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Democratic Club Wants Answers to How City Lost $600,000 for the Unemployed

Published

13 years ago

March 1, 2013

Oakland Post

Deanna Santana

Larry Reid

By Ken A. Epstein

In an email exchange with city officials, the head of an Oakland Democratic club demanded “an immediate investigation” of why the city lost over $600,000 in federal funds to help laid off workers and called on the City Council “to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible.”
“Oakland taxpayers and residents are entitled to know exactly what happened, when it happened, and why it happened,” said Gretchen White, president of the Metropolitan-Greater Oakland Democratic Club (MG0) in an email addressed Feb. 19 to City Council members.
“This appears to be due to incompetence,” she wrote.
“Oaklanders expect you to begin to restore trust that city personnel who cause losses of this magnitude will not escape scrutiny of their actions,” she continued. “If this malfeasance occurred during a previous administration, it is still important to provide full disclosure in order to prevent similar lapses in the future.”
Responding the following day, City Administrator Deanna Santana put the blame for the loss of funds on the Ron Dellums administration, which received the grant in the months before Dellums left office at the end of December 2010.
“This administration inherited this problem, (but) when we discovered the errors, despite significant effort, the problems could not be fully sorted out before the grant funds expired,” she wrote.
Santana said that city has already fixed the issues that led to the loss of money.
“Rest assured the current workforce investment staff and this city administration put corrective actions in place to address this and other issues and to enhance the transparency and accountability of this important process.”
In a follow-up email to Santana dated Feb. 25, White wanted to know what the city had done to fix the issues.
“What specific corrective actions were taken and when were they taken?” she asked.
Santana said in an interview with the Post that she has nothing to add in regard to the loss of the $600,000. “Our position is well documented,” she said.
As reported earlier in the Post, the grant as written by the Dellums administration, proposed to train first-time workers, such as the formerly incarcerated, rather than placing laid-off workers in on-the-job training positions, as required by the Department of Labor.
The plan also proposed to utilize Volunteers of America and the Youth Employment Partnership to implement the program, though they had no on-the-job training background or were they part of an open bidding process, as required by the state.
According to the state Employment Development Department (EDD), which was responsible for overseeing the federal money, Oakland had received support and warnings with enough time to spend the money to help the unemployed.
“During the initial phase of this project, the state hosted periodic conference calls with all 20 of this grant’s project operators (grantees),” said Dan Stephens, of the Communications Office, EDD Public Affairs Branch.
“The city was periodically reminded of the need to develop a corrective action plan that would get their project implemented quickly,” Stephens said.
“Warnings were issued … primarily through the conference calls … with all the grantees,” he said.
“The city’s current Workforce Investment Act (WIA) administrator John Bailey and his staff were first notified in late October 2011, that the City needed to deobligate (send back) funding from this project or present a written justification substantiating why they should be allowed to retain this funding as the availability of this funding to the state was scheduled to end on June 30, 2012,” Stephens said.
In an interview with the Post, White said that she and her fellow Democratic club were still looking for answers.
“ We would like to know who did this. Are they still there? What happened? Why was it done wrong in the very beginning?” asked White.
She said she believed the problem began with the previous administration, and it is understandable that the current administration was unable to find agencies to place unemployed workers in on-the-job training positions between January 2011 and the end of June 30, 2012 when the grant expired.
However, according to Pedro Toledo, a former member of the city’s workforce staff, the city had more than enough time to repair the errors of the previous administration and use the money to create positions for unemployed workers.
Under the Quan administration, he said, “Nothing was done … for almost a year until the state, pressured by the U.S. Department of Labor, took action to recapture most of the funds.”
A public discussion on the loss of funds is scheduled for Tuesday, March 12, 2 p.m. at the meeting of the City Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee. Vice Mayor Larry Reid had asked for the hearing.
William “Bill” Patterson, a leader of the Oakland branch of the NAACP and longtime member of the Oakland Workforce Investment Board, said he was pleased Councilmember Reid is holding a hearing on the lost funds. But he said he was concerned that neither the city administrator nor any other city official responded to the letters he has written over the past two years to the city on the lost funds and other job development problems.
“I´ve never received an official communiqué from anybody on the issues,” he said.

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Rest in Peace: A.M.E. Pastor and L.A Civil Rights Icon Cecil “Chip” Murray Passes

The Rev. Dr. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray, former pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME) in Los Angeles, died of natural causes April 6 at his Windsor Hills Home. He was 94. “Today, we lost a giant. Reverend Dr. Cecil Murray dedicated his life to service, community, and putting God first in all things. I had the absolute honor of working with him, worshiping with him, and seeking his counsel,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of the dynamic religious leader whose ministry inspired and attracted millionaires as well as former gang bangers and people dealing with substance use disorder (SUD).

Published

1 month ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

The Rev. Dr. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray, former pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME) in Los Angeles, died of natural causes April 6 at his Windsor Hills Home. He was 94.

“Today, we lost a giant. Reverend Dr. Cecil Murray dedicated his life to service, community, and putting God first in all things. I had the absolute honor of working with him, worshiping with him, and seeking his counsel,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of the dynamic religious leader whose ministry inspired and attracted millionaires as well as former gang bangers and people dealing with substance use disorder (SUD).

Murray oversaw the growth of FAME’s congregation from 250 members to 18,000.

“My heart is with the First AME congregation and community today as we reflect on a legacy that changed this city forever,” Bass continued.

Murray served as Senior Minister at FAME, the oldest Black congregation in the city, for 27 years. During that time, various dignitaries visited and he built strong relationships with political and civic leaders in the city and across the state, as well as a number of Hollywood figures. Several national political leaders also visited with Murray and his congregation at FAME, including Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Murray, a Florida native and U.S. Air Force vet, attended Florida A&M University, where he majored in history, worked on the school newspaper and pledged Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. He later attended Claremont School of Theology in Los Angeles County, where he earned his doctorate in Divinity.

Murray is survived by his son Drew. His wife Bernadine, who was a committed member of the A.M.E. church and the daughter of his childhood pastor, died in 2013.

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Court Throws Out Law That Allowed Californians to Build Duplexes, Triplexes and RDUs on Their Properties

Charter cities in California won a lawsuit last week against the state that declared Senate Bill (SB) 9, a pro-housing bill, unconstitutional. Passed in 2021, SB 9 is also known as the California Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency Act (HOME). That law permits up to four residential units — counting individual units of duplexes, triplexes and residential dwelling units (RDUs) – to be built on properties in neighborhoods that were previously zoned for only single-family homes.

Published

1 month ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

Charter cities in California won a lawsuit last week against the state that declared Senate Bill (SB) 9, a pro-housing bill, unconstitutional.

Passed in 2021, SB 9 is also known as the California Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency Act (HOME). That law permits up to four residential units — counting individual units of duplexes, triplexes and residential dwelling units (RDUs) – to be built on properties in neighborhoods that were previously zoned for only single-family homes.

A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ruled in favor of the cities, pointing out that SB 9 discredited charter cities that were granted jurisdiction to create new governance systems and enact policy reforms. The court ruling affects 121 charter cities that have local constitutions.

Attorney Pam Lee represented five Southern California cities in the lawsuit against the state and Attorney General Rob Bonta.

“This is a monumental victory for all charter cities in California,” Lee said.

However, general law cities are excluded from the court ruling as state housing laws still apply in residential areas.

Attorney General Bonta and his team are working to review the decision and consider all options that will protect SB 9 as a state law. Bonta said the law has helped provide affordable housing for residents in California.

“Our statewide housing shortage and affordability crisis requires collaboration, innovation, and a good faith effort by local governments to increase the housing supply,” Bonta said.

“SB9 is an important tool in this effort, and we’re going to make sure homeowners have the opportunity to utilize it,” he said.

Charter cities remain adamant that the state should refrain from making land-use decisions on their behalf. In the lawsuit, city representatives argued that SB 9 eliminates local authority to create single-family zoning districts and approve housing developments.

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Funds for Down Payments and Credit Repair Given to Black First Time Homebuyers

The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) won a $10,000 fair housing settlement last November against a property management company, CIM Group LP, a global real estate company headquartered in Los Angeles, and property owner, RACR Sora, LLC, for implementing a blanket ban on renting to tenants with criminal histories at Sora Apartments in Inglewood. Three months earlier, the department, which enforces California’s civil rights laws, won another $20,000 civil rights settlement against a Lemon Grove property manager, who had targeted a Black tenant with a series of racist actions and threats of violence.

Published

1 month ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

By McKenzie Jackson, California Black Media

Three months earlier, the department, which enforces California’s civil rights laws, won another $20,000 civil rights settlement against a Lemon Grove property manager, who had targeted a Black tenant with a series of racist actions and threats of violence.

CRD Director Kevin Kish said the department investigates cases of apparent racial bias in housing and sometimes more subtle acts of prejudice like nuisance-free or crime-free housing policies or holding tenants to different standards based on their race.

Kish said, “People will get evicted if they call the police. This can negatively impact victims of domestic violence. We also see these no-crime ordinances, or no-crime policies, used in racially discriminatory ways. If there is some kind of incident, and the police are called and it involves a Black family, then they get evicted, but other folks aren’t necessarily evicted.”

On April 11,1968, a week after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, President Lydon B. Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, color, religion, and nationality.

Kish noted that William Byron Rumford, the first Black California State Assemblymember, who represented Berkley and Oakland, spearheaded the passing of the Rumford Act in 1963. That law sought to end discriminatory housing practices in the Golden State, five years before the Fair Housing Act became law.
Real estate agent and housing advocate Ashley Garner is the director of the CLTRE Keeper Home Ownership program. That organization gave 25 Black, indigenous, and people of color $17,500 each in down payment and credit repair support to purchase a home in Oak Park, a traditionally Black neighborhood in Sacramento, last fall. CLTRE obtained a $500,000 grant from the city of Sacramento to award the funds to the residents after they completed an eight-week homeownership program.

In 2021, the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) noted that around four in 10 Black California families owned homes, which trails that of White, Asian-American and Latinos.
According to Forbes, the median price for a home in California is over $500,000, which is double the cost of a home in the rest of the country.

Black lawmakers recently introduced their Reparations Priority Bill Package that includes support for Black first-time homebuyers, homeowners’ mortgage assistance and property tax relief for neighborhoods restricted by historic redlining.

California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) spokesperson Eric Johnson said CalHFA helps prospective low-income and moderate-income Californians purchase homes by offering down payment and closing cost aid. “There are lots of people who have steady jobs, good credit scores, constant income, but they haven’t been able to save up the money that traditional banks need or want to see for a down payment,” Johnson stated. “We help those folks out. We give a loan for the down payment to get them over that hurdle.”
CRD and the Department of Real Estate hosted “Fair Housing Protections for People with Criminal Histories” Zoom call on April 10.

On April 25, CRD will also hold Zoom seminars focused on advocating for fair housing for people with disabilities.