Thread: DeFede Illegals Building Schools Follow Up

This does not surprise me one bit. The school board also hires Cuban immigrants who were teachers in Cuba and know how to speak English as opposed to those teachers educated in the United States. They don't want people to know this. Those teachers also get paid less.

http://cbs4.com/iteam/i.team.school.2.1019998.html

I-Team: School Construction Lacks Oversight Reporting
Jim DeFede
E-mail MIAMI (CBS4)

Yolanda Bielovucic is on a mission.

"I'm out here today to either take interviews or observations of the employees that are working on this site," she explained, clipboard in hand and wearing a hard hat.

Bielovucic is one of fourteen Miami-Dade County compliance officers who every month visit each of the county's 500 active construction projects. On the day CBS4 followed her she was visiting a project at Haulover Park. As always she arrived without warning or advance notice.

"We don't want a set up," she said. "We want to be able to find what we need to find we want to know if they are being paid in accordance to what work they are performing."

In addition to interviewing workers, they also demand certified payroll records and conduct regular audits.

"I consider this department sort of the moral conscious of every county project," said Penny Townsley, director of the county's Small Business Development agency. "So I think the fact that we are present means a great deal. We're there to be the gentle nudge to say do the right thing and insure that the right thing is done."

The county program has been around for more than ten years and is considered one of the most aggressive in the country.

"There are several other organizations that have adopted our program in one form or another," Townsley noted.

Unfortunately, the Miami Dade School District is not one of them.

As a result, problems such as the one at Southside Elementary are allowed to develop. In March, the CBS4 I Team reported that nearly two dozen undocumented workers were paid under fictitious names - names allegedly given to them by supervisors at the site.

Immigration officials took the workers into custody. A criminal investigation is continuing. Those familiar with the investigation say the workers were barely making minimum wage.

And this could have been avoided if the school district was more diligent in policing its own projects. For instance, by making sure construction companies pay the prevailing wage for workers, you take away the incentive to hire undocumented workers for cut-rate pay.

School district officials expressed surprise that there was a problem on their construction sites.

"We were very concerned and really disappointed when we learned what happened there," said Jaime Torrens, head of the school district's $2 billion construction program. "It was really shocking for us to learn that it appeared that undocumented workers were on that job site."

The school district does virtually nothing to make sure its contractors aren't exploiting local workers. Unlike Miami-Dade County, they do not require contractors to pay the prevailing wage for workers. Nor do they check worksites.

"Our board has not passed an ordinance such as this or a board rule that would require that," Torrens noted.

Asked if he thinks there is a problem that needs to be addressed, Torrens replied: "Well as evidenced by your report on Southside Elementary it could happen. And just the fact that it could happen is something that we need to be concerned about."

So what has the school district done since our report in March?

"Since that time we have sent a letter to all of our contractors and vendors emphasizing to them the need for them to track the employees or contractors or subcontractors," Torrens said.

In other words the district wants the construction companies to police themselves.

District officials complain they don't have the money to do more. (The county program overseeing the construction sites costs the county $1.4 million.)

"We are not in a position now to be hiring additional employees to do this," Torrens said. "That's why I mentioned that it is a possibility that we could train or use some of our existing project management staff a little differently."

Torrens said he's not sure when such a proposal might be introduced.

But there is little incentive for the district to move quickly.

Turning a blind eye to construction companies that hire cheap undocumented workers keeps the cost of construction projects down. And that ultimately saves the district money.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Turning a blind eye to construction companies that hire cheap undocumented workers keeps the cost of construction projects down. And that ultimately saves the district money.

Then the districts should be charged a fee for someone else to do the monitoring. And WHEN (not if, WHEN) they are caught cutting corners THEY should be charged with all the crimes INCLUDING aiding and abetting. Bet they'd get off their butts and do something then!

Bielovucic is one of fourteen Miami-Dade County compliance officers who every month visit each of the county's 500 active construction projects. On the day CBS4 followed her she was visiting a project at Haulover Park. As always she arrived without warning or advance notice.

Glad someone takes this seriously.

Turning a blind eye to construction companies that hire cheap undocumented workers keeps the cost of construction projects down.

One of the reasons I rarely work twelve months a year. I never thought it could happen here in NYC.