{"id":397564,"date":"2026-07-14T05:33:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/397564\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T05:33:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:33:30","slug":"gavin-newsoms-12m-diaper-deal-sparks-call-for-audit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/397564\/","title":{"rendered":"Gavin Newsom\u2019s $12M diaper deal sparks call for audit"},"content":{"rendered":"

A government ethics watchdog is asking California\u2019s state auditor to investigate a multimillion-dollar diaper deal<\/a> championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom \u2014 alleging political favoritism and potential waste of taxpayer dollars. <\/p>\n

Washington D.C.-based Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) asked State Auditor Grant Parks to probe California\u2019s $6.2M no-bid contract with Baby2Baby, a nonprofit with ties to Newsom\u2019s wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom, alleging the state may have skirted a typical competitive bidding process <\/a>and concealed records about the free diaper deal.<\/p>\n

Gavin Newsom inspects a box of diapers distributed by Baby2Baby. Getty Images for Baby2Baby<\/p>\n

\u201cImmediately after the contract was announced, there were public concerns over whether the contract was awarded in a fair and impartial manner and whether the state was overpaying for the diapers and the program was operated at an unreasonable cost,\u201d Kendra Arnold, executive director of FACT, wrote in a letter to Parks. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe facts relating to both of these issues should have been publicly available, but the Newsom administration has been misleading about whether the contract was awarded in a competitive process and and has mired the entire situation with a complete lack of transparency,\u201d Arnold added. <\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s free diaper program, which was announced in a San Francisco press conference just ahead of Mother\u2019s Day, provides 400 free diapers to families discharged from participating California hospitals, regardless of family income.<\/p>\n

The California Department of Health Care Access and Information awarded a $6.2 million contract to Los-Angeles-based Baby2Baby to administer the program, and a $12 million contract extension was tucked into Newsom\u2019s budget proposal for the coming year. <\/p>\n

Baby2Baby co-CEOs Kelly Sawyer Patricof and Norah Weinstein. Getty Images for Baby2Baby<\/p>\n

Baby2Baby\u2019s co-CEO Norah Weinstein sits on the board of Siebel Newsom\u2019s nonprofit, the California Partners Project \u2014 sparking allegations of cronyism. <\/p>\n

Baby2Baby\u2019s other co-CEO, Kelly Sawyer Patricof, is a \u201cprolific political donor,\u201d FACT noted in its letter. <\/p>\n

Republicans and Dems alike have raised questions about the diaper deal<\/a>, which was pitched as a cost-effective means of distributing free diapers to California families of varying income levels. <\/p>\n

\u201cI will say the optics of this vendor is not good at all,\u201d State Sen. Caroline Menjivar, a Democrat from San Fernando, said at a hearing about the diaper contract last month. <\/p>\n

The Baby2Baby deal has sparked accusations of favoritism. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe administration and the governor is going to be gone, and we\u2019re going to continue to get hit on this,\u201d Menjivar said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Republicans such as state Sen. Tony Strickland have claimed the state is overpaying for the diapers. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can go to Target and find diapers for 16 cents apiece. That just shows the waste and inefficiency of government,\u201d Strickland told The Post last month. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the California Morning Report newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCalifornia’s top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

FACT further stated in its letter that state officials have not been forthcoming about the details of its Baby2Baby contract.<\/p>\n

Reached for comment, a spokesperson for the California State Auditor said the office cannot comment on matters that are not part of a publicly released audit. <\/p>\n

The auditor conducts audits when required or authorized under California state law, or when approved by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, a 14-member committee comprised of state legislators. <\/p>\n

California officials have not released the Baby2Baby contract or bidding documents surrounding the controversial deal more than two months after it was announced, CBS News reported last week.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s office requested an exemption to the state\u2019s typical procurement rules in a letter to the legislature in May, saying the carve-outs were needed to ensure the continuity of the program. <\/p>\n

Officials have claimed that diaper banks, manufacturers and other firms were invited to participate in the program and vendors were fairly evaluated. <\/p>\n

Baby2Baby officials have said any relationship with Siebel Newsom had no role in the diaper initiative and that Weinstein volunteers on the California Partners Project board without pay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A government ethics watchdog is asking California\u2019s state auditor to investigate a multimillion-dollar diaper deal championed by Gov.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[60550,7,9,8,457,266,13,3586],"class_list":["post-397564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-babies","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-northern-california","tag-politics","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}