postnewsgroup.com THE POST, Oct. 26-Nov. 1, 2016, Page 13

Sandré SwansonState Senate - District 9

Barbara LeeCongress - District 13

Rebecca KaplanAt-Large City Council

Hillary ClintonPresident

Noel GalloDistrict 5 City Council

Larry ReidDistrict 7 City Council

or leave the city.According to city staff,

speaking at the CED meeting, PIC should not be giving ser-vices to laid off workers be-cause the lead agency is now supposed to be KRA Corpora-tion, a private national com-pany brought in by for the for-mer Executive Director of the WIB, John Bailey.

KRA, however, had not fin-ished negotiating its contract and was not up and running.

Speaking on the issue of slow payment, Councilmem-ber Larry Reid complained that the issue was not on the CED agenda, even though he had requested it.

“This is something that is long overdue,” he said. “I am getting so frustrated that the issue around prompt payment has taken so long to address.”

“I have a situation (where agencies) are struggling to pay their rent” where the head of an agency “has had to take money out of her own pocket to keep that institution afloat,” he said.

“It makes make me wonder what we as a city are doing, whether we’re tying to shut their doors.”

Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan said the issue was al-ready resolved by the council but ignored by staff.

“It did go to closed session, we did vote, and we did give (clear) direction, and it has not been implemented,” she said. “It has been many, many months since we gave that di-rection.”

“Something has already been authorized, and it simply has been disregarded… We’ve brought this back three or four times.”

Speakers at the meeting also asked the council to ap-prove an additional $60,000, which would total $270,000, the amount that the city funded the West Oakland Neighbor-hood Job Center 3 years ago. It was pointed out that opera-tional costs have increased, not decreased over that period of time.

Pastor Gerald Agee of the Friendship Christian Center, located across the street from the center, said, “Many of our people have gone there and gotten jobs from that center.”

“It’s a tremendous resource for the community,” said Pas-tor Agee. “They are profes-sional, they are compassion-ate and culturally competent. They know how to deal with

the people who come to them.”“The PIC has been in part-

nership with the City of Oak-land for many, many years and this is not how you treat part-ners,” he said. “You should work with partners to address the issues.”

Clifton Cooper, first vice president of the Oakland branch of the NAACP, said, “We are familiar with the neighborhood career center (and) how effective it has been over the years.”

“I hope we don’t have to keep coming back here time after time, begging for the funds to be adequately appro-priated” for services to Oak-land residents, said communi-ty activist Carroll Fife. “Please fund this job center.”

In the discussion of Rapid Response and Layoff Aver-sion Services, Mark Sawicki, director of Economic and Workforce Development for the city, criticized the PIC for helping workers who were laid off from three companies since June by providing assistance for job searches, mortgage payments and health coverage for the workers.

Sawicki said PIC provided services “beyond what was in the scope of services in their contract.”

He said KRA was the lead agency and that PIC should only become involved when KRA requested it.

However, Sawicki admit-ted under intense questioning by Councilmember Kaplan that the KRA contract had not been implemented and that it was not yet providing rapid response services nor was it coordinating that work.

PIC should have “waited to be asked” to provide services, he said.

“Are you saying that the right thing to do, since KRA Corporation was not in place, was to abandon the workers?” Kaplan asked.

Sawicki said, “No, I did not say that,” but he could not explain who should have pro-vided rapid response services if not PIC.

What was most upsetting, said Fife, was the attempt to place blame on the organiza-tion that was providing the services, “but Mr. Sawicki ac-cepted no responsibility.”

“You were made aware that there were rapid response needs, and it sounds like the city is dropping the ball again,” Fife said.

City Support for Laid Off Workers Questioned

Continued from page 1

School Board District 7 Race Pits Grassroots Campaign Against Big MoneyContinued from page 1

Major donors to GO Pub-lic Schools’ political action committee (PAC) include bil-lionaire Michael Bloomberg ($300,000), Arthur Rock, Sili-con Valley venture capitalist ($49,900), and the state char-ter schools’ association PAC ($72,250).

“Our district is at a cross-roads,” Jackson told the Post. “Will we continue to privatize education and our services to students, or will we move our education back into the pub-lic realm, working to meet the needs of all students?”

Despite the big money go-ing to his opponent, “We have a really organized campaign – we have greater support in the community,” said Jack-

son. “We feel pretty confident. Door-to-door campaigning has more impact than mailers.”

Jackson has so far raised $9,622 and spent $26,883. The teachers’ union has pledged a total of $50,000, which it is do-nating to candidates in the four school board races.

He is backed by the Demo-cratic Party and former District 7 School Board Member Syl-vester Hodges.

Jackson says he stands for universal preschool, restoring vocational and adult educa-tion and providing resources to schools so teachers do not have to beg parents to pay for class-room supplies.

At present, he said, the dis-trict spends $80 million a year on outside consultants and ex-

perts to provide services, many of which could be done by dis-trict employees.

In an interview with the Post, Harris talked about some of his major accomplishments.

“Under my leadership as board president, we gave the first teacher raise in a decade,” he said.

He said he supports the dis-trict’s “Equity Pledge,” which would require charter schools that sign the pledge to provide special education services and accept more African American students.

He also helped pass Mea-sure N, which provides $120 million over 10 years to con-nect high school students to ca-reer pathways – including job shadowing at local companies.

He is endorsed by Mayor Libby Schaaf.

Harris said he and other school board members would like to see Oakland’s tradition-al public schools outperform charter schools, and “we have to encourage our schools to be-come better.”

“What we have to do as a traditional institution is to ac-cept the challenge,” he said.

Harris said he was un-aware that he has received so much money in independent expenditures from pro-charter groups.

“I think that’s a lot of mon-ey, but it’s not illegal. I haven’t thought about it. (But)I would prefer that we spend all this po-litical money on teachers that are doing the work,” he said.

Keeping Southern Comfort Food Alive in Downtownat a time when the school was not yet integrated. She remembers being one of three students of color at the school at the time.

She began her career in the restaurant industry over 20 years ago when Geof-frey Pete hired her to work

Continued from page 1 at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle. After being involved in the catering business for sev-eral years, Johnson decided it was time to do her own thing.

Nine years ago, she opened Catered To You and has since turned it into a staple local destination for comfort food in downtown

Oakland on her own.Johnson is also passion-

ate about giving back to her community and one year after opening her restaurant she began organizing an annual free hot meal give-away on Christmas.

The event began by pro-viding free meals to 100 people and has expanded to

giving away meals, blan-kets, gifts and hygiene kits to over 300 people.

Catered To You is locat-ed at 1711 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland’s Uptown dis-trict.

Mama T’s GoFundMe page for donations can be reached at www.gofundme.com/cateredtoyou

POST RECOMMENDS - Part 2

Dan KalbDistrict 1 City Council

Noni SessionDistrict 3 City Council

Roseann Torres District 5 School Board

James HarrisDistrict 7 School Board

Chris JacksonDistrict 7 School Board

Kharyshi WigintonDistrict 3 School Board

YES on Measure A1 Alameda County

Affordable Housing

YES on Measure C1 AC Transit

Service Protection

YES on Measure RRKeep BART Safe

NO on Measure HH Oakland Soda Tax

NO on Prop. 65Redirects Paper Bag Fees to Environmental Agency

Wells Fargo Forecloses on Property Not TheirsBy Tanya Dennis In 2014,

Wells Fargo was charged with

made-up demand foreclosure papers, which means foren-sic accountants, attorneys and consumer advocates charged that Wells and other banks sys-tematically created documents to prove ownership of loans.

These documents were called “tad da” endorse-ments.

In February 2015, the De-partment of Justice cracked down on five banks for ille-gal foreclosures of military service members. Wells Far-go, JP Morgan and Bank of America paid $123 million in compensation.

On Oct. 12, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, resigned amid the scandal that the bank was secretly selling services to unsuspecting cus-tomers, and Wells Fargo paid out $185 million in compen-sation to over 2 million ac-count holders.

This reporter lost her mother’s home in 2013 when Wells Fargo illegally sold the home a month before the sale

date.In another local case,

longtime Oakland resident Gloria Cobb’s property was foreclosed on this year and sold.

The problem is that Wells Fargo sold a portion of Ms. Cobb’s property that was not originally included in the Deed of Trust securing the property that was foreclosed on.

Cobb’s attorney Kevin Martin has contacted Wells Fargo hoping to convince the bank to set aside the foreclo-sure sale because of its mis-take. Martin has determined that the facts and the law re-

quire the sale be set aside. “The property was not

intended to be included as security for the one that was foreclosed on,” Martin con-tinued.

“Mistakes like this, inten-tional or not, are problematic and really unfair for unsus-pecting owners,” he said.

“These issues, if unad-dressed, will undoubtedly have a dampening effect on the market, and it is con-ceivable that prudent buyers would not offer a bid where such uncertainty exists.

“No one knows what they are purchasing, and it is fore-seeable litigation would fol-

low the confusion.” Wells Fargo is known

among activists and home-owners as one of the more unyielding institutions when it comes to fair play.

With the recent scandal involving Stumpf, who Mas-sachusetts Senator Eliza-beth Warren called a “gut-less leader” who “should be criminally investigated,” per-haps Wells Fargo has learned a lesson, and in Cobb’s case they will come to the table.

More scandal is the last thing Wells Fargo needs at this critical time as the bank attempts to repair its image.

According to Martin, “Wells Fargo is strongly im-plored to set the foreclosure sale aside and consider the Deed of Trust void. This will avoid an action to quiet title, declaratory and injunctive re-lief.”

The bank’s action is being referred to the state regulat-ing authority.

The Post wants to know if anyone has a similar com-plaint concerning a bank sell-ing properties improperly. Please contact the Post News Group/El Mundo at 510-287-8200.

YES on Measure JJRenter Protection

YES on Measure LLPolice Commission

YES on Measure IIIncrease Lease Term on City-Owned Property

YES on Prop 57Parole for Non-Violent

Offenders

YES on Prop 62Abolishes Death Penalty

NO on Prop 66Speeds Up Death Penalty

YES on Prop 62to replace death penalty system