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Fenty Faces Backlash From Problems in Youth Jobs (DC Jobs Program Implodes)
The Washington Post ^ | August 10, 2008 | David Nakamura and Michael Birnbaum

Posted on 08/10/2008 3:48:54 AM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner

It did not take long for Summer Spencer to learn how highly her boss, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, valued the D.C. summer youth jobs program.

Shortly after she was hired last year to run the city's employment agency, Fenty (D) gave her a directive: Turn no student away. To the mayor, the work-training program was a linchpin in his bid to improve the education system and decrease crime.

(snip)

But over the past several weeks, Fenty's push to rapidly expand the program has backfired, with a $31 million cost overrun and organizational chaos resulting in one of the most high-profile stumbles of the administration.

(snip)

When the program began June 16, Spencer's agency, the Department of Employment Services, was flooded by more than 21,000 students signing up. That figure, at least 7,000 more than last year's and far above projections, caught agency employees off guard. It also overwhelmed the new computer system, which had been installed to avoid the pay problems of years past.

Within weeks, as still more youths signed on, hundreds complained of being underpaid. Others were paid too much, and many were sent to the wrong job sites or had nowhere to report.

(snip)

The Fenty administration has provided few answers to what went wrong and has declined to let Spencer, who fired summer program manager Yasha Williams, speak with reporters. Aides said Fenty will announce the results of an internal investigation by his office when he returns next week from a personal trip to the Olympics in Beijing.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: corruption; fenty; incompetence
Follow-up to this story:

Hundreds of Students Say They Weren't Paid

1 posted on 08/10/2008 3:48:55 AM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner
The premise of the program is flawed from the get-go.

Thegubmintis going to put people to work doing something productive?

And you have to love the Ayn Randian "turn no student away" quote. Yeah, don't have a budget, don't work off of reality as it relates to your wishes.
2 posted on 08/10/2008 3:54:50 AM PDT by GeneralisimoFranciscoFranco (I love liberals. They taste like chicken.)
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To: GeneralisimoFranciscoFranco

The new Gubmint Program for do nothing employment called forevermore Fentyism aka Community Organizer!
Can not make this crap up!


3 posted on 08/10/2008 4:01:50 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner
...hundreds complained of being underpaid. Others were paid too much, and many were sent to the wrong job sites or had nowhere to report.

DemocRAT Utopia!

4 posted on 08/10/2008 4:03:02 AM PDT by johnny7 ("Duck I says... ")
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner
And that is the point of the DC gun suit, to prove gubberment can do something to distract people from the misery caused by gubberment. Going to see a lot more of this if you elect the jive talking idiot Obama.

Marxism, equal misery for all.

5 posted on 08/10/2008 4:23:09 AM PDT by Tarpon (Ignorance, the most expensive commodity produced by mankind.)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner
Just a taste of what's to come nationwide in land of Obama.
6 posted on 08/10/2008 4:39:05 AM PDT by RU88 (The false messiah can not change water into wine any more than he can get unity from diversity.)
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To: GeneralisimoFranciscoFranco

Just curious what you mean by “Ayn Randian”. The wording sounds like you’re saying it’s a quotation characteristic of her. Do you just mean it’s the same doublespeak and “A is non-A” contradiction she wrote about?


7 posted on 08/10/2008 4:44:43 AM PDT by BobbyT
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To: BobbyT

I thought it was A = A. Things are what they are.

Now you have me wondering... :)


8 posted on 08/10/2008 5:03:12 AM PDT by Mark was here (The earth is bipolar.)
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To: RU88; Tarpon

“Just a taste of what’s to come nationwide in land of Obama.”
“Going to see a lot more of this if you elect the jive talking idiot Obama.

....Absolutely 100% guaranteed correct!!

Michelle has already told us...”Obama’s gonna make you work!”....and don’t think for one minute she’s not going to be involved in his decisions....America’s version of Winnie Mandela.


9 posted on 08/10/2008 5:31:15 AM PDT by STONEWALLS
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To: GeneralisimoFranciscoFranco
And you have to love the Ayn Randian "turn no student away" quote.

What the heck did you mean by that? Is it some subtle attempt at irony? Way too subtle for me, I guess.

10 posted on 08/10/2008 6:33:26 AM PDT by BfloGuy (It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we can expect . . .)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

“To the mayor, the work-training program was a linchpin in his bid to improve the education system and decrease crime.”

No, it was a linchpin to getting him re-elected, by creating as many families as possible that were indebted to him. Odd that the Post can’t figure this out.


11 posted on 08/10/2008 7:27:41 AM PDT by popdonnelly (Boycott Washington D.C. until they allow gun ownership)
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