, or ex parte, and with or without a $$ to spare.
We, the People of California (insert your state, but this state has a well-earned reputation for being off the charts sometimes, it seems) should instead actually investigate who’s married to, in business with, or on the board of directors with whom, and we’d better keep our eyes peeled about whassup in the legislature, and whassup in Washington, too. And start respecting bloggers that do (historymatters of Sandiegooneline, or Ronkayeinlaw, etc.), rather than on-line weekly reporters (Mr. Peter Jamison of SFWeekly) that don’t.
February 17, 2011
________________________________________
An act to add Title 5.3 (commencing with Section 13750) to Part 4 of the Penal Code, relating to family justice centers. **
**the last suggestion (see my recent posts) was to simply amend Civil Labor Educational Insurance and Penal codes to clarify that gender expression is a civil right (as I understood it). This one simply adds a Title subdivision, i.e. 5.3.
While AFCC is busy legitimizing and legalizing “Parenting Coordinators” to further undermine due process (and confidentiality) a.k.a. legal rights, the DA’s office itself is trying to legitimize and hallow “family justice centers” that shouldn’t even be necessary IF the DA’s office (law enforcement and prosecution) had been doing their jobs right to start with, including taking criminal activity committed by one parent against the other without respect to gender. Same general idea — exploiting prior screwups by the same people to add another layer of bureaucracy to “coordinate” all the services needed.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL DIGEST
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGESTSB 557, as amended, Kehoe. Family justice centers.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1.
Title 5.3 (commencing with Section 13750) is added to Part 4 of the Penal Code, to read:
TITLE 5.3. Family Justice Centers13750.
(a) A city, county, or city and county may establish a multiagency, multidisciplinary family justice center to assist victims of domestic violence, officer-involved domestic violence, sexual assault, elder abuse, stalking, cyberstalking, cyberbullying, and human trafficking to ensure that victims of abuse are able to access all needed services in one location in order to enhance victim safety, increase offender accountability, and improve access to services for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, elder abuse, and human trafficking. Family justice centers, if established in a city, county, or city and county, may include community-based domestic violence, officer-involved domestic violence, sexual assault, elder abuse, stalking, cyberstalking, cyberbullying, and human trafficking agencies in partnership with survivors of violence and abuse in the planning and operations process of a family justice center, and may establish procedures for the ongoing input, feedback, and evaluation of the family justice center by survivors of violence and abuse and community-based crime victim service providers.
(b) For purposes of this title, the following terms have the following meanings:(1) “Abuse” has the same meaning as set forth in Section 6203 of the Family Code.
(2) “Domestic violence” has the same meaning as set forth in Section 6211 of the Family Code.
(3) “Sexual assault” means an act or attempt made punishable by Section 220, 261, 261.5, 262, 264.1, 266c, 269, 285, 286, 288, 288.5, 288a, 289, or 647.6.
(4) “Elder abuse” means an act made punishable by Section 368.
(5) “Human trafficking” has the same meaning as set forth in Section 236.1.(6) “Victim of crime,” “crime victim,” or “victim” means a victim of domestic violence, officer-involved domestic violence, sexual assault, elder abuse, stalking, cyberstalking, cyberbullying, or human trafficking.
(c) For purposes of this title, family justice centers shall be defined as multiagency, multidisciplinary service centers where public and private agencies assign staff members on a full-time or part-time basis in order to provide services to victims crime from one location in order to reduce the number of times victims must tell their story, reduce the number of places victims must go for help, and increase access to services and support for victims and their children. Staff members at a family justice center may be comprised of, but are not limited to, the following:
(1) Law enforcement personnel.
(2) Medical personnel.
(3) District attorneys and city attorneys.
(4) Victim-witness program personnel.
(5) Domestic violence shelter service staff.
(6) Community-based rape crisis, domestic violence, and human trafficking advocates.
(7) Social service agency staff members.
(8) Child welfare agency social workers.
(9) County health department staff.
(10) City or county welfare and public assistance workers.
(11) Nonprofit agency counseling professionals.
(12) Civil legal service providers.
(13) Supervised volunteers from partner agencies.
(14) Other professionals providing services.
Text found at Survivors in Action (which addresses stalking — not parenting — issues)
Wow. I felt SO o o o o distracted by investigating the Nonprofit Filings of the “Alameda County Family Justice Center” which I already knew was itself a Dubious District Attorney Doing. San Diego (where the model started) also reported on their Doubts as to why a retiring City? attorney should simply move functions that belonged to government over to the Y, later to become what I like to call Casey Gwinn’s Retirement Plan Model.
I found out that after getting a $3 million grant, producing a nonprofit structure (channel?) that has 0 $$ and 0 boards of directors (if one looks at the paperwork) yet suddenly a subsidiary group, “Family Violence Law Center” is getting flush with $millions of education & prevention programs under a different EIN.
Having wondered why none of these groups actually tell us how Family Law Operates (which is through AFCC/CRC and a host of nonprofit groups to receive federal funds to fix families, even though the fix is getting some of them killed from the resulting mix of turmoil & entitlements) — I see that the Executive Director of this Family Violence Law Center, has a background in Family Law.
Together, while they do not talk honestly about each other (or their relationships), they comprise an assembly line that shuffles families from separation through dissolution to destitution, getting grants along the way to “prevent family violence” at the top of the chute (abandoning those halfway down).
Wait a minute — don’t we deserve some better accounting of the EXISTING family justice Centers before they become the model of how to (not) help Victims of Crime navigate the family law system?)
FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT:
D.A. Nancy E. O’Malley and U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein
In May 2010, Alameda County D.A. Nancy O’Malley led a team from the District Attorney’s Office to Washington D.C. to honor fallen officers at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and meet with legislators.
The team met with many officials to discuss the Office’s nationally recognized programs and initiatives. Highlights included presentations on the Restitution Unit, the H.E.A.T. Watch program, and the Alameda County Family Justice Center
(A Nancy O’Malley/Davis-Lockyer, affiliate of the San Diego Family Justice Center model, founded by someone who was personally sued by one of his own staff for ignoring severe domestic violence and what appears to be death threats to one of his own employees, to which it seems he (Casey Gwinn) responded by moving the situation to a different floor, and thereafter ignoring it. Which I have blogged. Guess they don’t read my lovely, graphics-intensive, professionally organized posts.)
. Also overviewed was the Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center and the innovative and successful partnerships between the D.A.’s Office, Probation Department, Alameda County Office of Education and Alameda County Health Care.
In a briefing with the White House Advisor on Violence Against Women, D.A. O’Malley spoke about the Family Justice Center’s concept of collaborative comprehensive services.
Time to review (From FIRST AMENDMENT PROJECT), “The Brown Act.”
THE BASICS
Meetings of public bodies must be “open and public,” actions may not be secret, and action taken in violation of open meetings laws may be voided. (§§ 54953(a), 54953(c), 54960.1(d))
WHO’S COVERED
This is my HOLIDAY (or the Sunday before it) and catching up with a Northern California District Attorneys’ latest Dubious Doings and proposed legislations wasn’t on it. Can I — like Kehoe recommended that Kids’ Turn (initially) — get some public funding to study the effectiveness (or rather, lack of it) of both kids’ Turn AND all spinoffs functioning in my area — AND of the local Family Justice Center closest to me? (I posted others, from an IRS lookup of charities with the name, yesterday, bottom of the post).
In other words, we can either work, and trust our local representatives and elected officials to do their jobs at least as well as we do our own — OR, we can scale back on work (and thus fewer taxes for them to waste) and take time to divert some of the slush funds to our scrutinizing the rest of the slush fund activity.
Having a family law attorney running FVLC is a conflict of interest, as shown (last I heard) on the total SILENCE on the characters, traits, and habits of the family law system and the nonprofits surrounding it, like
NAUCRATES DUCTOR (pilot fish):
(no, the term is not familiar to me, but isn’t the image appropriate? Because what they are escorting is indeed a shark. And the nonprofits surrounding the family law system, which may or may not be smaller than it (who knows? WHo is tracking) — are feeding off a fish which itself is paid for by the public to start with. At some level, this is starting to resemble family COURT systems, not just FAMILY courts. And I’m not the only person that seems to think this way — I have a photo on here of a bunch of judges (SF area) dressing up as royalty at an AAML meeting. They composed a cute song based on “Camelot” (itself a reference to the Kennedy White House as royalty) to go along with this and seemed to think it was funny. )
From the Legislative Initiatives section of the Annual Report.
Legislative Initiatives
Under the leadership of District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, members of our staff frequently consult on, testify about and assist in drafting new legislation at a state- wide and national level. Working with lawmakers, we propose and support legislation that fits with our mission to champion the rights of victims and to keep our community safe.
In 2010, we were instrumental in writing numerous pieces of legislation, including:
SB 557: to define family justice centers in California law, thereby acknowledging the trend towards multi-disciplinary, multi-agency service delivery models for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. This legislation is currently pending.
As with “fatherhood” programs — this “trend” is hardly a grassroots demand for justice centers. No, certain people have a vested interest in continuing to “initiate” them.
I have a motto to counteract this trend:
JUST SAY NO!
Meanwhile…
Anyone willing to do some legwork and track the nonprofit status and get some verified results from any of the existing family justice centers — please do so. Are they all set up like this one? Are they obtaining public & private monies and funneling them to a favored nonprofit and changing the character of a nonprofit which used to simply help its clients?
How many of the board members are actually public servants — and let’s get some payroll records.
A reminder — someone who walked through the doors — in fact even someone who got a restraining order (already proven to have a good risk of getting him/her (a) dead or (b) eventually completely eliminated from (her) kids’ lives — when the people who should be instead supporting court order enforcement are those collaborating instead to “educate” and “train” others inside new centers…
McDonalds is hugely successful — it serves a lot of people. That doesn’t mean everyone should buy all their food form fast-food franchises…..
This “trend” is going to increase the number of DISenfranchised citizens, whose real needs don’t fit neatly into such expensive and unproven collaborations.
Just Say No. Then get on-line, and get involved demanding a better explanation of why we should put up with this.
Take time from TV and do some FOIA requests under the Sunshine Ordinance. Each one teach one — we can do this!
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“What’s Money got to do with it?” (Calif. legislators & Judges at play…)
This was the original post, which got overly supplemented, shall I say, as I began to look into the corporate structures of a certain Family Justice Center, and found that it’s corporate status shows 0 income (or boards of directors) although it has one heck of a public profile.
And that the millions of $$ it got for funding (being very well-connected politically throughout) went instead to a previous nonprofit, Family VIolence Law Center, whose character, apparently, morphed to accommodate what types of activities the funding was (and was not) available for. For example, probably not anything critiquing the family law system, given that its Executive Director Cheryl N. Allison, Esq., was a former (or still?) family law attorney.
While this had been meant to simply illustrate a different example (of croynism — what else?) — I realize the tendency to want to back up posts with current information generally just gives me another project to investigate.
This post should be paired with the previous one, and the common link (how I started looking into these matters) was just simply me following up on Kids’ Turn and finding out what an amazing collection of supporters and endorsers this one nonprofit has. It’s a lesson in local government, too.
Well, perhaps there’s some good data in here also…. Happy Memorial Day Weekend. Do you know where your kids are?
What’s Money Got to do with it?
It’s MOSTLY about Money, behind the curtains.
Today on the news, we read that no, the freeze public employee salaries over $150K bill (unlike the Kids’ Turn, excuse me “parenting education program”) will not breeze through and get signed into law. Funny, there was no real problem retroactively granting immunity for double-dipping judges payments, in SBX2-11, which addressed Sturgeon v. County of Los Angeles.
Retroactive Immunity is Repugnant to basic principles of the rule of law. (this article cites strong rebuke from Robert Kennedy (yes, brother of JFK) to retroactive immunity violating anti-trust law, by a six-bank merger).
When a lot of money is involved, suddenly the legal system becomes quite, er, ‘flexible.” The SBX2-11 dealt with California Judges who already received $178K salaries. It dealt with the case Sturgeon v. County of Los Angeles.
End of 2008
Here’s an article that came out the day after Christmas, 2008, explaining the situation briefly:
California Judges to Lose Perks; Some May Leave State
Fri, Dec 26, 2008
(that’s the California Supreme Court, above….)
The California Supreme Court has voted unanimously not to review Sturgeon v. County of Los Angeles, which means judges in the nation’s largest county may lose up to $50,000 a year in perks.
The decision lets stand a lower court ruling that could void Los Angeles County’s 20-year practice of supplementing judges’ $178,000 salaries and state-provided benefits with perks that amount to almost $50 grand a year.
The ruling by San Diego’s 4th District Court of Appeal held thatthe practice violated the state Constitution’s requirement that the Legislature “prescribe compensation for judges.” County-funded judicial perks occur in many of the state’s 58 counties, but LA’s appear to be the most lucrative.
Judicial advocates say the state already has trouble attracting judges to the bench, with salaries that often pale in comparison to those of major law firms.
The benefits package includes travel and professional development allowances that judges can take in cash, as well as additional contributions to retirement accounts.
Some California judges have threatened to leave the state if the perks are cut.
“You want my inestimable services? Gimme back my perks!”
Maybe they’ll head off to New York now (Dec. 2010)
Gov. Paterson Finally Signs the Bill that Will Raise NY Judges’ Benefits
2009
Here’s SBX 211 as chaptered in FEB 2009:
Senate Bill No. 11
CHAPTER 9
An act to add Sections 68220, 68221, and 68222 to the Government Code, relating to judges.
[Approved by Governor February 20, 2009. Filed with Secretary of State February 20, 2009.]
legislative counsel’s digest
SB 11, Steinberg. Judges: employment benefits.
The California Constitution requires the Legislature to prescribe compensation for judges of courts of record. Existing law authorizes a county to deem judges and court employees as county employees for purposes of providing employment benefits. These provisions were held unconstitutional as an impermissible delegation of the obligation of the Legislature to prescribe the compensation of judges of courts of record.
(note: no mention made of the obvious conflicts of interest when the county is a party to the case, as L.A. County tends to be) (Another situation in which it seems a County is a clearly party to the case — Child Support cases. Any parent here been to a child support hearing? Was there the other parent and a 3rd party, representing the local county child support agency? However, this bill doesn’t address conflict of interest as a reason the payments were unconstitutional….but “improper delegation” of a legislative obligation.)
This bill would provide that judges who received supplemental judicial benefits provided by a county or court, or both, as of July 1, 2008, shall continue to receive supplemental benefits from the county or court then paying the benefits on the same terms and conditions as were in effect on that date. . . . .
The bill would authorize a county to terminate its obligation to provide benefits upon providing 180 days’ [6 months..] written notice to the Administrative Director of the Courts and the impacted judges, but that termination would not be effective as to any judge during his or her current term while that judge continues to serve as a judge in that court or, at the election of the county, when that judge leaves office.
It was wrong — unconstitutional — but if a county [california has 58 counties] WANTS to stop engaging in this illegal behavior — they can’t correct the situation towards any judge while that judge is serving, including if the county calls him/her back (i.e., functioning from retirement, which judges often do) either. So, basically, only after it becomes a truly moot point can the county act to stop this (conflict of interest) unconstitutional behavior towards its own judges.
The bill also would authorize the county to elect to provide benefits for all judges in that county.
The practice is unconstitutional and is making it virtually impossible to win a case against a county? Too bad — we just legalized it!
The bill would require the Judicial Council to report to the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, the Assembly Committee on Budget, and both the Senate and Assembly Committees on Judiciary on or before December 31, 2009, analyzing the statewide benefits inconsistencies.
Great. That’s really exciting, that the Judicial Council (which I’m sure knew about the situation anyhow) has to write some reports and doing a statewide analysis (more costs for taxpayers)
This bill would provide that no governmental entity, or officer or employee of a governmental entity, shall incur any liability or be subject to prosecution or disciplinary action because of benefits provided to a judge under the official action of a governmental entity prior to the effective date of the bill on the ground that those benefits were not authorized under law.
That’s a lot of words, so I will simply spell it out for us. “Retroactive Immunity for Unconstitutional Behavior.”
Next item of business after granting retroactive immunity was “get rid of Fine” (before he does any more damage). ….
California state salary freeze bill hits dead end — again
A bill that would freeze pay for the highest-paid state workers stalled today in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, effectively killing it.
The 15-member committee held Assembly Bill 7, a measure that Assemblyman Anthony Portantino , D-La Cañada Flintridge, puts up every session. Holding his legislation in committee killed it, since today is the deadline for fiscal committees to send bills out for chamber floor votes.
The measure would have frozen pay increases until Jan. 1, 2014, for any state employees whose base pay is more than $150,000 a year. It would have applied to workers in the executive, legislative or judicial branches of government, appointees to state boards and commissions and employees of the California State University system. It wouldn’t apply to University of California employees, although it urges the system to play along.
CalPERS, CalSTRS and the UC system have objected, saying the freeze would hurt recruiting and retaining top-flight employees.
(see my notice bottom right on “Fair Use” as to copyrights, please. This article is very relevant to my readers, some of who are having their wages garnished through custody actions, and are learning that very little accounting has been given for federal funds to state which are supposedly helping them with child support and custody actions…)
Retroactive Immunity for Unconstitutional Judicial Benefits that prejudice the court system — and jail for the whistleblower in that matter, although the whistle obviously was appropriate to blow in the situation.
No Freeze on exorbitant salaries for public employees already making $150K because we know that, obviously (see judges, legislators) that a high salary attracts the most qualified and best candidates for public positions.
Let’s back up in this Sturgeon v. County of Los Angeles Case a little bit.
SBX 211 showed it was illegal, unconstitutional — but only because the state was supposed to handle the salaries not because, say, it created any conflict of interest. Richard Fine gets tossed in jail and disbarred (not the typical “handslap” some judges get for misbehavior, or attorneys. He’d seriously offended some sensibilities by taking on this case, and the child support stash scandal called “Silva v. Garcetti” (which — dropped off the map, or what?).
Now they are going to be the good guys again, summer 2009. Source, “JDJOURNAL.com”
Los Angeles County Judges Take Voluntary Pay Cut
Taking a cue from their brethren and sistren in Delaware, Los Angeles County judges have volunteered to give up one day’s pay per month, as other court employees deal with involuntary salary cuts.
The judges are each giving up around $688 each month, saving the County $3 million a year. Under the state constitution, judicial officers’ salaries cannot be reduced during their term.
All but seven of the court’s 430 judges are participating.
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What’s Money got to do with it? This is about love, helping kids, protecting gender expression, right?
Yesterday, I almost got lost among AB 887 (redefining gender) and the backgrounds of its sponsor, after my recent post about the attempted (in 2002) AB 2263, suggesting that our top Judicial organization in the state (California Judicial Council) get paid — assuming it could also find other funding — to judge the mental health efficacy of Kids’ Turn, excuse me, (this is the sanitized version)”
projects or programs that provide services to assist children and their families while the parents are in the process of obtaining a divorce or legal separation... [[not mentioned -- this process can and does often take years -- like 10, 15, 18...]]
and which measures, among 5 standards, 3 which deal such hard data as “degree of conflict,” “mental health of children,” and “change in (parental) attitude”:
(1) Any decrease in conflict between the parents regarding custody issues, as reported by the parents.
(2) The mental health of the children, as measured by their attitudes before and after participating in the project or program.
(3) Any change in the attitude of the parents who participate in the project or program.
Conflict is obviously bad — this is why, the US never engages in wars abroad or at home, such as on terror, drugs, homelessness, poverty, or fatherlessness. Conflict is Bad. Having the Judicial System involved in receiving public monies to evaluate the effectiveness of behavioral modification programs (run by family law professionals and supported by millionaires and billionaires — see my posts, it’s true!) — is, per our Legislators (in 2002) Good. All they wanted was $50,000 — plus matching funds. In the cleaned up version…
Original version was more direct – but someone thought better of that and reworded it from the original, as reported May, 2002:
•AB 2263, by Assemblywoman Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, which would require the Judicial Council to study the effectiveness of expanding the Kids’ Turn program, which assists children while their parents are in family court obtaining a divorce or legal separation. The bill was approved by the Assembly Appropriations Committee on a 23-0 vote May 15, passed the Assembly on a 72-2 vote May 23 and was sent to the Senate.
FYI, for a perspective Assemblypersons in 2011 have salaries ranging from $95,291 (most) to $109K (one) and a few $102K. Judges outrank them by ca. 50% as to salaries. Kids’ Turn is a judges project (if not slush fund..) Judge are always being so helpful, because they love kids.
One legislator (Atkins) had previous been chief staff of the other former assemblyperson, now Senator legislator (Kehoe), it turns out and both were “out” lesbians (hardly unusual for California, but sometimes even I forget). Another Sunburst Youth Housing Project has Atkins & Partner/Wife’s name on it.
January 2005, after more than 3 1/2 years of hard work, The Center announced the creation of an innovative youth supportive housing project. This cutting-edge program is one of the first projects of its kind in the United States. The Youth Housing project provides 23 units of affordable, supportive housing for youth between 18-24 years of age, with a special focus on LGBTQ+ youth. These high-risk youth were living in the streets or in public spaces after having been ejected from their homes because of their sexual orientation.
This project has been made possible by the leadership and vision of Rev. Tony Freeman, Dr. Heather Berberet, San Diego City Councilmember Toni Atkins, Jennifer LeSar, The Center and its project collaborators — YMCA Youth and Family Services, San Diego Youth and Community Services, Metropolitan Community Church, Walden Family Services and the Chadwick Center at Children’s Hospital. We opened our doors to youth at the beginning of February 2006.
Oh yes, and the AB 887 sponsor’s wife was caught — well reported — exploiting the homelessness problem in San Diego to turn a nice penny as consultant for herself ($225/hour) by farming out the work to others, while her wife (Assemblyperson Atkins) was photographed with the volunteers counting the homeless.
2011, SanDiegoReader seems to be keeping tabs on these conflicts of interest:
Why Was Toni Atkins Consulting for Developers Vying for Redevelopment Dollars After She Was Elected to State Assembly?
By historymatters | Posted January 27, 2011, 3:51 p.m.
Why was State Assembly Majority WHIP Toni Atkins working for LeSar Development Consulting firm as the Senior Principal of Housing Policy and Planning even after she was elected to State Assembly? Toni was consulting with developers and helping them lobby to get these redevelopment tax dollars for their projects. So how in the world can she vote objectively as a State Assembly member let alone State Majority WHIP to freeze this redevelopment money and return it to schools and other state resources when she has a definite financial stake in seeing that the money remain in the pockets of developers like her wife and their clients.
…
How is it that Atkins and her wife Jennifer LeSar are continually allowed to financially benefit from the affordable housing gravy train. Affordable housing is a multi million dollar issue with a multi million dollar bounty at stake to the most cunning and shrewd land developers and Atkins is voting on this issue despite her personal financial stake. LeSar served as a CCDC Board Member for years while Atkins simultaneously served on City Council and voted to approve millions in redevelopment funds.
Meanwhile, Hunting for the Homeless (2011 Feb. Press article)
State Assemblymember, 76th District, Toni Atkins uses a flashlight to look for people sleeping in a canyon as she participates in the Point in Time Count in Hillcrest. This year’s numbers were up
I’m starting to like this blogger, “historymatters” — who seems to be on top of the issues — not that anyone seems to be stopping this flagrant wearing two hats at once while selling projects (contracts to cronies — or partners (nepotism?) — which are to help the public, allegedly). San Diego is not my area — except for the reputation they have in messing with parents around family law, and the infamous “Family Justice Center Model” (Casey Gwinn retirement program), same general idea. Our public servants are I guess to busy working on (and dreaming up, or expanding) projects to help the rest of us that it slipped their minds to report who was getting the contracts for those projects. During an era of increasing unemployment, skyrocketing gas prices, closing libraries, thousands of California prisoners being released due to overcrowding, and such — it’s very important to sell educational programs to parents undergoing divorce (and measure whether they worked) — and of course SOMEBODY has to go hunt up the homeless (while, during the daytimes, they are encouraged to keep moving….)
In “I’ve Got Issues” (I’m starting to like this blogger):
Jennifer LeSar was on the Board of Directors of the Centre City Development Corp. (CCDC) from 2002 to 2009. She started her development consulting business in 2005 consulting many of the same developers she was working with on CCDC. http://lesardevelopment.com/about-us/ CCDC recently asked the City Council to approve the contract extension with redevelopment money, yes that same redevelopment money that Atkins as State Assembly WHIP will vote on in Sacramento….sound like a conflict of interest?
2009 Article stating that Kehoe is going to back her former staffer, ex-City-Councilwoman Atkins for State Assembly( which we can see, she obviously got).
2010, January — The GayandLesbianTimes protests politicking by this duo (Kehoe & Atkins) (control of a nonprofit board? stacked — under threat to the organization if it didn’t comply?)
Former board resigns, San Diego Democratic Club appointed by Kehoe to take over PrideThe reconstituted Board of Directors of San Diego LGBT Pride met Wednesday, Jan. 27. The first order of business was to accept the resignations of board members Philip Princetta, Co-chair and Mike Karim, Treasurer. According to Pride, the new board members are fully committed to transparency and will honor the duties and responsibilities of the organization and continue the mission of San Diego Pride. However, the first meeting was closed into executive session soon after it began.At a special meeting held last Saturday, attended by City Councilmember Todd Gloria and former San Diego deputy mayor Toni Atkins, State Senator Christine Kehoe demanded that San Diego LGBT Pride board members Chair Philip Princetta, Treasurer Mike Karim, Secretary Carl Worrell either resign or she would place the organization into receivership – a court action that places property under the control of a receiver during litigation – according to an anonymous source at the meeting.Kehoe, Atkins and Gloria packed the San Diego Pride Board with a crossover of supporters, donors, and endorsers of their political campaigns – appointing the San Diego Democratic Club to take over Pride.Community members are questioning if they have legal authority to take such actions under the Brown Act….In a letter, obtained by the Gay & Lesbian Times, Worrell said, “I don’t know that I have ever before found myself in a situation where every alternative solution is wrong. But, in my opinion, that is the situation now. After the unconscionable bullying we took from Christine Kehoe, Todd Gloria and Toni Atkins; it is obvious that my involvement in shaping the future of Pride must end.In addition to demanding that the three current board members resign, Kehoe also stated that all Pride board meetings would be attended by a representative from both Kehoe’s and Gloria’s offices. She ordered a hiring freeze and said all Pride business must go through her office before any actions were taken, according to the anonymous source.
One reason I steer clear from nonprofits. Another reason is that I learned the hard way that they are answerable to their funders more than the clients they serve. I would NEVER deal with a nonprofit (If I were you) anymore without knowing who is on the board of directors, and who is footing the bills. Moreover, nonprofits can have their boards taken over and start firing staff, totally change the character of any organization which may have started out well.
So, I’m interested why these people would be so interested in controlling the nonprofit here San Diego LGBT Pride and looked it up. “Year Founded:1974 Ruling Year:1995” (meaning actually showed up as a nonprofit 21 years after it started… Wow, kinda like AFCC, which took forever to incorporate properly and start reporting income and paying taxes…). Income they deal with listed at $1.47 million… Purpose:
Foster pride in and respect for all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
and Transgender communities locally and globally.
(See yesterday’s post on the gender expression bill. Guess some real progress has been made there.)
Guidestar’s IRS form 990 for the year 2009 shows only the 3 ousted officer, plus Exec. Director Ron deHarte earning $113K, and the main activity rallies, festivals, etc. (and operating in the whole). The income is mostly “program service revenue.”
Whether or not this type of behavior and leadership qualities is played out in the LGBT community or not, it seems common in these combos, I have noticed:
- Legislator Connection
- City level control (Councilmen, Councilwomen), and County Level Supervisors
- Redevelopment Connections (real estate developers, or those financing it)
- Favored nonprofits controlled by one of the above to provide services
- Cronies getting the contracts, or cronies/spouses getting to be Exec. Director of the favored Nonprofit/agency (Example: “Dubious Doings by District Attorneys — Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s (3rd) wife gets coveted $90K job over a $3million-grant-initiated “Alameda County Family Justice Center” (I think was the title) whose actual benefits to the public are questioned (if ever proved). The process by which this Executive Director was appointed took the cooperation of County Supervisors, helped by the early resignation of a (as I recall) District Attorney (rather than waiting out is term to let the appointment happen normally: i.e., From Orloff to Nancy O’Malley.
Case closed: One big reason the Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted to name retiring District Attorney Tom Orloff‘s handpicked successor, Nancy O’Malley, to the plum job was her role in helping launch the Alameda County Family Justice Center – a federally funded program that helps victims of domestic violence.
Not only are Supervisors Gail Steele and Alice Lai-Bitker big supporters of the program, but its executive director is Nadia Maria Davis-Lockyer – the wife of longtime East Bay pol Bill Lockyer. Nadia is also running for supervisor.
Attorney General’s Wife. with no previous experience, Gets Top Job in Alameda County Domestic Violence Center
Steve White 14 Dec 2006 15:36 GMT
This is really changing the way the system is responding to victims.”
-Nancy O’Malley, Alameda County Chief Assistant District Attorney“We use business principles to address social problems and build lasting solutions.”
-Nadia Davis-Lockyer, Esq., Executive Director
Well, well — the Sneak Peak of ACFCJ finds out that Ms. Nadia is going to take retiring County Supervisor Gayle Steele’s place — very appropriate, because Supervisor Steele probably could have — but like Lai-Bitker, chose not to — protest the improper propelling of this woman to the head of the ACFCJ to start with (see the articles i’ve linked to). TWO county supervisors protested swishing the appointment past the public improperly. THREE County supervisors (including those two) did not. So here we are —
Congratulations and Thank You, Nadia Lockyer
On November 2, 2010, Nadia Lockyer was elected to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to fill the seat vacated by retired County Supervisor, Gayle Steele. Nadia’s last day as the Executive Director of the ACFJC was December 31, 2010. We wish to thank Nadia for all she did for the ACFJC and we wish her well in her new position. We know she will continue advocating to ensure the safety and health of all children and families in Alameda County.
Senior Deputy District Attorney, Kim Hunter, will be the Acting Director of the ACFJC. She and Cherri Allison of FVLC will work together to provide leadership until a new director is installed.
And of course a blurb in this ACFCJ newsletter celebrates the inauguration of Nancy O’Malley, who helped get this ACFCJ started:
District Attorney, Nancy O’Malley, Sworn in at ACFJC
The Inauguration Ceremony of Nancy O’Malley, Alameda County District Attor- ney, took place at the ACFJC on January 3, 2011. Approximately 250 people gathered on the 2nd floor to hear an introduction by Chief Assistant District Attorney, Kevin Dunleavy, and the Oath of Office administered by Cali- fornia Supreme Court Associate Justice Carol Corrigan. Nancy ended the ceremony with a touching speech that thanked her mentors and family. A reception immediately followed at Z Café.
Congratulations Nancy!
Convenient for the providers, not necessarily the best for the clients.
Also Known As:
- Physical Address:
- 470 27TH St
Oakland , CA 94612
2008 IRS Form 990 (contains warning notice on potential errors in this version)EIN# 942300454This group’s budget is small fry among big fry (Grants $650,000) and its Executive Director, Marcia Blackstock has something worth hearing about this group and practices in general:
If you’ve got ears, listen up to this one:
Biography
Blackstock is the Executive Director of Bay Area Women Against Rape, which was founded in 1971 and is recognized as one of the first three victim assistance programs in the nation.
Initial Involvement in the Crime Victims’ Movement
Marcia Blackstock became involved in Bay Area Women Against Rape (BAWAR) as a volunteer in 1978. BAWAR had been formed in 1971 by an outraged foster mother whose high school-age daughter had been treated badly both by the police and the emergency room staff after she was raped.
Context of the Era
BAWAR had a “huge adversarial relationship” with law enforcement, hospital personnel, mental health professionals, and the judiciary in the early days. Blackstock remembers that BAWAR’s views were not trusted, nor did BAWAR trust anyone in the system to appropriately assist sexual assault victims. “It was a lot of upheaval, a lot of anxiety, and frustration,” Blackstock recalls. On the other hand, there was substantial community support from the local universities and other collective groups such as the Berkeley Free Clinic and the Women’s Health Collective that were also working and organizing to see that people were treated with dignity and respect and that their needs were met.
Greatest Challenge
Looking back, Blackstock believes that the greatest challenge was establishing credibility among professionals in the various fields that dealt with rape victims. The therapists, law enforcement officers, judiciary, and hospital personnel considered themselves the “experts” and maintained an adversarial relationship with BAWAR mainly because of its grassroots origins. The BAWAR advocates were not considered to be “professionals.”
“We were coming from a peer-support, community-based, grassroots organization that brought in a huge variety of people from a variety of backgrounds and education and ideas, but all coming together and focusing on a common goal. But we were considered ‘peer’ and not ‘professional’, at best paraprofessional and rarely that.”
One of the problems that BAWAR faced was that licensed counselors who felt that they were more knowledgeable had no experience at all working with sexual assault victims.
A high school student who refused to cheer on her “rapist” has been ordered to pay $45,000 for filing a “frivolous” lawsuit. Where’s the justice in this?
By Cord JeffersonPosted: 05/05/2011 02:54 PM EDT
“I didn’t want to have to say his name and I didn’t want to cheer for him,” she told reporters in 2009. “I just didn’t want to encourage anything he was doing.”
To that end, HS refused to cheer for Bolton when he stepped up to take some free throws during a game in January 2009, four months after he had pleaded guilty to the attack. When she folded her arms and stood silently, however, her school’s superintendent, Richard Bain, ordered her outside and told her she had to cheer for Bolton. When she refused again, HS was kicked off the cheerleading squad.
(How much money, fame, press does a good basketball team attract to a school?)
HS later sued the school for kicking her off the team, but the results of that lawsuit have time and again gone terrifyingly against her.
(What’s Gender got to do with THAT situation? Or, money? –or Justice? The rapist paid $2,500, and she has to pay the school district $45,000 for protesting — not with violence, but with silence?)
ALAMEDA COUNTY FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER INC [EIN# 26-1141080]
Also Known As:
- Physical Address:
- 470 270TH StOakland , CA 94612
- At A Glance
- Category (NTEE):
- Human Services / (Victims’ Services)
- Year Founded:
- 2010 Ruling Year: 2010
I’m looking at a 990 signed this past February by Harold Boscovich. (You can too — it’s free). There are no officers, no income, and no officer, it says, was paid. Now THAT’s an unusual tax return! “The purpose of this corporation (not nonprofit?) it “to provide comprehensive collaborative professional services to victims of domestic violence and their children, to victims of sexual abuse, sexual assault, and sexual exploitation; to victims of elder abuse, and to victims of child abuse, at no cost.
QUALIFYING FOR PUBLIC CHARITY STATUS: The Section 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) and 509(a)(1) Test and the Section 509(a)(2) Test
Tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code permits a charitable organization to pay no tax on any operating surplus it may have at the end of a year, and it permits donors to claim a charitable deduction for their contributions.
There is a further division in the world of Section 501(c)(3) organizations, classifying them into private foundations and public charities.
The private foundation laws impose a 2 percent tax on investment income, limit self-dealing and business holdings, require annual distributions, prohibit lobbying entirely, and restrict the organization’s operations in other ways. Also, large donors to a private foundation have a lower ceiling on the amount of deductible gifts they can claim each year. In most circumstances, public charity status is preferable to private foundation status.
And it appears that this Alameda County Family Justice Center (“ACFJC” as I might refer to it again), started by District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, hand-picked by the retiring one TOm Orloff as a shoo-in (or to be the incumbent shortly before he retired) whose connections I’m sure helped get the $3 million grant to start this particular ACFCJ — and who then helped get another connected individual, Nadia Davis-Lockyer, Esq. become Executive Director and at once get a 50% increase in salary, to just below what a California Legislator (Assembly) typically gets ($90,000 / $95,921)….
Well, back to our IRS stipulations / qualifications link:
To determine the charity’s support base, (we might as well look at this….)
Gifts, grants,(Footnote 3) contributions, and membership fees received.
• Gross investment income (e.g., interest, dividends, rents, royalties, but not gains from sale of capital assets).
• Taxable income from unrelated business activities,4 less the amount of any tax imposed on such income.
• Benefits from tax revenues received by the charity, and any services or facilities furnished by the government to the charity without charge, other than those generally provided to the public without charge.
{{Hmmm….Does this rule have anything to do with why a new location was needed for the Center?}}
Footnote 3 In some limited circumstances, an unexpectedly large grant may be excluded from both public support tests as an “unusual grant” described in Regulation § 1.170A-9(e)(6). These technical rules are beyond the scope of this memorandum.
Not becoming a Private Foundation — Well, if there’s a whole lot of wealth involved, this could be annoying. Also, if you want very large private donors to support you, they deductible for those donors is also lower, which may make them wish to contribute instead to 501( c)3s as “Public charities” — like the Kids’ Turns of the family law world?
A Section 501(c)(3) organization can avoid private foundation status, and thus be classified as a public charity, in any of three ways: (1) by being a certain kind of institution, such as a church, school, or hospital; (2) by meeting one of two mathematical public support tests; or (3) by qualifying as a supporting organization to another public charity. In this memo, we discuss the two mathematical public support tests.
The Public/Governmental Support Test of Sections 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) and 509(a)(1)
This public support test was designed for charities which derive a significant proportion of their revenues from donations from the public, including foundation grants, and from governmental grants. The test has two variations. If an organization can satisfy either of the two variations of this support test, it will qualify as a public charity under Sections 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) and 509(a)(1).
The first variation is known as the one-third test. A charity can satisfy this test if public support is one-third or more of the total support figure. Nothing more is needed if this mathematical fraction is attained.
The second variation, known as the 10 percent facts and circumstances test, has two requirements. First, the charity’s public support must be at least 10 percent of its total support. Second, the charity must demonstrate, with reference to facts and circumstances specified by the IRS, that it is operated more like a public charity than like a private foundation.
Income: $3,250,900
Also known as: FVLC
Oakland, CA 94623Category: I71 (Spouse Abuse, Prevention of); P43 (Family Violence Shelters and Services); P62 (Victims’ Services)Physical Address:PO Box 22009 Oakland , CA 94623Web Address:www.fvlc.org Telephone:(510) 2080220 Facsimile:(510) 2083557 Contact:Ms. Cherri N. Allison, , Esq.cherri@fvlc.orgExecutive Director(510) 2080220 x32
Mission Statement
Family Violence Law Center (FVLC) has been working to end domestic violence in Alameda County since 1978, when a small group of abuse survivors founded the agency. To advance our mission of ending domestic violence, FVLC employs a holistic approach that integrates a comprehensive service model with dedicated efforts to address and change institutional barriers for domestic violence survivors within the legal, health, education, and criminal justice systems.
Yeah, “holistic” and “comprehensive service” are definitely the keywords these days. Please notice carefully (underlined) which systems it tries to address and change “institutional barriers for domestic violence survivors” within — it specifically does NOT mention within the Judicial system, and it most definitely does not mention anything — at all – about the “FAMILY LAW SYSTEM” although it’s title says ‘Family Law Violence Center.”
Go figure, huh? And how telling. The most critical information people coming through “stage one” of leaving domestic violence, assuming kids are involved, is what is coming up next — which IS the “family law system.”.
After looking at the 990 (as usual, I often go straight to the officers’ page), and notice the Executive Director is being paid a modest (for this size of operation) salary of $90K year, and her name is:
ABOUT THE MANAGEMENT TEAM
Cherri N. Allison, Esq. is the Executive Director at FVLC. A lifetime resident of Oakland, Ms. Allison has more than 7 years of legal non-profit management experience. Ms. Allison also has over 12 years of experience as a family law attorney.
Prior to coming to FVLC, Ms. Allison was the Director of Programs at the Alameda County Bar Association. In addition to Ms. Allison’s expertise in non-profit management, she has experience in board development, program development, grant writing and investments. She currently serves as the President of the Board for the Women Lawyers of Alameda County, is a former member of the FVLC Board, and is a member of the California Alliance Against Domestic Violence and the Charles Houston Bar Association.
In 2008, she is (not inappropriately, I’m sure) awarded by the Bar Association for the work with this Community Organization, along with other judges, attorneys, etc., as it says (tickets, $125),
2008 Installation and Distinguished Service Awards Dinner
Join us on Thursday, January 17, 2008, as we swear in our Officers and Directors and honor the recipients of our Distinguished Service Awards while we enjoy a delectable dinner buffet and cool jazz. The festivities will take place at the Claremont Hills Resort & Spa, majestically resting on 22 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens in Berkeley.*
(*starting to sound like some of the wonderful AFCC, or for that matter, Kids’ Turn promoting retreats and seminars.)
(the “California Alliance Against Domestic Violence” is a grants recipient, from my understanding, through HHS and is where CPEDV went….). WELL, I guess that FAMILY LAW EXPERIENCE may tell us why this group doesn’t seem to educate its clients about the family law process, and what’s happened to it since, say, 2001 (Bush, faith-based), or even 1998, 1999 (US Congress passes resolutions on fatherhood). However, it’s clear Ms. Allison must be informed about the intersection of DV & Family Law; she has written about it:
Domestic violence remedies in California family law cases, 2008. Cherri N. Allison, et al. (CEB, 2008) KFC 115 D664 not accessible to general public, unless you are in L.A.?
Get this (2009)
Women Lawyers of Alameda County (WLAC) honors Exec Director of ACFCJ, District Attorney (who helped fund and start ACFCJ) who also honor a retired woman judge (Hon. Peggy Hora., Ret’d.) who pushed “therapeutic jurisprudence” – a VERY problemmatic practice in the judicial field, and also endorsed by AFCC.
How sweet — aren’t these professionals all close friends with each other then? (Except the women driven homeless through family law system and twice-thrice-and ongoing-abused (Legal abuse syndrome) through its practices, or while (out of state — MD — another state pushing Therapeutic Jurisprudence through Univ. of Baltimore School of Law “CFCC”) a pediatrician mother (is that professional enough?) lost 3 children, drowned in a bathtub on a scheduled visitation, although she warned, pleaded, and asked for visitation to be curtailed based on the prior mental health history and state of the father. (“Cabrillo”).
WLAC “Honor Roll”
This Issue’s Honor Roll:
Cherri N. Allison, Executive Director of the Family Violence Law Center of Alameda County, was recently named “Woman of the Year” for the Justice Category of the Alameda County Commission on Status of Women and will be inducted into the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame on April 25, 2009.
I think that instead of professionals honoring and decorating themselves in nice ceremonies (Sun Myung Moon and the U.S. Senate mock coronation ceremony comes to mind) instead some of the women who DIED because of stupid family law rulings, sometimes along with their children or in front of them, in scheduled exchanges with the father for co-parenting purposes — THEIR names should be honored.
I do not live in this county and so am not familiar with which is most dramatic, but how about honoring the mothers who, having left an abusive relationship (or possibly separated because of the abuse) thereafter, by complying with family court orders to fork over their children to an ex-batterer or abuser, ended up dead.
If this is too many low-income people to consider at once, then why not go for someone closer to the legal profession’s social class — Hans Reiser. Why not honor his wife, Nina. I’m not sure which county this case was in, but sounds like her body was unearthed Alameda County.
And whoever is recommending Batterers Intervention Programs gets my “dunce award of the year; here’s why from “Sagaria Law” — they don’t complete the programs anyhow! Or, (in one high-profile case) they complete the programs and then walk back and kill the woman anyhow (Scott McAlpin).
The programs draw funding — is there something too hard to spell about that?
I started this blog to warn others! after years of the rollercoaster (downhill slide, overall) of the family law system that no one who was involved warned me about when I separated from the abuser. In retrospect, it might have been better to ask for self-defense lessons, mace training, and just utilize it, so I could communicate directly to this person that was is and is not acceptable is, in marriage, a two-way street, and wives are people, too.
FVLC’s services include both protection initiatives for people currently experiencing abuse and prevention initiatives to eliminate future abuse. Today, FVLC is recognized as a leader in the community in both delivering exceptional services to abuse survivors and in advocating for long-term social change for victims.
During FY 07-08, FVLC achieved the following accomplishments [(accomplished the following)]:
- Provided legal services (representation, paperwork preparation, and advice and counsel) to 525 clients, for a total of 2,250 contact hours and 692 court orders.
- Provided crisis counseling and safety planning to 2,823 clients, for a total of 3,250 contact hours.
- FVLC’s HEAL (Healing Emotions and Loss After Domestic Violence) Program provided intensive parent/child psychotherapy to 31 children and their primary caregiver, for a total of 900 contact hours.
- FVLC’s RAP (Relationship Abuse Prevention) Program provided intensive leadership training to 56 youth and violence prevention education and outreach to 1,008 youth.
FVLC has set the following goals for the current year (FY 08-09):
- Continue to strengthen collaborative relationships with other agencies co-located at the Alameda County Family Justice Center with FVLC. This includes the Oakland Police Department, Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, and numerous other community-based agencies.
- Engage in policy work around domestic violence by playing a leadership role on several state and countywide task forces, including the American Bar Association’s Commission on Domestic Violence, California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, Alameda County Family Violence Council, Domestic Violence Advisory Council for the Social Services Administration of Alameda County, and Alameda County Teen Dating Violence Task Force (formed and led by FVLC).
(As you can see, it’s now fashionable to say the words “domestic violence” and form task forces to do something about it, allegedly. Look at the variety of groups that do: The ABA, CPEDV, and something from Alameda County itself I can’t even find (yet), as well as a SSA “Domestic Violence Advisory Council.” How many of these talk to victims they helped 5 years down the road or so?
- With our collaborative partners Youth ALIVE! and Youth Radio, expand leadership training and policy work around teen dating violence at Oakland middle schools through various classroom, after-school, and summer activities, effectively reaching approximately 1,600 adolescents. This is made possible through a generous four-year, $1 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
(Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is very big into funding fatherhood materials. )
This is simply taxation without representation, and totally unacceptable in my book.
And I’m not a Tea Partier.
It sheds a whole different light on the “social contract” that most of (what remains of) the middle class has bought into. If they stick to their jobs, neighborhoods, kids, and planning for leisure & retirement (and don’t ask too many questions about the top layer) — then the top layer will structure society so as to kind of leave them alone, and of course (this goes without saying) make sure the rabble doesn’t get out of control.
FAMILY JUSTICE CENTERS, per IRS search (on the name):
Name City State Country
Code ALAMEDA COUNTY FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER INC. Oakland CA USA — ANAHEIM FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER INC. Anaheim CA USA — FRIENDS OF THE RIVERSIDE COUNTY FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER Riverside CA USA — NATIONAL FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER ALLIANCE San Diego CA USA — SOUTH BAY FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER Torrance CA USA — STANISLAUS FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER FOUNDATION Modesto CA USA — FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY INC. Tampa FL USA — FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER FOUNDATION OF IDAHO Nampa ID USA — FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY INC. South Bend IN USA — THE FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER OF BOSTON INC. Boston MA USA — ESSEX COUNTY FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER INC. Roseland NJ USA — CENTER FOR FAMILY JUSTICE Albuquerque NM USA — TRI-COUNTY FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER OF NORTHEAST NEW MEXICO INC. Las Vegas NM USA — FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER OF ERIE COUNTY INC. Buffalo NY USA — YOUTH AND FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER INC. New York NY USA 4 FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER OF GEORGETOWN COUNTY Georgetown SC USA — KNOXVILLE FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER Knoxville TN USA — BEXAR COUNTY FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER FOUNDATION San Antonio TX USA — FRIENDS OF THE FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER San Marcos TX USA — RESTORATIVE JUSTICE MINISTRY FAMILY SERVICES CENTER Woodville TX USA —
to Be Continued…
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What’s Love — I mean Gender — I mean Gender Expression Discrimination– got to do with it? (Calif AB 887 & AFCC June 2011)
“What’s Love Got to do with it?”
A film about the singer Tina Turner and how she rose to stardom with her abusive husband Ike Turner and how she gained the courage to break free.
[Yeah — how is beating a woman up related to loving her? And what’s using her got to, either?]
I recommend seeing this (if you somehow haven’t, yet). If not, at least hear the song:
This is a review of the movie. If somehow, you are unfamiliar with the story/film, you might as well read it, to get a grip on how AFCC — a group renowned for minimizing and reframing exactly what this woman endured as a “high-conflict” and prescribing their coaches to coach victims of this type of brutality to learn now to get along with perpetrators of it [Or, we will take your children and give them to the other parent — or the state]– parodied the title in a twisted perversion of the original reference — which is of a woman escaping brutal poverty and violence, a role model of success possible after confronting it.
This is hardly the first time AFCC did this, as I blogged earlier in “Clear and Present Danger — fuzzy usage by AFCC“, when a conference indicating that the “Clear and Present Danger” was not (as the California Penal Code stated it was) batterers, but lack of funding for their services.
Actually, that wasn’t fuzzy usage, but targeted usage — directly targeting legal language that addressed domestic violence, and switching usage. Totally in accord with the organization’s stated purpose, which is the transformation of language — including the language of the criminal codes from state to state. If, in the process, this also totally transforms the legal process, the courts (from judging law to dispensing therapy and counseling services, “Problem-solving courts” etc.) certainly (as defined by these helpful professionals), it was a worthy end to justify the means, right?
So o o o . . .. they next ask:
“What’s Gender Got To Do With It?”
( a search of the phrase without “AFCC” shows how Tina Turna’s story has permeated the language…)
Many of the conference handouts I’ve been mocking and “outing”recently (for the marketing schemes they truly are) are from this upcoming (like, next week) AFCC conference in Orlando, Florida. I mean, what’s not to mock? including that it seems they take themselves seriously.
For example: ”
This session examines the complex mental health challenges in some child custody litigants and the dilemmas they present for attorneys and mental health professionals working with flawed parents.
Yeah, for the superior professions, it’s sure hard to deal with flawed parents. It’s ever so irksome dealing with inferior human beings and their flaws. Perhaps they can commiserate with God in this matter… or seek counsel with Him (oh I forgot — it appears they already did..which is why we have to be subjected to the trainings…these conferences intend to fix us flawed parents (“been there, done that — I confess! I’m not flawless!”). At our own expense, when it hits the courtroom.
Perhaps flawed parents, on the next go-round, should be sterilized and make life easier for judges, mental health professionals, and attorneys to ply their trades.
Plus, besides the troubles of dealing with flawed parents, the professionals have some of their own friction to work out (these family law professionals at least know not to display their conflicts in front of the “kids” — i.e., mean, the troublesome parents that need to be educated on how to parent, and divorce, etc.):
Implications of various professional roles will be explored as will the inherent friction between the roles of attorneys and mental health professionals. … Ethical implications of this work will be reviewed….
Wow — in private, among themselves, they actually admit there is an “inherent friction” in mental health professionals & the representatives of law? And that ethical implications exist? — amazing. I caught no hint of this in any court proceedings I was in for the past (xx years), most of them lasting 20 minutes and set to review a mediator’s report we’d just received in the courtroom minutes prior to the hearing. This is called “due process” in action. (or “inaction,” should I say).
This workshop was run — typical AFCC combo — by a Judge, two Attorneys, and a Ph.D.:
Mary Ferriter, J.D., Esdaile, Barrett & Esdaile, Boston,
MA David Medoff, Ph.D., Suffolk University, Boston, MA
Hon. Edward Donnelly, Middlesex Probate and Family Court, Cambridge, MA
Kelly Leighton, J.D., Barens & Leighton, Salem, MA
OK, so apparently Gender has something to do with it. So let’s talk about Gender. Or, eavesdrop on our Legislators trying to talk about it.
What’s Pacific Justice Institute Got to do it?
(with the Gender Debate?)
Who??? — Well,
Pacific Justice Institute for one has lots of love. They provide services for free to “those” they serve according the the blurb at the bottom of my email alerts:
About The Pacific Justice Institute: Pacific Justice Institute is a non-profit 501(c)(3) legal defense organization specializing in the defense of religious freedom, parental rights, and other civil liberties. Pacific Justice Institute works diligently, without charge, to provide their clients with all the legal support they need. Pacific Justice Institute’s strategy is to coordinate and oversee large numbers of concurrent court actions through a network of over 1,000 affiliate attorneys nationwide. And, according to former US Attorney General Edwin Meese, “The Institute fills a critical need for those whose civil liberties are threatened.” “Through our dedicated attorneys and supporters, we defend the rights of countless* individuals, families and churches… without charge.”
What gender individuals. Does this include the right gender individuals involved in the destructive jaws of the family law system, and spat out by it when there is neither wealth, nor children under 18, to suck the life out of?
(No. While PJI tangles repeatedly with the Public Educational system (public), they’re not so foolish as to consistently engage in the family law system, or those entangled in such “family matters.” Doing so on the behalf of women like me might jeopardize some of the financial support, I suspect….)
**Well, being a nonprofit, they’d better keep some books, like something resembling a headcount at least of their own clients….
AS TO CHURCHES NEEDING TO HAVE THEIR CIVIL RIGHTS PROTECTED, BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE CARES:
Churches and church-affiliated charities / organizations have received governmental support a decade by Executive Order. This means that even tax-paying atheists may be supporting them, unawares, and are, because then-President Bush thought it was a great idea and ordered it. “Let there be an office of faith-based and community initiatives.” Lightbulbs went off in religious institutions across the land about access to grants….. [see intro to google book “Godly Republic: A Centrist Blueprint for America’s Faith-based Future”
or a (positive, probably) Georgetown 2004 Master’s Thesis submission(search “Eberly”) ? Don Eberly, a founder of the National Fatherhood Institute, whose agenda was obviously to protect the civil rights of fathers — all fathers — nationwide, who had been attacked by welfare Moms and anti-domestic-violence feminists and the child support system. “
Don Eberly, deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives noted that he believes that the efforts are “’The Ultimate Third Way’” in the renegotiating of ways to approach social philosophy.25 The recent enthusiasm for the new method of social analysis is shared by President Bush as a result of his personal experiences. The faith-based initiatives stems from his belief that prayer has a transformative power to combat social ills.
“About Don Eberly” (Positive). Note the sections “Influence Domestically” and “Movement Founder and Scholar”:
- His career includes a decade serving in senior policy positions in the Congress and in the White House under two Presidents, and another decade advocating for and creating non-profit organizations to strengthen community and civic life.
- Don spent much of the 1990s as a social entrepreneur, founding several nationally recognized non-profit organizations, including the Civil Society Project, which promotes innovation in community development and offers technical assistance for new non-profit start ups. In 1994, he founded the National Fatherhood Initiative, a national non-partisan civic organization whose mission is to improve the well-being of children by increasing the number of children raised by committed, engaged fathers.
GWB had faith in him, for sure:
- Remarks to the Fourth National Summit on Fatherhood
June 7, 2001 (GWB created the OFBCI office by Executive Order in 2001….)“Thank you all very much for that warm welcome. It’s an honor to be introduced by Tommy Thompson, who not only was an outstanding Governor but, I can assure you, is going to be an outstanding Secretary of Health and Human Services. He is bright, capable, smart, and does everything the President tells him. [Laughter]
(We are less than amused….)
He’s my buddy. But thank you, Tommy, very much.
I am so honored Members of the United States Congress are here. I appreciate you all being here, Senator Carper, Senator Bayh, Congressman J.C. Watts. If there are other Members of the Congress here, thank you all for coming, as well. Roland Warren, it’s good to meet you, sir. I appreciate your focus and effort. I’ve got something to say about the other two characters up here in a minute. [Laughter]
For 7 years, the National Fatherhood Initiative has been a powerful voice for responsible fatherhood [programs.& funding…] [as defined by the NFI…] . And for those of you involved, on behalf of our Nation, I say thanks from the bottom of our collective hearts.
- [Ha, ha, ha….How many restraining orders were in effect that year? ….How many femicides of women who tried to leave abuse? Was this detail somewhere, in a dark corner of the conglomerate heart?]
Most States now have initiatives that promote responsible fatherhood, and more than 50 mayors are involved in the National Fatherhood Initiative’s bipartisan Mayors Task Force on Fatherhood Promotion. The fatherhood movement is diverse, but it is united by one belief: Fathers have a unique and irreplaceable role in the lives of children.Two people who have been a central part of the National Fatherhood Initiative are now a valuable part of my administration, . . . .the Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Don Eberly, and the Acting Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services—and, we hope, a man confirmed soon—Wade Horn. [Applause] I was pleased to see Senator Carper leading the applause. [Laughter] Thank you guys for your service, and thank you for your willingness to work on behalf of the American people.
“About Don Eberly” (skeptical) (By: Bill Berkowitz / Published: Feb 7, 2005 at 06:38)
- An advocate of shrinking government, Don Eberly, the head of the Civil Society Project promotes faith-based organizations, private philanthropic initiatives, traditional families, volunteerism and the building of a ‘values’ society. Whose ‘values’ is the question.You won’t find him on many of television’s talking head programs, you wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a line-up, and his essays aren’t sexed-up or buzz-worthy, but for more than 15 years, Don Eberly has been one of the leading advocates of a strain of conservative advocacy known as “civil society.”Although vague and often ambiguous, “civil society” advocates intend to shrink government by handing over responsibility for maintaining and administering what’s left of the social safety net to faith-based organizations, corporate and community groups, families and philanthropic initiatives. As neoconservative cultural critic Gertrude Himmelfarb has written, “When we speak of the restoration of civil society it is a moral restoration we should seek.”
The Teacher in me (forgetting Tina Turner for a few minutes here) believes that we should have a nice link to ath Executive Order of January 29, 2001). (George W. Bush of Texas having been President 2001-2009, this appears to be one of the first things he did in Office):
For Immediate Release January 29, 2001
EXECUTIVE ORDER
– – – – – – –
ESTABLISHMENT OF WHITE HOUSE OFFICE
OF FAITH-BASED AND COMMUNITY INITIATIVES
By the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to help the Federal Government coordinate a national effort to expand opportunities for faith-based and other community organizations and to strengthen their capacity to better meet social needs in America’s communities, it is hereby ordered as follows: …. (Recommended reading! For example, ”
d) All executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall cooperate with the White House OFBCI and provide such information, support, and assistance to the White House OFBCI as it may request, to the extent permitted by law.”)
BARACK OBAMA 2010 UPDATE, incl. “(e) Administration of the Initiative. The Department of Health and Human Services shall provide funding and administrative support for the Working Group (which we can see (click on URL) includes the panorama of departments & agencies) to the extent permitted by law and within existing appropriations.”
As we know, from Whitehouse.gov, there’s the:
And then, to get the jobs done, to execute the policies of the other two branches which the Constitution supports, there are for the Executive Branch
-
Federal Agencies & Commissions, too many to list on this site…
“There are hundreds of federal agencies and commissions charged with handling such responsibilities as managing America’s space program, protecting its forests, and gathering intelligence. For a full listing of Federal Agencies, Departments, and Commissions, visit USA.gov.
(complete with Czars, etc.) The first one of hundreds — alphabetically — is the
Administration for Children and Families (ACF) where Fatherhood.gov, and Child Support Enforcement, Child Protective Services, Head Start, and many of the issues that this blog deals with, resides. Not to mention The President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities,
I’m not sure if I come under this category or not, yet. Academically, no. As to work history, no, or health — probably not. But if the highest levels of the US government itself cannot figure out whether gender does, or does not, matter how can I be expected to?
Again, how can “PJI” possibly supplement all this Faith & Fatherhood-laced Federal Endorsements of NFI and OFBCI? What ongoing attacks on fatherhood and faith is it addressing? (actually, I do know — I keep my eye on their email alerts..)
Well, for once, it earned its keep, in my eyes:
The conservative legal advocacy group (not that they ever helped me, a female with family law issues) for once earned its free place in my inbox by alerting me to another move by my state legislature to help deconfuse us about how to respond to people who are confused about gender, or at least express it differently.
They write :
CA Legislators to Consider “Refining” Definition of Gender
Sacramento, CA – Lawmakers in the golden state are considering changes to thirty-four statutes “by redefining the definition of gender to also include a person’s… gender expression.” The Legislative Counsel’s Digest explains that under the proposed amendments “gender expression would be defined as meaning a person’s gender-related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth.” The bill, AB 988, amends the Civil, Education, Government, Labor, and Penal Codes
Well, who’s complying with most of those codes anyhow? If they are violated, what prison cell is anyone going to go to? Last I heard the recommendation from our “head of state” was to go build prisons in Mexico.
Consider what’s been poured into the “California Healthy Marriages Coalition” from HHS, enaabled years earlier by GWB as President, this sounds as though California forgot where it’s money comes from — haven’t they been listening? Or does California(‘s legislature) have some confusion about states rights, still?
Mission & Purpose
The California Healthy Marriages Coalition (CHMC) is a pioneering non-profit organization that works throughout California to improve the well-being of children by strengthening the relationship of parents through Marriage Education and Relationship Skills classes.
In 2006, CHMC received a five-year, $2.4 million per year grant from Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (HHS/ACF), the largest grant ever awarded by HHS/ACF in support of Healthy Marriages.
Correct me if I”m wrong, but the main thing they were pioneers in was size of federal funding and scope of potential clientele (i.e., the entire married, or divorced, or separating but parents, or marriageable, potentially fertile population of California from age 15 up. male & female..). How courageous, to surge forth on behalf of “Family” with only $2.4 million/year backing….)
Through this funding, CHMC partners with a network of 23 faith- and community-based organizations (FBCOs) throughout California. Each of CHMC’s funded partner organizations is a coalition consisting of many other FBCOs ** through which they deliver Marriage Education and Relationship Skills classes, enabling CHMC to reach California’s diverse population by traversing the key demographic dimensions of geography, ethnic/cultural differences, and agency-type FBCOs.
Just a little reminder, ‘FBCO’ means “Faith-Based Community Organization.” Any faithless, secular, agnostic or atheist organizations that may have already been doing marriage counseling need not apply to join THIS marketing group……. You can be faith-based and counsel the unbelieving (perchance, they’ll be converted by imitation and association) but your leadership cannot be godless…. $2.4 million per year –shared websites — technical and marketing support — wanna reconsider the category of your org, wanna be transformed to a FBCO?
Well I suppose I better get to the point of this post, which began HERE, which at first blush looks to be a “what’s anatomy got to do with gender? And what’s my gender expression preference got to do with my employability?”
California Assembly Bill (“AB”) 887,
In bill text the following has special meaning
underline denotes added text
struck out text denotes deleted textBILL NUMBER: AB 887 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Atkins
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
An act to amend Section 51 of the Civil Code, to amend Sections 200, 210.2, 210.7, 220, 32228, 47605.6, 51007, 66260.6, 66260.7, and 66270 of the Education Code, to amend Sections 12920, 12921, 12926, 12930, 12931, 12935, 12940, 12944, 12949, 12955, 12955.8, 12956.1, and 12956.2 of the Government Code, to amend Sections 676.10, 10140, 10140.2, and 12693.28 of the Insurance Code, to amend Section 3600 of the Labor Code, and to amend Sections 186.21, 422.56, 422.85, 3053.4, and 11410 of the Penal Code, relating to gender.
I don’t know Assembly Member Atkins, but it turns out that through redistricting, San Diego voters were able to (and did) elect an “openly Queer Councilmember,” some of which is detailed (when I simply searched on the Assembly person’s name) here. Lo and behold, Assemblyperson Atkins was the former staff chair of a similarly “out” lesbian, [current Senator] Christine Kehoe –– whose name I know from her attempt to sneak a thinly disguised attempt at legislating Kids’ Turn as THE state-approved parent education plan by having the Judicial Council conduct effectiveness studies. (Yeah, that’s a mouthful– but see post on Kicking salemanship up a notch.”). Amazing what you can do with some great redistricting….
While Atkins was addressing the San Diego Democrats about the horrible budget cuts, it appears a little GLBT (“L” to be specific) nepotism — caught by the San Diego Reader — was going on between her wife’s contract on tehcnical assistance to help San Diego’s homeless by counting them — yes, counting them — to the tune of $464,750 (Details at “Is Assembly Leader Toni Atkins Cashing in on Homelessness?“
By historymatters | Posted March 8, 2011, 9:07 p.m.
There is an enormous amount of money to be made solving the problem: so more homeless equals more money for State Assembly Leader Toni Atkins and her wife’s private business contracted to do a study.
The article boasts a photo of State Assembly Leader Toni Atkins leading the charge of more than 550 volunteers searching for homeless people with her flashlight.
I have actually heard (in a different county) certain homeless people at a soup kitchen joking about, could they get a county job counting themselves? After all, who would better know where to look?
To understand why certain politicians get all excited at the prospects of helping vulnerable populations (kids of divorcing parents, homeless, battered women, etc. . . . ) one must first understand what’s in it for them, or their associates = contracts. This sounds like a fairly typical situation. Do the math. I’m sure Assemblyperson Atkins’ wife Jennifer did. $225 per hour, hire an $175/hr expert, a $90/hr former reporter, and some volunteers. Lots of them.
(Welcome to My State….) Here are legislators supporting mandatory positive portrayals of LGBT as role models for children in public schools. Ah well…..
California wants lesbians as mandatory ‘role’ models ~ Family advocates call plan ‘worst school sexual indoctrination ever’
The Rebel~PWCM~JLAFebruary 12, 2011{actually not just lesbians, interesting choice of lables to highlight)
“Equality California, an organization that advocates for homosexuality, said others sponsoring the plan include Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego; Assembly member Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco; Assembly member Toni Atkins, D-San Diego; Assembly member Rich Gordon, D-San Mateo; and Assembly member Ricardo Lara, D-East Los Angeles.
Lawmakers in the state of California are proposing a law that would require schools to portray lesbians, homosexuals, transsexuals and those who have chosen other alternative sexual lifestyles as positive role models to children in all public schools there.
“SB 48: The worst school sexual indoctrination ever” is how officials with the Campaign for Children and Families describe the proposal, SB 48, sponsored by state Sen. Mark Leno.
Openly homosexual, Leno boasts on his website of founding a business with his “life partner, Douglas Jackson,” who later died of AIDS complications.
(Leno is known among some circles to be closely connected with a certain self-promoting judicial excellence nonprofit reporting on the “crisis in the courts” locally. This group was for years (the few years it’s been involved) refusing to report in the fatherhood funding, and still doesn’t, when it comes to feeding information to local on-lines. So, I do….)
To me, sounds like a very expensive Legislative WAR on Gender Definitions! However, when I hear about any assemblyperson or senator (LGBT, not LGBT, or redneck) involved in corrupt financial practices while yakkin’ about our broke state, I’ll blog the practices. Toni Atkins trained under Christine Kehoe and BOTH of them apparently were trying to pull a fast one on voters who can’t keep up with the ideologies (or are focusing on them, rather than on the payrolls)
BUT, MEANWHILE, if we are going to transform society,
AFCC I think has a simpler, more honest way. They force us all to pay them to force indoctrinations on as many people as possible which help make the Civil & Penal Codes, and the language of them, a moot point, and for that matter, the laws. They do this by getting paraprofessionals into private matters, causing chaos, then running off to hold conferences and trainings with themselves on how to best profit from the mess, and try to exclude non-AFCC-trained professionals (however qualified) from getting a piece of the action.
Jurisdiction was set decades ago, as the chink in the door — any couple having a custody conflict.
It’s clear when you read their conference materials and compare it to actions, that they are simply fulfilling the goal of transforming language — and with it government. And when you read, you can understand that this is the scheme. I think it’s a bit roundabout to undo our Bushwhacked Country by rounding up all damages done and starting a States/Federal fight here.
Why should I pay, in any form, for politicians’ gender wars?
I’m an adult without, to my awareness, gender confusion.
Is it OK if I get out from the middle of this ‘high-conflict” relationship? I’ll even take a “Kids in the Middle“(r), Children in the Middle(r), KidsFirst (though mine have aged out) or even Kids Turn(r) course at my own expense and not ask which foundation also sponsored my participation, or which government grant ALSO sponsored my participation because someone, somehow, somewhere, actually got their paws on my kids’, my, and my ex-husband’s social security numbers and truly understood they were worth more than their (virtual, I guess) weight in gold.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST
AB 887, as introduced, Atkins. Gender.
(1) Existing law contains various provisions that define sex as including gender and define gender as including a person’s gender identity and gender related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth.
This bill would make technical changes to those provisions by refining the definition of gender to also mean a person’s gender identity and gender expression and would define gender expression as meaning a person’s gender-related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth. The bill would also replace cross-references to definitions of gender with the referenced definitions refined in the same manner as specified above.
“THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 51 of the Civil Code is amended to read:
51. (a) This section shall be known, and may be cited, as the Unruh Civil Rights Act…
….
(e) For purposes of this section: …
4) “Sex”
has the same meaning as defined in subdivision (p) of Section 12926 of the Government Codeincludes, but is not limited to, pregnancy, childbirth, or medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth. “Sex” also includes, but is not limited to, a person’s gender. “Gender” means sex, and includes a person’s gender identity and gender expression. “Gender expression” means a person’s gender- related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth .Copyright 2011 State Net. All Rights Reserved.
What about sex as the direct object of a verb, references to (or promises of) which activity fuels so much of our state’s economy? And Bush’s intentions to have us abstain from has cost in “abstinence education programs,” as in “Having Sex,” commonly known as (well, this is wordpress, so fill in the blank after a trip to the local school’s girls — or boys’ — rooms and reading the graffiti, in case your language hasn’t kept up.)
What about sex as a recreational — or procreational –activity, which occasionally and sometimes accidentally, results in human life which can and often is terminated in a variety of ways before or after childbirth, legally or illegally, throughout the lifespan?
Is it really possible to categorize and make legal (or, illegal) all the varieties of human behavior by VOTE?
Note: Bill was posted at the Network of Care for Behavioral Health with the seal of the City and County of San Francisco up top. I think their business will be booming shortly, if it isn’t already. What expressions of healthy behavior are permissible, and who is going to pay if I violate them?
Or feel that my right to, say, indecent exposure might be civilly protected on the basis that I was just engaging in gender expression, and wanted a response as to what others thought mine was…
Well, you tell me — what’s up NEXT in the Legislature that’s likely to affect the bottom line of, for example:
?
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(“I turn, You turn, Kids’ Turn,” cont’d.) Resurrecting Gardner, Promoting Each Other — how AFCC does it…. [Org. Publ. May 23, 2011]
Attorney Richard Ducote commenting, after the news, on a 2003 yahoo group email:
Father” of P.A.S., Richard Gardner commits suicide Topic List < Prev Topic | Next Topic >
Reply < Prev Message | Next Message >
Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2003 08:33:44 EDT
From: Richard Ducote, Attorney at Law, New Orleans, LAParental Alienation Syndrome is a bogus, pro-pedophillic fraud concocted by Richard Gardner. I was the last attorney to cross examine Gardner. In Paterson, NJ, He admitted that he has not spoken to the Dean of Columbia’s med school for over 15 years, and has not had hospital admitting privileges for over 25 years. He has not been court appointed to do anything for decades. The only two appellate courts in the country who have considered the question of whether PAS meets the Frye test, i.e., whether it is generally accepted in the
scientific community, said it does not. As Dr. Paul Fink, former president of the American Psychiatric Association has stated, Dr. Gardner and PAS should be only a “pathetic footnote” in psychiatric history. Gardner and his
bogus theory have done untold damage to sexually and physically abused children and their protective parents. PAS has been rejected by every reputable organization considering it. In a Florida case in which I was recently involved, when the judge insisted on a Frye hearing, Gardner simply did not show up.Perhaps because he finally realized that the entire nation was on to his scam, he committed suicide on May 25. Let’s pray that his ridiculous, dangerous PAS foolishness died with him.Richard Ducote, attorney at law, New Orleans, LA
We should be so lucky….The idea didn’t die …nd here’s why, and where it’s been preserved and disseminated:
Association of Family and Conciliation Courts
8th International Congress on Parent Education and Access Programs
September 26 – 27, 2008/Albuquerque, New Mexico
The Ka-CHING! Factor, right in your back yard:
Separating (with a conflict about custody) parents ARE going to have to deal with many of these people, including a lot of judges on the membership. Isn’t it about time to underestand the playbook, by a sneak peek at them preparing the next set of game plans?
Boycott your next rally or protest (Million Dads, Million Moms, DC protests, begging the President, or anyone else who looks like (note; “Looks like”) they give a damn and hold political office, to fix the courts — when they are like as not among those who ‘fixed’ (as in, rigged) them to start with!
Do your internet time and start reading the behind-the-scenes dialogue of the scriptwriters. Although I’m sure there are also the closed-door meetings, the off-the-record conversations — one can still learn a lot by simply looking somewhere else. THEY take advantage of the internet, but too many mothers (and fathers) get on-line to gripe and complain, and too few do their homework and figure out a thing or two about HOW IT WORKS.
Which only results in higher emotions and more clients for court-referred anger therapy (or — see below).
There are reasons why you may be broke, and the professionals are not. This is among them!
INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS ON CD
AFCC 8002 Ultimate CD ROM (Eighth International Congress on Parent Education and Access Programs) CD ROM?s are the complete conference package including each session?s audio (recorded live!) in MP3 format. $ 99.00 $ AFCC 8111 Opening Session: Domestic Violence and Differentiation: The Impact on Parent Education Programs $ 15.00 $ AFCC 8112 Parent Education as Part of a Thriving Practice $ 15.00 $ AFCC 8113 FromLecture to Life $ 15.00 $ AFCC 8114 Teaching Parents to Parent: A Solution-Focused Approach $ 15.00 $ AFCC 8115 Workingwith Latino Parents $ 15.00 $ AFCC 8116 Cooperative Co-parenting vs. Parallel Parenting $ 15.00 $ AFCC 8117 Creatively Advancing Parent Education with Federal Access & Visitation Grant Funds: The Colorado Experience $ 15.00 $ AFCC 8118 Research for Rookies $ 15.00 $ AFCC 8119 Integrating the Internet into On-site Divorce Education $ 15.00 $ AFCC 8120 Stripped Down or Fully Loaded: Can Courts Deliver Parenting Programs that Change the Impact of Divorce on Children? $ 15.00 $
Mastercard Visa AMEX Card Number
Expiration
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 / 201120172011201220132014201520162017CCV#Whats This? SubTotals Non-Taxable $ Taxable $ Tax Rate Tax Due $
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OK, that rant being done, let’s move on:
The items I checked (XXX) above are, some of them, below.
I’ve pasted the email I sent to a few friends, expressing my feelings about finding “Chet Muklewicz, Ed.D.,” whose PA based nonprofit (I googled it. It’s a residential area outside Scranton) is operating through the Kentucky (not California) courts and leads to promotions of books by Philip Stahl, Ph.D. and you name it — mostly about not alienating one’s kids of course.
LACKAWANNA COUNTY KIDS FIRST CLASS REGISTRATION
Class Selection:
Class Location (Court Jurisdiction): _________________________________ Class Date:____________ Class Time:________
Note: If you have been Court ordered to attend a specific, you must sign up for that class.
Kentucky: Court of Justice – Kids First
courts.ky.gov › Court Programs › Divorce Education – Cached
Showing sessions 1 – 10 of (10) TOTAL sessions
http://www.dcprovidersonline.com/afcc/?event_id=AFCC7
| Session : AFCC8113 From Lecture to Life Conference : 8th International Congress on Parent Education and Access Programs Speaker(s) : |
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PUSHING PARENT EDUCATION — BECAUSE IT PAYS — THE THERAPISTS & PROVIDERS…
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| Session : AFCC8112 Parent Education as Part of a Thriving Practice Conference : 8th International Congress on Parent Education and Access Programs Speaker(s) : |
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Kids First: Children Coping with Divorce and Family Conflict
Kids First program is designed for parents to help their children cope with separation, divorce, and family conflict.
Parents are presented with information about how parental relationships have a direct effect on the children and how children might respond at different ages. Parents learn that parental conflict hurts children and, more importantly, learn what they can do to help their children to adjust to the changes in their family.
For additional information, contact Kids First, 1527 Adams Avenue, Dunmore, PA 18509 or 570-341-2007
Session : AFCC8116
Cooperative Co-parenting vs. Parallel Parenting
Conference : 8th International Congress on Parent Education and Access Programs
Speaker(s) :
Download Format(s) :
MP3
$15.00
- While cooperative co-parenting is often held up as the ideal, itmay not be effective for parents in high conflict, those with personality disorders or when domestic violence has occurred. Parallel parenting is often effective for thosewhowant do the best job of parenting their childrenwhileminimizing communication and conflict. This workshop will examine the key distinctions between co-parenting and parallel parenting andwill help participants understand how to help parents understand their conflict and utilize the post-divorce parenting strategiesmost suited to their family.
- Philip M. Stahl, Ph.D., Author, Parenting After Divorce, Queen Creek, AZ
“CHILDREN IN THE MIDDLE”:
I am beginning to think that Wisconsin (Northern US border) and Texas (Southern US border) are sister-states, based on some of their family-issues connection plus the jet-setting, access-visitation-sponsored conference connections. . . . . This is one.
[@ “Children in the Middle” is one of the approved, mandatory, Milwaukee County parenting programs found at Ms. Diel’s “Parent Education” site. Justifying my concept of “who would take these classes (if not forced to by law in the process of getting divorced”) I found that searching WSPP and this title, only 2 occurrences showed up. One of them was a Jewish Family Services, and apparently a variant, “Kids in the Middle [r]” in this paragraph:
What kinds of counseling services are offered by Jewish Family Services?
Jewish Family Services (JFS) offers a wide range of counseling and therapy options, from individual and group therapy, marriage and family therapy, grief counseling and assistance toindividuals who are struggling with mental and physical illness or disability. JFS offers programs in anger management, Co-Parenting Children of Divorce, Kids in the Middle® program, Collaborative Divorce Mediation and Parent Communication Coaching. For older adults, JFS offers Late Life Counseling.
….Obviously divorce appears to (as far as professionals are concerned) put one in the category of an individuals struggling with mental and physical illness or disability. Whether this is a casual or causal relationship, may be a moot point. You wanna divorce in Wisconsin? You must do it the right way — and there is a toll booth. Only approved classes. …..
ANYHOW — “Children in the Middle” is mos definitely a going concern –and a business concept that seems to originate with another (AFCC, etc., yada yada yada) professional out of — get this — Tarrant County, Texas. Which I was looking at recently, in light of how ‘Fatherhood, fatherhood, fatherhood” (and AFCC_connected) it’s Access Visitation Funding was. Having a Texas Supreme Court Judge who is an AFCC member probably helps keep it going, not to mention Texas OAG personnel such as Michael Hayes and his evolutionary concept of how to expand the access visitation funding and make child support enforcement include “emotional support” funding……, etc.)
BRADLEY CRAIG, received his Master’s Degree in Social Work at UTA and is a Licensed Social Worker and Certified Family Life Educator. He is a noted co-parent educator in the North Texas area, and has developed a number of parent education programs for families raising children in two homes. He began specializing in working with families raising children between two homes in 1992 when he was hired by Tarrant County to conduct social study investigations and provide mediation sessions. He helped them design an orientation for litigating families offered by the county.
{{WELFARE REFORM< ADDING “ACCESS VISITATION” LEGISLATION & APPROPRIATIONS — $10/mil/year nationwide– 1996 – purpose, to ‘facilitate” some of the services, such as parenting education…. to increase [primarily male] noncustodial parenting time…}}
In 1998, he developed the Children in the Middle Co-parenting Education class. Brad left the County in 1999 to open up a program called Children in the Middle Co-parenting Services, Inc., a comprehensive agency designed to help adults raise children between two homes.In addition, he began offering consultation sessions where he would meet with couples and their significant others to develop a shared parenting plan. Children in the Middle Co-parenting Services, Inc. was closed in December of 2003 when Brad was hired to develop and maintain a co-parenting program with a social service organization. He is currently in private practice and contracts with organizations to provide services to families. {{translation — probably gets court- and child support, and what not referrals….}}
As a social worker and family life educator, Brad is a trained family law mediator and provides family law mediation training currently with other organizations. In addition, he offers training for other professionals to structure approaches to help these children being raised between two homes. He works with divorcing families and those with continuing custody/parenting time issue as a Family Mediator, Collaborative Law Allied Professional, Co-parenting Case Manager, Co-parenting Coach, Educator, Parenting Facilitator, and Parenting Coordinator. {{SOMEONE has to keep all those functions straight; who better than a parenting “coordinator”?}}
Brad has written curriculum for co-parent education programs and has developed educational videos. He has been a guest speaker on many television and radio programs and is often asked to speak at local, state and national conferences on co-parenting issues. He hosted an ongoing cable television series “The Children in the Middle Show,” aimed at educating viewers about both the effects of parental conflict after a separation on children and the services available to help families through co-parenting issues.
Brad continues his education through the following organizations, alphabetical and probably in order of influence, too.
Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC)
Texas AFCC
National Association of Social Workers
National Council on Family Relations
International Academy of Collaborative Professionals
Collaborative Lawyers of Arlington and Mansfield
Phi Kappa Phi
Tarrant and Dallas County Family Law Bar Associations
Children in the middle co-parenting class (notice titles to the parts, from Part 1, for adults, “Topics covered include:
• You
• The Victim Mindset
• Domestic Violence”
(Subliminal, much? You, Victim Mindset — you weren’t thinking of reporting domestic violence, were you???)
…..to the part, addressed to the adults, about the children…..
• Co-parenting Vocabulary
• Benefits of Co-parenting
• Alienating Behaviors [such as reporting child abuse, etc….]
See, “AFCC” truly IS, literally a professional development association, as in, they DEVELOP Professions and then refer each other to these developed professions. As this gentleman’s case illustrates, it helps greatly to have social service connections (and funding). AND, through the miracle of the World Wide Web, one’s classes can be marketed on the opposite end of the country (Wisconsin, obviously, in this case), or globally, like Kids’ Turn. The business model does not, I repeat, does NOT entail the practitioners putting their own money into, unless after otherwise allocating their government, nonprofit and federal program fund administrator paychecks, they might want to share a bit with a local nonprofit, and get their name on there as donors…..
LINKS page to “Community Resources” (are you in the IN crowd as a practioner, or not? such as….)
Legal Services
Dallas Bar Association- Attorney and Mediator Referrals, 214-220-7400,LEGALINE – Dallas Bar Association, 2nd and 3rd Wednesday of each month 5-9 p m, 214 969-7066
Legal Services of North Texas– Legal services for low-income families in Dallas county, 214 7481234
Tarrant Bar Association- Attorney and Mediator Referrals, 817-338-4092,
West Texas Legal Services, Legal services for low -income families in Tarrant county, 817-336-9343> > > > > > TEXAS based….
Texas Father’s for Equal Rights– Tarrant County assistance for members in resolution of their pre and post divorce problems.> > > > > Same Idea, on NATIONAL . . . .
Father’s for Equal Rights– Dallas County assistance providing very specific hands-on services to fathers, grandparents, and others who have a current or future case in the Dallas or surrounding areas, or who have children in this geographic area. < < < < < < < <
Texas Law Help– 1-800-252-9690
Texas Legal Services Center
Are there ANY more questions, class, that AFCC is in the business of marketing (see books, above) and that what it is in the business of marketing includes parental alienation (and they don’t care whether it’s junk science or not, nor should you — you should care more about the marketing behaviors, which make whether it’s good policy or not a moot point. You are not dealing with people who give a crap! There is an agenda, GET IT?
THere should also be zero question that the public is picking up some – if not most — of the tab for this, in the forms of paying the IRS, which then pays Access Visitation grants funding, the courts themselves, the child support incentives to the states to connect Dads with their kids and (allegedly!) reduce TANF loads (IS it?).
(for more on that, look up ‘COMPROMISE OF ARREARS __ FAMILY REUNIFICATION” (or wait til I post on that).
By the time I finish publicizing all this, people may be less included to put their name all over the place as nonprofit donors. …. Of course, I”m no Erin Brockovich (yet)….
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I turn, You turn, We all (must) turn to “Kids’ Turn” (and spinoffs)…per AFCC.. [Orig. Publ. May 23, 2011, #2 of 2, same-day].
[Title, short-link, background-color, borders and some tags added Sept. 30, 2019 because I’m linking to this older post..//LGH]
Yumm….. More goodies in the search to solve this problem, including why does the SFTC (That’s SF Trial Courts) have a LIEN on Kids’ Turn, which is constantly seeking more donors so poor kids can consume its services? (Richer ones, there’s a probably no-cap? sliding scale……)
How many mental health professionals is it possible to squeeze into one court case? And how is it done?
Ideally, as many as possible — one after another, after another. There is sure to be a need for them, given that the entire concept of mental health in the family law system is an oxymoron (see the word “law”).
Of course the family law system got its jumpstart with mental health professionals in alliance with legal professionals, somewhere shortly after women go the vote (but before all states had ratified it). The longer the system exists (generation after generation) the more mental health problems there are guaranteed to occur, given the source of them is the practitioner’s cognitive dissonance with state law (for example, against child abuse, child stealing, or valiant statements that there is a rebuttable presumption against custody going to batterers. Or, for that matter, child abusers. It’s a few steps away from fingerpainting — with the paint jars being the jargon used by various fields, which end up generally speaking in one big sticky mess.
Of course, you’re not supposed to see them at play behind closed doors, but since the advent of the Internet (which helps the conferences occur, obviously — and the curricula get disseminated — I’ll show how in a bit here) it’s also fun to track ’em down and catch’em in the act. Like my last post did with AB 2263, an attempt to legislate Kids’ Turn (ONLY) for a Judicial Council sponsored (public payments, I’m sure) analysis of how effective Kids’ Turn — excuse me, “programs that provide services to children undergoing divorce” (or whatever they called it to cover up that the original meaning intended was simply a nonprofit group brainstormed by — you guessed it — family law judges, etc.– this one in particular).
Well Gray Davis vetoed even the sanitized version of let’s build a LEGISLATIVE pipeline from this group to the entire divorcing population (Parental) of California — and the world, but we can start it here — and stick someone else, like taxpayers — with the bill. That was back in 2002.
Did that stop the idea? Heck no! I found the 48th Annual AFCC conference (Kids’ Turn is self-identified as an AFCC member. I guess a nonprofit can be a member of an association of court professionals (judges, commissioners and so forth) with mental health professionals with attorneys, etc.)
So, how IS it done? (other than out of the ready earshot of a court litigant, namely, parent in a custody battle).
(1)
FIRST OF ALL: FORM RAPID DEPLOYMENT UNITS — OF ONE JD, ONE Ph.D. (mental health, what else?) and one MSW or LCSW, or LMFT. Each has a specific purpose. Right now, we find this combo in pre-game a coaching session complete with powerpoint slides and diagrams:
….Understanding the Roles of Mental Health Professionals in Collaborative Practice
Conference : 48th Annual Conference
- A major strength of collaborative practice is the work done by the family with mental health professionals. Collaborative professionals frequently work in interdisciplinary teams to facilitate peaceful resolution. The collaborative process may include one “neutral” mental health professional, or two “aligned” mental health professionals. Both of these approaches may include a child specialist to help understand and facilitate focusing on the needs of the children. In some areas, mental health professionals work as neutral facilitators and as case managers. The program will provide an overview of each role and the strengths and advantages of each.
- Diane S. Diel, J.D., ** President, International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, Milwaukee, WI Barbara E. Kelly, Ph.D., Maitland, FL Mary M. Stengel, M.S.W., LCSW, Towson, MD [PARTNER in COLLABORATION LLC: Alice Dansker Doyle]
- [**notice (Mandatory) Parent Education link on Ms. Diel’s site. This is a critical component. Unless such classes were indeed MANDATORY (even if parents have no custody dispute!) who would attend?][More on this below, @ “Children in the Middle”]
Ms. Doyle is dedicated to the concept of assisting families to civilly resolve issues involved in custody, divorce and related disputes and training dedicated professionals to join the Collaborative community. Toward that result, she and Mary McNeish Stengel, LCSW, established Collaborative Training Solutions, Inc., (CTS) a company completely separate from her law and mediation practice ….Ms. Doyle sees spreading the Collaborative word as a mission. There are many professionals and communities that have not been educated in the Collaborative model of dispute resolution. Some don’t have training available within a reasonable distance because of population and geographical challenges. In addition to reaching larger populations, Ms. Doyle enjoys traveling to communities to provide trainings where local professionals are excited and want to be trained, yet may otherwise have to travel great distances for training because their community is too small to attract a large trainee group”
Session Handouts for AFCC’s 48th Conference
….NOTE — this is an UPCOMING Conference (June, 2011) called ‘What’s Gender Got To Do With It?” See my posts of January, 2011 — when I talk about are you speaking mother, father, or mediator? Pick a conference — there’s something for everyone (but the house wins when the coins are finally tossed.. that’s “mediator” rhetoric)…
The powerpoint slides (available on-line at above link) show few photos, but there’s one — of a father with a kid on his shoulders — next to “Maintain Focus on What is In the Best Interests of the Child,” which is under “Elements of Coaching” slide. But let’s go to the diagram, the playbook:
The slide “WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?” shows two clients in the center, surrounded by larger circles, each one inhabited by a professor. This reminds me of a child’s game, such as “Ring Around the Rosy” or “Duck-Duck-Goose”. Either way the clients (litigants, most likely, parents….) are indeed surrounded by spheres of influence with lines between them; it does remind me of a corral:
“The Suggested Playahs”:
Two per client: Coach & Lawyer
At top and bottom: “Child Specialist“** (at the top — this category reigns supreme, obviously) and bottom, “Financial Specialist” which of course has to undergird the program, or who would fund he other specialists? How can you have a family law case without ferreting who’s got the assets that are going to be soaked in this process? So, FInancial Specialists are very, very important, especially for moneyed divorcing (or separating) parents.
Alternately, if one parent is Title IV-D (welfare), then the “Financial Specialists” are the program managers, and child support administrators, etc. After all, with $4 billion enforcement fees (per year, nationally speaking) surely some of these employees can figure out who’s got the money in each case. It’s in the public’s best interest for the courts to know….
**Child Specialist: (slide) is a NEUTRAL third party who focuses exclusively on the children’s concerns and/or their interests, advocates for the children and consults to the parents and their team. (Why GALs wont work is ….)
MOST professionals like to get paid for their work. Given that this includes child specialists, I say that it’s a rare person holding demi-god (i.e., neutral and not in the least subject to temptation to skew the scale) status. (“Mea culpa, mea culpa” for bringing this up)
When any judge takes payments from any County (in addition to state salary, whether this is in the form of benefits, or anything else) that’s a conflict of interest — the County has a vested interest in certain types of cases, and LOTS of these cases involve children, and child support, sometimes foster care and adoptions as well.
One attorney (non-aligned) noticed this and wrote about it in January, 2009. (I don’t think he was an AFCC member….):
LA County Payments to LA Superior Court Judges Cost Taxpayers Almost 1 Billion Dollars and Denied Constitutional Rights to the People of LA CountyJanuary 07, 2009
Los Angeles, California –
The commencement of the of unconstitutional payments by LA County to LA Superior Court judges was “unnoticeable” to the people of LA County in the late 1980s. Yet, its effect began to permeate the Los Angeles political and judicial systems to the extent that fundamental constitutional rights were compromised.Twenty years after the commencement of the payments, the political and judicial systems of LA County are rife with conflicts of interest, lack of disclosure and the failure to enforce constitutional rights and laws.A well traveled “money trail” exists from LA County who makes payments to LA Superior Court judges [present and past] who decide cases in favor of LA County.
Seems to me it took only a few months for a Superior Court Judge to throw in in Jail and the California Bar to disbar him. After all, his emphasis was constitutional issues (California State), and individual legal rights to fair and unbiased judicial hearings — not exactly your basic mental health, custody-coaching, professional-referral-basis expanding scheme.
So, he got tossed (well, led from the courtroom in handcuffs, and it seems the arrest record also fudged somewhat) into solitary coervcie confinement, as we now know, in an attempt to break his spirit (Note: it failed. 18 months later, he was finally released, and is still at it). This is an interim report from some groups / individuals that took up this banner — about no danged conflicts of interests in our courts, dammit! You will note, Mr. Fine’s comments were from his jail cell (and he has also been disbarred).
Los Angeles, CA Full Disclosure Network® presents a 3 min video report on the November 23, 2009 remarks made by Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich at a meeting of the Los Angeles County Lincoln Club in North Hollywood. The Supervisor provided an update regarding the controversy over long-time practice of the County making payments to Los Angeles Superior Court Judges. Civic leader David R. Hernandez provides his account of the presentation in the video.
A Fourth District CA Court of Appeals decision in November of 2008 ruled the county’s payments were illegal in theSturgeon v. County of Los Angeles lawsuit that revealed Judges, who are all elected officials, were not disclosing the extra payments they received from the County to litigants in the courtroom in cases involving the county nor on the Form 700 Economic Interest statements as required by the California Fair Political Practices Act.
Antonovich responded to a question about the continuing public concern that county payments created a “conflict” for judges and if this conflict was going to be resolved?
Here are some of the points made by Supervisor Antonovich:
- Recent [FEB 11, 2009] legislation, Senate Bill SBX2 11 has now made the payments legal.
- All new judges (appointed or elected) will not be receiving payments from the county.
- Most other California counties have been paying (illegal) benefits to the judges
- This was not just a Los Angeles County practice
- L A Judges have not always ruled in favor of the County (payments started in 1988)
- Several court rulings have been in against the County and in favor of illegal aliens
Featured in the video: are two prominent critics of the illegal payments made to Judges by the County and below are comments from Richard I Fine from his L.A. County Jail cell.
Richard Fine Fires back, in an L.A. Op Ed, as to Ron George. I’m enclosing here, for contrast with the profession-mongering family law field, via AFCC, to see a contrasting view of “in the best interests” of — one based on stop wasting our tax dollars, and concealing how this is done, not to mention, undermining the US Bill of Rights, labeled:
“The Deception of California Supreme Court Justice Ron George”
REBUTTAL TO L A TIMES OP-EDBy Richard I. FineIn his September 14, 2009 Los Angeles Times Op-Ed article California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George stated that the Judicial Council of California decided to close the California Courts one day a month until June 2010. He acknowledged the hardship on Californian’s and praised the Superior Court Judges who volunteered to take a one day pay cut.
FAILED TO DISCLOSE AUTHORSHIP
However, he did not disclose that the same Judicial Council of California of which he admitted he is the Chairman, also wrote Senate Bill SBX2 11. This bill was introduced by Senate President Pro-Tem Daryl Steinberg on February 11, 2009 passed by the State Senate on February on 14th , 2009 and passed by the State Assembly on February 15, 2009 signed by the Governor on February 20, 2009 and became effective on May 21, 2009.EXTRA JUDICIAL BENEFITS & CRIMINAL IMMUNITY
Such bill reinstated “supplemental county benefits” to Superior Court Judges in addition to their State Salary and compensation. Such supplemental County benefits have been held to be “unconstitutional” in the case ofSturgeon vs County of Los Angeles 167 Cal Ap 4th 630 (2008) review denied 12/23/08. Such bill also gave retroactive immunity to the Judges and others from criminal prosecution, civil liability and disciplinary action.$30 MILLION MORE DURING FISCAL CRISIS?
By omitting to disclose Senate Bill SBX2 11 and it’s retroactive immunity,Chief Justice George did not inform the people that the loss to the taxpayers in L.A.County alone of these supplement payments to the Superior Court Judges in fiscal year 2009-2010 is estimated at $30 million dollars this loss is greater than the contributions of all of the Judges of one day’s pay per month over a year. In effect, under Senate Bill SBX2 11 the judges are making more money during this financial crisis while the citizens of California suffer.DUE PROCESS DENIED
Worse yet, because of the retroactive immunity the decisions of the judges receiving county payments before 05-21-09 violated the due process clauses of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution and the California Constitution.
(end of commercial break from AFCC/Family Court Fantasia. back to our regularly scheduled post subject matter, here….)
OK Gray Davis in 2002 scotched (Vetoed) the concept of legislating Kids’ Turn, the whole Kids’ Turn and basically nothing BUT Kids’ Turn** (or — OK, maybe a look-alike or spinoff, such as Kids First, or Kids in the Middle, or Children in the Middle, or . .. or . . . . . anything that would require lots of people, some of who would recommend that parents be ordered to consume social-service product of, for example, a single AFCC acolyte (or, fully fledged priest) from Tarrant County, Texas . . . . . ).
Since the Governor (not the terminator) said NO! although the legislature (with its sanitized version) clearly said “YES” and wanted him to sign it . . . . did these zealots take “No!” for a final answer? Heck, No — they are salespeople first of foremost, and educators at heart.
[[**more commonly known as:
“The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth! So Help Me God!“and you gotta visit the website, there…. unlike these AFCC people, the author has a sense of humor in presenting reality…..]]
All true educators need to get continual access to people who need training after all, ambulance chasers chase ambulances, right? But what’s a psychologist and M.Ed.D. to do without some governmental subsidies? (“incentives”) — compete in the free market base don the quality of the product? NO! — back to the gameboard.
All that was just (long) introduction and setting the stage. This is the juicy center of the dialogue, and why I started this post — after the last two Kids’ Turn Posts. They’re just UNbelievable…. Anyone wnat to go to Florida and take notes at this upcoming conference? Lookee here:
Here’s some “Kids in the Middle” presenters. I’ll be back tomorrow — not done yet here…
Session : AFCC1111
5. Working with High Conflict Parents: How Conflict, Personality Disorders and Gender Influence Outcomes for Children
Conference : 48th Annual Conference
Speaker(s) :
- High conflict parents are the most difficult to work with in divorce proceedings. They utilize an inordinate amount of time and patience for professionals working with them. In addition, enduring conflict between parents, both pre- and post-divorce, has the greatest negative impact on children of divorce. Attorneys, mediators and guardians are in a position to recognize and minimize parental conflict when they possess knowledge about how gender and personality disorders play a role. This workshop focuses on recognizing the key elements at play and providing strategies for ensuring positive outcomes for the entire family system.
- Judy Berkowitz, M.Ed., Executive Director, Kids In The Middle, St. Louis, MO Carol Love, M.A., SMFT, Kids In The Middle, St. Louis, MO
- CLICK THE pdf ICON FOR SESSION HANDOUTS DOWNLOAD
Kids in the Middle profits from the Court-referrals and Schools-referral clientele, and says so on its 2009 Annual Report:
Workshops at the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court, Family Court ␣ 330 parents attended mandated parent education workshops.
Yes it is a Nonprofit, and in 2009, despite over $2,000 in interest income (how many people would this house for a month?), and over $1 mil in income, it operated $55K in the hole, which seems to be a standard in some of these groups. Probably because there are simply so many young and old, and middle-aged people that need this help, a little overeager promotional spending?
Ms. Berkowitz’s KIDS IN THE MIDDLE.org site has a book list. I always find these informative, for example, a few choice ones:
- The Boys’ and Girls’ Book About Divorce
, by Richard Gardner
THE MAN’s DEAD (a vicious death involving knives. Some say suicide, some disagree….), BUT HIS SELF-PUBLISHED IDEAS LIVE ON AMONG CONVERTS…..
- Good Parenting Through Your Divorce
- Parenting After Divorce: A Guide to Resolving Conflicts and Meeting your Childrens’ Needs
PHILIP STAHL ~ highly under-reported by women’s groups protesting PAS theory — they simply don’t pay attention to the distribution systems like I started to ~ ~ CARRIES THE GARDNER TORCH, AND HE’S GOOD AT IT. HE’S PART OF THE JUICY CENTER OF MY POST HERE TODAY — ABOUT HOW HIS BOOKS (AND OTHERS) ARE PROMOTED.. THROUGH COURT-MANDATED PARENTING PROGRAMS DIRECTING EVERYONE TO CONSUME JUDGE-ORIGINATED LITERATURE PUSHED THROUGH JUDGE-ORIGINATED (OR MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL-ORIGINATED) NON-PROFIT, AND SOMEONE HAS TO SAY THIS — FRONT GROUPS. OR STRAIGHT OUT FOR-PROFIT COLLABORATIONS AMONG THE VARIOUS PROFESSIONALS ALL OBSESSED WITH “helping” OPK (other people’s kids) with the problems THEY perceive, from THEIR perspective (only) and with OUR (public) money, like as not…
While the parents they are coaching, already under huge financial stress often enough, are (if taxpayers and wage-earners) picking up, collectively, the slack which nonprofits — because of their wonderful public benefits to all of us, and the universe — get out of paying, i.e., funds for themselves and services like libraries, police, schools, public transportation infrastructure, and far less urgent public priorities than indoctrinating kids and parents in the right way to think about their own children, and their own situations, and of course how not to use criminal terminology in one’s thought processes, even if convictions show that it’s occurred. After all, let’s just “focus on the family” and forget about those other unpleasant matters — eech!
Let’s take a look at a slide, so we know what to expect from this “What’s GENDER Got to Do With It?” AFCC upcoming conference among mental health professionals, attorneys and judges in the family law system:
Workshop Objectives
Know how to recognize a client who may have a personality disorder.
Understand how the traits of a client with a personality disorder can lead to chronic conflict and therefore poor outcomes for their children.
Understand how gender issues can combine with some personality disorders, resulting in extreme dysfunction and poor outcomes for children.
Understand why personality disorder traits make it difficult for parents to meet their children’s needs.
Understand the increased risk for alienation when a parent has a personality disorder.
Learn strategies to manage and support the client with a personality disorder.
I don’t suppose any “personality disorders” might result from abuse, virtual POW situations in the home, or years of trying to avoid provoking a violent incident — or seeking outside protection (and not getting it) from someone molesting one’s own kids on unsupervised weekend visitations…. Or having suddenly lost one’s kids’ after trying to do something about that and having been unprepared for the impact of federal incentives to switch custody and eliminate child support arrears through access visitation funding….
But, as it’s said, Cobblers see shoes, and Mental Health professionals see Personality Disorders and not what might have CAUSED them…. To People selling hammers, the problem is a nail… To people obsessed with unmonitored contact with distressed minor children — and these often show up in M.Ed.D. forms, i.e., as educators — the problem with divorce is the parents…. both of them — and the solution is to separate the kids and coach them on how to think about their parents and themselves….This also pertains if the source of conflict may entail, say, poverty — it’s still more critical that the problemsolving money goes to nonprofits coaching Kids and Parents…..
Here’s another slide. Given the scope of the problem (neurotic divorcing parents), Kids in the Middle, Inc. and it’s 23 paid staff (some of who are, obviously getting some frequent flyer miles in, too) stand ready to stand in the gap against the bad parents, and provide services to fix their viewpoints:
About Kids In The Middle ®
Our Services: Consultation Assessments Group Therapy for Children Individual Therapy for Children Family Therapies Treatment Reviews Individual Therapy for Parents Co-Parenting Counseling Parent Groups
Diagnostic Supervised Visitation Mandated Co-Parenting Education Classes
(at least 3 of these categories come under the federal access visitation (incentive) grants to increase noncustodial parenting time. We know in practice, this rarely occurs with a mother, even though more and more mothers are being completely eliminated from contact with their children through these and similar programs. Moreover, to keep the professional straights, AFCC around the country & state chapters are also heavily promoting (supposedly to meet the grassroots demand from the general public) “Parent Coordination” as a new field. Wait til you see my post on THAT one….)
Here’s another. Notice that being “wounded” disqualifies one’s ability to co-parent (which might result in recommendation of sole custody to the other parent, logically speaking….). There is no mention of who is inflicting which wounds. THe total oblivion to the blood on the streets of women and children (and sometimes men, by suicide after killing the women, or just the children) around divorce. Those aren’t their concern, I guess. After all, dead people don’t consume mental health services….at least court-mandated; I imagine it could seriously screw up surviving relatives and witnesses….
Assessing Parental Ability to Co-Parent
What we look for:
Level of cooperation as parents in the marriage Is conflict pervasive or focused on a few issues? Level of trust Level of “woundedness” of one or both parents Level of acceptance of the separation
Ability or inability to let go of issues from the marriage Level of animosity Ability to recognize and express the other parent’s
strengths Mental Health Issues
DastardlyDads.blogspot.com reports some of these (I’m glad someone else does, I couldn’t do this consistently — too close to home!) Here’s one from May, 2011 — this month.
Dad charged with 1st-degree murder; 17-year-old daughter found in dumpster (Washington, DC)
After much public display of grief and gnashing of teeth, dad RODNEY JAMES MCINTYRE has been arrested in the stabbing murder of his 17-year-old daughter. Her body was found in a dumpster. Seems that Daddy was sexually abusing her. Not one word here about this girl’s mother….INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT. http://dcist.com/2011/05/father_of_ebony_franklin_charged_wi.phpFather of Ebony Franklin Charged with First Degree MurderNearly 6 months ago, MPD made the gruesome discovery of the body of 17-year-old Ebony Franklin in a dumpster in the ally of the 1000 block of Fairmont Street NW. Now, they have arrested Rodney James McIntyre, Ebony Franklin’s father, for her murder. Ebony was stabbed 17 times.Sources say McIntyre was linked both by DNA and cell phone records to Franklin’s death.
Police Chief Cathy Lanier indicated in her press conference announcing McIntyre’s arrest that there was also evidence of a sexual relationship between Ebony Franklin and her father.
McIntyre had been quoted in the press saying that “The way my baby was found in the trash, it’s unacceptable. What I want to know as her father, what really took place with my child?”
Now why must parents who may have gone through some serious, criminal hell spots be exposed, unilaterally, to consume classes by professionals who blame both parents for failure to get along with each other in situations where there is a clear perpetrator? . . . . . . . . I’ll let you figure out your own answer, I have also…. The entire forced shared-parenting/ joint-parenting field ignores situations like this, and that if separation HAD been allowed by the family law system, how many children would be alive now, that aren’t? And their mothers? and their fathers? What kind of sick obsession is it to change the language of criminal law into the language of, “my mental illness — and she alienated my children — made me do it”? This IS the language of AFCC; their main site acknowledges this, and it has now become the norm….
The real motivation is greed and fear of no professional niche for people raised on education theories and psychology. .. back to this particular group:
I’m so re-assured that these mandated classes will keep us on the right track. However, if they don’t, these same ladies are also training Advanced GAL classes (from a 2010 Missouri Bar agenda):
Child-Focused Divorce Therapy & How Attorneys Can Keep Kids Out of the Middle of Divorce Disputes
Speakers: Judy Berkowitz and Carol Love, Kids In The Middle, Inc., Kirkwood [MO]*
[GEE: I wonder if the punch-line is to recommend classes/services from groups like, say, “Kids in the Middle”…]
(*Kirkwood is an affluent suburb of St. Louis)
NOW LET’S SEE ANOTHER SET OF AFCC WORKSHOPS/ MP3s on HOW TO THINK RIGHT (a.k.a., marketing seminars for court professionals)….
-
A little more “Parenting Coordination” promo, a little more “Alienation Theory” promo never hurts:
ession : AFCC1101
2. Advanced Challenges in Parenting Coordination
Conference : Pre-Conference Sessions from the 48th Annual Conference
Speaker(s) :
- Successful parenting coordination is dependent on a research-based understanding about what works and what doesn’t. This institute will help participants optimize outcomes with difficult parenting coordination cases by constructing a framework for success. Presenters will address parenting coordination from the mental health {{1st things first — Mental Health First, Legal — 2nd}} and legal {{legal rights? legal ethics? or how to expand the legal profession(and further undermine civil rights) by engaging mental health professionals?}} perspectives offering a multidimensional understanding of the process. Participants will be better prepared to address complex parent coordination cases. {{PARENTING COORDINATION EXISTS to handle the Complexity Groups like AFCC have already introduced. Apparently, this has gotten out of hand, and not parenting coordination itself has (already) gotten “complex” and needs coaches to tell coordinators how to keep it together…}}
- Debra K. Carter, Ph.D., National Cooperative Parenting Center, Bradenton, FL Hon. Hugh Starnes (ret.), Ft. Myers, FL Denise L. Baier, M.A., Ft. Myers, FL B. Kerry Brown, M.S.W., Temple Terrace, FL
Session : AFCC1102
3. Differential Responses to Alienation: Risk Factors, Indicators and AssessmentConference : Pre-Conference Sessions from the 48th Annual Conference
Speaker(s) :
- Alienation has serious consequences for children and families. Based on a differential response model, the presenters advocate for early identification of parent-child contact problems and risk factors for the occurrence of alienation, and the implementation of appropriate, targeted responses. ** This institute (“INSTITUTE”???) provides a framework (indoctrination model) for assessing and intervening with families to resolve parent child contact problems before behaviors become entrenched; and help judges, lawyers and mental health workers to effectively respond to cases of alienation.** The analytical framework presented is based on a review of literature and case law, interviews with practitioners and scholars, and clinical experiences.
- Nicholas Bala, LL.B., LL.M., Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada Barbara Jo Fidler, Ph.D., Toronto, ON, Canada Michael Saini, Ph.D., M.S.W., University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
***”Alienation” is like the headless horseman. It’s been proved scientifically unsound and rejected by the American Prosecutors (etc., etc.) — but it rides on, in places like this.
A group taking Violence Against Women funds is now in bed with the “let’s not talk about it!” AFCC, lending a false legitimacy to the discussion. I have tracked funding from this one (BWJP) and am presently p*ssed off at the alliance — although hardly surprised by it. FOr the record, attempts were made to contact Ms. Frederick about AFCC regarding mis-use of the federal program funds to pay off custody switching to batterers/molesters (as I recall Liz Richards relating this — I was the person who alerted her to BWJP hooking up with AFCC). For a number of years, HHS grants of $1.78 Million went to this organization. The mutual blindness is probably not accidental — it’s a symbiotic relationship to keep the grants coming and support the published professionals — while parents, I must say, perish, or just about….
Session : AFCC1122
16. Examining the Family Court Response to Cases Involving Domestic Violence: Findings of the Henry County Ohio Safety Audit
Conference : 48th Annual Conference
Speaker(s) :
- This workshop describes the methodology and outcomes of a recent study of the legal and social service systems used to resolve child custody matters involving allegations of domestic violence. The Safety Audit, an institutional ethnography process, generated practical recommendations for strengthening the responses of various family court practitioners to custody cases involving domestic violence. Local and national audit team members will share the findings and recommendations of this audit and discuss the challenges of the process.
- Loretta Frederick, J.D., Battered Women’s Justice Project, Winona, MN Hon. Denise McColley, Henry County Family Court, Napoleon, OH Richard L. Altman, J.D., Magistrate, Napoleon, OH PamWeaner, J.D., Legal Aid of Western Ohio, Defiance, OH
- CLICK THE pdf ICON FOR SESSION HANDOUTS DOWNLOAD
These people truly do not know what time of day it is. What they do know, however, is where their next plane ticket is coming from. The difference in perspective comes from a consciousness and quasi-religious (in some cases, less than quasi-) belief that the world is fair, and that certain types of professionals are essential to keep it balanced — if only those danged parents would be more docile when ordered to sit still and be taught at!
Here, Ms. Frederick is on a Domestic Violence Task Force (“Wingspread Conference”) with a bunch of AFCC-ers, giving their concerns about the matter a veneer of respectability.
http://www.afccnet.org/pdfs/AFCC%20Five-Year%20Report%20Web.pdf
(hover/click to see summary text on link. Looks like AFCC, bored with the US, is providing social science libraries to developing nations, to make sure they develop right — Philistines, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Mongolia. I don’t suppose any of these materials might take into account cultural differences or, for example, address family problems caused by — shari’a law, and honor killings? ??? Are we still into co-parenting issues there, too? Or is it just the ol’ bread and butter parental alienation, plus bring on the court-referred mental health professionals? Do we think that these countries are going to need fatherhood commissions to balance out the destructive feminists in developing nations who — for example — attempt to marry out of their faith, or are guilty of having been gang-raped without 4 male witnesses to testify it wasn’t consensual adultery — punishable by death, to the woman at least..?)
I really have to question AFCC’s motives in all this — what “world” do they live in? Where are their heads at?
And we are letting this PRIVATE, JUDGE~MENTAL HEALTHPROFESSIONAL-ORIGINATED, NONPROFIT(and originally, tax-dodging) PRIVATE organization basically run the family law system, which receives PUBLIC funds, from the top (California Judicial Council, Texas Supreme Court, at least, and plenty of superior court judges are members) to bottom and even let them train paraprofessionals who don’t even belong there to start with ? ??? And we then fund domestic violence organizations who don’t fess up to they’re going along with the program, pretty much, by failing to report the grants angle (i.e., how it plays into custody decisions….)
???
So, YEAH, I’m disturbed by this. Why shouldn’t I be? Did Ms. Frederick or BWJP report on, say, in 1999, how Ohio Legislature voted a Fatherhood Commission in to law, and did they warn single mothers, including single battered mothers, how this might impact their custody cases? See “5101.34 Ohio Commission on Fatherhood”
or how its membership was specifically targeted to single females? …. Or how this then, a mere 2 years later (2001) apparently, led to supreme-court appointed a TASK FORCE ON FATHERHOOD (you always need a task force, right?) I hope blog readers scan through THIS document, and search for “Philip Stahl” (an expert who testified, what else), learn how people were flown out to Maricopa County, Arizona home of Dawn Axsom – oh, I forgot — she was murdered, along with her mother, on a court-ordered visitation after pleading with a family law judges to leave, as there had been death threats — to hear AFCC presentations.
Ohio Task Force on Family Law and Children
Family Law Reform: Minimizing Conflict, Maximizing Families*
*if that sounds like your basic AFCC presentation, it is…. Experts giving testimony:
Experts and Stakeholders
Individuals who testified before the Task Force
Nancy Neylon Executive Director Ohio Domestic Violence Network
The Hon. Judith Nicely President Ohio Domestic Relations Judges Association
Kevin O’Brien President of the Board Parents And Children for Equality
Eileen Pruett, J.D. Director of the Office of Dispute Resolution Supreme Court of the State of Ohio
Nancy Rodgers, J.D. Vice Provost, Academic Administration The Ohio State University
Jeff Sherrill, Ph.D. Meers, Inc. Ohio Psychological Association
Michael Smalz, J.D. Statewide Attorney Ohio State Legal Services Association
The Hon. Leslie H. Spillane Judge, Butler County Court of Common Pleas Domestic Relations Division
Philip Stahl, Ph.D. Psychologist Author “Conducting Child Custody Evaluations: A Comprehensive Guide” and “Complex Issues in Child Custody Evaluations”
Tracy Ulstad, J.D. Ohio State Legal Services-NAPIL Equal Justice Fellow
Sanford Braver, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology Arizona State University Author “Divorced Dads: Shattering the Myths”
Gerard Clouse, J.D. Attorney, Sowald, Sowald and Clouse
Christine Coates, M.Ed., J.D. Mediator and Parent Coordinator Past President, Association of Family and Conciliation Courts
Robert Emery, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Director of Clinical Training Director of the Center for Children Families and the Law University of Virginia Author: “ Marriage, Divorce and Children’s Adjustment”
Judy Greenberger School Psychologist, Shaker Heights City Schools Ohio School Psychologists
Don Hubin, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy The Ohio State University
Magistrate Eva Kessler, J.D. Chair, Domestic Relations Practice Area Ohio Association of Magistrates
Deborah Kline Association for Child Support Enforcement
Michael Lamb, Ph.D. Head of Section on Social and Emotional Development National Institute Of Child Health and Human Development
The Hon. Charles Loman III Judge, Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, Domestic Relations Division Kids Turn Program
(Did someone say there is a Kids Turn Program right on a court website? Well that simplifies matters…CN find record of this one easily, or much on the judge….)
(This link is FYI amusement — although the mother in the case is not amused. She did get the expense reports, however, and out one of Judge Loman’s associates for billing taxpayers on Thanksgiving Day, after having hand-delivered a final decision. This is a PAS/Sexual abuse allegations, custody went to Daddy case, might be interesting reading….)
{2011, it looks like a ‘Parent Education Department:
“The court is led by Administrative Judge Denise L. Cross and Judge Timothy D. Wood. The Judges are assisted in performing the duties of the court by nine Magistrates, the Legal Services Department, the Court Operations Department, Bailiffs, Court Reporters, the Legal Secretary Department, the Assignment Office, the Compliance Office, the Family Relations Department, the Mediation Services Department, the Management of Information Systems Department, the Finance Department, and the Parent Education Department.”
The required seminar (3 hrs) is “Helping Children Succeed After Divorce” as a link to this 5-yr divorce case shows, interesting docket, too.
OHIO 2001 Task Force Experts — Anyone want to bet how many of the above are members of AFCC, besides those who actually admitted it?
Here (remember — back in 2001) is the preface to the final report of this task force, showing what they did:
However, given the scope and importance of the project, the General Assembly extended this deadline, to allow this research effort to be advanced more fully.
More than two dozen experts from around the state and across the country presented testimony to the Task Force over a six-month period. Representatives from a variety of parents’ organizations,** as well as a panel of teens who had experienced their parents’ divorces, brought their unique concerns to the Task Force. Staff members obtained research articles and statutes from around the nation and the globe to find the latest policies and practices. Members of the Task Force traveled to Phoenix, Arizona, to meet with staff at the Maricopa County Court system, a nationally recognized leader in court services and pro se programs, and to conferences sponsored by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, an internationally acclaimed organization which provides research and programs for professionals dealing with families in conflict.**
{**and has an official policy to change the “old” language of criminal law to the “new” language of (psychology, essentially…..) –}
{**anyone see a feminist flavor within range of the task force? Or someone willing to talk about domestic violence? . .. Note — contents highlight the access visitation conferences. I attended the BMCC (Battered mothers Custody Conferenc) in NY state this past January (2011) — and practically no one had HEARD of “access visitation” nor — naturally — was it even discussed. One reason, among others, I left there in disgust. They are no better than the fatherhood groups that don’t help fathers — it’s just about the dole, the $dollar….}
At the end of the information gathering process, the Task Force examined all of the information obtained with one goal in mind, enhancing the well being of Ohio’s children and families in a fiscally efficient and responsible way. Ideas were discussed and debated, and suggested statutory language created. The Task Force focused on the idea that Ohio’s legal and social service institutions should minimize conflict between parents and protect children from the effects of their parents’ conflicts, while providing opportunities and support to parents as they continue to be parents to their children, regardless of family structure. The following report and recommendations are the result of this extensive research effort and debate and have been unanimously approved, without any abstentions or dissents, by official action of the 17 members of the Task Force present at the final meeting on June 1, 2001.
So, given all this lead-in, I really ought to show you the Philip Stahl Promotion in the 48th annual conference (guess AFCC was only in its 30s way back then…..):
TO BE CONTINUED ON MY NEXT, HYPER-LINKED POST …
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Kicking salesmanship up a notch: the nonprofit “Kids’ Turn” and my California Legislature (Sept. 2019 title update: Calif. Legislature 2001-2002 Session, A.B. 2263, 2002, C. Kehoe tries to legislate KT as a standard and order funds to study and expand it)
Post Title: Kicking salesmanship up a notch: the nonprofit “Kids’ Turn” and my California Legislature (Sept. 2019 title update: Calif. Legislature 2001-2002 Session, A.B. 2263, 2002, C. Kehoe tries to legislate KT as a standard and order funds to study and expand it) (Shortlink url: https://wp.me/psBXH-G7, published May 19, 2011, this title update added Sept. 29, 2019, about 7,661 words. Original title as seen only in bold. I added explanatory phrase, and nowadays I add “date published” to the title where possible.//LGH.
From this post (tongue in cheek, my voice, after reading about it):
…Everybody who’s anybody in the family law fields (whether attorney, judge, or psychologist/family therapist, etc.) should take a turn at running Kids’ Turn.
From that bill, before amended to ask for generic help, not specifically admitting that what was meant was “our baby, Kids’ Turn”)…operates as a franchise sold only to nonprofits (not mentioned: started and run by, see previous quote):
Kids’ Turn is a private non-profit organization that provides workshops for children and their parents that are intended to teach skills to cope with the difficulty of divorce and separation….
Fees for workshops range from $75 to $600 (on a sliding scale). Kids Turn conducts programs in San Francisco, Marin, Alameda, and Contra Costa County. The organization has sold its curriculum and licensed affiliates located in Sonoma, Napa, San Diego, Shasta, and Yolo Counties (in addition to Dayton, Ohio and Hillsboro, Oregon. Although sold only to nonprofits, the program effectively operates as a franchise. Kids’ Turn currently is conducting its own study, in consultation with the California School of Professional Psychology. This bill would require the Judicial Council to duplicate, at least in part, the current study.
Among the objections raised, and possibly why (last I looked) it wasn’t passed SPECIFICALLY naming Kids’ Turn as the California (NB: Large state!) recommended parent education curriculum:
…According to the Judiciary Committee analysis, the author states that the bill is needed so that Kids’ Turn will have state approval as evidence of credibility and will allow courts to “recommend Kids’ Turn as a resource to the community.”
[[On the organization’s website, five-year strategy, this analysis continues]]
…Specifically targeted for consideration is: “Enhanced marketing strategies in order to increase the number of Kids’ Turn affiliates and sales of Kids’ Turn Curriculum.” This bill may create the appearance that a State study and Judicial Council recommendations are part of a marketing strategy..
In fact they are. The workaround was to delete specific references to the corporation name and limit the dollar amount for the study to $50,000, from the phrase amount “necessary.”
Author’s amendments: The author proposes amendments (LCR# 0216385), which (1) delete the specific reference to Kids’ Turn and, instead, study projects or programs that provide services to parents and children undergoing divorce, 2) to delete reference to program expansion; and 3) to delete the language requiring the Judicial Council to allocate the amount “necessary” to conduct the study, to limit the State’s obligation to $50,000. The third staff recommendation to authorize, but not require the study, was rejected by the author.
Shameless! I do not know what became of the bill; I was just discovering it at the time (and my second child was turning adult around the time I discovered it). The continued use of state government positions, websites, and affiliations (especially AFCC’s) continues in the second decade of the 21st century and as we are approaching the third decade, I expect unless someone develops the means and courage to stop it, will continue to do so.//LGH
BELOW THIS LINE: AS WRITTEN May 2011 (except as I may later return here to clean up formatting, which is seriously in trouble at this point, but for a snapshot in time, you can see the basic content is still here and was then/still is now, solid on the business model in play…//LGH 9/29/2019):
I was just casually searching on “Kids’ Turn Affiliates” and even I was surprised at how far proponents would go to push this judge-originated nonprofit.
To the California Legislature?
Yep. The original version was written specifically to this one organization that is probably something of a slush fund to start with.
Makes you wonder about some of our legislators. (posted below).
It was already mentioned 2001-2002 (at a minimum) in the Calif. Judicial Council’s Report to the Legislature on Access and Visitation Fundings, as a sub-grantee. In fact, looks like it was the first one that popped to their mind:
The following are some of the parent education programs funded by the grants that help promote and encourage healthy parent-and-child relationships.
- Kids’ Turn (San Diego, Napa, and Shasta Counties): This is a nationally recognized educational program that offers workshops and counseling for families with separated or divorced parents. Kids’ Turn teaches family members the skills that can improve communication between children and parents and help parents understand their children’s experience during and after divorce.21
The San Francisco (founding org.) Kids’ Turn apparently gets some direct help from the City & County, and wants more:
We submitted our first grant to the Administrative Office (AOC) of the Court in November, 2011. This grant was submitted in a partnership with the Rally Project. If awarded, the AOC will fund low-income, noncustodial parents and their children to attend Kids’ Turn services.
6. The City and County of San Francisco initially reduced our 1011 grant award by 10%, but the amount was re-instated in September, 2010 raising our contract award to the original $50,000. This funding is for our very specialized, Nonviolent Family Skills Program for Juveniles.
If you’re actually still earning money, while in the custody process, the Sliding fee Scale does not seem to have an upper limit (?):
FEE TABLE
Pre-Tax Income Tuition with 1 Child 2 Children or More 0 — $14k $50 $60 $15k — $19k $65 $80 $20k — $24k $90 $120 $25k — $29k $175 $225 $30k — $39k $250 $300 $40k — $49k $325* $375* $50k — $59k $450* $500* $60k — $74k $625* $725* $75k — $99k $750* $850* $100k — $124k $900* $1000* $125k — $250k $1075* $1175* $251k — $500k $1400* $1550* $500k+ $1700* $1900*
For parents receiving child support (often the mother), this is counted in the “pre-tax” income to determine fees.
(I wonder if this includes child support that’s not being paid……)
Parents paying child support, however, can deduct that from the “pre-tax” income to determine fees….
WHO & WHAT IS KIDS’ TURN?
(well, see my recent post on this)…(or figure it out yourself):
- What is “Kids Turn?” — it’s a nonprofit started by a family law judge in about 1987, with help later from some family law attorneys, one of who was called a Northern California “Super attorney.”
Kids’ Turn
THE HISTORY OF KIDS’ TURN
From 1987 to 1990, Judge Ina Levin Gyemant presided over the family law department of the domestic relations court, noting that while lawyers filed motions and parents sought orders regarding custody, visitation and other diputes,[sic] children and their needs were almost completely ignored. Mediation services were mandated for parents in California in 1980, but no educational program was available for children, who are often the people most vulnerable and confused during separation or divorce.
- It’s perhaps a training ground on how to promote parental alienation and get paid for it.
- It’s a debtor to the San Francisco Superior Court (figure that one out — because somehow, we found that the “SFTC” has a lien on this group).
- It has tons of donors on its roster (many of them judges or attorneys), gets apparently some of California’s share of the Access/Visitation funding (which is $10 million per year, nationwide, and California, being so large, gets close to $1 million/year for this source of funding).
- Foundations & Associations help it continue & expand:
Foundations
2009
Linda Brandes Foundation CFLS
California Bar Foundation
Boys & Girls Foundation
Cuatrecasas Family FoundationThe Samuel I. & John Henry Fox Foundation at Union BankSempra EnergyLions Club of San DiegoStensrud FoundationJAMS FoundationLawyers Club- Fund for JusticeLeroy and Claire Hughes Family FundMary and John Grant FoundationAmerican Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers- NationalAmerican Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers2010Ellen G. & Edward G. Wong Family FoundationJAMS Foundation (This is a foundation of Mediators. Pushing Mediation is central to Family Law….)Cuatrecasas Family FoundationPrice CharitiesQualcommLinda Brandes Foundation (This wealthy couple never had any children….)(See photo of her 67 yr old ex, “Charles Brandes” with new 42 yr old wife — and Bill Clinton in between.. . )Carlsbad Charitable Foundation, an affiliate of The San Diego FoundationFieldstone FoundationWells Fargo FoundationWD-40 CompanyComerica BankThe Samuel I. & John Henry Fox Foundation at Union Bank2011Leichtag FoundationLinda Brandes FoundationHD SupplyCFLS **Cuatrecasas Family FoundationAAML- Southern California Chapter
- {{** {{CFLS, 2011 donor: Why isn’t this ACRONYM (not found on the web) specified? It apparently stands for “{Association of} Certified Family Law Specialists,” such as Linda Pabst de Leon here, speaking at a CFLS seminar and listing herself as a Kids’ Turn Board of Director (& Event Committee 2006) and “Featured guest speaker at CFLS’ Spring Seminar, “Nov-DV Restraining Orders” (2005))} “CFLS” is not an organization (I think) but a Designation that individuals can reach: }}
- {{At least 2 of the “Corporate Donors” listed on same page are the firms that a Kids Turn Board of Directors member works on… meaning, not that the project is so great, but that someone already at the firm managed to finaigle, or sell, a donation ….}}
- San Diego Foundation, 2010:
- Kids’ Turn San Diego, Expansion of Kids’ Turn Workshops into Carlsbad $20,000Kids’ Turn San Diego plans to bring no less than four, 4-week psycho-educational workshops into Carlsbad, serving 100-120 families who are divorcing or fighting over custody of their children. The workshops will show families how their conflict is negatively impacting their children and teach them to communicate more effectively, manage their anger, focus on their children and create a healthy two household environment for all involved. Furthermore, Kids’ Turn San Diego will help children make a successful adjustment to challenging family changes.
- 2008 Donations
The Southern California Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyer supports the following organizations: . . .- Kids’ Turn – San Diego – This is the only program in San Diego County working for te whole family to achieve a child centered and healthy divorce. It provides a low cost solution for families experiencing the pain of divorce or separation no matter how great the conflict.
- A former Pro Tem Judge, Attorney Alan Edmunds, promotes Kids Turn through a link, at “SanDiegoDivorceCenter.” (services provided by The Edmunds law Firm).
- It showed up in the San Francisco list of nonprofit organizations providing services to the City and County of SF, as a vendor. From what I recall, for 3 years in a row the billing was around $45,000.
Report 1234a
Data As Of : 05/15/2011
City and County of San Francisco
Vendor Payment Summaries Website
Page 1 of 1
Search Results by Vendor, Department, Type of Goods and Services and Document
Profit
Process
Search Results by Vendor
Process
- It’s apparently a model judges and attorneys love, because a spinoff “Kids Turn” is in San Diego; in fact a group called “Kids First” (There are a number of “kids’ Firsts” around, but indeed there was one which claims to be modeled after Kids Turn). The beauty of these programs is that the curriculum/curricula is designed, perhaps ONCE (with maybe occasional updates) — and can be marketed endlessly to families going through divorce court who can’t agree on the custody of their children. Which is usually what brings them to divorce court to start with, so obviously the market is right.
- Everybody who’s anybody in the family law fields (whether attorney, judge, or psychologist/family therapist, etc.) should take a turn at running Kids’ Turn. Some of these people did and at least one is a Super-Attorney. Some even go on to create look-alike programs for other client sectors, such as Dr. Delisle…. PLUS, you can work there, if you have a BA (recent job listing, $35-38K/year. (Can a person who survived divorce court and a custody battle apply? Because such people include those with BA’s who are probably hurting financially… Of course, you’d have to buy parental alienation theory, which this group promotes.…)
- The Founder of Kids’ Turn San Diego in 1996, Dr. Delisle received the 2001 Peacemaker of the Year Award from the National Conflict Resolution Center. In 2005, She was honored by Channel 10 news for its Leadership Award. She was also recognized by the San Diego County Bar Association for the “Distinguished Organization Award”. In 2008, Dr. Delisle transferred responsibility for Kids’ Turn to new leadership
- In the Spring of 2010, Ms. Kalemkiarian was Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law, teaching a full semester course in Family Law. From 1993 to 1996, she served as the Supervising Attorney of the Child Advocacy Clinic at the University of San Diego School of Law. An active community leader, she has served as the President of the Kids’ Turn San Diego Board for over ten years, and is a longtime Board Member of the Environmental health Coalition. (Ms. Kalemkiarian is also an AFCC presenter) As a leading voice for children in San Diego County, she oversaw the design and implementation of a new system of care for children’s mental health, as the Director of Project Heartbeat. She is a frequent author of opinion editorial pieces regarding public policy and children. … {{CHILDREN MUST BE SPEECHLESS & NEED LOTS OF INTERPRETERS}}Honors 2007-2010 San Diego Super Lawyers®
Alexandra M. Kwoka – Attorney at Law
Alexandra M. Kwoka has been practicing law since 1974, and Family Law for 20 years. She is not only certified as a Family Law Specialist but also holds a LLM/Masters in Tax Law….Association; Certified Family Law Specialists – San Diego & North County; founding member of the Collaborative Family Law Group of San Diego; SDCBA – Carmel Valley; Kids’ Turn – Board Member. She has published a number of articles and has been nominated and selected for a number of awards, including the Ten Top Attorneys in Family Law by the Daily Transcript, San Diego in 2006 and was listed as one of the top Family Law attorneys in San Diego Super Lawyers, 2007, 2008 and 2009.
- Barbara is president of the board of directors of the Legal Marketing Association, Southern California Chapter. She is also a former member of the boards of directors of Kids Turn, San Diego, the San Diego Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators and the Professional Women’s Roundtable. Barbara is a graduate of Coach University and has a BS in business Management with an emphasis in marketing
- Ms. Milligan is a member of the San Diego County Bar Association, and is on the Board of Directors of the Foothills Bar Association. Ms. Milligan is also on the Board of Directors of Kids’ Turn, San Diego, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting the well-being of children who are experiencing the challenges of family separation….Ms. Milligan dedicates her practice to the area of Family Law. She is a Certified Family Law Specialist, certified by the California Board of Legal Specialization.
Specialties
Mr. Renkin has focused his practice in Family Law since 1991 and is a Certified Family Law Specialist. He has expertly handled all phases of Trials, Mediation, and Negotiation in areas including Marriage Dissolution, Property Division, Spousal Support, Child Support, Child Custody & Visitation, along with the complex issues of mental health and drug and alcohol dependency. High-asset and high-conflict cases have been settled both through negotiation and litigation. Mr. Renkin has the honor of acting as a Settlement Conference Judge Pro Tem for Family Courts. Member Board of Directors Kids Turn (Present) Fundraising for Hannah’s House and Kids’ Turn
Oh Yeah — Hannah’s House, Supervised visitation place, I remember. The founder was caught operating without a license., there were unsanitary situations, and the owner is having to pay back contracts…
- Hannah’s House faces trouble
- San Diego Area Licensed Psychologist / Marriage Family Therapist Dr. Simon lists this among his professional associations:
- Professional AffiliationsMember, American Psychological Association Member, American Psi-Law Society Member, California Psychological Association Member, Ethics Committee of the California Psychological Association Editorial Board, Journal of Child Custody Member, Collaborative Family Law Group of San Diego,Board of Directors, Kid’s Turn San Diego Founding Member, San Diego Family Law Council for ChildrenMember, Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (“AFCC”)Member, Program Committee, Association of Family & Conciliation Courts Member, Awards Committee, Association of Family & Conciliation Courts Member, International Association of Collaborative Professionals Associate Member, San Diego County Bar Association; Associate Member, Los Angeles County Bar Association
You noticed that many are AFCC members? So did I. Here’s another person, a judge, being honored posthumously and Board of Directors, Kids’ Turn is among her accolades:
Judge Grant’s many years as a family law judge and a probate judge during her tenure on the San Francisco Superior Court gave her ample opportunity to pioneer judicial change. Most importantly, Judge Grant became an icon for young female externs, paralegals, attorneys and judges for nearly the entirety of her long career. …
Following her appointment to the San Francisco Municipal Court in 1979, Judge Grant dedicated her life to public service. She was appointed to the Superior Court in 1982, serving as the Presiding Judge in the Family Law Department and later as the Presiding Judge of the Probate Department. She retired from Superior Court in 1996 but continued to work with the American Arbitration Association. She is a past President of the California Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts and of the Northern California Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. (AAML Southern chapter donated to Kids’ Turn San Diego)…
She served on the Board of Kids’ Turn Honorary Committee for many years, an organization offering assistance for children impacted by divorce, including psycho-educational workshops for children being raised in two households. She also pioneered the first Guardian Mentorship Program for children being raised in alternative homes.
JUDGES, JUDGES, JUDGES are on the Boards of this organization:
Barbara W. Moser, SF Attorney, AFCC member, (in fact, a presenter at one COlorado conference), Judge Pro Tem, Family Law Bench Bar Program, Marin County Superior Court… SEttlement Judge Pro Tem, SF Superior Court — was “former secretary, Kids Turn”
IT’s NOT NECESSARY TO EVEN BE IN THE FAMILY LAW FIELD TO BE ON THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
Mr. Semmer is also actively involved in the San Diego community. As a Board Member of the Cornell Club of San Diego, he has organized charity fundraisers to endow the Willie Jones Jr. Scholarship. He has volunteered for and assisted with fundraising efforts for Kid’s Turn San Diego, a San Diego non-profit organization helping children and parents whose lives are impacted by parental separation. He serves on the programming committee of the San Diego Receiver’s Forum and is a member of the San Diego Bankruptcy Forum.
(CLICK ON THE LINK. HE DEALS WITH COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE, ETC.)
So what IS it, anyhow?
It’s not quite Avon, Amway, or McDonalds, but basically the same idea only using legislative loopholes and opportunities to promote it, and charging clients to consume the services (court-ordered), for people to be trained to run the courses, and taking federal grants to states money (and foundational support also) — in fact, where DOES all that money go, anyhow? ….?
Such a great organization obviously deserves some extra, extra legislative help…
I searched “Kids Turn affiliates” and came up with real interesting California Assembly Bill 2263. Other than it cuts down our fresh-air exercise activity, ya gotta love this Internet, sometimes….
http://www.metnews.com/endmomay02.html (This is 2002)
•AB 2263, by Assemblywoman Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, which would require the Judicial Council to study the effectiveness of expanding the Kids’ Turn program, which assists children while their parents are in family court obtaining a divorce or legal separation. The bill was approved by the Assembly Appropriations Committee on a 23-0 vote May 15, passed the Assembly on a 72-2 vote May 23 and was sent to the Senate.
Wow, the Assembly sure loved the concept of funneling divorce education to ONE nonprofit started by a family law judge…..
BILL ANALYSIS
Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
2263 (Kehoe)
Hearing Date: 8/22/02 Amended: 5/8/02
Consultant: Karen French Policy Vote: Judiciary
4-2
____________________________________________________________
_
BILL SUMMARY: AB 2263 requires the Judicial Council to
allocate, from funds appropriated to it in the annual
Budget Act, the amount necessary to study the Kids' Turn
projects. The bill also states that up to $50,000 shall be
allocated only if the Judicial Council receives non-state
source matching funds. The bill requires the Judicial
Council to report to the Legislature by January 12, 2004,
on the results of the study and propose guidelines for
project expansion, if Kids' Turn is found to be effective.
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05
Fund
Judicial Council
Study -- $100 --General &
Other
Court funding -- ---Significant, cost
pressure--- General
STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.
Kids' Turn is a private non-profit organization that
provides workshops for children and their parents that are
intended to teach skills to cope with the difficulty of
divorce and separation. Workshops are six weeks long with
one 90-minute meeting per week. Fees for workshops range
from $75 to $600 (on a sliding scale). Kids Turn conducts
programs in San Francisco, Marin, Alameda, and Contra Costa
County. The organization has sold its curriculum and
licensed affiliates located in Sonoma, Napa, San Diego,
Shasta, and Yolo Counties (in addition to Dayton, Ohio and Hillsboro,
Oregon. Although sold only to nonprofits, the program effectively operates as a franchise. Kids' Turn
currently is conducting its own study, in consultation with
the California School of Professional Psychology. This
bill would require the Judicial Council to duplicate, at
least in part, the current study.
According to the Judiciary Committee analysis, the author
states that the bill is needed so that Kids' Turn will
have state approval as evidence of credibility
and will allow courts to "recommend Kids' Turn
as a resource to the community." On its website, the organization states that
this Fall, its Board of Directors will be planning a
five-year strategy to determine course direction of the
organization. Specifically targeted for consideration is:
"Enhanced marketing strategies in order to increase the number of Kids' Turn affiliates and sales of Kids' Turn Curriculum." This bill may create the appearance that a State study and Judicial Council recommendations are part of a marketing strategy.
(WHICH THEY ARE..... Better amend the bill so this is less obvious....)
Author's amendments: The author proposes amendments (LCR#
0216385), which (1) delete the specific reference to Kids' Turn and,
instead, study projects or programs that provide
services to parents and children undergoing divorce, 2) to
delete reference to program expansion; and 3) to delete the
language requiring the Judicial Council to allocate the
amount "necessary" to conduct the study, to limit the
State's obligation to $50,000.
The third staff recommendation to authorize, but not require the study, was rejected by the author.
.
HERE’s an AMENDED VERSION (attempting to conceal the blatant effort to legislate parents to consume this product in particular to “help” their kids deal with divorce):
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 22, 2002 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 8, 2002 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 1, 2002
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—2001–02 REGULAR SESSION
ASSEMBLY BILL No. 2263
Introduced by Assembly Member Kehoe
February 20, 2002
An act relating to family courts.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST AB 2263, as amended, Kehoe. Family courts:
Kids’ Turnfamily assistance. Existing law governs the procedures for obtaining a dissolution ofmarriage or a legal separation. This bill would require the Judicial Council to allocate, from funds appropriated to the Judicial Council in the annual Budget Act, the an amount
necessarynot to exceed $50,000 to conduct a study regardingthe effectiveness of the Kids’ Turn projects, whichprojects or programs that provide services to assist children and their families while the parents are in the process of obtaining a divorce or a legal separation, as specified. The bill would provide require thatan amount not to exceed $50,000 shallthese funds be allocated only if the Judicial Council receives matching funds appropriated from sources other than the state.** The bill would require the Judicial Council to report to the Legislature by January 12, 2004, the results of the studyand to recommend guidelines for expanding the projects if the study indicates that the projects were effective.
**The California Judicial Council just so happens to be the single designated state agency receiving the access and visitation federal funds (“SAVP”) to enable programs such as (but not exclusively!) this one, as I have reported before here. Check it out at TAGG.hhs.gov — there’s a CFDA number referring exclusively to this grant series (“93597,” or similar)(marriage/fatherhood promotion is 93086)( and related ones).
In fact, a great exercise would be to go HERE: http://taggs.hhs.gov/AwardsList.cfm
You’ll have to redo the search — search by “CFDA Program Numbers” (take 2011 year) and get the 50-state list of all 93597’s. Then you’ll have a panorama of which agency, in every state, gets these funds, and can click on the other funding they get. I recommend clicking on Texas (after all, the President who put some of these policies into full swing came from there). You can see that OCSE (collecting child support) is a major expense. Then learn how to do advanced searches (with more fields) and figure out which way the wind is blowing.
Again, TAGGS is your friend, in part. Especially if you are an employee these are your taxes, right? part of each hour you work … it’s collected, assembled, and distributed later by the IRS, along with distributing favors called “tax-exempt status” to certain corporations, and of course foundations….
KIDS TURN:
It is ever so important that everyone (parents, federal government, City and State of San Francisco (I guess for the SF Kids’ Turn….) and foundational donors, plus of course individual donors focus on THIS one program to help, to measure levels of conflict, mental health and attitude change on parents . . . . well, let me just quote the leginfo record. Our state was then and is now in budget crisis, so obviously measuring parental stress levels is an urgent public need:
2)Requires that JC's study include an assessment of all of the
following:
a) Any decrease in conflict between the parents regarding
custody issues, as reported by the parents;
b) The mental health of the children, as measured by their
attitudes before and after participating in the project or
program;
c) Any change in the attitude of the parents who
participate in the project or program;
And of course, who better to help children navigate the difficult shoals of divorce than:
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill was limited in its scope to the Kids' Turn project.
Apparently these entities supported it ( Senate Floor link on “leginfo” site):
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/23/02) Kids' Turn (This link lists San Diego Bd of Dirs./SF, Here) Cope Family Center (See Kids Turn "Affiliates" list....) California Coalition for Youth Private Dispute Resolution of San Diego** (=Judge Geary D. Cortes) California Judges Association CARE Children's Counseling Center Gregory M. Caskey, Supervising Judge, Superior Court,(SEE **) County of Shasta (There's a Kids' Turn in Shasta County) Thomas Ashworth, Judge of the Superior Court San Diego County Office of Education Professor Janet Weinstein, California Western School of Law (Kids' Turn donor) ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author, this bill is needed because it is imperative for organizations to have state approval in order to provide evidence of credibility and efficacy to the community.
**I had no idea who Judge Caskey is, but linked to his 1998 Admonishment by the Commission on Judicial Performance! So he got this slap on a wrist, in part for:
STATEMENT OF FACTS AND REASONS
In November 1997, Judge Gregory M. Caskey was regularly assigned to handle juvenile dependency matters. On the morning of November 6, 1997, Judge Caskey sent a message by electronic mail to an attorney who regularly appeared before him on those matters. The e-mail message concerned a case then pending before the judge, in which the attorney was appearing. The message read in part:
I am considering summarily rejecting [the father’s attorney’s] requests. Do you want me to let [the father’s attorney] have a hearing on this, or do we cut [the attorney] off summarily and run the risk the third DCA reverses? . . . . I say screw [the father] and let’s cut [the attorney] off without a hearing. O.K.? By the way, this message will self- destruct in five seconds…
Later that morning, the attorney sent the following e-mail reply:
Your honor, I don’t feel comfortable responding ex-parte on how you should rule on a pending case.
Two hours later, the judge sent an e-mail response which read: “chicken.”
"Private Dispute Resolution" appears to be one retired San Diego Judge, although obviously working (in dispute resolution) in Southern Calif (3 offices, so I guess he still has a license). The site "noethics.com" says he made the cut of the top Judicial Misfits under this title:
Judge Geary D. Cortes – San Diego
“She deserved it! – Pugilists – p. 281
I don't know much about this Judge, although he's mentioned as being overturned on appeal on First Amendment issues here: He was overturned on appeal (I think) in an elder abuse case, and was involved in the high-profile Prop 21, trying juveniles as adults, matter, described in The Adult Boys of Rancho Penasquitos (hover cursor for relevance)...Same case as the First Amendment Issue... More likely, he's probably been on that KT Board during some of its years. Assuming I have the right Judge Thomas Ashworth, he doesn't sound much better:
Case Against Judge Should Remain in San Diego, Court Rules
January 23, 1990|ALAN ABRAHAMSON | TIMES STAFF WRITERA lawsuit that claims a San Diego family-court judge committed fraud and legal malpractice before he took the bench should be heard in San Diego County, a state appellate court ruled Monday.
The 4th District Court of Appeal ordered the case against Judge Thomas Ashworth III returned to San Diego Superior Court, saying it was improperly ordered out of the county
Judge Ashworth also ordered a mother living in Utah, whose child was born after separation, to send the 5-year old to her paternal grandparents for four, week-long visits (to San Diego). Report is from 2002:
In Harris, the Court of Appeal held that substantive due process limits a court’s authority under the state’s grandparent visitation statue to cases in which there is clear and convincing evidence that the child will suffer harm if visitation were not granted.
The panel reversed a 1999 order requiring Karen Butler, a remarried Utah resident, to send her daughter Emily, then 5 years old, to San Diego for four week-long visits with the child’s paternal grandparents. Emily was the product of Butler’s brief and stormy marriage to Charles Erik Harris and was born after the couple separated.
The order by San Diego Superior Court Judge Thomas Ashworth III was based on Family Code Sec. 3104, which allows a court to order grandparent visitation when the parents are living separate and apart or the child is not living with a parent. The statute applies a best-interest-of-the-child standard, with a rebuttable presumption that grandparent visitation is not in the child’s best interests if the custodial parent objects.
Here’s another one reversed on appeal, where the paternal grandparents of a father who died after divorce took the mother to court to force more visitation (in San Diego). Ashworth granted them (and got the girl a counsel of her own), but was reversed on appeal, citing Troxel v. Granville:
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION (Punsly v. Ho, No. D036025 (Cal.App. Dist.4 03/16/2001) APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of San Diego County, Thomas Ashworth, III, Judge. Petition for writ of supersedeas. Judgment reversed. Petition granted. Manwah Ho, the mother of Kathryn Punsly, appeals an order granting visitation to Kathryn’s paternal grandparents, Marilyn and Bernard Punsly under Family Code *fn1 section 3102. *fn2 Manwah contends section 3102 is unconstitutional, as applied to her, in light of the recent United States Supreme Court case of Troxel v. Granville (2000) 530 U.S. 57 [120 S.Ct. 2054] (Troxel), a case concerning the constitutionality of a nonparental visitation statute, and Troxel’s appellate progeny. Manwah also contends the court’s ancillary orders attached to the visitation order, independently, violated her constitutional due process rights. We conclude section 3102, as applied in this case, unconstitutionally infringed on Manwah’s fundamental rights. Accordingly, we reverse the order in its entirety.
There was a "Day" named after Judge Ashworth:
Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities
- City of San Diego Proclamation of January 31st as “Thomas Ashworth III Day“
- Judicial Lifetime Achievement Award, San Diego County Bar Association’s Certified Family Law Specialists, November 2002
- Family Law Person of the Year, American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, Southern California Chapter, 2001**
(**who donated to Kids' Turn.....)
Then again, The Ashworths themselves also donated to Kids' Turn. Wish I had a year on this brochure, but readers should check out the judges & attorneys on the INdividual Donors lists. (Found at California Men's Center website...) WITH REPUTABLE PROMOTERS SUCH AS THESE, WHO COULD FORBID SIMPLY LEGISLATING A STUDY TO GIVE IT STATE CERTIFICATION AS JUST THE BEST-EST PARENTING EDUCATION COURSE (COURT-ORDERED) AROUND, IN FACT, WHY NOT HAVE IT BRANCH OUT INTO THE COMMUNITY, JUST IN CASE THEY ARE THINKING ABOUT DIVORCE? (On the other hand, with all those supporters, why does it need more promotion???? SOmething doesn't look right about this....)
THANKFULLY GRAY DAVIS VETO’ed it with this message:
BILL NUMBER: AB 2263 VETOED DATE: 09/29/2002 SEP 28 2002 To Members of the California State Assembly: I am returning Assembly Bill 2263 without my signature. This bill would require a study of projects or programs that serve children and their families while the parents are in the process of obtaining a divorce or legal separation. Under this study, the Judicial Council would be required to assess the results of, among other things, changes in the mental health of children and any change in the attitude of parents. The Judicial Council, however, may not be well suited to conduct this type of study. For this reason, I must return this bill without my signature. Sincerely, GRAY DAVIS
In 2003, the same assemblywoman comes up with a Gay Fathers' Day proposal, which met some resistance.
What normally is a legislative slam-dunk – a resolution honoring dads for Father’s Day – turned into a debate on “alternative lifestyles” in the California state Assembly.
According to a report in the Stockton Record, Republicans this week either withheld their support or voted against the resolution because it focused on “nontraditional” dads, including families with two fathers.
“It didn’t belong on the floor,” said GOP Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi. “It was a homosexual bill in the sense that they wanted to make a point out of two fathers” in a single household.
The resolution, sponsored by lesbian Democratic Assemblywoman Christine Kehoe, mentions stepfathers, foster fathers, single fathers and families headed by two fathers, the paper reports. However, it fails to cite traditional fathers who are married to the mother of their children.
Republican Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian, as a traditional father, noticed he wasn’t represented in the proposal.
” Where is the (part) talking about a husband and a wife who have kids?” he said, according to the Record. “I mean, where is the love?”
“CRISPE,” A group for Shared Parenting was pretty upset about her also, although for different reasons and supplied a photo:
However, it’s primarily a simple affiliate marketing operation — only with governmental connections.
Did I mention, “NONPROFIT”? Because of the public service it provides, obviously.
I just missed a March, 2011 conference — that’s what I get for falling behind on my FaceBook operations:
GerardKids’ Turn Spring, 2011 Retreat and Training Conference
Theme: Welcome to the Future (of Kids’ Turn)
Dates: March 4-6, 2011 Location: Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, California
Take a deep breath and settle in for a time of serene relaxation, reflection and rejuvenation. Celebrated as Monterey Peninsula’s “Refuge by the Sea” – Asilomar State Beach and Conference Grounds is a breathtakingly gorgeous 107 acres of ecologically diverse beachfront land. www.visitasilomar.com
Who should attend: Kids’ Turn Leaders, Staff, Board Members, Volunteers, Affiliate
RepresentativesConference Goals:
1. Familiarize participants with the future direction of Kids’ Turn
2. Broaden exposure to contemporary issues affecting Kids’ Turn families
3. Refine skills to deliver The Kids’ Turn Way
4. Eight CEU’s awarded
5. R & R in a beautiful, tranquil setting
6. Enjoy camaraderie with Kids’ Turn colleagues
7. Explore the communities of Pacific Grove and Monterey (on your own)Dr. Gladys Ato, Vice President of Academic Affairs, Argosy University
San Francisco Bay Area
Communicating the Kids’ Turn MessageDr. Allison Thorson, University of San Francisco
The Impact of Marital Infidelity on ChildrenCOST: (Must be why they need all the donors, and access to the “Access/Visitation” federal support).
Single Occupancy:
$350* (two nights, six meals, training, ECU’s, taxes, all inclusive)
$400 single occupancy AFTER 2/15/11
Double Occupancy (participants must self-select roommate):
$250* (two nights, six meals, training, ECU’s, taxes, all inclusive)
$300 double occupancy AFTER 2/15/11
Kids’ Turn is also an arts supporter, in fact partnered with an upcoming San Diego show, don’t miss:
26 MILES
by Quiara Alegria Hudes
Sept 29 – Oct 23, 2011
The time is 1986. Olivia is a half-Cuban, half-Jewish ‘zine-writing teen. Join us for our next full production written by award-winning Quiara Alegria Hudes (In the Heights), and in partnership with Kids’ Turn San Diego. (“Eight years after a Cuban mother looses [sic] custody of her Jewish daughter, she gets a second chance. At 4:30 in the morning she kidnaps the sick teenage girl and the two drive west in search of a remedy and their divergent American dreams.”)
In Washington County, Oregon, a nonprofit called YOUTH CONTACT features Kids’ Turn (and a pop-up indicates that Kids’ Turn is supporting their work also: See for yourself: )
Registration form shows it’s $230 per parent per 4-session class:
The enrollment fee for Kids’ Turn is $230.00 per adult. Children (ages 5-16) are free with a paying adult. The fee must be paid in full before a spot in the workshop can be reserved. This is done on a first-come, first served basis until each workshop is full. Acceptable methods of payment are Visa, MasterCard, debit card (with a Visa or MasterCard logo), or money order. We do NOT accept checks.
YOU MUST COMPLETE ALL FOUR SESSIONS IN ORDER TO RECEIVE A CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION. IF YOU DO NOT ATTEND ALL FOUR SESSIONS YOU WILL HAVE TO RE-REGISTER FOR ANOTHER WORKSHOP AND RE-PAY THE $230.00 ENROLLMENT FEE. THERE ARE NO MAKE-UP SESSIONS AND THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS!
In fact, generally speaking, REALLY FAMOUS PEOPLE SEEM TO JUST LOVE “Kids’ Turn” — for example, Halsey Minor, founder of CNET:
Community programs for Children and Parents
experiencing separation or divorce. Featuring The Kids’ Turn Way© Curriculum
“Kids’ Turn has leveraged its resources*** and the progressive nature of San Francisco to become a global leader in addressing the problems children face when their parents separate.” Halsey M. Minor, Kids’ Turn Board Member; Founder, CNET
Oh, I forgot — he was on 2010 list for tax evasion, found auctioning off his art collection.
Found via LA Observed, the California Franchise Tax Board has released its list of the state’s biggest delinquent taxpayers. This year, the honor goes to Cnet co-founder Halsey Minor and his wife Shannon, who owe a whopping $13,120,479.39 in personal income tax.
They also maintained the #1 California ranking for tax evasion, for 2011 .
***resources such as connections to the legal/judicial community…..
I would love to see an audit of this organization’s books, all California operations.
The nonprofit directory “Guidestar.org” notes that Kids’ Turn San Diego started in 1996 with a grant from the “Seuss Foundation”…. 2009 form 990 lists only $151K net revenues, and Expenses include $124,424 salaries, plus $30,452 professional fees, and that they are running about one salaried position ($38K) in the hole. They ran a $50K ARt & Wine auction, but donated $36K of that, leaving revenue of $12K. Expenses, however, were $18K, so That event was a deficit, I guess…..
Lots of Directors (which my “select-copy” tool worked on the PDF) including what appears to be the infamous (or honorable) Honorable Thomas Ashworth’s wife? (also an attorney), Kathryn — in fact, eighteen (18) individuals listed, none drawing a salary. The Executive Director, however, is taking applications for a FT program director
One of these 18, “Patty Chavez-Fallon” just so happens to be (or have been) Director of Family Court Services at San Diego per this article (critical of) Supervised Visitation:
Patricia Chavez-Fallon, the director of the Superior Court’s Family Court Services in San Diego County, said people who want to be paid monitors submit documentation to the court showing they have attended a training class and meet the other state standards, which essentially require that monitors be 21 or older and free of any legal trouble in the previous 10 years. Chavez-Fallon then adds them to an alphabetical list of supervised visitation monitors that the court provides.
and she’s been there a good while (1991-2008): Kids Turn San Diego started in 1996. So did the Access Visitation Funds that help facilitate things like this (with PRWORA Welfare Reform). Must’ve been a coincidence, that timing. It was a very busy time, after all….
Patti Chavez-Fallon is an expert in alternative dispute resolution. Both as a counselor and Director of Family Court Services, she has served parents and children going through the process of defining and developing a cooperative sharing plan that benefits everyone involved. Her background includes:
- Seventeen years as Director: Family Court Services, San Diego Superior Court
- Four years as a mediator of Custody and Visitation disputes
- Ten years of other child related social work services
She is also listed on the Federal HHS/ACF site for “Access and Visitation” grants as a California “State Access Program Contact:”
9. Superior Court of California , San Diego County
Contact: Patti Chavez-Fallon (619) 557-2100
Services: counseling, parent educationSubcontractor:
Kids’ Turn, San Diego
2136 Newcastle Avenue, suite 150
Cardiff, CA 92007
(760) 634-0280
Remind me again how this is NOT a conflict of interest? She is the program contact — on behalf of the Superior Court — for the federal funds, and a nonprofit where she sits on the board of the directors is the listed subcontractor…. There’s another one in Shasta County…..
. Northern California Center for Family Awareness
Kids’ Turn Shasta Cascade PO Box 991473
Redding, CA 96099-1473
(530) 244-5749
What’s in it for them, altruism? The art & wine auction factor?
Ms. Chavez-Fallon is even quoted in a “johnnypumphandle” review of a high-profile San Diego case (Morse v. Morse) where the papers featured the abducting ex-wife, the court had transferred custody to the father after finding allegations of abuse “inclusive” and Stephen Doyne (Note: also a Kids’ Turn donor, see link to their brochure, above) played a factor. It noted:
Robert and Eugia Morse divorced in 1994 after 10 years of stormy marriage.
Robert Morse remarried almost immediately and shared custody of his three
children with his ex-wife.The battle over the children was contentious, McIntyre told jurors. In
January 1996, Robert Morse spent a night in jail after his former wife
accused him of hitting her when she came to pick up the children after a
visit. He was not allowed to see his children for two months.After a psychological evaluation, Robert Morse received full custody in
October 1996. On their children’s first weekend visit with their mother,
the older girl contended that her father had molested her.Before the custody battle even took place, we have learned that Eugia Morse was in the Family Violence Program sponsored by Children’s Hospital. Her records show a multitude of evidence of violence in the form of photos and documents detailing injuries at the hand of Robert Morse. In addition, the children had records of therapy for abuse alleged to be perpetrated by Robert Morse as well as records documenting the abuse. When the custody case went to court, this evidence was suppressed in favor of the court assigned evaluation team which recommended that custody of the children be transferred to Robert Morse.
Apparently Family COurt Services had a role in this case, one that ended up with the mother feeling she had to flee. YOu can read for yourself. While Chavez-Fallon was incidental (in this report), she was director of the same family court services that pushed a certain evaluator and psychologist on the family. Responding to the news article someone wrote:
I saw the news report about Morse v. Morse on T.V., we recognized the modus operandi, and in unison wesaid “LINDA HIRSHBERG.” Next time I was in court, I looked at the file. We
were right. It was LINDA HIRSHBERG and STEPHEN DOYNE working together again.
Later, I heard from the “victims of Family Court underground” that Eugia was
networking with others who had been exploited by these two. She was desperate
to get the evaluator changed. She was not successful. No doubt, this
evaluation was arranged by Family Court Services, because that is what FCS
does. They are brokers, not mediators.
The “Cope Family Center” (APparently = ‘Kids’ Turn Napa County) (found supporting the Legislative Action in 2002) states (falsely) that:
Kids’ Turn is supported entirely by generous contributions from individuals and foundations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Workshops are held in San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa and Marin counties. Kids’ Turn requests that each participating parent contribute a sliding scale fee to help cover the cost of the program. Any family wanting to help support the program to a greater extent is encouraged to make a tax-deductible contribution at any time.
This “Cope Family Center” also runs Supervised Visitation:
Cope Family Center provides
- Supervised Visitation
- Monitored Exchange
- Parent Education, including Kids’ Turn and Cooperative Co-Parenting
Coincidentally(?), the legislative purpose of the Access Visitation funding (in California), is:
Assembly Bill 673 expressed the Legislature’s intent that funding for the state of California be further limited to the following three types of programs:
- Supervised visitation and exchange services;
- Education about protecting children during family disruption; and
- Group counseling services for parents and children.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, MUCH?
Courthouse Forum (a place one can bellyache about court players) writers also noticed the phenomenon of family law judges referring business to nonprofits they sit on the board of. THis one notices a judge who was even Treasurer of Kids’ Turn. These 2006 entries are web-cached:
Contra Costa County KIDS TURN & Berkow
If this J Berkow is a Corporate Treasure of Kids Turn Inc. a organization that is often court ordered by Contra Costa County Family Law. This appears very improper to me doesn’t this violate the judicial standard to “avoid appearance of impropriety” I know in my business this would be considerd a conflict of interest, and the SEC would have a field day with a trader who was conducting there business like this judge
This is appalling I live in Contra Costa County and this judge is notoriously bad she has raped more fathers in this county then I can even list. Calling her the Monster of Martinez is not a understatement. It is common for father to be so severely financially raped by this women that they do actually end up living in a car with there children. Now she is runningKids Turn!(i.e., this is not my own comment!)
Below is the link to Kids Turn is you scroll down you will that Berkow is a Director. This is not a proper postion for Berkow she is ordering people from the bench to keep her company going. What a way to capitalize your company!
Apparently, they rotate membership in and out (of Judges, Attorneys, etc.). Here’s a 2010 new President, Greg Abel, who has been on the board a few years, and is quite active in family, appellate and other courts:
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, October 11, 2010 – Kids’ Turn, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization today announced the election of Greg Abel as president and CEO succeeding Steven Kinney, who remains on the board of directors of Kids’ Turn. Mr. Abel is a Partner with Whiting Fallon Ross & Abel, LLP, Walnut Creek, Calif., which represents parties in complex family law and matrimonial matters.
In making the announcement, Steve Kinney, outgoing president of Kids’ Turn said, “We are pleased that Greg Abel has agreed to assume the leadership mantel of Kids’ Turn. He has been a very proactive member of the board since 2008. Greg will provide important leadership as Kids’ Turn moves to the next level of service to customers in the five county region of the San Francisco Bay Area and extends Kids’ Turn curriculum reach to other parts of the U.S. and around the globe.”
Well, since they are going global, I suppose it was worth a try to get the California Legislature to pass a law standardizing this judge-initiated project, just in cases judges who sit (or sat) on the Board previously, or the Director(s?) of Family Court Services, etc. who donate to it (and sit on its board) aren’t drumming up enough business, or foundational support. As a little reminder, this has been operating IN THE HOLE according to its own 990, at least the San Diego One.
What a lesbian State Senator (in 2002, State Assemblyperson) is doing promoting that bill, Lord only knows. Guess it’s politically advantageous (do they donate to her, too?)
How can any organization with so much foundation support, a ton of volunteer Directors (with judicial, therapy, and attorney association connections) AND a guaranteed source of court-ordered referrals end up with a negative cash flow?
And what about that $45K in vendor services to the City of San Francisco, recently?
And what about that Lien that the San Francisco Superior Court has (or had) on this group?
. . . . This isn’t THE major question of the family law system, but it sure does make one go “Huh???”
Let's Get Honest! Absolutely Uncommon Analysis of Family & Conciliation Courts' Operations, Practices, & History 
Let’s Eliminate OCSE — the Office of Child Support Enforcement — and why.
with 6 comments
No, that’s not a joke. I’m serious.
Or, we could just continue to watch this institution gradually eliminate the Bill of Rights, and the U.S. Constitution, in fact the entire concept of individual rights whatsoever, in favor of social(ism) science run amok.
This post also ran amok (as you can see) but the links are valuable.
The OCSE has to go. It’s out of control, and is hurting men, women, and children — generation after generation– while loudly proclaiming it is, instead, helping society, families and kids.
WHAT DO YOU WANT — A SOCIAL SCIENCE SOCIETY, OR LIBERTY?
Obviously, it’s either/or, not Compromise/And. Even the experts know this:
Either we recover the OCSE from its fatherhood-dispensing-propaganda (and fundings) — repeal (or defund) the Access/Visitation grants system entirely. There is no question, whatever its grandiose proclamations, the system is rife with corruption, has failed, and hasn’t even reduced TANF, allegedly the purpose for its existence.
Let alone the dubious ROI for this agency — Can you spell Four Billion?
Yes, +/- Four Billion (federal incentives), courtesy the IRS, to fix families, support children by adding “fatherhood.” which as I point out elsewhere, is one of several “hoodlums” used to justify stealing time and money from honest people and transferring them to dishonest.
$4,000,000,000
I’ve uploaded (hopefully) and linke two PDFs to this post to illustrate the cost and the personnel investing themselves into the system. One is primarily charts the other, primarily rhetoric. Please browse the Dept of HHS/Administration for Children and Families (“ACF”)
(Federal)
PAYMENTS TO STATES FOR CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT AND FAMILY SUPPORT PROGRAMS, including for FY 2012, and historic back to 2002. Its charts speak loudly as well as this paragraph justifying some of the expense:
and paragraphs like this:
**(This program has been known to promote mother ABSENCE from lives of the children after custody-switching enabled through mis-use of program funds in conflicts-of-interest with custody hearings…Despite more and more mothers becoming noncustodial, this program still remains father-centric. )
After I sent this document to Liz Richards, of NAFCJ.net, I got the following response:
(**great example discovered by Richard Fine, resulting in the infamous Silva v. Garcetti lawsuit. This extremely disturbing case over county abuse of privilege in MILLION$$ IN L.A. County CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS ALREADY COLLECTED shows how corruption responds to corruption uncovered — Mr. Fine in jail, an attempt to intimidate him and a warning to others who might think to follow in his footsteps. As far as I can tell, this case was eventually dropped, although eventual Mr. Fine was released from solitary coercive confinement, at age 70!)
(This BUDGET document is found at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/olab/budget/2012/cj/CSE.pdf)
AGAIN — what ROI, what overall good really comes out of this department, as reported by anyone who is not in on some of its many scams? She writes: “I believe the whole agency should be shut down and the few vital services they have be transferred to Dept of Treasury.”
I’m so glad she’s come around to my way of thinking, after I read enough rhetoric to gag on justifying the elimination of child support for most kids, and the inability of actual, legitimate abused children and/or spouses (primarily mothers) to EVER get free from abuse, resulting sometimes in their deaths at the hands of a father over a court-ordered visitation and after death threats and molestation had already been identified. Alternately, they can just be impoverished needlessly, and society can be robbed of working parents while these parents instead go to court and suffer more legal abuse and trauma, often for years.
I ALSO UPLOADED a “Reviving Marriage in America: Strategies for Donors” philanthropy roundtable talking about the foundations backing to these movements. File it under “what your social worker and child support advocate, your local domestic violence agency, or local legal aid office, didn’t and won’t tell you — but should have — about who’s really behind the fatherhood movement.“)
Looking at both these documents, I have to ask: how much priming the pump is needed to produce a few good fathers, or get child support enforced? Are these indeed producing good fathers, and if not, who gives a damn? The jet-setting, conference-presenting, politically connected fatherhood program administrators? The family law judges, attorneys, evaluators (basically, all AFCC membership categories) whose nonprofits profit from this arrangement? The funeral homes, who get extra business when some Dad goes haywire after separation? The press, who reports the casualties?
An article from the “Institute for Democracy Studies” (Sept. 2001, VOl. 2, issue 1), lead article by a “Lewis C. Daly” focused on the “Charitable Choice: The Architecture of a Social Policy Revolution” cites the Bradley Foundation’s influence, and provides a flowchart with National Fatherhood Initiative and the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives central underneath. They point out the “Heritage Foundation” connection (which I’ve noticed) and that a certain Kay James (directing the US Office of Personnel Management at the time — and as such placing “vast numbers of individuals throughout the White House national security apparatus, government agencies (etc.) ) endorsed the resolution of the 1998 Southern Baptist Convention (regarding wifely submission to husbands) — an endorsement that caused former President Carter to resign from this group in protest of its treatment of women.
“O Say Can You See?” what’s happened to the “land of the free” (or even the concept of the land of the free….)
“OCSE”: CLEAN IT UP OR SHUT IT DOWN:
The more I read about this, the more outraged I get at tax dollars being used for social science rhetoric — most of it a combination of belief, myth, and confusion of results with causes.
{{“obviously” no father in the home dooms a child to academic, professional and financial failure, case in point.}}
He’s now at Columbia, degreed, decorated, publishing and promoting. Note the Foundation Connection throughout ….
This tells me, he may have had input into the Access & Visitation factor of 1996 Welfare Reform. And, he’s as much as stated he has a chip on his shoulder from childhood. However directed at low-income noncustodial fathers this work has become, by targeting the child support system, this re-balancing of “welfare” has been exploited by all levels of fathers (including some multi-millionaires) and has resulted in lots of noncustodial (and some homeless) mothers after processing through this wonderful child support system plus therapy-dispensing family law system. It has pushed social science dispensaries (whether institutes or initiatives) to the top of the administrative heap. The discussion is no longer of individual rights, due process, bias — but of outcomes, of best “practices” and “promising projects.” Such language keeps the research $$ flowing and sets up a subject/object relationship between the researchers and the poor slobs with the actual problems and lives affected the most.
Only through the internet have we become more able to “eavesdrop” in on some of these conversations, and hear the incredible logic behind them, pick on the tone of how policymakers view the nation, of how Federal entitities attempt to set up a trainee/dog relationship with the states (good states get more treats [incentives], bad states will have treats withdrawn…. Clearly in such an environment, the obvious line of work is dog trainer — if one is not of sufficient drive, connections, inspiration, pedigree, (etc.) or luck to be the ones paying the dog trainers.
NEXT QUESTIONS:
HOW MANY FOUNDATIONS DOES IT TAKE
TO ELIMINATE THE US CONSTITUTION AND BILL OF RIGHTS?
Whose idea was it, to switch society’s main institutions from the concept of individual rights (eventually — at least in theory — including minorities & females, in that order) in favor of “social science” (next step — back to eugenics….)?
Whose idea was it to centralize rule under Executive Dept. initiatives (versus the original idea — three branches of government).
Whose idea was it to eliminate the restrictions on sectarian religion on public government?
Well, in my book, this is in great part, a 4-letter word: “B.U.S.H.” (GWB), aka Government by Executive Order.
CONSIDER THE IMPACT OF THE
Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
NOT a good idea for women…..
Let alone this particular President’s (and other right-wing Republicans) curious connection with the Unification Church. Don’t laugh. See my “Shady-shaky Foundations’ post and look at that picture of Sun Myung Moon being crowned in a US Senate building. And rethink all this “Family” and “Marriage” promotion agenda in terms of this known money-laundering, criminal-enterprise cult headed by the world’s “True Parents.” Or read from the Steve Hassan’s “Freedom of Mind” site on Moon/Bush: Ongoing Crime Enterprise (2007 article) :
The “Marriage Promotion” and “Fatherhood” fanaticism definitely has Unification overtones. I first began comprehending this summer 2009, while protesting another round of fatherhood funding at the Senate Appropriations Committee. This was headed up by Rep. Danny K. Davis. Naturally, I looked him up, some, and discovered the Moonie (Unification Church) connection. I told some friends, and now they think I’m nuts for the assumption… When our leaders start crowning kings in Senate Buildings, and don’t apologize for it – which Rep Davis did not — we have to start wondering where their heads are at. (Hover cursor over the “Danny K. Davis” link for the incredible/incriminating details… When our leaders start play-acting coronations and it’s somehow a joke, I think it’s time for someone else to be put on the stand and questioned.
Now that I think of this, several Judges in the SF area were found in a similar charade. Poormagazine.com alerted us to this. Photo is from 2002 AAML (Amer. Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers) gathering, apparently. It was accompanied by a spoof of the tune to “Camelot,” called “Familawt.” Compare to “coronation” photo(s)
The Round Table
Queen Dolores Carr (San Mateo)
Queen Charlotte Woolard (SF)
Queen Marjorie Slabach (SF)
King James Mize (Sacramento) King Gary Ichikawa (Solano)King David Haet (Solano)
Queen Beth Freeman (San Mateo) not pictured
Compare:
I’m not against a little light-hearted fun, but given the state of the family law system (and the increasing god-like attitudes found in the Executive Branch overall, towards the rest of the country), this is more than disturbing — perhaps it represents the true regret of some elected leaders and public “servants” (such as the judges/commissioners) that there is no title of royalty available, at least per our founding documents, in this U.S.A., which got its start protesting such abuses of power from England….
There is also a unification connection to an Arizona legislator, (1998 article on “Parents Day”). Sorry I’m not an Arizona resident following their elections, but here’s a 2007 article:
UNIFICATION CONNECTION:
Given what this particular organization represents, worldwide (criminal enterprises, money laundering, and cult activity), the simple math should tell us: (1) The Office of Faith-based Initiative comes from Bush by Executive Order, not popular mandate (2) Bush & GOP ties close to Moon & Moon’s money. (3) Some faith-based groups are just too danged misogynist, and turn a blind eye to wife-beating and molestation. Some women became single to start with, because they found no way to stop this in their local communities. Moreover, many faith-based (husband = head of the household) groups also encourage men to control the finances, thereby when they separate, actually CAUSING, rather than SOLVING, additions to the welfare role.
The co-founders of the influential National Fatherhood Initiative include the first appointee to this Office, i.e., Don Eberly. The other co-founder of the National Fatherhood Initiative is Wade Horn. Successor (?) Ron Haskins was instrumental in passing the Access/Visitation funding mentioned above. Combined with the powerful influence of foundational wealth, their social-science, religious-based myths rhetoric is distributed nationwide, and also funded unwittingly
Then come back here.
The HERITAGE FOUNDATION (with Unification church ties….) has its FAMILY & RELIGION page, and objectives, including developing a rhetoric. Yep:
THEY SAY:
**Not for young women, and middle-aged women honor-murdered for being too Western, or for divorcing.
**This must be why we have the First Amendment, to enable Congress — naw, let’s just work through other arms of government — to establish a state religion called “marriage and family/fatherhood” etc….. and facilitated by some of the most misogynist groups around, including faith groups that don’t permit ordination of women, require celibacy for their priests, and believe that Eve is responsible for bringing sin into the world, primarily because she acted independently from Adam in talking to someone besides her husband.
Here’s a sample Abstract of a Heritage Foundation report on Marriage as the cure for poverty:
The rationale for pushing fatherhood through the child support system is that these engaged fathers will then contribute child support to the home, which would then help reduce poverty. Seems to me that using kids as child-support bait is not a good idea. Seems to me that anything that requires THIS MUCH POLICY PUSHING (and rhetoric-production) IS NOT COST-EFFECTIVE FOR KIDS.
Has anyone considered the custody-battle factor? When Moms go for child support, Dads go for custody and have federal help in this. Perhaps PART of the poverty factor is that both parents are being taken out of the workforce to litigate, but only one of them is getting the federal government on HIS side in the family law venue. Besides which child support contractors such as Maximus, Inc. (look ’em up!) have been caught in embezzlement, fraud (repeatedly, and in the millions) yet still get multi-million-dollar contracts after paying millions to settle. I personally think that until we either make a determination to root out fraud from this system — which would have to be consistent, local, diligent, and probably done by mothers and fathers NOT in think-tanks or on the federal (county, or state) “teat,” — we can safely assume that this is where a good deal of the nation’s wealth and GDP is going. Everyone gets a cut but the actual children….
Look at Maximus, Inc.’s range of services:
Look at one review of this group in TN, and the cases, to date, involving embezzlement & fraud:
Here’s a report from Canada complaining that this giant company has already run into problems in 5 US states:
Bill Berkowitz tracks a lot of conservative funding, and wrote a famous article nailing Bush’s payoffs to certain individuals pushing marriage promotion (Wade Horn, Maggie Gallagher, etc.). This 2001 report Prospecting Among the Poor: Welfare Privatization (co. May, 2001, Applied Research Center) summarizes the situation and deals with the Maximus, Inc. group, first, including its troubling practices in Wisconsin:
2001 Prospecting Among the Poor- Welfare Privatization~ Berkowitz
The bonus principle cited here exists in virtually any custody battle; in court cases easily become the “kickback” principle, opportunities to overcharge or double-bill, and opportunities to “buy” a decision, especially as the family law system is known for wide discretion given to judges.
In the Access and Visitation grants (and the expanding other grant systems they attract or work alongside, through the child support agency, as in Texas), the presence of (poorly-monitored) federal incentives, multiple nonprofit sub-grantees, and program facilitators with connections to the courts, makes an atmosphere ripe for case-steering when the stakes are, children and child support.
So I recommend scanning this report and considering its implications. I’m glad that people like Mr. Berkowitz have reported on events that took place while I, and other families, were struggling with their individual cases, and also to survive in their own households. Excerpts:
Not only has the web changed the workplace, it has most certainly also changed government. However the policies forced on the poorer population are geared to the industrial economy, a 9 to 5 mentality, a public education mentality, a faith-based mentality.
The welfare concept eliminates and discourages single parents from supporting themselves in creative ways (including through this internet). Its assumption that poverty has to do mostly with fatherlessness is nonsensical, and dishonest — when many times it may relate instead to a present, and abusive, father. Failing to distinguish one case from another, and listening primarily to their own rhetoric, social scientists in key positions + political appointees force basic “solutions” on the entire society, and stick society with the bill as well. It is basically taxation without representation.
The only people escaping this taxation without representation are those profiting from it — who run or own nonprofit businesses, have or benefit from private foundations or wealth — or in some other way have learned to maximize profits, reduce expenses, and make their expenses, including conferences on how to keep the systems going, tax deductions.
These people are not uniformly two-parent income, or even stable-marriage families. Heck, some (including Presidents & legislators) are not even faithful to their own wives. So how dare they preach to the rest of us, who are not quite so wealthy, or don’t have backing to get into political office, on our morals and work ethic?
In the “Payments to States for Child Support Enforcement and Family Support Programs” (links above), on page “271” there is an Appropriations History Table, from 2002 through 2009. Its simple, (two-column) and speaks volumes. The costs range from $2+ billion to $4+ billion, and always with an advance of $1billion or so. ALWAYS the appropriation is higher than budget.
The Philanthropist Roundtable (Reviving Marriage in America, link above) lists these benefits to Marriage. Are you in agreement with all of them? If not, do you want your IRS payments to go towards pushing marriage education, (let alone abstinence education for parents), do you want families EXTORTED into high-stakes custody litigation through the child support system, do you really believe that we should have such foundations running our lives through major institutions?
If not, take some time to read the links I’ve provided here, which prompted this piecemeal protest post. Really these are TAX issues. Perhaps more of us should focus on establishing foundations and stop working W-2 jobs;; there has to be a better way. Anyhow, rich conservative foundations declare:
The Benefits of Marriage
[[potential cause of divorce — wife gets tired of living with a chronic alcoholic. Hence, those who stay married might indeed drink less…]]
[[Exceptions: marriages with abuse, or chronic infidelity. Which definitely is depressing and affects psychological well-being!]]
[[! ! ! How are these people checking out African-American’s “life satisfaction” quotient? Apparently, it’s important not to have too many angry, dissatisfied African-Americans around. After all, the prisons are already overcrowded, and with US already the largest per-capita jailor on earth, what’s a ruling elite to do if the anger spills over?]]
[[So women should marry and stay married to encourage men to work. Single working parents, single nonparents should also contribute to the federal marriage movement, because without marriage, men are simply not as motivated to work. Potential cause — the wife at home is supporting the guy, or the wife at WORK is supporting the guy. What about married mother’s wages or likelihood of promotion? Knowing the high potential for divorce, women should (sure, yeah….) most definitely go for marriage, because it’s good overall for the nation, even if they sacrifice their financial futures post-marriage, ending up eventually on welfare, in court, and fighting for custody of their children with a federally-funded fatherhood mandate run through the child support system?]]
[[I really wonder where this statistic comes from… There are obviously exceptions, some of them in abusive religious marriages, some where, at times, a woman was sought from another country to make some babies for a US resident.]]
[**depending on date of this report, one factor may be this agenda being run through the family law system to start with — as it has been since 1996 at least, which guarantees ongoing court litigation where one parent wants to struggle, and the case was flagged for program funding to help ONE side do this.]
[[see note on married men drink less. Child abuse by either parent is a deal-breaker for most marriages. And, what about also the ongoing situations where the child experiences abuse on visitations with the noncustodial parent — such cases would fall under “not living with their married biological parents” — but who is the perpetrator? If someone is willing to abuse a child initially, whether married or single, would life be better if such parents were together, and the abuser had daily access?? This statements imply doesn’t handle many situations.]]
A token reference to the fact that for some, marriage has problems occurs here, in context of the tail end of an inset about marriage education movement. Notice, no mention is made that some marriages result in death by femicide. This is virtual denial…..
OK, so the Bradley Foundation acknowledges there are churches with thoughts about divorce. But ….
Do we or do we not have other religions in this country? (But none mentioned here?). How about Islam — what about Shari’a? Does marriage promotion apply here also? Because the Muslim and the Christian/Jewish (let alone agnostic/atheist) concepts of marriage are radically different from each other. Should the US move towards the Shari’a model because marriage is “good” for a nation? How could any discussion of this topic among conservative foundations just “forget” other major world religions, let alone that First Amendment is intended to protect religious choice — not push one variety of it on all of us through governmental institutions.!
Nonie Darwish at Temple University (April 2011) — these are Youtubes of a presentation, and a following Q&A. I haven’t viewed them (fresh off a Google search to you), but have read at least one of her books:
Nonie Darwish: Shari’a Law & America at Temple University
Q&A to the above presentation
This is another reason why the US should NOT allow religious groups to be grabbing federal funds to collect child support and promote fatherhood. What if the group favors shari’a law, which goes like this:
This woman should know — and has earned the right to speak on it. The blurb:
What about a woman who has escaped a violent marriage, and may wish to partake, for once, in a better one — but because of the family law system, is doomed to struggling with custody until all kids turn 18? Should she suffer, should the next potential partner suffer alongside, because some people believe that the problem with this country is out-of-wedlock fertility, unhappy AFrican American couples (read the list!) and of course the cause of child abuse and poverty is fatherlessness – not failure to prosecute child abusers properly, or economic policies that exploit wage-earners and outsource child support collections to corporations like Maximus, Inc., famous for fraud, gender discrimination, embezzlement, and poor performance?
We do not need cults (Unification Church), Crooks, or Misogynist Faith Institutions running the child support system as if there was a war on fatherhood by virtue of women having gained some options in the mid to late 1900s, including to vote, and an uphill fight that was.
We do not need another caste system — or royalty — created through welfare policies based on myths, which then undermine the primary documents on which our country has been founded by trying to tip the court favor towards fathers based on a job-based workforce system and inferior educational system.
As Berkowitz wrote in 2001 (above), Welfare Privatization is a cash cow, a big one, and Charitable Choice may fall hard on women overall, given how many religious groups already do. Those in the (expanding) bureaucracy get to inhabit lofty positions writing about the poor while those poor often live lives at risk from their partners, their neighborhoods, and the myth that the legal system exists for them — and not for those running it.
OCSE – TANF – FATHERHOOD PROMOTION, MARRIAGE PROMOTION — PRIVATE CONTRACTORS CAUGHT IN EMBEZZLEMENT AND FRAUD — GOP PRESIDENTIAL CONNECTIONS WITH INTERNATIONAL MONEY-LAUNDERING, CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE (the Unification Church) & CULT — and PRIVATE WEALTH (whether honestly or dishonestly gotten) RUNNING AND RESTRUCTURING GOVERNMENT, HIGHER EDUCATION, LOWER (EARLY CHILDHOOD) EDUCATION, AND SO ON.
Let’s begin with this Eliminating this Child Support System — which garnishes wages and has the power to put a man or a woman in jail, or homeless, if they don’t pay up, farms out collections to companies known for gender, race discrimination, fraud, embezzlement, and poor performances (Maximus), selling private information and in general tearing up the lives of innocent people (but still getting multi-illion$ contracts). While its federal fatherhood focus is indeed sexist, it is also equipped to turn on EITHER gender, depending on the case, and get away with it. Which, while the original concept was — child support — the “evolution” of it is becoming more and more like an episode of “Aliens” only more frightening.
Which is just too big and too entrenched.
Sounds like a good idea, on the surface: I briefly took welfare (food stamps) and the county went for the father to pay themselves back. They could be the “bad guy” in the situation, protecting me. But in practice, I see, they’ve had a makeover, and are more interested in being the nice guy (and enrolling men in fatherhood programs, access visitation programs, etc.).
I thought it was a great transitional idea immediately after marriage to have someone besides myself (for a change) asking the father of my children to pull his own weight, like I was, and to do so without in-home assault & battery privileges. We got a child support order when I got welfare help (rather than ask him for help myself). Not having the operational structure laid out in front of me, I thought that my getting OFF the system would be the end of the story, and they could go their way, and I mine, end of acquaintance. What did I know about the federal incentives, or how the interest income — of pooled, undistributed collections — was a real low-hanging fruit for the operation, and by withdrawing
Not so, not with all these grant programs and federal incentives flying around the place; not when within my own state, the same jurisdiction that basically spawned the family law industry was caught with its pants down, sitting on millions of collected child support (and its interest) until one father and one attorney caught them at this (John Silva, Richard Fine).
SO, LET’s ELIMINATE — OR AT LEAST BOYCOTT — THE ENTIRE AGENCY. HELP YOUR NEIGHBORS NOT NEED CHILD SUPPORT. KNOW WHAT IT MEANS IN ADVANCE. WARN MOTHERS LEAVING VIOLENT RELATIONSHIPS. AND TELL YOUR LOCAL LEGISLATOR (FIND OUT IN ADVANCE IF HE OR SHE IS ON A “NATIONAL FATHERHOOD INITIATIVE” LEGISLATIVE TASK FORCE — MANY ARE…) THAT ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! If a program takes over $4 BILLION just to enforce, and is still resulting in increased welfare loads, is not well-tracked, and has already been caught in repeated scandals — then it’s simply not worth the investment.
Mothers of minor children can only do so much, but one thing we can do is boycott (boycott seeking child support if you can. Or marriage — or sex (believe me, it’s been discussed in some groups I know) — or the family law system. You might get dragged in, but don’t go voluntarily — and publicize — put the warning labels out on blogs — they won’t reach mainstream media — and encourage them to find another way to live; there has to be one.
Decent Single Mothers AND Decent single Fathers AND decent non-parents (single or married) should figure out what we have in common, start asking hard questions about this OCSE agency and how it spends its funds. Meanwhile, we should work TOGETHER (unilaterally) to boycott it until it gets the message we are serious.
Most will not, or cannot, because their lives are already so entwined in and dependent upon this system, whether for work, for their kids’ school, or they are simply already employed by the huge bureaucracy. Or, their free time weekends is soaked up volunteering at the local faith-based organization…
FOUNDATIONS AND WELFARE POLICY:
Foundation after Foundation are writing the policy, through government institutions…. When one considers what foundations are, to start with, tax-exempt, one wonders about the arrangement. The Lynde and Larry Bradley Foundation (who published the “Marriage Guidebook — strategy for donors” I linked to, above) also is sponsoring another welfare think-tank in Wisconsin, with the “same old” players included that re-wrote welfare to include more Dads. Hmm. Wasn’t Wisconsin having LOTS of fiscal/political problems recently?
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Written by Let's Get Honest|She Looks It Up
May 16, 2011 at 7:43 pm
Posted in Business Enterprise, Designer Families, Funding Fathers - literally, OCSE - Child Support, Organizations, Foundations, Associations NGO Hybrids
Tagged with Access-Visitation, Beware, Bill Berkowitz, Boycott, Bradley Foundation, Bush-Moonie connection, Child Molestation, Clean up, Declaration of Independence/Bill of Rights, Due process, DV, fatherhood, Feminists, Hazards of Charitable Choice, Healthy Marriage perks for Healthy Marriage promoters, Institute for Democracy Studies (IDS), Maximus Inc., Michael Hayes, Motherhood, Nonie Darwish, OCSE, OCSE -- boycott? Shut down? Eliminate? Beware!, OFCBI Office of Community and Faith-Based Initiatives, Privatization of Welfare, Ron Haskins, Shari'a law, social commentary, Social Issues from Religious Viewpoints, Social Science v Rights, U.S. Govt $$ hard @ work.., Wade Horn