CBS 5 Investigates With Anna Werner

OAKLAND (CBS 5) ― Students working in a summer youth program funded by federal stimulus dollars tell CBS 5 Investigates they have not been paid the money they are owed. At least one instructor also said he is going unpaid.

All are working for a program called the Oakland Green Civic Campaign, which is one of 13 summer programs funded in Oakland to serve low-income youth and young adults who meet stringent federal income and residency guidelines.

The programs are administered by the Oakland Private Industry Council (PIC).

Students Kiyomi Cox and Donald Biagas work in a culinary program that's part of the Green Civic Campaign. They enjoy learning to work as chefs, but say after six weeks of working they still haven't received their paychecks.

"They said we're supposed to get paid every two weeks. The first two weeks happened and we was like: where's our paycheck? They was like: 'It's next week, then next week, then next week,'" said Cox.

"It's chaos," said Chef Steve Roland, who runs that culinary program and is teaching students throughout the summer. Roland, too, said he has not yet been paid.

"It's dysfunctional. And it's obviously a program that's not been fully implemented," Roland told CBS 5 Investigates.

The teens and young adults in the Oakland Green Civic Program are taking college courses part of the time and working in jobs part time.

The money for that program and 12 others in Oakland comes from the federal stimulus package championed by President Barack Obama and passed by Congress in February.

As part of that program, the kids who are working are supposed to be paid $8 per hour.

The program is held on the Laney College campus in Oakland, where multiple students told CBS 5 Investigates they too had not been paid.

The program is the brainchild of Sheila Wells, the politically-connected wife of former Oakland mayor Elihu Harris.

When CBS 5 Investigates asked Wells why the students are still waiting to receive their stimulus-funded checks, she said the program had been working to provide the necessary documentation to the PIC.

"We have been working very hard, to provide all the documentation and everything that's necessary to get our young people paid," said Wells.

But Wells said PIC is responsible for giving out the paychecks.

"If you ask PIC or the mayor's office, they will explain to you exactly what the problem is," Wells told CBS 5.

"Oakland Civic Green has absolutely had the worst problems with eligibility," said Crystal Jackson, who oversees the stimulus program for the Private Industry Council.

Jackson said program officials haven't put together the files required by the federal government for every student: the council's tally shows of 131 student files, 116 are still incomplete.

"No other organization has experienced the problems that they've gone through," said Jackson.

Jackson and another PIC official also told CBS 5 Investigates that Green Civic Campaign officials had applied political pressure in an attempt to ease eligibility requirements for their students.

"The idea that (their problems are) entirely the fault of the Oakland PIC is ludicrous," said Pedro Toledo, who acts as performance oversight director for the stimulus program.

"I received a call from Alameda County telling me that they were asking them to intercede on the eligibility issue," said Toledo. "If they spent as much time doing the work that they need to do as they have spent trying to move political pegs here and there, they probably would be doing much better."

Wells denies pulling any political strings.

But Chef Roland said, in the end, it doesn't really matter how it happened.

"For the students, they feel like they've been let down," said Roland.

Sheila Wells said although she's what she calls the program's "visionary" and coordinator, she works as an unpaid volunteer.

But one of the Oakland Green Civic Campaign's partners is the Peralta Foundation, for which her husband the former mayor serves as executive secretary.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)