Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Official vouches for FYCC spinoff
The youth service agency says a new arm isn't meant to circumvent a bid to deny it road maintenance contracts after a negative inquiry.
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET
Published March 21, 2006
DADE CITY - Florida Youth Conservation Corps leaders say they have created a spin-off group as part of a reorganization plan, not as a ploy to skirt potential sanctions.
The new group, the Youth Development Corps, was created in September under "a long-standing plan to separate the educational and operations functions" of FYCC, controller Terry Blackmon wrote in an e-mail to the St. Petersburg Times .
He said it was not an attempt to sidestep the Legislature's plan to cut off FYCC from millions of dollars in no-bid highway maintenance contracts.
"YDC is not intended to apply for or hold any contracts with the Florida Department of Transportation or any other potential customers," Blackmon wrote. "Rather, it is contemplated that YDC would conduct the initial training for the at-risk youth and refer them to FYCC to participate in its work experience programs."
In previous years, FYCC has received up to $4.5-million in taxpayer dollars to provide highway maintenance jobs to disadvantaged youth. But a Times investigation last summer found the program failed to provide the promised benefits, including life skills training, a $500 bonus for passing the GED test, reimbursement for nine credit hours of schooling and a $4,725 scholarship after a year's work.
Instead, the investigation found, the group spent about $7,000 to $8,000 sponsoring a youth baseball league in the Dominican Republic and 457,215 in four years on travel, conventions and meetings.
After holding their own hearing on FYCC, members of the Senate Transportation Appropriations Committee called for cutting off FYCC from state funding for at least a year. The committee also is considering requiring audits and limiting other nonprofit groups to $600,000 a year in highway maintenance work.
FYCC remains in operation, but if the group loses its state funding, Blackmon wrote, "We may be forced to cease providing work experience opportunities to more than 100 at-risk youth that we serve each year."
[Last modified March 21, 2006, 02:30:40]
Share your thoughts on this story
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor
