Pico Youth and Family Center's Tearful Supporters Speak Out as Santa Monica City Council Considers Defunding

By Tessa Stuart Wed., May 23 2012 at 8:15 AM

PicoYouth.org

A youth participant painting the Pico Youth and Family Center building.

The Santa Monica City Council chambers were packed to the gills Tuesday night. The meeting was so full that Santa Monica policemen were acting as bouncers, keeping at least a hundred additional individuals at bay in the City Hall lobby.

A large share of the attendees were supporters of the Pico Youth and Family Center, who showed up to voice their support for the organization, and urge members of the city council not to pull its funding.

More than one speaker broke down before the council. "I just don't want places like the PYFC to be extinct," a young man choked out through tears.

"This organization has done so much for families and deserves your support," another Santa Monica City College student said, before pausing to compose herself.

Those two, and a nearly a dozen others who spoke on behalf of the PYFC, were in luck though, because defunding the problem-plagued organization for at-risk teenagers wasn't on the table--yet.

Instead, after a series of PYFC employee missteps were chronicled in a report by Santa Monica's Human Services Division, the council was discussing a "last chance agreement" with a series of recommendations to help the organization shape up. If the conditions were not met by December, the report recommended that the city cease funding the program.

The City of Santa Monica provides $307,532 annually to the Pico Youth and Family Center, and according to the report, it has gone through four accounting firms in seven years--a fact that may have contributed to several financial problems uncovered by city staffers.

In August 2010, the report states, duplicate payroll checks were issued to both executive director Oscar De La Torre (who has been the subject of controversy in the past), and office manager Yolanda de Cordova. In November 2010, a second duplicate payroll check was issued to de Cordova. Both employees only paid the money back months later when the matter was brought to the attention of city officials.

City staffers also found that the PYFC overpaid employee retirement disbursements and pension payments to the tune of $28,000. Today, almost half of that money has been returned to the city, but nearly $13,000 is still outstanding.

Then there was an episode back in January when the center was shut down without notice. City staffers were told the center was closed for a staff retreat.

"Later it was discovered that in fact, there was no staff retreat," the report states. "Instead, three full-time employees had taken two youth participants to Arizona to participate in a coordinated protest against the banishment of the Tucson Unified School District's Mexican American Studies program."

The city's "last chance agreement" consists of two recommendations the organization must put into action before the year's end in order to keep funding. First, an independent organization needs to be brought in to oversee PYFC's finances, and second, PYFC should refocus its attention on at-risk teenagers (in recent years it had expanded to include younger participants, and to take on social justice and community organizing projects).

Councilman Bobby Shriver called the outpouring of community support for PYFC "incredibly moving," singling out testimonies earlier in the evening from a young man who described himself as "a little punk" pre-PYFC, and another who told the council he had no friends, and no ability to make any, before he arrived at PYFC.

The Pico Youth and Family Center was created in 1999, in reaction to a rash of gang-related shootings and deaths in Santa Monica. The program's targets were drop-outs, habitual offenders, parolees and probationers, ages 16-24. And, as evidenced by the droves of participants who showed up Tuesday to speak to its impact on their lives, by most measures, it has been an overwhelming success.

Chair of the PYFC board, Amanda Steward, might have summed the matter up best when she said, "The Pico Youth and Family Center, if it gets its act together, is worth saving."

Tags:

Oscar De La Torre, Pico Youth and Family Center, Santa Monica, Santa Monica City Council

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Pray4Peace

$300,000 is a lot of money, but if it saves one person or if one person does not come to harm because another person was salvaged, it is money well spent. Of course, they need to adhere to good accounting practices and ensure they maintain transparency.

Education, training, and anger management programs ultimately save tax dollars by reducing the incarceration rate. An official at the San Diego Donovan prison said on a radio program that they reduced the recidivism rate from 70%+ to 21% through their rehab, training, and education programs. That would save salvageable lives as well as huge amounts of tax dollars.

Ricardo Magon

1 Like

Do a follow up STORY:... look into the reports' authors and their motivations. And look at SMPD beating of INNOCENT Black youth earlier that day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Elias

1 Like

I agree with Vanessa. The PYFC does outstanding work with youth of color from SM's traditionally Black and Brown Pico Neighborhood. This LA WEEKLY STORY is much too ONE-SIDED, relying on the biased City report: that's where the problem started in the first place (disengaged Cityofficials; insitutionalized racism... look it up). This is an issue of SELF-DETERMINATION. The report WAS WRITTEN BY ENEMIES OF THE PYFC and is taken as truh. The attack for instance on the "staff retreat," that " three full-time employees had taken two youth participants to Arizona to participate in a coordinated protest for Raza/Ethnic Studies struggle" is an example of City officials not respecting Pico issues and vision. According to the City: work with "at risk" youth, but don't engage in "SOCIAL JUSTICE"... hmmm? WHO needs to get their ACT TOGETHER??? This reminds many of us of colonizer behavior. Amanda Steward's comment is also hypocritical: I heard she back stabbed the Center and took the side of the racist City plan. I'm glad the Weekly reported on this, but from the point of view of a Chicano native to this neighborhood, the author over-relied on the BIASED REPORT and talked to the wrong people.

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Vanessa

Some question if the City's staff recommendation against funding the PYFC is politically motivated or biased? Is it common for the City of Santa Monica to publicly bash one of it's grantees for making administrative mistakes? I don't think so, in fact I'm sure there are many other organizations, contractors and businesses that have had administrative problems and the City has been more descrete in addressing the issues. The City went to such lengths to punish an organization that provides social services to the youth of our community. If the City is indeed committed to scrutinizing it's grant receivers for making administrative mistakes or questionable accounting practices, it should start with the Police Activities League.

Santa Monica Resident

Jeff

The City staff under the direction of a conservative City Manager Rod Gould wrote a negative and one sided report against PYFC. It is a common practice to allege "administrative incompetency" to discredit organizations fighting for social justice. While there is truth that small and young non-profits need to strengthen adminstrative capacity, it is obvious that PYFC is under attack for more than just that. The SMPD led a biased and politically motivated investigation against the founder of PYFC Oscar de la Torre in 2010. This negativity from City staff is a continuation of that type of attack. Its an election year and de la Torre is a viable contender for the City Council. Its great that the youth and community spoke out to balance the negativity from City staff. The Chair of the PYFC seems to be working for the City. Why doesn't she use the term "we" instead of blaming the organizations staff. As chair didn't she approve budgets and fiscal reports? A City so rich should take 1% of the police budget and invest it in strengthening the organization leading to more crime prevention and intervention.