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CityBuild, curse of the City wasting millions of dollars with Rhonda Simmons at the helm.
From day one when I met Rhonda Simmons an inept, corrupt person that was hired from out of State to work for the San Francisco's Mayor's Office of Economic Development and Workforce - I knew I would be dealing with TROUBLE itself. Last year CityBuild - that is a farce that touts that it does good work - wasted over $7 million. This year as I predicted months ago - it will waste $20 million plus. Go figure - why?
CityBuild touts that it does good work. What CityBuild really is - is a front that take mostly youth - gives them a short fake training, FALSE HOPE and leaves them to fend for themselves.
What a sad state of affairs. This has been going on for the last four years. And no one - no one - has been doing anything about this abject failure and what is more waste of millions of dollars in the City and County of San Francisco.
Rhonda Simmons and her gang last years wasted $7 million dollars. This year this inept and very corrupt organization is out to waste over $20 million - give or take.
CityBuild is a front - and operates much like the how the Mafia works. The six or so One Stop Centers - scream and shout that they can help people get a job. CityBuild cannot and will not get anyone a good, career job.
What CityBuild does is get as many people in the door - and use the people, even if they come in the door multiple times as STATISTICS - and used this DATA - to justify their funding and work.
Thousands of youth and others have gone to CityBuild - One Stop Center only to be told that they really cannot offer anyone a job. If you are a journey men or women - forget about it - they will give you an orientation and humiliate you. Imagine career BLUE workers - sitting with young folks many of whom have never held a job - and there are these workers with experience being led astray. Qualified workers feel humiliated, frustrated, and have no place to turn to.
Rhonda Simmons has appeared before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and she just talks and talk and no one will ask her - how many CAREER JOBS has she provided? No one will ask her - why so many outside contractors come to San Francisco and hire workers from outside San Francisco? Last year over $5.9 BILLION dollars of construction work was done in San Francisco - very few of the workers who live in San Francisco - worked on these projects - WHY may I ask?
Rhonda Simmons given false hopes to young people - but, cannot place them to have career jobs - why? What is the use of CityBuild - anyway?
Rhonda Simmons has a staff of about 15 people - ten of which make over $125,000 plus benefits. Rhonda Simmons makes more and her three or four assistants - that have access to the diabolic machinations ploys that have ruined hundreds of lives.
Young people - mostly misfits that have never been given opportunities go to CityBuild and cannot stand CityBuild for more then a week. They leave. CityBuild does not care.WhatCityBuild is really interested are that these young folks that really need help - be a part of their STATISTICS to get funding. You have these EVIL people managing these ONE STOP CENTERS mostly doing nothing.
Go visit the ONE STOP CENTER at 1800 Oakdale in the Bayview or the one in the Western Addition. Both these centers are a farce. They do have computers and they do offer some basic help with a resume - but beyond that they are a JOKE.
It all started some years ago when I used to attend the San Francisco County Transportation Authority meetings. Some $270,000 was set aside for training. Once a corrupt person like Supervisor Sophie Maxwell heard about it. She recruited a crook in the person of Laura Luster. One thing led to another and the first thing I hear - some crooks want to give Laura Luster $150,000 out of the $270,000 for writing a White Paper on workforce!
I tried to shoot this nonsense down - but, Laura Luster managed to get over $50,000 of this money. Ever since that time - some consultants have been raking in the money. These purport to do this and that - but all they are interested in is the money. Now, with the Stimulus Money in the pipe line - hundreds are hoping they can facilitate in some fake training and make money - at the expense of our youth.
Our youth if they are NOT incarcerated then they are taken for a ride and frustrated by these EVIL people - at the helm is Rhonda Simmons who works for the Mayor's Office of Economic Development and Workforce.
You should have witnessed the hearing at the City College Board where several people called CityBuild a JOKE. Blue workers are fed up with the City and County of San Francisco and are now going anywhere to plead for jobs.
CityBuild trains you with DRAB training - but cannot give you a job. They do get you - sometimes into the door at a construction job but the mostly PRIVATE CONTRACTORS - do not keep CityBuild workers for more then two week. Once out the door - reality hits the young workers. Many come to me for help - is Rhonda Simmons ready to help them? If she is NOT who is? Is Mayor Gavin Newsom ready to help them - I will line them up!
Of the hundreds of so called interns or trainees that CityBuild have given crash courses in carpentry for example - less then one percent have found long time jobs. Most of them - as I said have been hired by Private Contractors - used for a couple of weeks and then fired. It takes months for a FIRED young, dejected worker, to recover from that TRAUMA - but, sadly that is the state of affairs.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors should talk to Milton Marks Jr and John Russo that sit on the Board at City College - and find out if what I am saying is true.
City College built a brand new college in the Mission and very few workers from San Francisco got a job. Now, City College wants to build a college at China Town - and wants to give San Franciscans a job - but will they?
Last year there were over $5.9 Billion worth of construction jobs in San Francisco. Most of it was done by workers from as far as Sacramento, Tracy, Stockton, and you name it. San Franciscans could go to the gate of the construction jobs - many times - and always told to come again. Now, this is a crying shame.
The San Francisco Human Rights Commissions and its Compliance Officers have NO clout. In fact the SF Human Rights Commission is so slow compiling the statistics linked to workforce placement - that it is a JOKE. Truly speaking there should be a through quarterly report - but, I have not seen a detail report from the Human Rights Commission in all the time - I have been around looking at this situation. Not in the last 15 years for sure.
I have reported about the Apartment Investment Management Company (AIMCO) situated in the Bayview Hunters Point. This thug company promised the world and to CityBuild to provide jobs - but nothing happen. When we brought CityBuild to the table - they made a fool of themselves. All we heard were excuses - " you know we cannot force private contractors to give our people jobs". What kind of statement is that? Why do they come here to work and have all this freedom to do as they please? Who encourages them? If not CityBuild? Then why does CityBuild permit these outsiders to put signs at the Work Project - saying if you want to be hired go to CityBuild!
Bottom line CityBuild is a LIAR. They brag that they can give jobs but they cannot. What they do well is entice young and desperate workers to come for an orientation of sorts. Stupid when you really attend one - as I have on three occasions - going in incognito - stupid orientation that is a disgrace to any sound organization.
The short course given in some of the trades is very basic - then the young women and men are left to fend for themselves. There are cases where women have been abused and some are waiting for years to complete the "required hours" to attain their internship.
CityBuild stabbed Young Community Developers in the back. Now, in the Bayview we really have not one institution that can protect the youth. Young Community Developers is not functional and rumors abound that CityBuild ran it down. YCD was there much before CityBuild.
The UNIONS love to get the UNION DUES but are very slow to permit the interns to work side by side with JOURNEYMEN and other professional workers - to learn the trade - be it plumbing, carpentry, electrician, iron worker - you came it.
The present Economic Crisis has brought in the Stimulus Money - that CityBuild has been quick to apply for. However, the incompetent CityBuild will bring down the name of this City when it will be faulted for corruption, lack of accountability and transparency, and mostly lack of true leadership.
At the current San Francisco Budget hearing the San Francisco Board of Supervisors seem NOT to ask the right questions.
They want Harvey Rose to do the dirty work for them. Supervisors John Avalos, David Campos, and Ross Mirkarimi should as least talk to their constituents and to Board Members from City College about CityBuild. Milton Marks Jr and John Russo - to find about the TRUTH.
Rhonda Simmons should be fired. Where to they get such unprofessional idiotic scum bag - that waste so much money and what is more has traumatized so many of our youth in San Francisco? Does the SF Board of Supervisors want to have a HEARING on CityBuild? Hundreds of youth and others are ready to testify. Much like we had the AIMCO hearing that most of the SF Board of Supervisors and Supervisor Sophie Maxwell have forgotten about?
Now, suddenly other idiots are pretending to suddenly know about workforce. Some of them talk about being in the Bayview for years but they have no workforce experience and want to sit on committees to mess things up. No one should sit on any WorkForce Committee without having the experience. And that includes for sure - placement.
The A. Randolf Institute that has taken thousands from Lennar and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company has NO workforce experience. Less in placement. One worker died on the Deconstruction Work at the PG&E project at Hunters Point. Some workers with proper training were lured to this job by the A Randolf Institute. Such scams must be exposed.
Joshua Arce who has just come to town - talks a good talk but has no workforce experience and knows very little about the Bayview Hunters Point area and people. He has no placement experience and knows very little about the Human Rights Commission and its working.
I met Arce when he first came to San Francisco and I keep a tab on him and his organization. He has been paid by James Bryant Sr. from the A Randolf Institute who works for Lennar and Lennar has and is slowly killing our children and elders. No one tainted with the money from Lennar - should say that they work with the people from the Bayview. If you work with the devil - stay away from the decent people from the Bayview Hunters Point.
Other so called community activists from the past who claim that they work for the Bayview have ulterior motives - do not persuade me to name you all. You already have BLOOD on your hands - lurking in the dark to make money for yourselves at the expense of the community. Stop running your mouth - when in fact you have done nothing concrete for the decent youth and people of the Bayview Hunters Point.
I have qualified experience having placed hundreds of young and not so young workers at the Presidio of San Francisco . Over ninety percent of them worked for 15 years or more and that is a good track record. Many of these workers went to have families, bought homes, and to this day are in touch with me.
I always created a support system. Asked them to join the UNION. Fought for their rights and never lost cases when it came to Workers Rights on the job. Some cases linked to Workers Compensation and Unfair Practices when it came to promotion are still in the pipe-line - but, my track record - winning these cases are pretty high.
Rhonda Simmons, Fred Blackwell, Micheal Cohen, Mayor Gavin Newsom should know what I did at the AIMCO project site. Workers were shot and killed. Others suffered at the hands of crooks that made them sign their pay check and took most of the money. There were other atrocities. CityBuild paid some "thugs" one of them was Jessie Mason who purported to work for CityBuild and it now involved with the Solar Job Placement.
I took the lead and put this project on track. Working with all parties we solved the nonsense created by CityBuild and others. We took NO money from the workers. We provided them with pro bono attorneys to address the suffering of the workers. Where was CityBuild on this? Where was the SF Redevelopment on this one? Where was Michael Cohen and Rhonda Simmons on this one? Where was Mayor Gavin Newsom on this one? The case was widely reported - a detail report in the SF Weekly.
How come CityBuild could not solve the AIMCO fiasco? Called Ruben Santana from Rubecon to find out the details. The contractor saved AIMCO and has yet to be paid? Is CityBuild and the San Francisco Human Rights Commission aware of this fact? Is Supervisor Sophie Maxwell aware of this fact? Are the San Francisco Board of Supervisors aware of this fact? Is Mayor Gavin Newsom and Michael Cohen aware of this fact?
RUBECON did the City and County of San Francisco a favor and put the project on track. What is of paramount importance - hired over sixty percent of local hires from the neighboring community - mostly from Hunters Point? Where was CityBuild on this?
Today, Rubecon has been forced to take AIMCO to court and put a LIEN on all the AIMCO buildings situated in the Bayview Hunters Point. This matter is know to the PUBLIC and can be got from the local courts.
CityBuild is a JOKE. The Federal Bureau of Investigation must investigate CityBuild and especially one inept, corrupt person - Rhonda Simmons.
Rhonda Simmons - who is Black - does the bidding of mostly White Folks from the Mayor's Office of Economic Development and Workforce. She is a disgrace to decency and humanity. San Franciscans are poorer because of such a hired, despicable
scum bag.
Francisco Da Costa
Director
Environmental Justice Advocacy
******************************
******************************
http://www.sfgov.org
What a sad state of affairs. This has been going on for the last four years. And no one - no one - has been doing anything about this abject failure and what is more waste of millions of dollars in the City and County of San Francisco.
Rhonda Simmons and her gang last years wasted $7 million dollars. This year this inept and very corrupt organization is out to waste over $20 million - give or take.
CityBuild is a front - and operates much like the how the Mafia works. The six or so One Stop Centers - scream and shout that they can help people get a job. CityBuild cannot and will not get anyone a good, career job.
What CityBuild does is get as many people in the door - and use the people, even if they come in the door multiple times as STATISTICS - and used this DATA - to justify their funding and work.
Thousands of youth and others have gone to CityBuild - One Stop Center only to be told that they really cannot offer anyone a job. If you are a journey men or women - forget about it - they will give you an orientation and humiliate you. Imagine career BLUE workers - sitting with young folks many of whom have never held a job - and there are these workers with experience being led astray. Qualified workers feel humiliated, frustrated, and have no place to turn to.
Rhonda Simmons has appeared before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and she just talks and talk and no one will ask her - how many CAREER JOBS has she provided? No one will ask her - why so many outside contractors come to San Francisco and hire workers from outside San Francisco? Last year over $5.9 BILLION dollars of construction work was done in San Francisco - very few of the workers who live in San Francisco - worked on these projects - WHY may I ask?
Rhonda Simmons given false hopes to young people - but, cannot place them to have career jobs - why? What is the use of CityBuild - anyway?
Rhonda Simmons has a staff of about 15 people - ten of which make over $125,000 plus benefits. Rhonda Simmons makes more and her three or four assistants - that have access to the diabolic machinations ploys that have ruined hundreds of lives.
Young people - mostly misfits that have never been given opportunities go to CityBuild and cannot stand CityBuild for more then a week. They leave. CityBuild does not care.WhatCityBuild is really interested are that these young folks that really need help - be a part of their STATISTICS to get funding. You have these EVIL people managing these ONE STOP CENTERS mostly doing nothing.
Go visit the ONE STOP CENTER at 1800 Oakdale in the Bayview or the one in the Western Addition. Both these centers are a farce. They do have computers and they do offer some basic help with a resume - but beyond that they are a JOKE.
It all started some years ago when I used to attend the San Francisco County Transportation Authority meetings. Some $270,000 was set aside for training. Once a corrupt person like Supervisor Sophie Maxwell heard about it. She recruited a crook in the person of Laura Luster. One thing led to another and the first thing I hear - some crooks want to give Laura Luster $150,000 out of the $270,000 for writing a White Paper on workforce!
I tried to shoot this nonsense down - but, Laura Luster managed to get over $50,000 of this money. Ever since that time - some consultants have been raking in the money. These purport to do this and that - but all they are interested in is the money. Now, with the Stimulus Money in the pipe line - hundreds are hoping they can facilitate in some fake training and make money - at the expense of our youth.
Our youth if they are NOT incarcerated then they are taken for a ride and frustrated by these EVIL people - at the helm is Rhonda Simmons who works for the Mayor's Office of Economic Development and Workforce.
You should have witnessed the hearing at the City College Board where several people called CityBuild a JOKE. Blue workers are fed up with the City and County of San Francisco and are now going anywhere to plead for jobs.
CityBuild trains you with DRAB training - but cannot give you a job. They do get you - sometimes into the door at a construction job but the mostly PRIVATE CONTRACTORS - do not keep CityBuild workers for more then two week. Once out the door - reality hits the young workers. Many come to me for help - is Rhonda Simmons ready to help them? If she is NOT who is? Is Mayor Gavin Newsom ready to help them - I will line them up!
Of the hundreds of so called interns or trainees that CityBuild have given crash courses in carpentry for example - less then one percent have found long time jobs. Most of them - as I said have been hired by Private Contractors - used for a couple of weeks and then fired. It takes months for a FIRED young, dejected worker, to recover from that TRAUMA - but, sadly that is the state of affairs.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors should talk to Milton Marks Jr and John Russo that sit on the Board at City College - and find out if what I am saying is true.
City College built a brand new college in the Mission and very few workers from San Francisco got a job. Now, City College wants to build a college at China Town - and wants to give San Franciscans a job - but will they?
Last year there were over $5.9 Billion worth of construction jobs in San Francisco. Most of it was done by workers from as far as Sacramento, Tracy, Stockton, and you name it. San Franciscans could go to the gate of the construction jobs - many times - and always told to come again. Now, this is a crying shame.
The San Francisco Human Rights Commissions and its Compliance Officers have NO clout. In fact the SF Human Rights Commission is so slow compiling the statistics linked to workforce placement - that it is a JOKE. Truly speaking there should be a through quarterly report - but, I have not seen a detail report from the Human Rights Commission in all the time - I have been around looking at this situation. Not in the last 15 years for sure.
I have reported about the Apartment Investment Management Company (AIMCO) situated in the Bayview Hunters Point. This thug company promised the world and to CityBuild to provide jobs - but nothing happen. When we brought CityBuild to the table - they made a fool of themselves. All we heard were excuses - " you know we cannot force private contractors to give our people jobs". What kind of statement is that? Why do they come here to work and have all this freedom to do as they please? Who encourages them? If not CityBuild? Then why does CityBuild permit these outsiders to put signs at the Work Project - saying if you want to be hired go to CityBuild!
Bottom line CityBuild is a LIAR. They brag that they can give jobs but they cannot. What they do well is entice young and desperate workers to come for an orientation of sorts. Stupid when you really attend one - as I have on three occasions - going in incognito - stupid orientation that is a disgrace to any sound organization.
The short course given in some of the trades is very basic - then the young women and men are left to fend for themselves. There are cases where women have been abused and some are waiting for years to complete the "required hours" to attain their internship.
CityBuild stabbed Young Community Developers in the back. Now, in the Bayview we really have not one institution that can protect the youth. Young Community Developers is not functional and rumors abound that CityBuild ran it down. YCD was there much before CityBuild.
The UNIONS love to get the UNION DUES but are very slow to permit the interns to work side by side with JOURNEYMEN and other professional workers - to learn the trade - be it plumbing, carpentry, electrician, iron worker - you came it.
The present Economic Crisis has brought in the Stimulus Money - that CityBuild has been quick to apply for. However, the incompetent CityBuild will bring down the name of this City when it will be faulted for corruption, lack of accountability and transparency, and mostly lack of true leadership.
At the current San Francisco Budget hearing the San Francisco Board of Supervisors seem NOT to ask the right questions.
They want Harvey Rose to do the dirty work for them. Supervisors John Avalos, David Campos, and Ross Mirkarimi should as least talk to their constituents and to Board Members from City College about CityBuild. Milton Marks Jr and John Russo - to find about the TRUTH.
Rhonda Simmons should be fired. Where to they get such unprofessional idiotic scum bag - that waste so much money and what is more has traumatized so many of our youth in San Francisco? Does the SF Board of Supervisors want to have a HEARING on CityBuild? Hundreds of youth and others are ready to testify. Much like we had the AIMCO hearing that most of the SF Board of Supervisors and Supervisor Sophie Maxwell have forgotten about?
Now, suddenly other idiots are pretending to suddenly know about workforce. Some of them talk about being in the Bayview for years but they have no workforce experience and want to sit on committees to mess things up. No one should sit on any WorkForce Committee without having the experience. And that includes for sure - placement.
The A. Randolf Institute that has taken thousands from Lennar and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company has NO workforce experience. Less in placement. One worker died on the Deconstruction Work at the PG&E project at Hunters Point. Some workers with proper training were lured to this job by the A Randolf Institute. Such scams must be exposed.
Joshua Arce who has just come to town - talks a good talk but has no workforce experience and knows very little about the Bayview Hunters Point area and people. He has no placement experience and knows very little about the Human Rights Commission and its working.
I met Arce when he first came to San Francisco and I keep a tab on him and his organization. He has been paid by James Bryant Sr. from the A Randolf Institute who works for Lennar and Lennar has and is slowly killing our children and elders. No one tainted with the money from Lennar - should say that they work with the people from the Bayview. If you work with the devil - stay away from the decent people from the Bayview Hunters Point.
Other so called community activists from the past who claim that they work for the Bayview have ulterior motives - do not persuade me to name you all. You already have BLOOD on your hands - lurking in the dark to make money for yourselves at the expense of the community. Stop running your mouth - when in fact you have done nothing concrete for the decent youth and people of the Bayview Hunters Point.
I have qualified experience having placed hundreds of young and not so young workers at the Presidio of San Francisco . Over ninety percent of them worked for 15 years or more and that is a good track record. Many of these workers went to have families, bought homes, and to this day are in touch with me.
I always created a support system. Asked them to join the UNION. Fought for their rights and never lost cases when it came to Workers Rights on the job. Some cases linked to Workers Compensation and Unfair Practices when it came to promotion are still in the pipe-line - but, my track record - winning these cases are pretty high.
Rhonda Simmons, Fred Blackwell, Micheal Cohen, Mayor Gavin Newsom should know what I did at the AIMCO project site. Workers were shot and killed. Others suffered at the hands of crooks that made them sign their pay check and took most of the money. There were other atrocities. CityBuild paid some "thugs" one of them was Jessie Mason who purported to work for CityBuild and it now involved with the Solar Job Placement.
I took the lead and put this project on track. Working with all parties we solved the nonsense created by CityBuild and others. We took NO money from the workers. We provided them with pro bono attorneys to address the suffering of the workers. Where was CityBuild on this? Where was the SF Redevelopment on this one? Where was Michael Cohen and Rhonda Simmons on this one? Where was Mayor Gavin Newsom on this one? The case was widely reported - a detail report in the SF Weekly.
How come CityBuild could not solve the AIMCO fiasco? Called Ruben Santana from Rubecon to find out the details. The contractor saved AIMCO and has yet to be paid? Is CityBuild and the San Francisco Human Rights Commission aware of this fact? Is Supervisor Sophie Maxwell aware of this fact? Are the San Francisco Board of Supervisors aware of this fact? Is Mayor Gavin Newsom and Michael Cohen aware of this fact?
RUBECON did the City and County of San Francisco a favor and put the project on track. What is of paramount importance - hired over sixty percent of local hires from the neighboring community - mostly from Hunters Point? Where was CityBuild on this?
Today, Rubecon has been forced to take AIMCO to court and put a LIEN on all the AIMCO buildings situated in the Bayview Hunters Point. This matter is know to the PUBLIC and can be got from the local courts.
CityBuild is a JOKE. The Federal Bureau of Investigation must investigate CityBuild and especially one inept, corrupt person - Rhonda Simmons.
Rhonda Simmons - who is Black - does the bidding of mostly White Folks from the Mayor's Office of Economic Development and Workforce. She is a disgrace to decency and humanity. San Franciscans are poorer because of such a hired, despicable
scum bag.
Francisco Da Costa
Director
Environmental Justice Advocacy
******************************
******************************
http://www.sfgov.org
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