Jerry Moore at another eventI made an effort to get both sides of the story before printing anything, but the same email I was relying upon for most of my info was printed on www.ibnn.org, forcing my blogger hand. I still have some other details not printed on that site, however...
First of all, I want to make it clear that I tried to contact Jerry Moore by Facebook to get his side of the story before printing anything. I was prepared to wait 24 hours, but another site printing details has forced my hand.
The person reporting this matter is named Megan G. She has requested I not print her full last name and, since she provided me the info, it is a reasonable request. I rely on people to kick info my way.
The incident took place Monday, January 12 right after the JACC elections for Board of Directors, which took place at Jordan New Life Church, 1922 25th Avenue N. There are reports another meeting will take place January 14, 2009 at 6:30 PM. A contact in the mainstream media heard Moore may be fired or asked to step down at that meeting, and passed that info to me. The Star Tribune is looking into this story.
Jerry Moore is invited to submit his firsthand account, which I am committed to printing, fair and square. This is the unedited account of Megan G. (Paragraph breaks not included in the original text)
"Unfortunately, Jerry snapped and lost his mind Monday night. He started swinging punches at a man who had 'pushed his buttons' so to speak.
"He didn't really make contact with the man because the man was walking away to avoid a fight. A few people, including myself, ran over to get in between Jerry and the man to keep them apart. Jerry then turned his rage on me, pushing me back and swinging at me. Two other men saw Jerry putting his hands on a woman; they jumped in between Jerry and the woman to get control of Jerry."
"Jerry then turned his rage on them. At this point, Jerry really started throwing punches closed fist punches--that made contact with one man before people were able to get Jerry under control. Three people, including myself, were on the phone with 911. When Jerry realized the police were on the way, he ran out of the back exit out of the building. Police came and took statements and will turn it over to an investigator."
(According to a follow-up email by Megan G., the MPD case number is 09-011311. The officers were 6200 and 0138)
Megan G. continues:
"Pushing Jerry's buttons means: A community member was asking tough questions of Jerry during the question and answer period of the board meeting. The community member's questions focused on 'where all of the money was going for our youth?'
"Another community member had written a note stating that the board must question Jerry Moore, the executive director, to find out what has been done with the money, and what does the community have to show for it.
"After the meeting was over, while people were cleaning up and milling around, a woman began asking Jerry about the money and Jerry was responding. Then a gentleman identified as the community member who began "pushing Jerry's buttons" walked over and joined the conversation. He then said, "Jerry, you are the executive director, why don't you show this woman the financial records and show her where the money is, Jerry?"
"As he asked the question, he patted Jerry on the back sarcastically. I want to make it clear that it was not a sincere pat on the back; it was not an 'atta boy' pat on the back.
"In fact, Jerry's friends at the meeting were saying that this 'button-pushing-man' actually hit Jerry three times on the back. It wasn't a 'hit.' It wasn't consensual but it wasn't a hit. If Jerry had said "don't touch me" and the man continued to touch him, that may have changed the outcome, but Jerry didn't say that, he just started swinging."
The IBNN blog is reporting the altercation included Megan G., Dennis Wagner and P.J.
The full name of "Megan G." is on the IBNN blog, but I am trying to respect Megan's request because she did provide me information. Megan stated she forward the info because of my interest in the Jordan neighborhood, not necessarily for blogging but, well, her entire email is on IBNN.
The IBNN blog is reporting "During the meeting the JACC Board was re-tooled with new members who were voted in by the community." The IBNN blog, as well as an email I received from Megan G., forwarded from a JACC listserv, lists the winners of the Board of Directors election as follows:
David Haddy. Todd Heintz. Tyrone Jaramillo. Robert Hodson. Anne McCandless. Vladimir Monroe.
The IBNN blog--a steady and harsh critique of Jerry Moore--is reminding readers that, long ago, that blog was calling for Moore's resignation or removal.
Free Blog Bonus Material: My Critique of JACC
It has long been my observation that individuals in JACC devote a great deal of time to "social justice" issues instead of neighborhood issues. When I say "neighborhood issues" I mean stuff like: attracting responsible home buyers, securing properties, cracking down on street crime, helping law-abiding property owners stay in their own homes, dealing with bad property owners and slumlords.
Social justice issues, on the other hand, include racism, diversity on the police force, police brutality. These are important and pressing issues. But what is the role of a neighborhood association? Mostly, it is NOT these issues. Neighborhood associations should deal with neighborhood issues. In the suburbs, they should deal with whether or not the neighbor's garage door is offensively, sickeningly bright orange, because they have nothing more exciting that qualifies as a neighborhood issue. In North Minneapolis, they should deal with whether the garage is well-secured, or are drug dealers getting inside? Now that's an exciting neighborhood issue!
A debate about how the (alleged) drug dealers had their choices limited by systemic injustices in society...this has nothing to do with whether or not TO NAIL THE GARAGE DOOR SHUT. Yet what do you hear coming out of Jordan? Discussions about NAILING UP DOORS? No, you hear social justice issues being hashed out. You hear, "How dare anybody criticize our neighborhood without LIVING HERE?"
Man, back in early 2008, did I ever get an earful of this stuff when I dared to point out that young men standing on a corner, drinking from what appeared to be a gin bottle, didn't make a very positive first impression for an outsider shopping for a home. (Click here)
Yes, JACC deals with neighborhood issues...but what a person hears coming out of Jordan's neighborhood association is a lot of "social justice" stuff, the kind of thing which would be more properly the domain of an organization like the Urban League. (And IBNN has its own extensive critiques of the functionality of the Urban League, by the way)
If you watch the real estate market closely, it is obvious the two neighborhoods with the most affordable housing stock--the real steals, the kind of thing a buyer will brag about for the rest of his/her life--are in Hawthorne and Jordan. Yes, great deals can be found all over North Minneapolis, but the bargains bunch up in Hawthorne and Jordan.
Hawthorne may have intense neighborhood politics and squabbles, but Hawthorne's incredible progress has been documented, EXTENSIVELY, on this blog and elsewhere. Hawthorne has avoided breaking into factions that CONSTANTLY FIGHT each other. People in the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council have the ability to say, "You know what? Even though I didn't get my way, that doesn't mean I'm going to take my ball and go home, or plot to crush the person who thwarted me."
Political conflicts in the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council are brief and wash over, or simply linger beneath the surface without breaking out into open, ongoing, scorched-earth battles. Instead of being overly-sensitive to criticism of conditions in their neighborhood, folks in Hawthorne are likely to respond, "You should have seen what it was like two years ago. It's not where it should be, not yet, but we're moving in that direction." Incredible successes like what we see in the Eco Village cheer us, because we can see massive progress, with promises of more progress coming.
Can Jordan point to that kind of success?
In recent years JACC has gained a reputation for being severely dysfunctional and split into intense "pro-Jerry" and "anti-Jerry" factions who spend a lot of time plotting, maneuvering, and fighting. They should be securing buildings and throwing drug dealers off their streets, knocking down crappy houses and trying to save the good ones.
Now sides are literally coming to blows, but something like this JACC altercation wasn't hard to predict at all.
No Solution In Sight
Unfortunately, these politics will have to play themselves out. Whether people in Jordan are willing to admit it or not, the conflict is so much deeper than liking or disliking Jerry Moore.
There are so many empty, foreclosed houses in Jordan, that it's anybody's neighborhood. The future of Jordan is being determined right now, but there isn't broad agreement in Jordan about what Jordan should be.
People in Jordan have competing visions of the future. This Daily Planet Article, click here, as well as the comments which go with the article (especially the comments) are, I believe, an illustration of the debate taking place. It is this very debate that brings members of the Jordan neighborhood to blows. (The article, admittedly, is about all of North Minneapolis...but I see this debate as raging the most intensely in Jordan)
In Jordan, they're not fighting about Jerry Moore. They're fighting about "whose neighborhood?" and "what will it be like?"
10 comments:
I was wondering if the incident involved the Jerry Moore situation, since he seemed to be getting more animated, the more pressed he was over allegations of misusing his position. One of the other allegations was that he actually was involved in a straw buyer/ foreclosure transaction for which he was paid $5000. At least that was printed in the Daily Planet. If that turns out to true (and it is just an allegation as far as I know) that guy should get serious jailtime, worse than whatever TJ Waconia got. They may have messed up a bunch of houses and people but he would have abused the public trust by posing as community leader and benefiting from its ruin.
I've followed the gentrification argument and it makes even less sense now than it ever did. Like we should be afraid to see middle class people move into the hood and see our property values rise, legit businesses come in to provide us with goods, services and jobs? (As if this would happen quickly anyway). As for the young men without opportunities, they might get a few if money returned or was retained here.
No, it's important to see what is really going on here. As bad as things have been there are people who benefit from keeping it that way. Who get leadership positions to benefit themselves. Maybe not always directly with cash, but sometimes with breaks on the rules or to find out about development opportunities from which they can make cash. Before the housing bubble burst over all our heads,"blighted" neighborhoods were like a gold rush for every scam developer on the planet. In order for the scams to work, they needed government consent and often subsidies. To get them, they needed people on the inside to facilitate them. Moore may or may not be guilty of that but it will certainly be interesting if we get a look into how he operated.
I admire the people who started asking questions because they have opened themselves up for all kinds of nasty abuse. And you are right, the fallout could be seriously bad for the neighborhood. On the other hand, in order for the neighborhood to improve, you need to expose people who have an interest in keeping it in the status quo or worse.
Regarding your perspective on the functioning/focus of the JACC. It seems perhaps you are only aware of the community's efforts and desire to remove Jerry and any other's who do not seem to be able to manage money and produce results, those who have been in control have spent over $250K in little over a year and have absolutely nothing to show for it. There has been fraud, FBI investigations into mortgage fraud, nepotism and conflicts of interest. When something is that broken, the community can't sit back and let it happen just to keep the peace. That type of behavior must be extinguished with the same verocity as drug dealing and prostitution and child abuse. Is it fair to rob money from the lives of the community children who can benefit from a functioning organization.
JACC does have an active housing committee who is establishing a green team, much like your hawthorne eco-village. They have fought to get the budgeted funds for the 26th ave greenway realeased. Jerry & company wanted to re-direct that money, probablly would have ended up in Jerry's pocket or a buddie's pocket with kickbacks.
The housing committee fought to have Jordan throw in additional money to the advantage program, much like hawthorne has done. But Jerry & company blocked that move, saying JACC didn't have the money (it did have the money) but presumably Jerry did not want to spend that money cause then it wouldn't be there to end up in his pocket or bank account of one of his buddies.
You should become more familiar with the in's and out's of the JACC to see that the community members who are speaking out so forcefully are simply trying to fight and stand up for the organization that is designed to bring about good change. We are tired of seeing what little money is there be piddled away on nothing.
It is a noble cause to stand up for.
Thank you for identifying the "social justice" focus of the Jordan neighborhood association. There are many people in Jordan working on the hard issues of drug dealers on the corner, abandoned and unsecured buildings, youth. But they are working, for the most part, outside of the Jordan neighborhood association. They have to do that because for the past three years, the Jordan neighborhood association has been focused on paying staff and their friends as much money as they can with little results to show for it. Money that should have been going to solve other problems. Residents have been asking where the money has been going for three years, but the Jordan neighborhood organization refused to let residents see the accounting information despite bylaws the give residents the right to that information. In fact, the organization even refused to let members of the Board of Directors see the information until last month. When an organization makes decisions in secret (closed board meetings), when it refuses its members and directors access to the financial details they are required to know, it builds a lot of suspicion and distrust.
Several years ago, the Jordan neighborhood was improving at a rapid rate. Grant money was flowing into the neighborhood. Residents were involved. Crime was going down significantly. The face of Jordan was changing. Then there was a shift--a shift in priorities and a shift in where the money was spent. An executive director paid at an annual rate of $70,000. Policies ignored. Bylaws ignored. Community meetings eliminated. Community input limited to 5 minutes a month at the board meeting. Board meetings focused on getting done as quickly possible. Committees that have historically been very effective were stripped of their authority. There has been an unwillingness to spend money on programs--but no hesitation to pay it out as salaries or on contracts for "consultants."
There is a lot of frustration in the community. That community has worked for three years to gain access to financial details, to elect board members who want to hear from the community, to make Jordan a better place to live and work.
I can only guess at Mr. Moore's frustration, but I would guess that the community's finally gaining visibility into what has been going on is part of it. Hard questions are being asked. "Where did the money go?"
Mr. Moore's actions after the meeting were inexcusable. There were children present, and they were terrified by the violence they observed. And that is precisely why the organization's board of directors must take action. When a community leader models the very violence our children are trying to avoid, he no longer should be in a leadership position. Our leaders must model the behavior we want our children to exhibit. Mr. Moore, in so many ways, models precisely what we do not want to see in our children: disrespect, violence, intolerance, secrecy, and who knows what else.
I hope the new board will take their responsibilities seriously and bring back what Jordan had before: A focus on what is good for the whole neighborhood, not just a few blocks of it. Putting money into programs rather than spending it where it produces no results. Transparency. Honesty. Community engagement and participation. Jordan belongs to those who live and work in the neighborhood. Give them back their voice.
Oh, boy...I knew this would happen. I knew because of what I observed about the comment thread on some other Jordan/Jerry Moore story.
I just want to say it's my commitment to provide an open forum and if Jerry Moore and/or his supporters want to air their views, here, I will approve those comments, as well. In fact, I am not taking sides, but so far only one side is talking to me and providing info, so that's all I've got to publish.
These comments are very informative and it's a good discussion.
I disagree, however, with the "worse than TJ Waconia" remark. TJ Waconia was involved in an extensive number of properties which were foreclosed and ended up vacant. The allegations against Moore--even if proven, and so far as I know they have not been proven--involve one deal on one house. Even if you want to say "well, a leader shouldn't do that" that's still ONLY ONE HOUSE.
The "worse than TJ Waconia" remark shows the depth of the emotions on the anti-Jerry Moore side, and how heated this fight is and, as can be seen from outside the neighborhood, the fight is a huge distraction from getting stuff done.
I re-iterate that I am NOT taking sides and those who support Moore are welcome to forward their views.
Latest rumors are people are calling in to KMOJ radio station and saying a bunch of haters are trying to kick Jerry out and asking the community to come out to support Jerry. Oh boy, that will be interesting.
As far as Jerry being rumored to have involvement in only ONE mortgage fraud case: right now it's only ONE because of staw buyers how do you track that! - Can a criminal steel only one car? Rob only once? Shoplift only once? you get my point? Rumors are his ex-girl Taneeshia Snoddy has 4 counts of identity theft.
Tell me more about this Taneeshia allegation. Do you have anything to back that up? Any more details?
Folks, if the comments don't appear immediately it's because I'm away from my computer and the comments require my moderation, but I'm committed to having this discussion.
I would also like to hear from the folks who feel strongly enough to call KMOJ. I want both sides to have an opportunity to air their views.
Don't have any more info for the Tynessia/identity theft rumors except I did google to find her exact spelling.. it is Tynessia Snoddy - she is or was a realtor. Google her, nothing but realor ads/info. The rumor is she had a house down in heritage park that was raided by FBI and computers/docs were confiscated. How does one go about getting verification of that? I don't know except I think I remember you blogging about how hard it was to track/research the TJ Waconia cases, so same thing would apply here... how does one track straw buyers that involve the same folks, Larry Maxwell, Jerry Moore, Tyneesia Snoddy, etc.
Well we could have a debate about the TJ Waconia point but it's not necessary since it's all a matter of degrees. If it's numbers vs. depth of the betrayal (stealing from his own neighbors) then they are at least on an even moral footing. Who is worse, the con artist who comes into the community or the people inside the community who facilitate the con artist? I think the law would see that difference, if the allegations are true.
Well...much hangs upon something merely being an allegation. How do I judge "depth of betrayal" over something that may not even be true? I prefer not to go there and, again, I'm wanting to hear from the other side, here, and I am again asserting my neutrality.
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