The federal lawsuit filed in November 2011 against Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement signatory BUILD (Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development) and its patron Forest City Ratner has been expanded, as 13 former trainees have joined the seven original plaintiffs in the case.
That means that 20 of the 36 people in the coveted pre-apprenticeship training program (PATP) are suing for unpaid wages in the program (which plaintiffs' attorneys have called a "sham"), including but not limited to the two months working at at the Staten Island site run by defendant Orbin's Green Machine.
The plaintiffs, said attorney Matthew Brinckerhoff, are "seeking unpaid wages for anything they should've been paid for... one is the training program itself, one is the work on Staten Island."
"For many people, the larger category of damages are the expectation damages," he said, citing the claims that PATP organizers had promised jobs and union cards--potentially significant sums, based on wages for the past few years and under a career as a union construction worker.
The plaintiffs' attorneys also want to amend the complaint to allow the 13 plaintiffs to sue for those "expectation damages." Presumably the defense will oppose that.
A status conference on the case was scheduled for February 27, but was postponed to tomorrow March 12.
Timetable and depositions
Brinckerhoff said the timetable remains "pretty uncertain," though all discovery should be completed by May. That would presage potential summary judgment motions--which could lead to a judicial resolution, settlement negotiations, and/or a trial.
While depositions may not ever be made public (unless they're used in legal filings), a full range of participants have been questioned, according to Brinckerhoff: along with the seven named plaintiffs, Forest City Ratner executives Bruce Ratner, MaryAnne Gilmartin, Jane Marshall, Bob Sanna, and Sonya Covington have been deposed, as well as James Caldwell and Chantel Lewis of BUILD, and Gausia Jones of Orbin's.
Past process
Last June, federal Judge John Gleeson did dismiss several aspects of the case filed against Forest City, executives Ratner, Marshall, and Caldwell, but he rejected a motion to dismiss key claims, including the most contested claim during a court argument: whether Forest City and BUILD constituted "joint employers."
The argument concerned the plaintiffs' claim that, by signing the CBA, which promised the PATP, and funding and directing BUILD, that Forest City Ratner was responsible for the program. One plaintiff, recounting how he was promised a union card and a union job, said "I was robbed," when the case was announced.
BUILD lives?
Though BUILD closed last November, facing a debt to the Internal Revenue Service and a complaint to the state Attorney General over improper spending, several people testifying at a hearing Feb. 27 on the scope for a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement referred to BUILD as if it were still alive.
No one mentioned the lawsuit.
Caldwell acknowledged, with no details, that he still has a professional relationship of sorts with Forest City Ratner. It's not surprising that Forest City, which is funding his legal defense, would want to maintain a cordial relationship.
There's some useful stuff--CBA Chair Delia Hunley Adossa won't talk, nor will her sidekick Charlene Nimmons. And the piece pronounces:
Seven years after the Brooklyn document was signed, five of the groups have been mostly silent or reconstituted after without much fanfare.
But it still falls short.
My comment
Here's the comment I posted:
It's good that Next City has tried to provide a broad look at the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA).
But even the moderately skeptical tone of the article doesn't address the drama and mendacity behind the CBA--or recognize the consistent criticisms of the CBA that came in real time (from groups like Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and my Atlantic Yards Report coverage) as the project unfolded.
Particularly missing is a recognition of how developer Forest City Ratner orchestrated it all--so much so that, in a dismayingly misguided front-page article in October 2005, a New York Times reporter would declare that the developer had conjured up a "modern blueprint" to nourish and harvest community support. http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...
Note that despite regular promotional statements claiming "community commitments" were "guaranteed by a legally binding Community Benefits Agreement," the CBA presents the targets as aspirational: http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...
Why not ask Forest City how much the developer paid all the signatories? Or point out that, when Forest City was trying to suggest the CBA was legitimate, it claimed--only to rescind it after protest--that the appointed Community Boards participated in "crafting" the CBA: http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...
Even the subtitle--"How Brooklyn Dropped the Ball..." sets up a false frame: "Brooklyn" never had a chance to negotiate anything. The whole point of the CBA was to set up a facade of community support while the project evaded the existing--if problematic--land use process, involving advisory votes by the local community boards and a vote by (and debate in) the City Council.
As I commented last November on Next City, Bettina Damiani of Good Jobs New York in 2005 told the City Council, before the CBA was signed, that this CBA--which featured only groups that already supported the project--had significant differences with more legitimate CBAs negotiated in Los Angeles: http://nextcity.org/daily/entr...
While Next City does mention "indicators" that the Atlantic Yards CBA "will yield a different result" than the pioneering Staples CBA, some crucial detail is missing. Not only was the coalition in Los Angeles larger, it involved the City Council as signatory, thus ensuring more oversight, and addressed some yet unresolved issues regarding Atlantic Yards debate, such as residential parking permits, an issue (still) important to the arena's immediate neighbors (mostly middle- and upper-class) but less important to the CBA signatories (mostly working- and middle-class, living farther away). http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...
Or take the glancing mention of the "potential for... possibly a long-promised compliance monitor." That obscures the fact that, when the CBA was signed, backers like Bertha Lewis cited the Independent Compliance Monitor, funded by Forest City Ratner, to oversee implementation. Forest City has remained unaccountable, offering weak explanations and then no explanations for its unwillingness to hire that monitor: http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...
Or consider that the "eight community-based groups" were not so "community-based." Only two (or three) were operational in their stated capacities before Atlantic Yards was unveiled in December 2003. As CBA experts have steadily said during the debate over Atlantic Yards, it's a conflict of interest for signatories to take money from the developer that signed the agreement: http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...
It's not merely that, "In many cases, the [CBA signatories] gave institutional blessing in exchange for operating funds." That also meant vigorous public backing for Forest City's plan at rallies and meetings, not any contribution to shaping the content of public comments. Consider Delia Hunley- Adossa's MCing of a pro-project rally, steered by Forest City executives, and her description of the environmental commitments her group presumably negotiated: "blah blah blah": http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...
There are even more reason to be skeptical of those CBA signatories cited in this article. Consider how Hunley-Adossa publicly understated her compensation from Forest City Ratner by more than 100% http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...
Or that Charlene Nimmons, who once claimed incredibly that new residents in Prospect Heights were "the real land grabbers, because they took the [already vacant] property first and turned back what was jobs into condos," was cited just this month by Forest City as playing a particular role in monitoring "us on a regular basis." http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...
Or that James Caldwell, though a nice fellow, had no background in job training when he was tapped to head BUILD, and most notably rallied for the project by declaring, more than once, that Bruce Ratner was "like an angel sent from God.
Or that the Rev. Herbert Daughtry was noted for 1) describing Bruce Ratner (in the developer's publication," aka fake newspaper, the Brooklyn Standard) as having a "customary, humble, winsome manner" and 2) heckling regularly at the one state oversight hearing held regarding the project: http://www.scribd.com/doc/2836...
And that the health programs are shunted off to the future and the "meditation room" is pretty much a chair storage area: http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...
By the way, Jay-Z tickets were distributed to community organizations. But the eight CBA signatories each got a suite, one for each of the eight nights of concerts. Only Bertha Lewis's organization auctioned it off: http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...
Note that Joe Coello has as a partner in his company Roger Green, the former Assemblyman who was a major architect of the CBA: http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...
As for Bertha Lewis of ACORN, consider that her training is in theater. Yes, ACORN "was used to getting funds from various sources," but Forest City Ratner *bailed out* ACORN after its institutional funding dried up (because of an internal scandal, not the hyped fake-pimp scam). That's how key ACORN was to Forest City's project, and why ACORN, when it declared bankruptcy, was had the developer as its biggest creditor. Consider Lewis's rhetoric at two occasions in 2009: http://atlanticyardsreport.blo..."Bruce Ratner's never wavered," she said. "I never look for anybody else to ensure these guarantees. We look directly to the developer to ensure the guarantees." http://atlanticyardsreport.blo..."You want to know who’s gonna make sure that the housing is affordable?” she asked. “We will. We’re not going to make sure that some politician takes care of us,” she stated. “We’re not going to stand by and try to have some agency take care of us. ACORN will take care of us.”
"[W]e would have fought to make this project come about the way we said," Lewis says in this article. In reality, the Affordable Housing Memorandum of Understanding was supposed to set aside 50% of the subsidized units, in terms of floor area, for family-sized units, containing two or three bedrooms.
The first tower doesn't come close, as I reported, and the small number of two-bedroom units are skewed toward middle-class households, "affordable" but far from ACORN's constituency. Did Lewis raise any criticism? No, she blamed project opponents: http://www.bkbureau.org/agency...
A couple of more factoids to consider: --Ratner's seeming generosity in finding an initial place for Kassoum Fofana relied on public funds; city taxpayers reimbursed Forest City $131 million for land http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...
--another lens for viewing the artisanal mayonnaise shop: it's half a block from the southeast corner of the "blighted" Atlantic Yards site; do blight and artisanal mayonnaise (as well as cappuccino) really coexist, or does it look like state eminent domain laws allow a rather loose definition of blight? http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...http://atlanticyardsreport.blo...
I also commented:
At a June 2005 ceremony, as captured in the documentary Battle for Brooklyn, Mayor Mike Bloomberg imperiously dismissed questions about promised housing and jobs in the CBA: “I would add something else that’s even more important. You have Bruce Ratner’s word, and that should be enough." http://battleforbrooklyn.com/ Four years later, Bloomberg changed his tune. “I’m violently opposed to Community Benefits Agreements,” Bloomberg told The Brooklyn Paper in August 2009. “A small group of people, to feather their own nests, extort money from the developer? That’s just not good government.” http://brooklynpaper.com/stori... As it happens, Forest City got very good value for its investment, especially since the only organizations that can enforce the CBA are financially dependent on the developer--and that pesky Independent Compliance Monitor was never hired.
“Atlantic Yards is setting a new standard for inclusion and community involvement for a development, and the ICM [Independent Compliance Monitor] will be everyone’s watchdog to ensure we reach all of the goals and benefits we have agreed to in the CBA [Community Benefits Agreement]," Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner said in March 2007.
Since then, the developer has steadily avoided that contractual responsibility. “Hopefully we'll get it done soon," executive Jane Marshall said in November 2010, claiming the CBA only went into effect when the arena broke ground.
They [FCR] are going to retain a compliance monitor per the CBA, but they are going to wait until the housing phase,” a spokesman told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in January 2012.
The issue came up again last night during a bi-monthly meeting of the Atlantic Yards Quality of Life Committee, held at Borough Hall.
Has an Independent Compliance Monitor been hired, asked Peter Krashes of the Dean Street Block Association.
"I don't think so," Marshall responded, checking with a colleague and confirming, "The answer's no."
Arena hiring and the CBA
Later in the meeting, Terence Kelly, Barclays Center Community Affairs Manager, presented some familiar but upbeat statistics regarding arena hiring:
some 100 full-time jobs and 1900 part-time (200 housekeeping, 800 working for AEG on facilities, 900 working for Levy Restaurants)
approximately 80% of all hires from Brooklyn
35% from the priority Community Boards of 2,3,6,8
over 30% are NYCHA residents
over 120 employees are BUILD referrals
“What type of benefits are provided?” asked Gib Veconi of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, in a question that surely an ICM could answer.
“I wouldn't be able to answer that,” Kelly responded.
“There’s no health benefits because they’re part-time employees," added Ashley Cotton, Forest City's External Affairs Executive VP. "However, we feel there's a benefit to being part of a union,” she added, noting she didn’t have the details of the collective bargaining agreement.
(Last July, she cited the “incredible training" available to employees.)
“Do they have health benefits as part of union membership?” Veconi followed up.
“No,” responded Cotton.
“Any options in terms of a savings plan, employer contributions?” he continued.
“I don't know but can get back to you,” Cotton responded.
Worker training
“Will there be with B2"--the first tower, now under construction--"the type of pre-apprenticeship training program that was initially promised for the Atlantic Yards project as a whole?” he asked. (See part IV of the CBA.)
“The apprenticeship programs working with construction trades are all being developed right now," Cotton responded, "so I think the short answer is yes, but more details are coming.”
Given the closure of CBA signatory Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development (BUILD), “is there any party that taken the place of BUILD,” Veconi asked, responsible for managing the training.
“BUILD is not going to get replaced,” Cotton said, “but the entire CBA monitors us on a regular basis, particularly Charlene Nimmons [of Public Housing Communities], who was one of the key stakeholders and partners in the success of [the arena hiring].”
Forest City has announced plans for working with (updated: not clearly apprenticeships) three existing job-training organizations. That raises the question of whether BUILD served more as a cheerleader than anything else, and whether there will be pre-apprenticeship training as described in the CBA.
"Are there plans or is is there a date on which you will hire an Independent Compliance Monitor?” Veconi followed up.
" I don't have a date,” Cotton said.
If the CBA were really monitoring Forest City. well, wouldn't Veconi would have gotten a different answer? (Remember how ACORN's Bertha Lewis in 2006 claimed the monitor would oversee implementation? Or how a year ago they said it was coming?)
The lack of oversight, and the Columbia contrast
Forest City has gotten very little criticism of its failure to fulfill the minimal CBA responsibility of hiring an Independent Compliance Monitor. Project supporters like Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who cite the CBA as the reason for their support, don't follow up, while project opponents have not made it a crusade.
Consider the contrast with the CBA related to Columbia University's expansion, which both has a dollar figure attached far larger--$76 million over 16 years--as well as distribution through a process that appears to have more more transparency.
And even with that, it's provoked significant criticisms, notably from City Council candidate Vince Morgan, who recently wrote to supporters:
"The former chairman of Manhattan Community Board 9, Attorney Larry English, has joined my mission to secure the $2 billion in jobs, benefits and contracts for minorities and local Harlem residents. He has also written a letter to the Empire State Development Corporation, requesting that the agency fulfill its responsibility to the Harlem Community."
English, in his letter, noted the failure, in five years, to hire an independent monitor required under the CBA, and asked the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), the state agency overseeing both the Columbia and Atlantic Yards plans, to enforce the CBA.
Morgan subsequently wrote:
"Following my appeal to the Empire Development State Corporation, the agency has agreed to review Columbia University's hiring of Minority, Women and Local Firms on the Manhattanville expansion. This is just the first step in my mission to hold Columbia accountable to its promise of 7000 jobs and $2 billion in contracts and benefits. I have deep concerns that Columbia is distorting its reports by relying on hiring local majority firms to the exclusion of local minority firms. Columbia should take the initiative of releasing which firms have been given contracts and the dollar amount. I will not stop until every job, every contract, every in-kind benefit owed to Harlem is secured. "
The state agency has since announced it would request more details regarding Columbia's hiring record.
Is this more than what's been asked regarding Atlantic Yards?
I can't quite compare the two, but the dynamic is different: there's no one challenging the self-reporting regarding Atlantic Yards, despite defense of the Atlantic Yards CBA by signatory Bertha Lewis, who said it calls for an independent monitoring body that “does not have a dog in this fight” to oversee implementation.
Originally written Nov. 15. Updated Nov. 16 with retort from Lance Woodward and a response to Woodward from Daisy James. Updated Nov. 17 with response from James Caldwell to Woodward. Updated Nov. 25 with a response from Woodward to Caldwell. I'll observe that the bitter personal and professional accusations may be impossible to resolve from the outside, though it's clear that Caldwell does acknowledge that he spent BUILD funds to be helpful to people rather than within the ambit of programs. Beyond that, the failure of developer Forest City Ratner to hire an independent compliance monitor to oversee the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement deprives us of an outside overseer.
An article in The Next American City expands on the story of BUILD (Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development), which is closing its doors today. An audit commissioned by funder Forest City Ratner found that CEO James Caldwell, now President emeritus, was not misappropriating funds.
However, the main accusation by former subordinate Woodward was that Caldwell was misallocating funds, apparently using them to play neighborhood benefactor even though they were beyond the purview of the grants--when, at the time, BUILD was behind on its taxes.
And Caldwell cops to that, sort of:
Caldwell said they might buy subway fare, food or clothes for job interviewees. In other cases, he said they brought neighborhood children to a Pennsylvania amusement park or to see the Nets play in the team’s old home of New Jersey. In other cases, Caldwell would write landlords checks for tenants who otherwise wouldn’t be able to pay rent. Through Ratner, BUILD helped cover rent for a Brooklyn man that was injured in an arson fire that killed his wife and two sons. “I tend to get the business in trouble — a non-profit organization in trouble — by making decisions like that,” Caldwell said. “But, you know, is it wrong? Yeah, maybe its wrong, according to the budget, or whatever. But is it right for the people? Yeah.” Still, he denied accusations of misallocating money. “By buying people MetroCards because they’re in our training program and they have no way to get there? I don’t think so,” he said. “I helped somebody pay the rent or they’ll get put out? I don’t think so. But I say, I can see people bringing allegations against me if I had a big mansion, a pocket full of money, this and that.”
I don't think he denied misallocating money. I think he denied misappropriating it for personal use.
My comment:
This is just a wee bit more troubling than portrayed. Why is BUILD going out of business? Because its funders decided not to fund it any more--a sign they didn't trust it to work responsibly. Here's a link to coverage of the lawsuit filed by 7 participants in the pre-apprenticeship training program. Caldwell can say he didn't promise anyone jobs, but the plaintiffs sound pretty emphatic. Also, as Lance Woodward's letter to the AG indicated, a consultant's assessment indicated that BUILD had little capacity to fill the role played by Chief Operating Officer Marie Louis, who died last year. Caldwell has not been accused of trying to enrich himself, but he even admits here he's acted irresponsibly. (The article doesn't mention the report that he also spent money on clothing for a subordinate, and there's no explanation for the Nets tickets. How about sharing the audit?) Caldwell, as he well knows, has invited criticism by saying--as he did in his goodbye message linked from the article--that "I still believe that Bruce Ratner is an Angel sent from God." Does that sound like someone prepared to *negotiate* a Community Benefits Agreement (DBA)? Missing from this article is recognition of a fundamental criticism of the CBA, and how it was used to help the Atlantic Yards developer. Consider 2005 City Council testimony by Bettina Damiani of Good Jobs NY: "The BAY [Brooklyn Atlantic Yards] project is the first project we know of in New York City in which the developer has advertised that he seeks to participate in a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA). As a sponsored project of Good Jobs First, which provided support for the CBAs negotiated in California and continues to act as a clearinghouse for information on CBAs, we feel it is important to draw the Council’s attention to several major differences between CBAs as they have been used in other parts of the country and the series of negotiations that FCRC is calling a CBA. Perhaps the most striking is that elsewhere CBAs are negotiated by one broad coalition of groups that would otherwise oppose a project, a coalition that includes labor and community organizations representing a variety of interests. The coalition hammers out its points of unity in advance and then each member holds out on settling on its particular issue until the issues of the other members are addressed. This way, the bargaining power of each group is used for the benefit of the coalition as a whole. In the BAY case, several groups, all of which have publicly supported the project already, have each engaged in what seem to be separate negotiations on particular issues."
Criticism from an ex-BUILD staffer, and a critical response to him
Former BUILD CFO Lance Woodward, who sent the letter to the Attorney General after he was fired in a dispute with Caldwell, posted a long comment, below, critical of BUILD. See bottom for some rather pointed and personal criticisms.
Woodward's posted comment:
Mission control...we have a problem...or shall I say many. The real reason that BUILD is closing is a result of complete incompetence in leadership. No organizational missions have been fulfilled...NONE! The responses from James Caldwell and Daisy James are nothing more than smoke and mirrors meant to cover up their ineptitude in running and growing a mission oriented not-for-profit organization. Below I would like to address a few issues related to this article and BUILD's demise.
First, I ask who has been a beneficiary of BUILD's purported mission as stated in this article, “honored its mission and purpose to foster economic self-sufficiency and prosperity amongst socio-economically vulnerable communities." As one who has held many roles within BUILD since 2004, I am completely unaware of anyone, let alone a community, that has truly overcame their socio-economic status as a result of any efforts from BUILD and their ties to the Atlantic Yards project. In contrast, thousands of individuals came through the BUILD doors who were either already a part of the construction trades or desired to enter the construction trades and were led to believe that BUILD was the gateway for those opportunities. Although that was the original plan, things did not go so well when Caldwell started having unnecessary pissing contests with the very individuals who were ultimately responsible for the hiring in the construction trades at Atlantic Yards. I personally had to forewarn a number of individuals not to use the BUILD name when seeking employment in construction as it became increasingly evident that Caldwell's politics had usurped the organization's objectives. So for all of those thousands of individuals that invested tens of thousands of hours trying to secure their piece of the pie and gain economic self-sufficiency, all of that was in vain...false hopes and false promises; poverty pimping at its best.
Similarly, the small business component was also a debacle. As far as I know, the only minority company that benefited as a result of any efforts by Caldwell and BUILD was an already well established contracting company from Philadelphia. None of the many local contractors that came through BUILD benefited as a result of Caldwell's BUILD. Likewise, much of that can be attributed to the aforementioned pissing contests.
The Atlantic Yards project has yet to enter the second development phase. There is perhaps another twenty years of construction within the 22 acre project site. According to the CBA, BUILD should be working on another pre-apprenticeship program to coincide with this second development phase-- not closing their doors. There is also the development of a local High School described in the thirty-year term Community Benefits Agreement that has yet to be initiated, another element of the CBA that BUILD has oversight on. With respect to the arena jobs, Caldwell abrogated that responsibility in the earlier part of this year when he effectively handed off the organization's exclusive workforce development oversight, as outlined in the CBA, to Work Force One....the very element that thousands of local individuals fought for....and certainly one of the many legacies of the late Marie Louis. To many this was the nail in the organization's coffin. As far as the purported 175 individuals that are employed as part time employees at the Barclay's Center Arena as a result of BUILD's efforts (I would love to see the proof!), it is a far cry from the 500-600 positions that were negotiated...mission accomplished...give me a break!
Although there were many early struggles, the tools needed to become successful were provided by the developer. With free rent and utilities in addition to funding there is no reason, other than incompetence, that BUILD should not have grown to be a significant entity, not only in Brooklyn, but throughout New York City to help address the many challenges that low-income individuals face in overcoming barriers to unemployment. The late and great Robert F. Kennedy recognized the need to tie both public and private funding together to address the socioeconomic conditions through the creation of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. BUILD found itself in a similar position but failed to realize its potential through Caldwell's ego and incompetence.
Regarding the misappropriated funds there can be no question that buying your relatively well paid employee Daisy James seven-hundred dollars worth of clothes at Macy's on the BUILD credit card constitutes misappropriation. [Note: the report said $576.97. I missed that until James reminded me. She also points out that, when the clothes were purchased, she was earning a modest hourly wage as a trainer. Woodward still considers her relatively well paid.]
The same goes for the Nets season tickets, unquestionable misappropriation for a not-for-profit organization. As far as the misallocated funds, yes Caldwell is a nice guy and has helped many by using BUILD's resources-- at the expense of the organization! If the taxes were up to date and all mission objectives were being met some of the expenses might be alright. But, taxes were far behind and I am quite sure at this point that Caldwell did not know what his own organization's objectives were. Paying people's rent certainly was not one of them...that might sound harsh but when you are a 501c organization with extremely limited resources every penny counts and should go towards meeting the organization's mission. BUILD's role was to empower people so that they could pay their own rent...not to pay peoples rent.
Finally, with respect to being a "sellout" or "puppet of the developer", Caldwell did not have to take on that role, he did it voluntarily. By failing to respect "organization" and instead placing him and his ego before all, he created a situation where he had no leverage with the developer. The organization had thousands of supporters and volunteers throughout the years. So much talent came through the doors in the early years yet were ultimately shunned or kept in their place so as not to be a threat to him via his paranoia that everyone was out to get him. Individuals possessing leadership skills or alternative ideas were generally the first to go. You can see evidence of this in his failure to establish a functional board and instead placing loyalty to him as the top requisite to being a board member. This is evident in all the boards that he has put together. Imagine for an instance if BUILD would have had a large board comprised of a diverse group of local leaders, business owners and community stake holders...now we are talking leverage. Instead he forced himself into being that sellout.
It is very unfortunate that BUILD will be closing its doors for good on Friday. I was ultimately hoping that he would have resigned and that the board would have made the necessary changes so that the organization could have gone on to properly fulfill its Community Benefits Agreement obligations for the community.
There will be those that will blame myself for the closing of BUILD, for those individuals let me say this. I tried in so many different ways to protect Caldwell and the organization. Unfortunately, whatever I tried to contribute (and I was not the only one) was disregarded or he would do the exact opposite of what was suggested. In the end, after he made the decision to place the equally inept Daisy James at the top of the organization which ultimately led to the ouster of the complete staff that the highly competent Marie Louis had put together over the preceding six years, I knew it was time to "turn the light on" and let all who wished to see what was really going on behind the facade that Caldwell had created.
Although I could, and will soon, write many pages on this matter. I will keep it limited to what I have written so far. I can assure you though that just as Caldwell said that going forward the mission will be to get BUILD's story out there, I too will work on that endeavor. Unlike his story though, I can assure you that what I put out there is not all self aggrandizing bull****, there will be no revisionist history and proper credit will be given to those who really made the best of BUILD including most importantly the late Marie Louis whose contributions really were the foundation of the organization.
James responds to Woodward
Note that Daisy James of BUILD called me to point out that Woodward's comment exaggerates the amount spent on the clothes, and misstates that she was relatively well paid, since at the time her earnings were in the bottom half of those paid to BUILD staffers.
She added, in writing, "The only thing 'inept' in this entire situation would be Mr. Woodward's ability to pass a sobriety test."
Woodward responds to James
Woodward responded, in writing: "I stand corrected, the actual amount spent on Daisy's clothes was $576.97. As far as her being at the bottom half of those paid at BUILD at the time she is incorrect on that. For some time, Caldwell and I went back and forth regarding giving her a raise. Our employees were paid based upon what was provided for in the budget. Although she had started at $12 per hour by that time of the shopping trip I had given in to Caldwell and Daisy was earning $15 per hour.... As far as the sobriety test comment, that does not surprise me coming from her. I will say this though, that I have a number of employees names and numbers, including close to a dozen interns that I worked closely with on an everyday basis that will substantiate that there is no basis to her claims."
Caldwell responds to Woodward
Caldwell responded, in writing [posted 10 pm Nov. 17] :
I am an Army Veteran who proudly served his country for 6 years, along with other Americans that have served to protect your freedoms, including the freedom of speech. And while everyone is entitled to say what they want to say, that doesn’t make it the truth. So I take great offense to Mr. Woodward’s comments about being a “poverty pimp”. And I say shame on you Norman Oder for posting such coded, racist language. [Note: According to the Next American City article, an audit showed that Caldwell was not trying to enrich himself.] In response to Mr. Woodward, it would seem that if he is in need of finding anyone in any of our vulnerable communities who has benefited from BUILD's mission of economic self-sufficiency and prosperity - he need look no further than himself. In 2005 Mr. Woodward was living in a homeless shelter and was rescued by BUILD, and in many ways was the first person to benefit from the work that we do. And what did we do for Mr. Woodward? The organization provided him with clothing, food, a place for him to stay and I personally paid for his cell phone. But more importantly, BUILD gave him a job. Also, let it be noted that Mr. Woodward left BUILD in 2005 for approximately 7 months for a construction job. Where he was fired. For insubordination. Again, BUILD provided him with employment. He left again in 2010 to pursue a job with Homeland Safety (a construction company) and was again terminated. For insubordination. The fact is that Mr. Woodward’s behavior is nothing more than a selfish act of ingratitude, a smug indifference to the work that BUILD does – work that very few organizations have done for our communities. He oughta be ashamed of himself. So I pose this question to Mr. Woodward, a so-called CFO who does not even possess his own bank account. When was the last time you filed your state or federal taxes? When was the last time you served your country? Right? Because we all know who the real pimps are. And finally. For the record, Marie Louis never cared for Mr. Woodward because he wouldn’t follow instructions; so, please let her rest in peace. Amen. James E. Caldwell
Woodward responds
Woodward responded, in writing [posted 8 pm Nov. 25]:
More Smoke and Mirrors from Caldwell. I certainly have a tremendous amount of respect for those who have served our country though it is unclear as to what Caldwell's Veteran status has to do with anything here other than perhaps trying to possibly seek a free pass on his alleged wrongdoings.
As Caldwell clearly stated, "...everyone is entitled to say what they want to say, that doesn’t make it the truth." First, given the possibility of a libel or slander suit, I would not make any statements that I can't backup or that are knowingly false. It appears here that in attempting to undermine myself and the statements that I made, he has in fact made a number of incorrect allegations against myself.
First, BUILD did not rescue me and did not buy me clothes or food (I have the credit card statements going back to 2005 for all BUILD credit card holders if this needs to be verified).
I can thank my friend the late Marie Louis, a BUILD officer, for providing me with the opportunity to rent an apartment from her over the course of the past six years. Although the phone that I used was in Caldwell's name, I paid the bill on it for the majority of the term. There was a relatively short period where Caldwell paid the bill. Prior to him terminating me I had started repaying him for that short period but following the termination was unable to continue.
Yes, BUILD did provide an opportunity for employment to me but for the majority of the first two years that I worked, I worked full time and was not compensated. In addition to this, while working at BUILD, for five years beginning in January 2005 and ending in December of 2010, I produced the Council Update, a monthly newsletter that promoted Caldwell and the 77th Precinct Community Council; again unpaid for a part-time job occupying the equivalent of one to two weeks of full-time work per month.
As far as my employment history, he just might eat his words. In late 2007, not 2005, I went to work as an Assistant Project Manager for a concrete company. In March of 2008, after approximately four months, not seven, I quit over the ethics of the Project Manager and Owner who were withholding wages and threatening employees with violence. The breaking point for me, and only insubordination, came when I was asked to lead a crew to steal a large amount of equipment from another contractor on the job site. I can think of three people who are, or have been associated with the AY project that have direct knowledge that I quit and was not fired.
Next, although I did leave BUILD once again to work for another organization, where it can be said that I forced my way out, I never worked for Homeland Safety-- which is not a construction company. Having never worked at Homeland Safety makes it quite difficult for them to fire me for insubordination. Caldwell is clearly trying to portray me as an individual with a history of insubordination in an attempt to justify his reasoning in wrongfully terminating me.
After each of these periods, Caldwell requested that I come back to BUILD which I did; and it was Caldwell who promoted me to Chief Financial Officer. Very unusual for someone who is making such accusations against me.
I still have no clue as to what prior military experience has to do with any of this and I have certainly always adequately paid my taxes.
Regarding Marie Louis, I have never said anything against her and have only promoted her unparalleled importance to the BUILD organization. The only other time that I brought up Marie's name outside of this blog and the letter to the Attorney General was in privately expressing my dissatisfaction that Marie Louis was not recognized at the arena opening and that at the time I made the complaint, Marie's family had not been invited to opening events. Unlike Caldwell, I certainly would never suggest her feelings or attitudes regarding anything particularly when she is unfortunately no longer here to speak for herself. I will continue to promote her and her legacy when the opportunities arise though.
Finally, if it were not for what I believe to be Caldwell's continuous slander against me in the streets and in his response against myself, I certainly would never have sought to air this out in public.
Having known him for eight years and witnessed how he has dealt with others that have fallen out of favor with him, I am sure he will continue to spread these falsehoods in an attempt to make himself look good. Let the facts speak for themselves.
In the wake of the dissolution of Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) signatory BUILD (Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development), Gib Veconi writes on Prospect Heights Patch, The First Atlantic Yards Casualties, about the formation of BUILD, in a Forest City Ratner office:
One of the community organizers, Darnell Canada, spoke up. He explained that this was the first organizational meeting of BUILD, whose formation had been announced the week before in a press release from then-Assemblyman Roger Green. “We’re here because we’re going to sign a Community Benefits agreement with Forest City Ratner,” he said. The purpose of the meeting was to decide what to ask for. "Wait a minute," I said. "We haven’t even heard the pitch. We don’t know what’s going to be built. And we don’t know what’s going to happen to the people who live there now." "That’s not important, said Darnell. “Where were they when the City cleared people out of Ingersoll Houses? They’ll get what they deserve.” I looked around. Most of the room, including James [Caldwell] and others I had worked with for years, were nodding their heads. At first I couldn’t believe it, but then I understood. This was all part of the developer’s plan. Forest City was going to use a CBA as a wedge to separate civic leaders residing mostly in outlying neighborhoods from the more affluent residents of the community immediately surrounding Atlantic Yards. My stomach sank. The cynicism of this was shattering. The people sitting around the table clearly did not perceive the extent to which they were in danger of being horribly abused by the developer. Any firm that would be so brazen in manufacturing support as to stage a “community” strategy session in its conference room would certainly have no qualms about disposing of such support as soon as its usefulness had ended.
The controversial job-development organization BUILD (Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development), a key public supporter of developer Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan, has closed its office and will dissolve operations by the end of next week.
The moves come in the wake of funding troubles, tax arrears, a lawsuit, and a complaint about spending irregularities filed by a former staffer with the New York State Attorney General.
It's another repudiation of the "modern blueprint" the New York Times unwiselypositedsome seven years ago regarding Forest City's ability to "nourish--and then harvest--public and community backing" via the suspect Community Benefits Agreement (CBA).
BUILD, while helping hundreds of people find generally low-paid work in retail and services (while absorbing more than $1 million in corporate and public support), did not provide a path to transformative careers with Atlantic Yards, as initially intended.
That promise inspired several people to volunteer at BUILD, work for low pay, and, crucially, rally for the project.
BUILD's history will be debated--was it flawed from the start, or did it go astray?--but Atlantic Yards critics and opponents can surely say that their suspicions about the CBA, and BUILD's role in it, have been validated. The results of a pending lawsuit, as well as a potential investigation, should shape that assessment.
"Sorry we're closed," read the sign yesterday morning on BUILD's office door at 485 Hudson Avenue, off Fulton Street. Another sign on the door offered guidance to those seeking post-storm work from Con Edison.
A staffer opened the door briefly, upon seeing me, but indicated that longtime BUILD CEO James Caldwell was not there. I later called Caldwell, and was ultimately sent the message below, which has been circulated to "community partners."
The message from Caldwell, signing off as "President Emeritus," indicates that BUILD will close down as of Nov. 16. It states that BUILD had "honored its mission and purpose to foster economic self-sufficiency and prosperity amongst socio-economically vulnerable communities" by supporting workforce development, youth development, and more.
"And I still believe that [Atlantic Yards developer] Bruce Ratner is an Angel sent from God," Caldwell stated, echoing a statement he made prominently at several public events, captured in the documentary film Battle for Brooklyn.
Caldwell's letter made no mention of the funding and tax troubles, or the complaint filed with the Attorney General. Nevertheless, it's clear the latter complaint led to uncomfortable moments.
At the Oct. 8 meeting of the 77th Precinct Council, former BUILD CFO Lance Woodward, who filed the complaint with the Attorney General, tried to inform BUILD board members of the complaint. But when Woodward handed those board members envelopes containing the document, Caldwell took them from the board members and ripped them up. (Caldwell wouldn't comment when I quered him about it last month.)
Forest City's valedictory statement
I asked Forest City Ratner about BUILD, and got the following valedictory statement:
"BUILD was a critical partner in the creation of the Community Benefits Agreement and the hiring for Barclays Center. We are thankful for their assistance and insight and their on-going commitment to social and economic justice for the people of Brooklyn. Mr. Caldwell has always believed strongly in the inherent good of people and recognizes that regardless of one's background, we all share the same desire to create a better, safer and healthier life for our children and families. It is a commitment he brought to Atlantic Yards and one that will continue to guide us as we begin the housing portion of the development. As we did with arena, we will continue to work with community groups, the City and other partners to ensure that as many of our employees as possible come from the surrounding communities.”
Note that, while BUILD did hold unpaid customer service training sessions to prepare youth for arena jobs, arena hiring was managed by the city's Department of Small Business Services. Forest City gives BUILD free rent and, when the organization leaves, surely could fill the space.
So it's unclear what groups will fulfill the job-training responsibilities in the CBA. But if Forest City chooses more established organizations, it raises a question as to why BUILD was chosen in the first place.
Bruce Ratner at the arena groundbreaking, 3/11/10, saluted Caldwell as "a man of integrity and a man of dignity, to fight for community job training and he's done an exceptional job."
CBA questions
BUILD was not only active in promoting Atlantic Yards, virtually alone among the organizations formed to "negotiate" the CBA, it had an ongoing office and public presence.
Organizations that pre-dated Atlantic Yards like ACORN (and its successors) and the New York State Association of Minority Contractors have always had offices. The Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance operates out of the church led by the organization's head, the Rev. Herbert Daughtry.
But other CBA signatories--Brooklyn Endeavor Experience; Public Housing Communities, Brooklyn Voices for Children; Faith in Action--verge on ciphers, with their heads occasionally participating in public events, but offering little public presence in terms of offices or ongoing activities.
So much for the claim, in various legal documents (such as the 4/17/07 affidavit, right, by Forest City's then-Atlantic Yards point man Jim Stuckey, in the case challenging the Atlantic Yards review, that the CBA may set a standard for the city.
The developer never hired a promised Independent Compliance Monitor to evaluate both its own performance under the CBA and that of the signatories; the latter, who are the only organizations with standing to ensure that the monitor be hired, might have their own reasons for not wanting to be scrutinized.
Forest City and BUILD have reason to remain on good terms; the company and organization, as well as individual executives, are defendants in an ongoing lawsuit filed in November 2011 by seven of 36 participants in that training program.
The plaintiffs claim they were promised construction jobs and union cards, and say they should have been paid for work they did during the training.
Complaint raises questions
As I reported 9/27/12, BUILD, which formed as Atlantic Yards was unveiled and has relied on Forest City for free office space/utilities and most of its funding, had seen its budget run low, even as it owed more than $115,000 in back payroll taxes, according to the letter filed by Woodward.
The last round of funding from BUILD's major funders, Forest City and the Consortium for Worker Education (CWE), had expired; Forest City did not respond to my query in September about continued funding, while CWE said that they were "in negotiations with BUILD."
Woodward's complaint charged that Caldwell had spent money irresponsibly, including for Brooklyn Nets tickets ($8700), rent for five individuals, a car payment, clothing for a subordinate, and for the 77th Precinct Community Council, which he heads. Larger sums were allegedly misallocated to items seemingly part of BUILD's mission--like MetroCards for trainees, part of $38,201 for transportation--but not authorized by its funders.
Woodward, fired August 1 in what he contends was a wrongful act, had urged the Attorney General's Charities Bureau, which oversees non-profit organizations, to investigate.
Initial response
Caldwell responded to my query in late September, saying BUILD was "dismayed that a disgruntled employee, who was dismissed for performance, after we made great efforts to assist him and provide him with employment, would surreptitiously take documents and other materials from our office during and post-employment and provide them to a blogger."
"We will of course review carefully the document you provided, along with counsel, and will respond directly to the Attorney General's office," Caldwell said at the time. "We are not going to have a conversation about Mr. Woodward's allegations, or why we believe he would do this, via the media or your blog."
As I wrote, it was unclear how much the allegedly misappropriated spending--if the complaint is accurate--was aimed to benefit Caldwell directly or to serve as an old-fashioned neighborhood benefactor.
Woodward's letter also indicated that Caldwell operated essentially without supervision from the board, whose members also serve on the precinct council he heads.
BUILD's new web site
Interestingly enough, BUILD appears to have been working on an update to its long-stagnant web site, the latter apparently created in 2005. While there are some new photos, some pages, as in the third one below, were just shells.
On Friday night, as I walked past the Barclays Center arena before it opened, I spotted a young man in a red jacket working one of the arena's doors.
We recognized each other: we'd spoken when I'd covered the graduation ceremony last November for a Customer Service Training class provided by Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development (BUILD). I said hello, congratulated him, and wished him well.
I don't know how much that training class helped him get hired--he's a bright guy who'd stand out anyhow--but it surely didn't hurt; graduates of the classes were supposed to get a boost in hiring. (I don't know how many have been hired.)
I've written critically about BUILD's organizational troubles and also pointed out that the part-time arena jobs don't add up and are not going to provide careers. Put that aside for a moment; I was happy the guy had a job. And he seemed happy too.
