CBS 5 Investigates With Anna Werner

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ―  

 

A summer youth program in Oakland funded with federal stimulus dollars that has been the subject of numerous complaints from parents and participating teens, the Oakland Green Civic Campaign, has connections to the Peralta College system and its foundation.

 

The program's founder, Sheila Wells, is also married to the foundation's executive secretary, former Oakland mayor Elihu Harris.

 

But, both Wells and the foundation defend the connection and say there is nothing inappropriate about their actions.

 

In city documents, the Peralta Foundation is listed as a partner of the Oakland Green Civic Campaign.

 

At a meeting held earlier this week at the office of Oakland's Private Industry Council, the program administrator over 13 summer youth programs including the Campaign, nearly half the Peralta Foundation's board members attended.

 

One of those attending was Elihu Harris, who is also Chancellor of the Peralta College system.  He declined to answer questions about whether there could be the appearance of a conflict of interest because of the college foundation's link to his wife's program.

 

Wells said she was not paid for her work with the Green Civic Campaign and is a volunteer "coordinator".  However, in a letter written to a staff member, Wells was called the "director" of the campaign.

 

When asked whether it was appropriate for the foundation to be involved in a program run by one of its directors' spouses, the foundation defended the involvement.

 

"(Wells) was a volunteer, the foundation agreed to help support a mayor's youth summer program, and I think in general they did a good job," said Mark Lindquist, the president of the foundation's board of directors.

 

Lindquist said the federal stimulus work program has very strict guidelines and implied that the guidelines are difficult to meet.

 

When asked whether he was satisfied with the summer youth program's performance, Lindquist responded, "I would just say there were issues, it's extremely onerous, guidelines were onerous, corrections being made and all students will be paid by (August 7)."

 

Lindquest denied the foundation is spending any of its own money on that program, but CBS 5 has learned it did pay some of the program's expenses up front and is expecting reimbursement.

 

Lindquist said he could not answer questions about the situation of the program's culinary director Steve Roland. Three days after Roland gave an interview to CBS 5 in which he criticized the program and described it as "chaos", he said Wells terminated him.

 

The next day, Monday, August 3, Wells told CBS 5 she had not fired Roland and indicated that he would receive the nearly $10,000 owed that day.  Roland said he still has not received his check.    

 

Students signed up for the Oakland Green Civic Campaign to learn new skills like cooking and get paid for their part-time work.  Federal stimulus dollars fund the summer program along with 12 others in the city.

 

But six weeks after the program's start, CBS 5  found it wasn't running smoothly: both the students and Roland still had not been paid.

 

After CBS 5 Investigates ran a story about the problems in the program, Oakland officials indicated that they would look into the problems.

 

"There are a number of details about this situation that haven't gone the way they should have," said Paul Rose, spokesman for Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums. "We want these youth to get paid."

 

And as of Friday, spokesman Paul Rose told CBS 5 the majority of those teens have received the money they were owed.

 

For any students who are declared to have been ineligible to participate but performed work, the Peralta Foundation has indicated it will pay them.

 

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