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TV Ad Puts Focus on Rob Reiner By Dan Morain, Times Staff Writer

The Reiner commission's ad firm is GMMB — formerly Greer, Margolis, Mitchell & Burns. It has a 12-person office in Santa Monica and is a subsidiary of Fleishman-Hillard Inc., headquartered in St. Louis.

One of GMMB's partners, Roy Behr, was a key consultant to the Yes on 10 effort and led a successful statewide fight in 2000 against a ballot measure that would have overturned Proposition 10. GMMB billed the two political campaigns $3.2 million in 1998 and 2000. It has won $169.5 million in state contracts through 2007 from the First 5 commission.

The bulk of the money has been used to buy air time and ads in newspapers, including The Times. Some went to subcontractors.

Like other bidders seeking to do First 5's advertising in 2004, GMMB submitted a thick binder detailing its finances, subcontractors and vision for the ad campaign. Unlike its competitors, GMMB came highly recommended by the First 5 chairman.

Reiner wrote the cover letter for the firm's bid package, praising its work on his public and private endeavors. The letter, dated March 10, 2004, said the commission tapped GMMB to write First 5's "long-range Preschool Advocacy Plan" in 2003.

"Preschool for All is our top priority and we knew that nobody else had a better understanding of our goals and how to accomplish them," Reiner wrote.

Behr said the company's "knowledge of the issues" was partly why it won the contract. He added: "We certainly talked about [the firm's political campaign work] as one of the things that gave us the credentials."

In the interview, Reiner said both firms "have shown expertise and tremendous effectiveness."

"If I know somebody can do a job and do it well, it wouldn't be very smart of me not to go and see if I could get those people to do the job," Reiner said, adding that he hopes "people think we are hiring the best."

The panel that selected GMMB included three employees of the First 5 commission and a fourth member who works for the California Department of Health Services. The four reported being unimpressed that GMMB's bid enjoyed Reiner's backing. "The cover letter from Rob Reiner was considered inappropriate and showed bad judgment on the part of Mr. Reiner and GMMB," the panel wrote in an otherwise glowing assessment of the firm's bid.

The panel "chose not to be influenced either way" by Reiner's letter, said Colleen Stevens, the Department of Health Services official who served on the panel.

First 5 met its legal obligation by publicly inviting companies to bid on its ad contract. Only three did. It was surprising, some advertising executives said, given the contract's prestige and size: $67.5 million over three years.

Some ad executives said privately that they assumed the incumbent would win, and that the laborious bidding process would waste their time.

As part of its latest First 5 work, GMMB produced three TV commercials, including the one with the running teenager. A second ad featured a mound of clay morphing into a child and a schoolhouse, then into a business tableau, as a narrator intoned that when children go to preschool, they stay in school, "and our businesses end up with a better-educated workforce."

In a third commercial, a school principal lamented that too many children who don't attend preschool enter kindergarten unprepared, "get discouraged and drop out." Part of the commission's money was spent to air a fourth ad, made earlier and not focused on preschool.

Reiner and Behr said they have taken pains to avoid conflicts. Behr said he would not work on the June initiative.

"While it is true that First 5 cannot and should not advocate on behalf of the potential initiative," GMMB wrote in a document submitted to the commission last year, "it is equally certain that the goals of the Preschool for All campaign can only be achieved through legislative or electoral action."

Others affiliated with GMMB and the First 5 commission are involved in the campaign for Proposition 82, which would raise income taxes by $2.4 billion a year on wealthy Californians.

Austin — the former deputy mayor — worked for GMMB on First 5-related matters in 2002 and 2003, then moved to Reiner's political team, then returned to consulting for GMMB and received bimonthly First 5 commission checks.

During an 11-month period ending in April 2005, GMMB billed First 5 California $206,000 to pay Austin and two other aides. Austin's share was $111,000, invoices show. All three returned to the Reiner campaign payroll in June.

Proposition 82's office is at the same Beverly Hills address Austin gave when he was consulting for GMMB and the state.

Austin and the other aides did not have contracts with First 5. Austin said his duties were outlined in multiple conversations with the commission's staff and Reiner. His work was part-time, and he said he had no involvement in the First 5 ads.

"Literally the only thing we have been motivated by," Austin said in his office last week, "is preschool for kids."

Meanwhile, William Deaver, a former member of the Fair Political Practices Commission, which enforces campaign laws, has asked his former agency to investigate whether the juxtaposition of the preschool ads and the Proposition 82 initiative effort violated the law.

An FPPC spokesman declined to comment.

Deaver, a Republican who served on the FPPC from 1999 to 2003, said the promotion of preschool is "admirable" but added: "I don't think you can use public money to support a ballot measure. I don't care what it is."