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Monday, August 03, 2009

LA Bridges reincarnated as GRYD ??

"Gang Programs, Invitation to Fraud and Graft then, and now ??"
LA Bridges here again ?? Maybe ex. City Controller Laura Chick can be brought back to audit,(something she never did as controller regarding LA Bridges), the latest incarnation of gang prevention and intervention programing known as the "Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development".
The Los Angeles Times, to their credit, exposes the problems with the agency "Unity T.W.O."
and those include the following according to the Times.
......Officials called in Unity T.W.O., a high-profile South L.A. intervention agency and City Hall contractor that has received more than $350,000 in public money this year and considerably more in the previous five years.
Unity T.W.O. never showed up -- and yet, days later, it submitted a standard form to City Hall reporting that it had responded as promised and spoken with gang members in an effort to reduce the tension, according to sources close to the city's gang-reduction efforts.
The discrepancy was the latest, and perhaps last, stumble for Unity T.W.O. According to documents obtained by The Times, including financial reports and e-mails between Unity T.W.O. and City Hall, the agency has left gang-reduction supervisors, city officials and nonprofit executives frustrated with its operation. The documents paint a portrait of a troubled, overwhelmed agency -- of overdrawn bank accounts, blown deadlines and missed payrolls.
More problems.......
In May, two staff members in the mayor's Office of Gang Reduction & Youth Development (GRYD) submitted sexual harassment claims against Unity T.W.O. employees -- "unwelcome sexual advances, inappropriate remarks and continued harassment even after our staff asked them to stop," according to one document. Unity T.W.O. workers were ordered to stay away from GRYD's female staffers.
Enough is enough........, even for the Rev. Jeff Carr, "General Secretary of Gang Intervention" (He does not like being called the "Czar", goes against his political train of thought).
By June, executives at Soledad Enrichment Action, which hired Unity T.W.O. as a subcontractor in the Newton area, were having difficulty even making contact with Fletcher and other Unity T.W.O. workers and resorted to sending a letter asserting that "we have no record that substantiates that any services have been or are being provided by your agency." City officials also were raising questions about Unity T.W.O.'s decision to "delegate" responsibilities to yet another intervention organization."OK.
What exactly does he do then?" e-mailed the Rev. Jeff Carr, GRYD's director, referring to Fletcher. "Still don't know," replied Jorge Reyes, a GRYD supervisor.
Fletcher seemed stymied by the bureaucracy's confusing demands."We want to comply. We will happily comply. But please help us do so," he wrote to Carr and Villaraigosa on June 26.
Word on the "Street" is that Unity T.W.O. is not the only sub-contractor who has problems with being forthright when it comes to documenting their work. E-mails are making the rounds about "sub-contractors" who are "double-dipping" on the city dime.
Then there is the question of transparency in the hiring process when it comes to the GRYD.
Lets use the latest "connected non-profit" Legacy LA as an example.
Current "Legacy LA" Employees,
Jenny Krusoe"Director of Development"
Maria Lou Calanche"Exective Director"
Monique Moncayo"Director of Youth Outreach"
George Sarabia"GRYD Program Coordinator"
What oversite did the GRYD have in the selection and hiring process ? Were job fliers past out in the communities ? Where is the openness and transparency in who gets hire ?
But the last sentence in this paragraph gives us the sad truth.
"There has to be rules. If there aren't rules, people will abuse this thing, and I think the city is making an honest effort to do something to stem the violence," said Ted Baker, a case manager with a group that works closely with Unity T.W.O. in South L.A. "But you still have to have real contacts on the street level. There is no other way to break that cycle. I just don't know. The politics here run pretty deep."
Your thoughts.................................

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14 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

There's talk Chick may even run for Governor, since people are fed up with Gavin Newsom and Brown thinking they've got a lock on the nomination.

I don't think Chick is interested in the chicken-shit squabbles of L A's local politics: she only spoke out against Trutanich's lying and demogoruery in defrauding her and the public because it made her look bad to have endrosed him. IF she runs for Governor she doesn't want that albatross around her neck, she had to let people know she's not to be associated with him.

However I doubt she will run - even if she could get the Dem nod, it's going to be a very expensive race and Brown already has $7mil.

August 03, 2009 2:05 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

All these gang programs are corrupt. The gang members running them are getting arrested on felonies. Just last Monday in the Valley 4 suspect with a gang program called Unity One started their trial. C'mon Daily News where are you on this? the Mayor and the Village Idiot Jeff Carr are praying it doesn't leak out. Did you read what the females are saying, "there is no administrative training coming out of city hall for these programs." Hellooooo we're in the same mess we were 5 years ago when Connie Rice said these gang programs were a mess and now they still are.

August 03, 2009 2:19 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

So Spoot, I take it by all this that you're opposed to any form of government gang intervention, because it could be misused and abused, and become full of graft.

Just wait until the loser kids all join one gang or another, then line 'em up and shoot em, right? Or maybe just build a new prison for ever 5-square miles of city and lock every kid that's not in college or flipping burgers.

How many government public benefit programs can you name, that don't have the potential for someone to be greasing their own palm with tax dollars?

I can't think of any.

What's your solution?

August 03, 2009 2:19 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

The LA Times NOW blog has an update about the case against SWAT for killing the baby girl used as a human shield in 05 was dismissed for lack of evidence. That's good.

BUT readers in large numbers are slamming Trutanich for gloating and high-fiving in the photo for his lack of class, in stark contrast to the other guys in the photo. Try as they might, Maeve Reston who wrote this one trying to puff up Trutanich in the face of a groundswell of buyer's remorse pushed on them by the Times, can't turn a sow's ear into a silk bag. She gushes about how he spent 4 hours himself reviewing the case. WOW. With that sharp legal brain of his, honed at the night school of here-today literally gone-tomorrow South Bay U College of Law in Carson, he's the least qualified of any of the 650 staff lawyers and acts the part.

Disgraceful, glad Laura Chick had the guts to say what she did. I'd vote her for Gov. based on that alone. While she may have not been infallible in all her judgments, Trutanich is someone she interviewed personally at length and went out on a limb for, and her gut instincts now are right.

August 03, 2009 2:53 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

2:53pm Please you moron. The smart people know Trutanich is celebrating all the hard work and tax dollars that will be saved by a greedy mother. Only in LA can an illegal sue. You didn't see the same assholes posting on there say anything when SWAT Randy Simmons got killed. Watch the dumb ass PPL police union come out and take credit, even the officers hate them now. Good for Nuch. Its a great win for LAPD because of all the radical, mecha idiots who tried to say the police killed the toddler on purpose they were wrong. The ambulance chaser Louis Carrillo will have a press conf. and say something stupid.

August 03, 2009 3:10 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

3:10, you are the "moron" and missed the point of the post you reply to.

Said the verdict was good - to exonorate LAPD - BUT that everyone is correctly slamming that classless buffoon Trutanich for gloating and high-fiving. First, he had nothing to do with the case except review it for a few hours, being the dumbest bulb on the whole CA staff. Then try to take "credit" for it and do his usual vulgar chest-thumping.

Yes this is the correct outcome, NO thanks to him AND it's disgusting for him to use it as a photo op to gloat. An innocent little girl was killed in the legit line of duty, LAPD had no choice to do what it did but that is NOT what this post was criticizing, you moron. You show a lack basic literacy and of course lack of class just like that ludicrous buffoon Trutanich.

August 03, 2009 3:29 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

3:10: P.S. You were right about ONE thing, that the officers hate PPL because PPL with its head Paul Weber (BFF of Dennis Zine, Nooch's main acolyte) wasted almost $800,000 of their union dues to elect Nooch.

Without asking the rank and file, who are furious about it. Jack Weiss is the one who's worked with LAPD for the last 8 years, making sure they got what they needed in terms of growing the force, cars and equipment, and pushing to clear the DNA evidence kit backlog. He got the whole council to agree to fund that program until the kits were all tested shortly before leaving concil, after years of work. -- Despite crazy lies to the contrary from Zine of course, and certain talk show hosts who shill for Nooch.

By contrast Nooch has not only been outed by many former supporters as a liar and fraud who uses people, but attacked LAPD to the world after it did a superb job with the Jackson events and the Lakers parade. The rank and file cops hate him and don't want Zine lording it over Bratton.

August 03, 2009 3:36 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

LA LEGACY

programs=0

August 03, 2009 4:25 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Gang bangers never change their mentality. Its a way of life no matter how much you think they will turn. How many have been arrested something like 8 abusing the money the city is giving them. But bimbo Janice Hahn wants to put another gang tax that's how stupid she is.
Speaking of Stupid is as Stupid Does. These bafoons do anything for foreigners.

07-2146-S1 RESOLUTION (REYES - GARCETTI - HUIZAR) relative to declaring August 6, 2009 as El Dia del Salvadoreno (Salvadoran Day) in the City of Los Angeles.

August 03, 2009 4:43 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Janice Hahn just won't give up on that property tax for gang programs even though people are even angrier about taxes and reduced services than when the vote failed last time.

First, there's no reason property owners should be the ones to pay - that money should come out of fines for gangbanger parents and taggers.

Homeowners are already angry that the tripled trash fees promised for 1000 new cops are going into the general fund. Smith and Parks claim they were never even promised for the cops, just to offset real cost of trash pickup, which is a flat out lie. They have Zine and Rosendahl agreeing.

So they blew that money as usual, and the phone S tax, now we're supposed to trust Janice Hahn of all people with another property tax. People are struggling to pay mortgages, the left is trying to revote Prop 13 to make taxes go through the roof. And all Janice can think about is more property taxes when they're wasting the money they have now on programs.

August 03, 2009 6:30 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

"Carmen, the Soap Opera," continues. (L A CityWatch.)

There are over 100 comments on the Times blog about the high-fiving now, most disgusting and angry. Sad thing is some people think Carmen's speaking for LAPD and think it makes LAPD look like they're gloating.

August 03, 2009 6:32 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

6:32, meant disgustED comments, not disgustING. Kind of surprising how many people feel so strongly. Even L A Observed links to it, heading it "A child dies, and High-Fives."

August 03, 2009 7:36 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Czar is the right name for Carr. He is incredibly rude and disrespectful to involved community members at large.

There are many of us that know and understand the problems for years who are not looking for the money.

All that matters to him is was to get and spend the $24 million as fast and irresponsibly as he could while he had it.

August 03, 2009 10:32 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Carr the Czar = Cute to me.

August 04, 2009 7:41 PM  

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