INSIDE INGLEWOOD-The mayor of Inglewood, James T. Butts, appears to be unable to keep the numbers straight when talking about jobs in Inglewood for the charter city’s residents.
During an interview with the Daily News regarding the number of jobs at the Forum, Butts was quoted extensively and appeared to have provided statistics. According to the January 9 story which implied that most of the jobs were being filled by Inglewood residents, “[m]ore than 260 construction jobs were created for the overhaul of the Forum and 250 full-time jobs are expected to be filled during the venue’s operation, welcoming news for a city that has a 15 percent unemployment rate.”
In a January 16 Inglewood Today (IT) story, however, Butts appeared to have provided a whole different set of numbers. “So far, 180 out of 320 jobs have gone to Inglewood residents,” stated a page 7 story under a photo of Butts at the Forum. Like the news, IT quoted Butts extensively.
Inglewood Today is owned by Butts’ paid political consultant, Willie Brown, and may have been the only South LA paper to receive paid ads from the Forum.
But another set of numbers came from an Inglewood resident, Nicole Divinity Warmsley, who wrote a letter to this journalist in response to a story published elsewhere regarding a job fair at the Forum.
She wrote: “Hey I read your post about the forum and the hiring process. Well now you know one person from this neighborhood that was hired to work there and that is ME. I was in that crazy job fair and yes only 1000 people where hired out of 11000 that showed up. i am a runner and I start on Wednesday. I am happy to know that it was not all political as to how people got hired. I knew no one and went through the process of filling out an application, brought my resume, interview and drug test. I passed everything and got a call back.” [All errors by the letter-writer.]
It should be noted that Warmsley's Facebook page states that she is the Executive Director of Programs at "The Wallace Arts Foundation November 2003 to present." The Wallace Arts Foundation is housed inside the Bright Stars Reading Club and Enrichment Center located on 714 East Manchester Blvd. Inglewood, CA 90301, which is one block from the Forum at Manchester and Prairie.
The Wallace Arts Foundation and Bright Stars are both non-profits, and the latter counts among its donors former Inglewood mayor Roosevelt F. Dorn. The current mayor, James T. Butts, started his 2011 mayoral campaign by going door-to-door and telling voters that he was "hand-picked by Dorn." On the Wallace Arts Foundation's Board sits former Inglewood council member and current California State Senator, (for District 26) Curren D. Price, Jr. He is an "Honorary Advisor."
Warmsley did not provide a source where she acquired the numbers "1,000" or "11,000."
In any case, one wonders how an executive at an Inglewood-based arts foundation that has close ties with former a Inglewood mayor and council members—as well as a current state senator—is happy to get a job at a stadium as a “runner.”
Yet another set of numbers came from an inside source. According to the Forum's community outreach person, Jason Lombard, the first of the two Forum job fair days (on November 21 and 22) attracted "8-10k people." Lombard would not discuss how many were hired nor how many of those hired were Inglewood residents.
Butts refused to respond to requests for comment on the actual numbers of jobs, the number of Inglewood residents who may have filled them or how long said residents would remain employed. “I don’t talk to you, Randall,” was the mayor’s comment.
(Randall Fleming is a veteran journalist and magazine publisher. He has worked at and for the New York Post, the Brooklyn Spectator and the Los Feliz Ledger. He is currently editor-in-chief at the Morningside Park Chronicle, a monthly newspaper based in Inglewood, CA and on-line at www.MorningsideParkChronicle.com)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 8
Pub: Jan 28, 2014
