Minneapolis Urban League lays off more critical employees – the campaign continues…Donny Allen for President/CEO of the Minneapolis Urban League
“Cheryl Morgan-Spencer and I never saw eye-to-eye. But Ms. Spencer had her own way of doing things. She was a critical and important part of the Minneapolis Urban Leagues governmental engagement piece. Ms. Morgan-Spencer has established a releationship with the folks at the State Capitial that R.Scott Gray and the current board will never achieve.”
By Donald W. R. Allen,II – Editor in Chief/IBNN and USA Radical Black
Minneapolis, MN (IBNNNEWS)…On Friday, December 11, 2009 it was reported that the Minneapolis Urban League had laid off 3 more employees. IBNN wishes them the best and asks them to hold on to their dreams. Let’s do the math. The MUL Board of Directors cannot hold on to the real estate at the corner of Penn and Plymouth Avenue North with a “skeleton crew” inside the building.
Earlier this year, the Minneapolis Urban League hosted a community forum with the two finalists for the position of President/CEO of the Minneapolis Urban League. R. Scott Gray and Pamela Coaxum (Tucker) were seated at the long table in front of community members.
Insight News editor in chief and MUL board member Al McFarlane moderated the forum, asking participants to write questions on an index card to be read by Mr. McFarlane to the candidates. A funny thing happened to the cards on the way to the podium – “they didn’t get read.”
What I’m trying to say, if some of the questions that were written down were asked, it wouldn’t have mattered, R. Scott Gray and the usual suspects in north Minneapolis had already decided that Gray would be the new President of the Minneapolis Urban League.
Former Minneapolis Urban League board member Roxanne Givens, who was removed from the MUL board of directors in a banana republic process, consistently asked the MUL board to follow bylaws, which for the most part fell on deaf ears. Read about Ms. Givens in the stories: “Minneapolis Urban League Klan removes Roxanne Givens from Board” -June 17, 2009 and “National Urban League maintains silence in governance”-June 18, 2009.
R. Scott Gray was already tainted from his dealings with the Stairstep Foundation and Alfred Babington-Johnson. Johnson, who was invited by Gray to the Madison Urban League for a groundbreaking ceremony where he was tapped as the “keynote speaker” raised eyes of community stakeholders and finalist Pamela Coaxum.
Coaxum, saw the writing on the wall and on April 27, 2009, withdrew her name from consideration. Read the full story here.
While R.Scott Gray talked about “Leveraging the MUL property for funding,” it was apparent that this dude had no clue about business, real estate or the Helmsley Rule-Harry B. Helmsley (March 4, 1909 – January 4, 1997) was a real estate mogul who built a company that became one of the biggest property holders in the United States who always kept one property free and clear of debt.
My point is, the Minneapolis Urban League employees and the community have suffered enough at the hand of the organizations management and board of directors.
While the community suffers, the board sits passively, doing nothing rather than undertaking a fundamental re-structuring and getting down to business, which would allow it to fulfill its mission.
My vision for the Minneapolis Urban League is fueled by my passion and enthusiasm for the organization and the community it was established to serve. In addition to developing new funding streams, we need to look to community engagement, partnering with other established, successful organizations, and focusing on a host of other issues that I discuss in my 3-year plan to reorganize and revitalize the MUL.
Time to Declare “Peace” on Youth Violence. The National Urban League makes a statement?
It’s interesting that the National Urban League is starting to address disparities among the Black youth of America. The St. Louis Urban League in cue to receive over $15 million in Stimulus dollars – what has happened to the Minneapolis Urban League, who reported at Wednesdays Board meeting that the Greater Twin Cities United Way will drastically cut funding to the fledgling social service agency. The Minneapolis Urban League will be cutting several jobs today(10/30). To those hard working staff members who lost their jobs at a once thriving flagship social service agency, we wish you the best and hope “change” will come in the form of “process with solutions” at the Minneapolis Urban League.
“With a commitment to solutions and no ears to listen, the Minneapolis Urban League continues to troll in deep water with a boat to big to keep float.”
The message falling on deaf ears from Marc H. Morial – President and CEO, National Urban League
If you’re reading this in your local urban newspaper, you probably encountered at least one story about youth violence in your community before finding your way to this column. But wading through reports of violence in the news pales beside the daily real life experiences of many young people across this nation. According to a recently released Justice Department report, “More than 60 percent of the nation’s youth have been exposed to violence within the last year. Nearly 1 in 2 was physically assaulted at least once, with more than 1 in 10 injured in an assault.”
While incidents like the 1999 Columbine massacre which caused the deaths of 13 people or the 2007 Virginia Tech rampage which took the lives of 32 make international headlines, we are in the grips of a largely silent epidemic of youth violence that is endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of children across this country every year.
A few weeks ago, the nation was riveted by a YouTube video of the senseless beating death of Derrion Albert, a Chicago high school honor student. Derrion was attacked on his way home from school as he innocently walked through a crowd of rival gang members. According to the New York Times, “Close to 70 students have been murdered [in Chicago] since the beginning of the 2007 school year.”
This level of violence is exceptional by any standard, but sadly, it is replicated at equally unacceptable levels in many of our major cities. As Attorney General Holder said during his recent visit to Chicago to address this issue, “Youth violence is not a Chicago problem any more than it is a black problem, a white problem or a Hispanic problem. It is an American problem.”
A problem this big calls all of us to action. In recent years, we declared “war” on drugs and “war” on terrorism. Today, I think it’s time we declare “peace” on youth violence. I was pleased that Holder and Education Secretary, Arne Duncan went to Chicago to begin what they called “a sustained national conversation” about youth violence in response to the Derrion Albert murder. Holder also announced a request for $24 million in next year’s budget for community-based prevention programs such as Ceasefire and Project Safe Neighborhoods. But stopping and preventing youth violence will take more than money. And it is about more than violence.
While young people who commit violent acts must ultimately be held accountable for their crimes, we cannot ignore the role that poverty, parenting, poor schools, guns, drugs, gangs and the lack of opportunity play in this on-going tragedy. We must invest both more money and more of ourselves in solving these problems if we want to dig out the roots of youth violence. As someone said to me recently, if we can find the votes and the money for a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, we ought to be able to summon the will and the resources to save our kids.’
The Minneapolis Urban League in trouble…layoff’s and program doors shut next?
IBNN Editors Note: Residents of Minneapolis should read closely the messages sent out in the local Black press that attempt to position this organization as one on the move up, when in fact troubles continue to linger. IBNN has written favorable stories and not-so favorable stories about the Minneapolis Urban League (MUL). Since the Minneapolis Urban League is a membership organization, under the color of law, how will the MUL handle the possible over-throw of the current board to protect “the membership’s $16 million dollar investment on the corner of Penn and Plymouth Avenue North?” If you recall – it was the Minneapolis Urban League management who decided to release great employees in favor of routing dollars to ACORN home foreclosure counseling, among other things. So far the National Urban League has not returned one call to IBNN in over a year…
Under the Minnesota Law – “We” (members in good standing) have the sole responsibility to seek out competent board members and management to continue the organizations ongoing commitment to the community.
Originally posted in The Minneapolis Story
At 5:15 p.m., today, Thursday, 9-17-09, Minneapolis Urban League Branch President Scott Gray announced, in closed session, the new austerity: 10% salary reduction across the board; termination of ten employees within 30 days; and an indication that the staff of the Urban League Street Academy would go on part time employee status (thus losing their benefits).
Ever since the sell-outs kicked Nellie Stone Johnson and me (Ron Edwards) out 20 years ago, when I was the President of the Urban League with 118 employees, they have cannibalized the organization, reducing it from the 118 employees then to what will be less than 20 employees now.
We show how this got started in Chapter 14 of The Minneapolis Story. (The Book)
The Autopsy of Black Business in North Minneapolis: Part 1 – Uncle Bill talks to IBNN
By Donald W.R. Allen,II Editor in Chief-IBNN
(A special thanks to LandlordPolitic.com for putting the puzzle together)
“I went to the African-American leadership in north Minneapolis to help me with the problems I was having with the City and Jackie Cherryhomes. No one would help me or they didn’t know how.”
…Uncle Bill (On contacting the north side “self-appointed” leaders and capacity building agencies.)
64 year old Uncle Bill is alive and kicking despite rumors the 64 year old immigrant and north Minneapolis business owner had passed away years ago. In an exclusive interview with IBNN’s editor and chief Don Allen, Uncle Bill tells IBNN what really happened at the corner of Plymouth and Sheridan Avenue North and how the City of Minneapolis, Minneapolis City Council President Jackie Cherryhomes denied a man, his family and the community the chance for Black business to operate in north Minneapolis.
“Uncle” Bill Sanigular still has the spunk and tenacity of a king cobra.
William Sanigular (Uncle Bill) is an immigrant from Africa who came to the United States as a student in the 1960s. He worked at Cream-of-Wheat on Stinson Boulevard in Minneapolis for twenty years. Then in 1987, he obtained a license to operate a small grocery store on the corner of Sheridan and Plymouth avenues in north Minneapolis. The store is located at 2428 Plymouth Avenue. There are four residential units in the same building above the store whose address is 2426 Plymouth Avenue. Harvey Katzovitz owned the building; Sanigular rented the store space.
In a visit to his north Minneapolis home, Uncle Bill welcomed the opportunity to be interviewed about what really happened to both his businesses in north Minneapolis. Yes, he had two businesses that he alleged were systematically taken from him by then City Council President Jackie Cherryholmes using the strong-arm tactics of city hall. Read more
Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights Director Michael Jordan, Delayed, Stopped and Re-Buffed with a vote of No Confidence!
On Monday (7/6/09), at Minneapolis City Hall, the Health, Energy and Environment Committee, standing committee of the Minneapolis City Council, met to discuss 6 line items, which included the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights budget and the report back on the Task Force’s analysis.
While Council members Hofstede, Ostrow and Goodman sat uninterested and bland, Council members Lilligren, Benson, Gordon engaged in healthy dialog about the direction of MDCR Task Force and the proposed analysis that was to be presented today.
With the concerns of many community members and true stakeholders the MDCR director Michael Jordan’s “analysis” was put on hold until July 20, 2009, as if to site a vote of “no confidence” for Jordan. The Civil Rights Commission’s Ken Brown, Acting Chairman told IBNN that the report or analysis was one of Mr. Jordan’s own doing and did not represent the community or “true stakeholders,” “It was fussy, incomplete and lacked qualitative and quantitative information that should be a part of any financial or procedural analysis.”
As IBNN reported in an earlier story, director Jordan’s Civil Rights Task Force was comprised of City of Minneapolis employees, and others Jordan had personally invited to be on the task force, like Community Actions Bill Davis, who we allege is one of the players in the fall of the NAACP. Mr. Davis who had a confrontation with Mayoral candidate Al Flowers last year was on the ground in Sabathani Community Center’s parking lot when calling police to report he’d been struck, the dispatcher asked, “Did a car hit you?” (LOL!)
This Task Force was mandated to seek options, but was merely a “smoke screen” created by the suggestion of Minneapolis City Council person Elizabeth Glidden, who “waffled” when informed that Director Jordan had removed several community members from the first meeting by saying, “The is a private meeting.” Glidden did not come down to the meeting after she personally called IBNN and invited us to the meeting.
Council member Lilligren brought up a great point, “Have we investigated other funding options, like contract compliance in the MARQ2 project? Could we find funding by assigning the MDCR to monitor and develop compliance reports on projects like that?
Jordan remained mute…uninterested and stubborn.
Protesters lined the chambers of Minneapolis City Council meetings with signs protesting the Mayors cutting of the Investigative Unit.
Also on hand was Ward 5 City Council candidate Kenya McKnight, who by the way, tore the City Council a “new one” with her comments on the importance of having the MDCR investigators stay put.
Commentary
When will someone come forward and address the systemic failures in our city government? The Minneapolis City Council has failed to take any corrective action in contract compliance; Investigative discrepancies and inter-office “trusts.”
Michael Jordan has failed the minority-ethnic community of Minneapolis through a “tainted” process of checks and balance that have left the community with no accountability from the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights, investigative and contract compliance.
The Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights is contracted to do the compliance report for the new baseball stadium…where is it? (Not done!) What about all the contractors not in compliance as it pertains to the MDCR Ordinances? Where are the fines?
If Michael Jordan and his team of Contract Compliance folks had been on top of their game, we estimate a total of over $300,000+ in fines and a few disbarments of contractors that have repeatedly not been in compliance – but out of compliance contractors continue to receive City of Minneapolis Contracts.
Furthermore, where is the Council on Black Minnesotans? (Silent) Who is doing public policy and addressing these disparities in the MDCR; where is the voice of Ward 5 Council member Don Samuels?; the Mayor’s office?; and (surprise) Minneapolis Television Network (MTN), where over 90% of programming minority ethnic but the Board is a who’s whom of the White community.
I see a heinous “process” all over!
Back to the MDCR….”How can we trust the judgment of Michael Jordan?”
Michael Jordan has not come up with any alternative funding steams to assist in keeping the MDCR investigators in place. As I type this story, I can think of several alternative funding streams that will allow the MDCR keep its investigative unit in Minneapolis and not transfer to the State – but again, I do business.
These funding streams would not interfere with any project, budget or City of Minneapolis planned or current engagement – but would provide Minneapolis the opportunity to keep the MDCR Investigators right downtown where they belong.
One thing that has to be gone from the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights is director Michael Jordan.
The people of Minneapolis deserve a better Civil Right’s director, not R.T.’s “yes man.”
In closing, we should think about moving out Mayor Rybak too!
Negros not welcomed at Boom Island for the 2009 Juneteenth Celebration – IBNN Exclusive
In breaking news IBNN sources close to the Twin Cities 2009 Juneteenth Celebration say the organization has been rejected from having its event at Boom Island this year as planned. After careful planning by the Twin Cities Juneteenth committee, the City of Minneapolis has rejected the events 2009 planned location.
On Monday, May 4, 2009 a meeting was held with the Minneapolis Park Police, 3rd and 4th Minneapolis Police Precincts and members of the Minneapolis Park Board to inform Juneteenth organizers that this year’s event had been rejected from the inner city location of Boom Island.
Mary Pargo, Executive Director of the Twin Cities Juneteenth Celebration said in an exclusive interview, “We were the last to find out about the decision to not let this celebration take place at Boom Island. We had planned this down to the wire and spent dollars to insure we sent the right message to the Twin Cities community. Now we have to start all over.”
Ms. Pargo says the Juneteenth Celebration will move back to Wirth Park.
Again the City of Minneapolis and political pundits deal the Black community a bad hand by obstructing open community engagement. This is further evidence of Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak’s “Massa-Plan” to dismantle the Black community by strategically blocking community events and reducing funding for these engagements that come too close to the White mainstream in downtown Minneapolis.
If you recall, page 36 of the Minneapolis Mayor’s 2009 Supplemental Budget it states the following: Read more
Why haven’t we heard anymore about Annshalike Hamilton, Quincy Smith or Ahmed Guled and how did Gregory Washington travel under the radar for so long?
15 year old Annshalike Hamilton
“It is like she never existed. I don’t live in North Minneapolis but I still care about the area. I want to know where the outcry is. This is very scary to me as a society no one cares. I Googled her name and nothing new comes up. It is really awful.”
…Comment from M. Cullen, sent to the Independent Business News Network
By Donald W.R. Allen, II
Again, Minneapolis/St. Paul residents of color, we have been “bamboozled, befuddled and bumped!” The self-appointed Black leaders have sold us out again for what we call, “chicken feed.” With no public outcry, the following incidents do not get the proper attention.
To refresh your memory, Annshalike Hamilton was the 15-year-old girl, 7 months pregnant, whose frozen body, found nude in a garage at 2222 4th St. N., killed by blunt force injury. North Minneapolis media outlets refuse to mention her name or even further cover this story. Local Black clergy have remained very quiet about the young woman’s death. Virtually no outcry from the community, Annshalike has become a distant memory with her death just added to the list of heinous incidents in North Minneapolis that get dumped in the “quiet zone.”
But we do have to stop and give credit to MADDADS director V.J. Smith and Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels, who on one of the coldest days of the year held a gathering of community people on the street where Ms. Hamilton’s body was found. Other than these actions of integrity, caring and demanding justice no other group has moved forward in the ongoing investigation of the young girl’s death. “What’s happening to the voice of North Minneapolis social service, advocacy, and public policy coalitions?”
In more breaking news, Two weeks ago, Gregory Washington sang in the KARE 11 studio, promoting his new CD. Tuesday, the well known Twin Cities musician and gospel singer, who is 32 years old, is charged with statutory rape for allegedly having sex with a 15 year old girl. Police say Washington is an organ player and choir director at Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist in south Minneapolis.
This is not the only incident for Mr. Washington involving his sexual appetite. Minneapolis Public Schools and Friendship Academy have a huge problem in regards to this case due to the day to day contact Washington had with young girls and his status as an outside contractor rather than someone who is in close contact with students. But in this case, Washington owns Miraculous Music, a music production and education group that contracted to teach at the Jenny Lind Elementary/Olson Middle upper campus and Cityview Elementary School in September.
(He), Washington, was a contract music teacher in three schools on Minneapolis’ North Side, though he was on probation in connection with an earlier sexual assault. Nobody with the district ran a criminal check on Gregory B. Washington before he was hired. Oops!
(Again, I ask you to read an earlier story I wrote titled, “Minnesota Department of Education needs to take a closer look at service providers for SES Title I after school tutoring “outreach” for failing African-American children and other children of color”)
“The idea of a person of trust, a person part of church having sex with someone half their age when the person is under 16 is repulsive,” says Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.
Prosecutors say the girl’s mother learned about the relationship when she saw her daughter wearing a new ring, a gift allegedly from Gregory Washington.
This brings another key issue to light. Community members have put their trust in “self-appointed” leaders who don’t have the community’s best interest in heart. We allege that this is probably not the first time this has happened to a young woman around “people of trust,” but an ongoing trend of deception and bad behavior that is common and kept quiet in circles of organized religion in the African American community.
Quincy Smith was an overnight disc jockey at public, non-profit community radio station KMOJ-FM. Quincy De’Shawn Smith survived an encounter with a police Taser in 2005 and in late November had learned that his suit alleging police brutality could go to trial.
On Dec. 9, however, Smith, 24, died after a second confrontation, this time with officers who had been called to the 1000 block of Knox Avenue N. on a report of a domestic assault involving a man with a gun. Smith struggled with officers as they tried to arrest him and once again was hit with an electric charge from a Taser gun.
Smith died that night.
Smith’s case remains in question and no progress in the investigations on why this young man was cut down in his life’s prime.
Ahmed Guled – a member of the Somali community in Minneapolis and St. Paul who regularly took elders to and from the store on a weekly basis was gunned down in February, shot more than 13 times by Minneapolis Police. This is not the first time that the Minneapolis police shoot inhumanely a Somali man. Recalling the shooting incident of a Somali man who was also killed inhumanely manner that was a mentally ill in 2005.
Sources say the alleged stolen vehicle was loaned to him to pick up his Father from the airport returning from Kenya.
Ahmed Guled died that day, with gunshot wounds to the head and torso.
There are many reasons why community members, self-appointed leaders and elected officials don’t demand answers for heinous actions that affect the quality of life for us. Maybe it’s time to take a closer look and let your voice be heard. If people didn’t stand up, we as a country would have never seen the likes of Malcolm X; Dr. Martin Luther King, Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson.
Furthermore, one day Blacks will not have the voices of the 60’s and 70’s. When you’re unjustly released from a project, job or get mistreated, who will you turn to for advocacy with complaints in the Black community falling on deaf ears?
Don’t let Annshalike Hamilton, Quincy Smith or Ahmed Guled just become distant memories of the past. Each person had goals and desires in life that were cut short due to “controllable” circumstances. If there was an outcry, from the community and accountability demanded, one day, we could have passed these people on the street and said, “Hello!”
…Your move.
IBNNNEW- Apology to the North Minneapolis Community. We don’t have leaders, we have self-appointed spokespersons Donald Allen
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