California’s top librarian torched as $1.1M from Dolly Parton literacy program vanishes: new docs

California has a new third rail in politics: Don’t mess with Dolly!

During a nearly three-hour hearing Tuesday, state Senators Sasha Renée Peréz (D-Pasadena) and Shannon Grove (R-Fresno) ripped into California State Librarian Greg Lucas and a department-linked nonprofit for burning more than $1 million in taxpayer money designed to support country music icon Dolly Parton’s child literacy program.

In March The Post reported on a hearing that focused on roughly $650,000 in unaccounted-for spending tied to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. 

New documents and testimony this week show the problems go much further — with potential self-dealing, basic accounting errors and thin documentation on how taxpayer money was spent.

Peréz quickly zeroed in on the lack of answers Tuesday, demanding more accountability on where the money went as there is still “a real lack of information.”

“Mr. Lucas, moving forward, I just want to highlight that it’s my expectation that the State Library, when they are overseeing a nonprofit, that they are providing tighter oversight and accountability around these issues,” she said. 

The State Library also failed to send the Dollywood Foundation a required $61 million-plus within 45 days as required, and lawmakers still don’t have clear numbers on how many books the library and its now-defunct nonprofit actually delivered to kids.

In 2022, the state launched a $68.2 million child literacy effort and the Strong Reader Partnership, a nonprofit, was set up by the State Library to help run it. But after a slow rollout, lawmakers stepped in to claw back the money and ordered the bulk of the funds to be redirected to the Dollywood Foundation. 

But even after that shift, the state-created nonprofit spent about $1.1 million in funds — with roughly $1 million going to just three firms.

The most glaring issue involves Sage Strategies, which was paid $326,250.99 for consulting work. The firm’s CEO, Sonya Harris, also served as the Strong Reader Partnership’s executive director. 

While the contract with Strong Reader Partnership explicitly forbade the nonprofit from lobbying on legislation, Peréz and Grove noted during Tuesday’s committee hearing that email records show Harris and her nonprifit lobbied against a bill that removed control of the book project’s money from the organization’s control.

“Just frankly, you guys failed,” Grove said.

“You can’t tell me what students you enrolled. You’re piggybacking and say you get credit for what Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library did.”

Invoices for Sage Strategies’ work offered little detail, often listing only “general consulting” without explaining what was actually done, according to a committee report.

Another $581,708.55 went to marketing firm Shipyard, including $125,000 for a “web digital landing page.” Grove said in the hearing that the webpage doesn’t exist.

A third firm, Lotus Financial Solution, collected $110,000 for bookkeeping — including a $40,000 setup fee and $7,000 per month charges — despite the nonprofit handling fewer than 100 total transactions.

Adding more questions, the Strong Reader Partnership still incurred an overdraft fee and had checks bounce for insufficient funds.

Lawmakers also found the nonprofit overstated payments by $101,788.50 to Sage Strategies and $10,974.50 to the law firm Delfino Madden due to double counting.

On Tuesday, Grove called the invoices from multiple contractors “very vague.”

Peréz said after the hearing that key questions are still unanswered. 

“While I appreciate their participation in these public hearings, important gaps remain between the information the committee has been requesting and the documentation and responses provided,” she said. 

“We have an obligation to use state funds responsibly and transparently.”

Despite the turmoil, the Dollywood Foundation reported strong results in helping get books into the hands of California kids. 

The initial $1.5 million covered more than 1 million books, and between July 2023 and July 2024 the program enrolled 85,401 children, including 46,530 new sign-ups.

Since June 2023, the program says it has reached 163,104 kids and delivered 2.9 million books statewide.