Pico Center May Be Forced to Close Doors

By Oliver Lukacs
Staff Writer

August 12 -- The Pico Youth and Family Center, the city’s only grassroots effort to tackle gang and youth violence, could be forced to close its doors by month’s end unless a new non-profit group can be found to oversee its operation, The Lookout has learned.

Woodcraft Rangers, the LA-based non-profit organization hired by the City to funnel its $289,000-per-year grant to the center -- which was established a year and a half ago to give gang members and at-risk youth a chance to turn their lives around -- has said it will break off relations with the center.

If the center cannot find another non-profit group or convince the Rangers -- who are in charge of paying its rent with City funds -- to extend their partnership for a few more months, the center could be evicted from its Pico Boulevard site by August 30, center officials said.

"Like many other people of color and low-income families in Santa Monica we're going to be evicted," said Oscar de la Torre, the center's executive director and a member of the School Board. "Essentially what they’re doing is sabotaging services for the Pico Neighborhood.”

The Rangers, which serves approximately 8,000 at-risk youngsters throughout Los Angeles County, said the organization honored the original contract with the City, which expired in June. The grant gave the Rangers approximately $58,000 a year since 2001 to help the fledgling center get on its feet.

Woodcraft Rangers officials said they were pulling out because the center had enough time to get its own 501c3 non-profit tax exemption status, which would allow the City to directly fund its programs. They added that the center's programs are “not a real good match” with their organization, which primarily targets children between 6 and 14 years of age.

“It was always supposed to be a community spin off," said Cathie Mostovoy, chief executive officer of Woodcraft Rangers. "I did not think it was going to go further (than two years) nor did my board of directors. We got the center up and running, we held up our end of our bargain."

But de la Torre argues that the non-profit is reneging on a verbal contract to keep the partnership going for one more year because the City turned down the Rangers' request for a $60,000 grant. The organization sought the grant to start a program at John Adams Middle School that would not be connected to the center, he said.

De La Torre called the pull out “irresponsible and unethical,” because the Rangers gave no sign of wanting to break off.

But Mostovoy countered that the City’s decision to turn down the extra $60,000 had “no bearing” on the non-profit’s decision to end the partnership.

“They’re very different issues, they’re not linked," Mostovoy said. "We wanted to expand our program to that area (in Santa Monica). There was some discussion with the center of wanting to work with middle schools. There are some links between services. It’s not that uncommon to link programs and maximize resources.

“I don’t want to see (the center) closed and neither does my board," Mostovoy added. "We helped to open it. We don’t want to see it closed. That wouldn’t make sense. We're here to help kids.”

What doesn't make sense, de La Torre said, is the sudden move. Because the Rangers offered to write the grant proposal this time around, de La Torre took that as a sign that the partnership had a future. “If they knew it wasn’t going to be a good fit why would they write the proposal?”

It was a letter from the center's landlord that tipped off de La Torre that something was amiss. The landlord, de la Torre said, was notified by the Rangers that an existing lease agreement for the center for another year was cancelled the day after the City Council rejected the organization's request for the additional $60,000 as part of the grant.

The landlord declined to confirm or deny this claim.

Mostovoy said that lease agreement was canceled before the City Council’s decision on June 17th, and that the Rangers wrote a letter to the City officially declaring their intention to end their partnership with the center. Mostovoy could not find the letter in time to provide The Lookout with the letter's date.

Mostovoy wasn’t sure if a copy of that letter was sent to De La Torre, but said the decision shouldn’t have come as a surprise, because it had been discussed in several meetings between her organization and the center’s advisory board prior to June 17th of this year.

“We had several discussions, about seven, throughout year with Oscar and (the center’s) advisory board members," said Mostovoy. "They were made aware that that (the end of the partnership) could be a possibility.”

However, Mostovoy did acknowledge that a verbal contract to stay together for another year was discussed. “Certainly there was a proposal put in by Woodcraft, there was discussion with the advisory board, there was some discussion of it, but some of the circumstances have changed.”

Those circumstances, Mostovoy said, have to do with time and money. If the Rangers stay on another year, they would have to raise 5.2 percent of the administrative costs to run the program, which was fully covered by the City grant until now.

De La Torre said it is “unrealistic” to expect a grassroots organization to become completely independent within two years. When the center opened in 2001, de la Tore said, he was directed by the City and the Rangers to focus on providing services, not on developing the organization into a stand-alone non-profit.

“They were expecting me to build an organization from scratch, that’s a big task to tackle in a year and half,” de La Torre said. “It’s unrealistic to do programs and develop organizational infrastructure. There was no money in the budget allocated for that process… I am ignorant to process, and no one’s ever done this before.”

Developing the center into a stand-alone non-profit is a time-consuming and complex process, de La Torre said. It requires creating a financial management system, raising money, organizing a policies manual, developing a hiring process, putting together a pay roll, providing workers compensation, buying insurance and setting up a board of directors. And all that must be done before the organization is eligible for 501c3, which itself takes time and money.

“When people are doing these things on a volunteer basis, things don’t happen as quick as you would like them to," de la Torre said. "If you really care about the kids, why wouldn’t you give a couple of extra months?”

De La Torre said the center has already filed the 501c3 paperwork. With the help of State Senator Sheila Kuehl and State Representative Henry Waxman, he hopes the application will be processed and approved before the August 30 eviction date.

Mostovoy said her non-profit is in discussions with the center’s advisory board and the City to try and find alternatives.