West Bay/Northside -- a Community Tragedy

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IN A PAST column about the Northside Community Center in San Jose, I lamented the "crab mentality" of a group (led by the Center's former Assistant Executive Director) crusading to remove Ben Menor, the Center's executive director, by getting the San Jose City Council to withhold city funding for the Center.

The group, which perversely calls itself CRABS (Citizens Rebelling Against Bogus Spending), succeeded in getting the San Jose City Auditor to issue a report sharply critical of the Center's "misuse" of city funds for programs not properly authorized.

The Making Government Work Better Committee (MGWBC) of the San Jose City Council directed the City Auditor to monitor the activities of the Center and to "provide an updated cash flow and financial analysis to help assess the financial health" of the Center and its fiscal agency, the Filipino American Senior Opportunities Development Council (Fil-AM SODC).

In its October 17, 2005 update, the City Auditor reported that the Center's figures "will show a deficit of over $49,000" for the first quarter of 2005-06. The deficit may result in the group losing its city funding and the City Council transferring control of the Center to another group.

To raise the funds to cover the deficit, the Fil-Am SODC is hosting a gala 32nd anniversary fund-raiser on Saturday, October 29, 2005 at the Wyndham Hotel in San Jose (at 1350 North First Street ). Ben believes that the Filipino community will not allow the Center to fail and will raise the funds to cover the deficit. (If you want to help, please call JTS Northside at +408 977-4005 or contact Lorna Dietz at radiantview@gmail.com for more information).

I was talking with Ben at the Center last week when 3 agents of the San Jose City Auditor's Office dropped by to examine the Center's records. "It's been this kind of constant harassment," Ben complained. "They don't bother to call ahead of time. They just drop by unannounced and expect us to drop everything we're doing to accommodate all their demands."

While Ben was attending to the "needs" of the auditors, I received a call on my cell phone from San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly.

Supervisor Chris Daly, whom I had supported in previous election campaigns because of his past support for the Filipino community, called to explain why he moved to freeze $351,000 of city funds previously earmarked for the West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service Center. West Bay, which has been around since 1977, uses these funds for community after-school programs and for a lunch program for senior citizens to serve the Filipino community.

Without the release of the frozen funds, West Bay would have to terminate its 12 employees and all its programs by September 30. West Bay's Board of Directors and staff had been desperately pleading with the Board of Supervisors to release the funds so that West Bay could continue operations. But all efforts to include the West Bay funding in the agenda of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Board of Supervisors failed because Supervisor Daly had secured the cooperation of the Committee's chair, Supervisor Tom Ammianno, to not "agendize" the West Bay funding in any meetings of his committee.

On October 13, members of the Filipino community picketed City Hall to protest the freezing of the funds which, they said, would cause undue hardship to many Filipino youth, their parents and to the senior citizens of the community who rely on the programs of West Bay.

"They won't let us back on the agenda to be considered for funding," decried Martha McGee De la Cruz, a West Bay board member (and the widow of the organization's former executive director Ed De la Cruz) told AsianWeek columnist Emil Guillermo. "We can't possibly operate without any money," she said.

Supervisor Daly had the West Bay funds frozen on July 7 after the San Francisco Chronicle featured an FBI investigation of Medicare fraud involving Filipino senior citizens in the South of Market (SoMa) district. The Chronicle reported that the Medicare scam operated a "Wilson Fung Medical Clinic" in a small office sublet from West Bay where Daisy Cruz, a West Bay staff member, was also employed by the clinic.

Concern about the Medicare scam involving Filipino seniors resulted in the formation of a Community Accountability Committee (CAC), led by Roy Recio, Joe Julian and Bill Sorro, which sought the removal of West Bay Executive Director Ed Jocson, as well as staffer Daisy Cruz. The group had gotten the San Francisco City Auditor to investigate West Bay's involvement in the Medicare scam and the City Auditor concluded that West Bay "failed to exercise due care" in subleasing their office space to the medical clinic.

An audit by the San Francisco Controller's office, however, found no evidence connecting West Bay to the Medicare fraud. The FBI also clarified that West Bay was not a focus of its investigation.

At a July 5 meeting with the West Bay Board of Directors led by Anita Sanchez and Sorhna Jordan, the CAC presented the West Board with a list of "non-negotiable demands" including the termination of Jocson and Cruz, the appointment of certain members of the CAC to the West Bay Board and a community needs assessment study.

Anita Sanchez explained that the Board could not just terminate Jocson and Cruz without due process otherwise the Board would be liable for a wrongful termination lawsuit. Supervisor Daly had assured Anita that "they won't sue" but Anita wanted to know from Daly if the City Attorney's Office would represent West Bay if sued and Daly could not make this commitment.

After September 30, the 12 employees of West Bay who were laid off by the freezing of the funds, applied for State Unemployment benefits. Dozens of Filipino parents, youth and senior citizens affected by the Daly-Ammianno freeze have expressed outrage at the power play that froze the funding of their programs.

University of San Francisco Professors Dr. Jay Gonzalez and Marie-Lorraine Mallare prepared a resolution to the San Francisco Youth Commission and the Immigrants Rights Commission supporting West Bay and demanding that the frozen city funds be released immediately.

When Daly heard of the proposed resolution, he called Mallare. "He wanted me to withdraw the resolution," Mallare said. Daly told her that he was only expressing concerns about how the "Committee" felt about West Bay. Mallare refused and steadfastly presented her resolution to the city commissions.

In his AsianWeek column ("Rubbing out West Bay Center", October 20-26, 2005), Emil Guillermo speculated about why Daly is blocking West Bay.

"Because he can," Guillermo wrote. "And for some reason, he doesn't like this group, who remember when the area was still neighborhoods of Filipinos and other newcomers, and not the white professionals who make up the new gentrified SoMa."

Guillermo believes that once West Bay loses its funding and is "killed off by Daly," the new bidders for West Bay's old contracts will be members of the Community Accountability Committee.

By coincidence, the San Jose CRABS group is also chomping at the bit to take over the Northside Community Center once it loses city funding.

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