Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Senator Pérez Calls for Independent Audit After State-Created Nonprofit Spent $1.1 Million With No Proof Books Reached Children

California State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez at the “No Kings” 2 demonstration in Pasadena on Saturday, October 18, 2025. [Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]

Pasadena’s state senator says three hearings failed to produce adequate financial records for the Imagination Library program

State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez announced Tuesday that the Senate Budget Subcommittee she chairs will seek an independent audit of the California State Library’s administration of a statewide children’s literacy program, after a nonprofit the library created spent $1.1 million in state funds with no clear documentation that a single book was delivered.

Pérez, a Democrat whose district includes Pasadena and Altadena, said in a statement that her subcommittee will work with the Office of State Audits and Evaluations within the Department of Finance to examine the spending. The announcement followed a hearing Monday at which the state librarian and representatives of the nonprofit returned to testify before the subcommittee for a third time.

The program at issue is California’s version of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, established by Senate Bill 1183 in 2022 with $68.2 million in state funding. The bipartisan legislation, co-authored by Sen. Shannon Grove, a Bakersfield Republican, and then-Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins, a San Diego Democrat, directed the state librarian to work with the Dollywood Foundation to mail free, age-appropriate books monthly to children from birth to age 5 across all 58 counties.

Instead of partnering directly with the Dollywood Foundation, the California State Library helped create a separate nonprofit called the Strong Reader Partnership. The nonprofit’s articles of incorporation were filed in April 2023 with the deputy state librarian listed as agent for service of process, according to subcommittee documents from earlier hearings.

The Strong Reader Partnership reported spending approximately $1.2 million in state funds, but bank statements provided to Senate budget staff documented only about $555,000 in expenditures — a discrepancy of roughly $649,000, according to the subcommittee’s March 12 agenda packet. Senate budget staff requested receipts, invoices and bank statements from the State Library on six occasions between November 2025 and February 2026, according to the subcommittee. The documents were not provided.

“Important gaps remain between the information the committee has been requesting and the documentation and responses provided,” Pérez said in a statement released by her office. “As a result of the lack of sufficient answers, the committee will work with the Office of State Audits and Evaluations within the Department of Finance to conduct an independent audit.”

At the March 12 hearing, Pérez gave State Librarian Greg Lucas a one-week deadline to produce the outstanding financial documents. On March 19, the committee acknowledged receipt of additional materials and said a review was underway. Monday’s hearing was the third in the series.

Grove, who co-authored the original legislation, was sharply critical at the March 12 hearing. She said the State Library’s creation of its own nonprofit went against legislative intent and the roughly $650,000 gap in documentation warranted serious scrutiny, according to news reports of the hearing.

In a written statement provided to ABC10 after the March 12 hearing, a State Library spokesperson said the library “takes seriously its responsibility to ensure transparency and accountability in the taxpayer dollars entrusted to it” and “has provided the Legislature with all documentation in its possession and has repeatedly requested additional records from the Strong Reader Partnership.”

Lucas said during the March 12 hearing that the nonprofit had expressed difficulty providing records because it no longer had money or active board members since funds were transferred to the Imagination Library, according to news reports.

The subcommittee’s agenda documents from March also noted that the Strong Reader Partnership’s executive director served as the principal of a Sacramento-based consulting firm that received at least four checks totaling approximately $208,000 from the nonprofit, and that the nonprofit provided only a single $5,000 grant to one local partner in Yolo County.

In late 2025, the state reclaimed remaining funds from the Strong Reader Partnership and redirected them to the Dollywood Foundation to administer the program directly, according to Pérez’s statement.

Pérez said the subcommittee will issue a summary of preliminary concerns based on information gathered to date. She said the matter remains an open oversight issue.

“As Chair of the Senate Budget Subcommittee No. 1 on Education and Chair of the Senate Education Committee, I take my responsibility as a public servant very seriously especially when funding for children is involved,” Pérez said. “We have an obligation to use state funds responsibly and transparently.”

Pérez represents the 25th Senate District, which includes Pasadena, Altadena, Alhambra, Glendale, Arcadia, South Pasadena, San Marino, Sierra Madre, La Cañada Flintridge and other San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire communities.

The Dollywood Foundation, which administers the Imagination Library in all 50 states and five countries, has not publicly commented on the California program’s implementation issues. The national program has distributed more than 280 million free books since Dolly Parton founded it in her home county in Tennessee in 1995.

No formal audit or criminal investigation related to the Strong Reader Partnership had been previously announced. The independent review through the Department of Finance would be the first formal external examination of the nonprofit’s spending.