Problems with the Yakima Gang Free Initiative (GFI)?
The City of Yakima decided to re-bid the position of
Project Coordinator for their Gang Free Initiative (GFI) on March 26, 2012. The
GFI was created after the gallant efforts of former city council member Sonia
Rodriguez-True and a few others to address the city’s gang problems. Many of
the problems had grown out of control after decades of denial and lack of will
by the city council to do much about it. The GFI is based on five principles of
the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP)
Comprehensive Gang Model. This model and other “Best Practices” are used by
communities across the U.S. to address gang crime and youth violence.
The GFI is an opportunity for the city to be
pro-active in areas of prevention and intervention. The selection of a
Coordinator is supposed to be to provide services as specified in the scope of
work for the GFI Project; however, the selection process seems to be highly
political, and some council members are still not sure it is money well spent.
The job application and bid does not even state candidates may be interviewed
or that a personal presentation on combating gangs and coordinating services
may be seen, it only states TBD (To Be Determined). It appears the GFI
Selection Committee, made up of (3) council members, can make up their own
rules:
GFI
Reservation:
The City reserves the right to award the contract to the applicant that it
deems to offer the best overall qualifications/proposal in its sole discretion.
The City reserves the right to revise the RFQ schedule, to revise the RFQ
and/or to issue amendments to the RFQ. The City also reserves the right to
cancel or to reissue the RFQ in whole or in part prior to the execution of a
contract. The City also reserves the right to refrain from contracting with any
and all applicants. The release of the RFQ does not compel the City to enter
into any contract pursuant to the RFQ.
Clearly, the city should ensure its needs are met in
dealing with this under addressed problem, but is a long history of alienating
the Latino community by the political establishment continuing? Do you think
the GFI is a good idea? What do you think can be done about gangs in the Yakima
area that is not being done now?
Accurate assessments of problems are critical for
effective solutions and to ask for state and federal anti-gang funding down the
road. Yakima allegedly paid $75K for the GFI study, was it money well spent?
Any comments or concerns about how this process was handled?
See the Yakima Gang Assessment/Community Profile at:
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ReplyDeleteI am a long-time advocate for families, peace, justice and community. I surround myself with educated professionals for our cause. I listen, learn and share. We network throughout the nation and beyond.
ReplyDeleteGiven my cause to help end violence in our communities, I was immediately interested when I heard about the Yakima Gang Free Initiative (GFI) a couple years ago. While I initially felt motivated to help, I soon chose not to get involved in the GFI when to my surprise I found out that it all was to be kept hush-hush to the community to the media. I saw red flags right there and said this is not right!
While there were a lot of other people like me who initially felt that finally the politicians and powers that be were going to do something about violence that plagues our city, in my opinion GFI community involvement dwindled way down. From the beginning, the GFI Steering Committee was a closed committee where everyone signed a confidentiality agreement. Work done was never to be discussed with the community or media by any members, without approval.It was not to be a transparent process.
From information I have gathered, GFI budgets have never been released to the public, except to say $ 75 Gran was contracted out for a City Gang Report. The contractor will continue to be paid for his role in the GFI until a coordinator is picked,(is he one that has a say in the new coordinator)? He has been paid thousands of dollars more. The Yakima report is complete and ready for angencies/government to use for grants.
Knowing how important the GFI Coordinator position was, my peers and I referred one of the top gang experts in the nation, Gabe Morales to apply for the coordinators position. He is considered by many people to be the top gang expert on the West Coast, an educator to LE, a mentor to youth, and somebody who was familiar with the local Yakima community having been born in the city and spent many years living or visiting here. This very qualified candidate, a man renown around the nation for his gang intelligence, his youth outreach work as well, has years of experience in community activism and organization of many groups. He completed the application process quickly as the position wasn't easy to access or posted properly and then was posted for only a short window time; he barely beat the deadline by hours after jumping through all the hoops required. The position was then closed without any explanation. He wasn't given an oral or physical interview; he was just sent a rejection letter. On March 26th the position was reopened online, with new revisions saying that the GFI has the right to make any policy they want and change any policy at anytime. Basically make up and change the rules.
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ReplyDeleteHow can we as a community come under the umbrella of a secret city group, run by a powerful few, changing the rules as they go along, with no information being shared with the public?
This is not smart business or best practices when they want the community to volunteer their valuable personal time. The Yakima GFI now must gather stakeholders, players, professional educators and coordinators according to the (OJJDP) Comprehensive Gang Model they are using through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. My peers in the community want answers before they get involved. How was the money spent? How will future money be spent? Who are the key players now and what are their positions? How is the county involved with the city and funding of the GFI? How was a top gang expert looked over for the coordinator position? Does the city have our best interest at hand by not including the community in a program with and for the community? We want disclosure! As well we want the Latino community represented at the table with strong progressive leadership.
Yes, a lot of time and effort has been put into the GFI. This effort is at a crucial stage, but they seem to not want anybody to question or monitor their actions. The community wants to be shown this is a legit program without special interests controlling it, that scarce monies are being spent wisely. We want to see a GFI progress report that made available to the public and media in a timely fashion with results shown thus far. Sharing these details with Yakima might get people motivated and more involved. Continuing to keep things secretive and under the wire decisions will discourage agencies and community members from volunteering and working these issues and is not good government. Our citizens, youth and city deserve better!
(Please correct me if I am wrong on any of my statements).
The cunsultant Steve Magellan who wrote the position of coordinator did in fact get hired for that position. He said no one qualified for the position he wrote except himself. So now he is making thousands upon thousands, has an aid making thousands and programs are still not in place for helping families and youth in gangs. I see a law suit coming???
ReplyDeleteGood news finally for the City of Yakima! YPD just announced the assignment of Sgt. David Cortez to supervise the agency's Gang Unit. Sgt. Cortez hails from Southern California and grew up in a gang infested area. He knows well the perils of kids who grow up in poor areas of Yak-Town. Sgt. Cortez was previously very involved in the Gang Resistance, Education, And Training (GREAT) program in the city. He is considered an expert at Prevention & Intervention, as well as Police Suppression techniques. Good choice Yakima! Maybe this is a sign of more good things to come?
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