Youth UpRising's Cozy Deal with Oversight Chief

As reported here, the Oakland city council gave the Youth UpRising agency a guaranteed five-year grant totaling $1.5 million. The money came from the Measure Y fund, a tax passed in 2004 on the promise of both 802 police officers and social programs working to prevent violence.

While we actually have fewer police than when Measure Y was written, Youth UpRising grabbed this grant as it signed up its youth members for dance gigs in music videos glorifying sideshows. In fact, the grant was awarded without competitive bidding, and so far as the public has seen, with no concrete list of goals against which someone could measure results. Nor has the public has seen a meaningful report of accomplishments.

City councilmembers and other campaigners for Measure Y argued that grants to such agencies would be held accountable, because, as their ballot argument put it, "An independent oversight committee will review all Measure Y programs."

How independent is the committee? Consider just the most powerful member, chairperson Maya Dillard-Smith. Somehow, the following facts about her do not fit together, or rather, they fit together all too well.

• In the year ending June 30, 2005, a San Francisco nonprofit agency named the Center for Young Women's Development gave Ms. Dillard-Smith a "development consultant" contract worth almost $56,000. (Photo below)

• The vice-chair of the Center for Young Women's Development was Olis Simmons, who was and is the executive director of the Youth UpRising agency, too. The chair of the Center was Lenore Anderson, who later became Oakland mayor Ron Dellums' public safety director, a position she holds today.

• Ms. Dillard-Smith is chair of the Measure Y oversight committee, which has said not a peep to the city council or the public about the propriety of Youth UpRising receiving a grant without competitive bid, nor about Youth UpRising's counterproductive promotion of sideshow culture.

Youth UpRising is on a full-court press to dominate so-called violence prevention programs in Oakland. On top of the unprecedented five-year grant, the agency receives almost $200,000 a year from more City grants. Councilmembers want to start little clones of Youth UpRising in each council district, with Ms. Simmons as the expert and overlord. The mayor, desperate for relief from newspaper headlines about Oakland homicides, wants a street outreach program, apparently hoping to convince the thugs to stop killing each other openly. Youth UpRising wants to run this street outreach operation, and Dillard-Smith pushes such a program at every meeting of the Measure Y oversight committee. According to the minutes of the Aug. 20, 2007 meeting, she insisted, "Measure Y was funding case management but not appropriately funding street-based outreach."

In fact, Ms. Dillard-Smith several times asserted that the City should take Measure Y money away from police funding, seizing it for programs in general, for Youth UpRising-style outreach in particular.

All the members are appointed by the mayor and councilmembers appoint the members of the Measure Y oversight committee. Some of them are ordinary citizens. To do the right thing, they are faced with the daunting task of staging a virtual rebellion against their chairperson, the bigwigs at the city department of human services, and the mayor's public safety director.

Unfortunately, grants to nonprofit agencies for vague programs are rampant in Oakland city government. As a result, far too many programs – which could provide solid, disciplined vocational education and other real services to people in difficult circumstances – are scattered, overlapping, inefficient, out of control, and a breeding ground of political corruption. The money goes to favored insiders in back-scratching exchanges, such as Ms. Dillard-Smith's grant from Olis Simmons and Lenore Anderson, whose operations she now blesses and promotes.

One of the beneficial byproducts of the rising movement in Oakland for 1,100 police officers – the minimum the city needs to overcome severe understaffing – is the spreading realization that the City needs to budget for first things first, not fritter away tens of millions of dollars in tainted circumstances.

Response from Mayor's Office

Dear ORPN:

I write in response to the speculative concerns that were posted to the article regarding the integrity of our staff and office. I'd like to make sure that everyone has as much accurate information as possible (re: Youth UpRising's Cozy Deal with Oversight Chief).

For clarification, there is no relationship that our new Public Safety Director, Lenore Anderson, has now or has had with any individual or community agency that has or will inappropriately impact her job, our Office, or our proposals or strategies. The Mayor's Office is absolutely committed to transparency, integrity, and professionalism, and we welcome the opportunity to discuss any concerns with anyone at anytime.

It is a matter of public knowledge that Ms. Anderson formerly volunteered as a member of the Board of Directors for the San Francisco nonprofit agency, the Center for Young Women's Development. This prior volunteer position, and her relationship to any of the many people she worked with in that capacity, has absolutely no correlation to any work our office is currently engaged in or ever will be. It is one of the many volunteer positions Ms. Anderson has undertaken over the last 10 years that have contributed to her expertise and knowledge on criminal justice, violence, and public safety issues.

Additionally, for clarification, the Mayor's outreach workers initiative was introduced before Ms. Anderson was appointed. If anyone who read the article to which this is responding has any questions or concerns of any kind, please email Lenore Anderson at Landerson@oaklandnet.com.