UPDATED Wednesday, April 4: Gary Job Corps’s Management Firm Loses Contract, Under Investigation For Health & Safety Issues

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• This is a confusing set of circumstances. MTC protests for a THIRD time; Adams and Associates gets held in limbo from a definitive award; ResCare temporarily staffs the GJCC facility? Who is running the place? How does MTC use the same solicitation and filing numbers to file yet a third protest? When is no mean no?

  When you find out more, we all look forward to clarity, and some idea of the public's recourse for protesting and voicing concerns...to whom does this matter in public positions?

  • It's such a joke out here right now. Certain pimps Need to step down.

    • Terra Arredondo wrote me up for not meeting my numbers, but did it when my boss was out on leave. So when I asked my boss she said no you dont have write ups, no one meets their numbers. So I called my manager and she wouldnt answer nor call me back. I had just seen her the day before and instead of having a face to face or even a heads up, she fedex the write up to me then avoided my contact. During the timeframe for the write up I had just came back from maternity leave, didnt have access to my systems for weeks due to her dropping the ball. So when she wouldnt reply for days, I sent an email and explained my side, the questions I had, etc. She finally responded but lied and so I sent the back up emails with proof of it being her.
      So then she started treating me differently. All up to me giving notice to leave the company. As soon as she got notice, she took me off activities, denied me to go to our team meeting that was already approved, then said I was denied because of cost when I said I wasnt staying overnight so it is no cost. She delayed my payment for this event, sent the check to me in my name but took me off the event when I gave notice. Then demanded I fix it. Told HR I cashed the check and didnt pay the vendor. So when I gave the receipt the HR, right there in my presence they had to call and verify I didnt falsify the receipts. The last day of my employement, Terra wanted me to leave the company car, credit card and keys with the workforce staff. I am housed there but dont work there. I told her I didnt feel comfortable doing that. So I asked transportation to bring me back to Austin after I drop the car off in San Marcos and complete my exit paperwork. The transportation manager had no problem with taking me back to my office. He said they already had students they needed to take to Austin anyhow. And he thought it was a great idea to leave the car there on center. Once Terra was aware of this she informed transportation that they were not allowed to take me back.
      Her whole thing was I didnt ask her for transportation to take me back.
      And when I told her if they cant take me back because Im not an employee after completing my exit papetwork, then I for sure shouldnt drive the government car back not being an employee. Then she changed her tone. Lol
      I told her the issue is she is on a power trip and she doesnt think ahead and mad that I came up with a better plan.
      And I dont ask her anything because she ignores me and only communicates with me to clean up her messes. All she said back was I didnt ask her before asking transportation ? .
      Now HR has contacted me stating they cant find the keys to the GSA that I left. I sent pictures of where I left them, I requested the footage of it, and asked if the GSA is where I parked it, has the credit card been used to track where it may be. Of course no response.
      It is very strange that they are misplaced when I was demanded by Terra not to leave it on center. I have complied, turned in all my items and property. Now HR said my check is on hold until they can figure out what the next steps are.

  • MTC is trying to squeeze as much money from the contract as they can before they leave. When the transition comes the new contractor will only have a few weeks to transition. It will be chaotic for the new company and the students and staff. Nice job MTC, always thinking of the students and staff first. I have seen this done at other centers. MTC = scumbags

• MTC has so much favoritism and shadiness going on they think employees are not smart enough to know the laws. People are being put into management positions that are YES people without degrees (which are required) due to others being turned down for positions because they had no degree. I don't know how DOL can't see that Lonnie Hall and his new Yes Team are destroying the center with their unethical behavior and morals. MTC never hears what the employees think of the management team and if you report to HR a statement is taken and nothing else happens. The CTS supervisor has been reported several times for stealing money from Work Base student yet, nothing has been done. Someone please listen to the employees and get MTC out of here once and for all. Whichever, company awarded the contract please DO NOT KEEP UPPER MANAGEMENT it will take your company down as well. Bye Hall, Medina, Marshall for sure(YesTeam)

  • A degree means nothing.. Experience is better.. I have hired people with them.. And don't understand how they Even got then..

  • Who ever is upset about not having degrees are upset because they dont have one.
    It doesnt make you a better employee based off a degree, but it does show you had drive to complete it. And if it is a requirement why should you not try to obtain it? Its a requirement for the job.

• I left two years ago after working there for 51 yrs. I worked under Me. Marshall and left when they started reducong the charges on students to lesser charges to retain tbe student. Example: possession of marijuana reduced to possession of drug paraphernalia

• These charges are LAW ENFORCEMENT issues!! Why isn't L.E. involved? It's because MTC's policy is that NO ONE IS TO EVER CALL 911!!! Employees are instructed to only call Gary Job Corps Security, and their jobs threatened or lost if not followed. This is illegal!! LE must be informed!!!!! Lonnie Hall and crew will be found guilty of coverups and gross breach of the Zero-Tolerance Policy!!!! The OIG is on it.

  • Interesting that, after researching documents and webpages from the Committee on Education and the Workforce, chaired by Rep. Virginia Foxx (NC), I found an updated version of the Job Corps PRH, the Procedures and Regulations Handbook ( Job Corps' "Bible") which contains these words:

    ePRH, Chapter 5. Management, page 5.4-3

    "c. Center operators may not prohibit any center personnel or student from calling 911 or
    any law enforcement agency, and may not limit the personnel or students who may call
    911 or law enforcement."

    So why does this essential humanitarian action, to call for help when deemed needed, continue to be prohibited in actuality? This is illegal!!! Criminal!

    Two OIG Reports:
    26-17-001-03-370.pdf
    26-18-003-03-370.pdf
    just blew me away, the findings, and then the dismissal by the ETA, head administrators of the Job Corps program overall. It's as though the ETA can disagree with faults and missing pieces, so therefore, it doesn't have to do anything about it. It's like the bully on the playground, "Oh yeah? Make me!"

    This current OIG investigation, I hope, will pop the abscess of illegality by MTC, and spur a deeper Job Corps investigation. This crap has to stop.

• Correction, CTR supervisor...

• Anonymous and others: Please get others to voice their issues, facts, frustrations, and concerns here, as well as to their Congressional representatives, and to the Administrators of the Department of Labor, Education and Training Administration, and Job Corps. People are reading these articles, not just in San Marcos. This corruption needs public awareness...otherwise, no one cares and the beat goes on.

  • Rumor has it that Rescare will be gone by next Monday due to the petition filed with the GAO

• After further reading of the OIG report, 26-17-001-03-370.pdf, I found it hypocritical that the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education and Training Administration (ETA), Byron Zuidema, rebutted in disagreement that Job Corps students are not fairly compared to their peers.

  The OIG said --

  "ETA also said the report may well leave a reader with the incorrect impression that the Job Corps safety and security situation is significantly worse than at high schools, community colleges, technical schools, and other organizations and institutions that serve the same population as Job Corps. We did not perform a comparative analysis with other institutions and did not make any statements relating Job Corps to other institutions. Our intent was not to compare Job Corps to others, but to review the actions Job Corps has taken to protect the safety of students and staff at its centers. ETA has stated, “Many Job Corps students are brought into a structured environment for the first time in their lives. They must adjust to being held to high standards, and are often asked to alter their social behavior. As with many residential youth programs and school systems, Job Corps is structured to help students who struggle to meet these new and challenging expectations. Effective implementation of our recommendations will help improve that structure and, ultimately, safety and security at all Job Corps centers."

  See the irony in the ETA's rebuttal? They are worried that the Job Corps students are made out to be worse behaved than their peers. But kids in high schools, technical schools, and community colleges ARE NOT their peers! We are talking a different population altogether! Apples and apricots! This was hypocritically supported by the ETA's excuses that Job Corps students have been brought into structured environments for the first time in their lives. This is NOT a peer group to regular high school and colleges - sorry ETA...nice try!!! Experts at talking out both sides of their mouth making excuses for non-compliance to uphold behavior and law enforcement standards.

  Everyone reading this needs to get on the ball and write their Congresspersons and the National Directors of The Department of Labor, Job Corps, and Education and Training Administration. This is bigger than a simple management change at Gary Job Corps...this is corruption!!!

  • Dude you were there for like a month, don't go making broad generalizations about my students like this. You don't know them. They are the same as any student anywhere else, they aren't another breed.

    Your agenda is getting a little thick. Go do some push ups and settle the F down.

    • Not a month, Dude. And I have done my homework. The place is corrupt. You think the OIG was, and is, there to give everyone a dozen roses and a gift card at Chuy's? Why do you think MTC is out, after 18 years as a sole-source contract manager? I still maintain the generalizations... but are not to disparage any individuals, especially the initiated and motivated students. But there is a culture of behavioral there that is NOT equivalent beyongvJov Corp's walls. Don't believe this? Do YOUR homework and read the volumes of OIG audits, investigations, indictments, and historical inaction to change and use MY money prudently. I'm calm...you should stick to the topic and not go personal. If my agenda is "thick," move on.

• Even managers and some supervisors need to go.

• The Job Corps award process is filled with cronyism since 1964. The contract operators, Res Care, MTC, Adams are all slum lords, supported and protected by USDOL and the current regime. It is time to down size the program as a whole, fix the crumbling facilities. It is time to make the training real and lose the welfare mentality the Job Corps still promotes. The three long time contractors mentioned here are ALL SHADY and all in it for the money. Been with all three, and not an honest bone in the bunch. Job Corps and its students are suffering because of its loss of focus. More money spent on incentives and spy cameras instead of real repairs and real training. Get it right National Diretor or step down and close the program out. The tax payers are being fleeced unbelievably.

• Some departments need cleaning up. Supervisors and managers that have been feeding from the teat far too long and that scumbag, cough cough,....miss Hall need to man up and leave. Ghetto man with ghetto ideas. He thinks he is too big to even acknowledge his employees. I will definitely not miss that fool when he leaves...Hell, I would gladly boot him off campus. ;)