Rudy Johnson

Dialogue with Tom Blair

A NATIVE SAN DIEGAN who grew up “basically on one corner” in east San Diego, Rudy Johnson set consistently high goals for himself and achieved them. A graduate of Crawford High School, he graduated from Texas Southern University with a degree in engineering and got his master’s degree in public administration at San Diego State University, a stone’s throw from that corner where he grew up. After nine years with the city of San Diego, he went to the San Diego Convention Center, where he spent seven years, moving up to general manager. Last summer, Johnson took over as president and CEO of the Neighborhood House Association, completing a circle: As a child, he participated in NHA’s Head Start program. He lives in Chula Vista with his wife, Sheryl, son, Rudy IV, and daughter, Mallory.

TOM BLAIR: I suppose people know more about the programs Neighborhood House manages, or has managed, than they know about the organization itself. So, what is Neighborhood House, and what is its mission?

RUDY JOHNSON: Neighborhood House Association has an almost 100-year history in San Diego County. We were part of the settlement house movement near the turn of last century. Settlement houses assisted individuals who were coming to America from other countries. They helped with childcare, with senior care; they helped with employment opportunities; they fed individuals.

TB: And today, at NHA, you do much the same thing, but not necessarily for immigrants.

RJ: No. We morphed into more of a social-service entity——still providing some of those core services, but for individuals who have been in America for quite some time. It’s not a transition issue anymore. It’s more for Americans who’ve kind of hit a bottom or are living under the poverty line.

TB: How big is NHA?

RJ: We have 1,500 employees and a budget of almost $100 million. We run nine programs. Our marquee program is Head Start. We used to have the Food Bank, which we spun off recently. We have a senior center, adult daycare center, a teen pregnancy program, a HUD counseling program . . . We operate out of 130 locations, with two hubs.

TB: People may not know the scope of Neighborhood House. They may know your organization only through Head Start or the Food Bank. People also tend to know you through the controversies of the past couple of years with those two organizations. The theft ring at the Food Bank, for example; more recently, conflicting reports on Head Start enrollment and other problems.

RJ: Well, I am a product of Head Start. I’m proud to say I was in the class of 1968. The Neighborhood House Association ran the program then, and we still run it now. And for me to have come full circle to the presidency of this organization really speaks for itself in terms of how effective the program is. There are some folks in America who like to look at things from a negative perspective. But we’ve done tremendous work in the past 13 months to turn this organization around.

TB: What things are you most proud of having accomplished so far?

RJ: When I came in, there [were issues] that had been going for three years and hadn’t been resolved with the Service Employees International Union. Those are the individuals who represent a large portion of our Head Start base. They couldn’t resolve the issues. In 30 days on the job, we inked a three-year deal with SEIU. That was one of nine unions I had dealt with at the convention center. I knew there had to be give and take, and we hammered it out. We were in the middle——you talk about a storm——of a federal Prism review, a federal audit of our program. Every three years, you go through a top-to-bottom, side-to-side review of your Head Start program. About six months prior to my arrival, they had found five deficiencies that needed to be cleared up or they were going to start shutting the program down. I had about six months to correct the course. We were successful in four and a half months. They came out for the followup review, and we got a full certificate of compliance.

TB: You got an A.

RJ: We got an A. The third thing we did was successfully spin off the San Diego Food Bank. I felt we needed to be focused on Head Start and the other eight programs we run, and maybe the San Diego Food Bank operation was better served by creating a new operation. I made a business decision. It cost us $700,000 a year in cash subsidy to run the Food Bank——$700,000 that came out of our unrestricted reserve. We had to raise almost a million dollars a year just to support an operation that the public was calling for to be independent.

TB: In September 2006, an audit of the Head Start program found some enrollment shortages. This is your core program, now. The report cited 92.6 percent enrollment, and the federal government requires 100 percent. It said you were deficient. The following March, a message from your office said NHA had hit the 100 percent level, and you reported full compliance.

RJ: Your date is just a little off. In September 2006, we did a physical head count of every child in our program, because there had been public outcries about our underenrollment. We hired an independent firm to count every head in the program. That count yielded about 95 percent enrollment, give or take. We said to the federal government, by the next reporting period, which was in another couple of months from September, we would be at 100 percent. And we did that. And we stayed at 100 percent enrollment for the rest of that fiscal year ——through June of this year.

TB: And then what happened?

RJ: And then you have a summer period, where you have transition, where individuals leave Head Start and go into the K-12 system. Then more families enroll behind those individuals who leave. We only get funded for 10,106 slots. So, as children come out of Head Start and transition into the K-12 system, that leaves room for new families to fill those slots. This year, there was a report we were underenrolled by 40 percent, seven days before our school year started.

TB: A newspaper report said your own records showed one in every three seats was empty.

RJ: Okay. That report was actually stolen from our internal system, delivered to that reporter, before it was done. It’s just like your financial statement being delivered before it’s complete. Seven days prior to the school year, we’re in transition, and an insider, one of our own, gave that report to a reporter, who ran with the story knowing we were inputting additional data to complete our 100 percent obligation.

TB: Did the reporter contact you?

RJ: Yep.

TB: And you told him that?

RJ: Yes, sir.

TB: But he didn’t report that?

RJ: No.

TB: What was the motivation for your own employee to release that report early?

RJ: I would assume that in every organization there are some detractors. We have a 1,500-employee base; we’re not a little mom-and-pop shop. There’ve been some issues. I like to think that slowly, but surely, we are turning folks into believers. However, there may be some folks that 10 years ago got passed over for a promotion. Whatever. We don’t know. They thought it was important enough to steal that information before it was done and provide it to the reporter. But seven days later, after that doggone article hit, we ran an official report that showed 101 percent enrollment on the first official day of school. That was never printed. And that report was delivered to the [newspaper] reporter on the very same day as it was to the federal government and to my board of directors——the first official day of school.

TB: You’re in full compliance again right now.

RJ: We’re in full compliance for the second year in a row. But you know, here’s an agency that is 13 months into its new administration; that seems to be turning a corner; that’s done all these good things I’ve just named. And yet we continuously become the target of negative information and misinformation.

TB: As if that weren’t enough, there’s a new controversy about 11 of your 83 centers possibly having their licenses revoked because of small children who’ve wandered off school grounds unaccounted for.

RJ: Well, first, this administration and I are committed to the safety, health and welfare of every one of the 10,106 children who come into our supervision on a daily basis. Having said that——and some of this is in a legal process, so I really can’t comment on that——I will say that we’re working with state officials to resolve this as quickly as possible. Our intent is to keep these sites fully operational as we work through this legal process. Quite frankly, I think we’re going to resolve it, and the story——the full story——will be told.

TB: So you’re optimistic.

RJ: I’m very optimistic. We have a very strong case, and we’re going to fight this vigorously through the legal process.

TB: There were, in fact, some kids who wandered off grounds——although I wonder how it’s possible not to have an occasional child wander off.

RJ: I’m glad you said that, although, first off, there’s no excuse for even one kid. But here’s the message I’ve sent to my team: When parents drop their children off in our care, they fully expect to receive them in the same condition——mind, body and spirit——at the end of the day.

TB: And they have every right to.

RJ: No doubt. Here’s the analogy I use: Most surgeons feel they can successfully operate on every patient, and their intent is to handle them with a certain level of care and nurse them back to health. We all know in medical fields you lose patients; that’s part of the business. Now, in this business we’re in, I would venture to say we’re not the only agency that has had a walk-away. The San Diego Unified School District runs childcare operations. I don’t think anyone [in the media] has asked about that. The MAC Project runs a Head Start locally. I don’t think anyone’s asked [them] about [possible walk-aways]. We hold 80 licenses, and 11 of the 80 are at the point of contention. And they’re just allegations.

TB: In 2005, a major theft ring was busted at the Food Bank, and there were staff changes and changes in oversight. Last fall, more changes were made; most board members resigned. And then this spring, the Food Bank lost its certification to be eligible for millions of pounds of donations . . .

RJ: That’s not the true story. Last fall, eight of the nine former board members did resign from the board. But seven days later, a new, more efficient, corporate-based board was appointed by me . . . as the CEO here. I immediately got in my car, drove [out to meet] with those employees, committed to them that we were going to operate, as is, and we were going to get this together. Seven days later we had a new board under the leadership of Mitch Mitchell. And they ended up the fiscal year raising the most pound age of food in the history of the San Diego Food Bank.

TB: Much of your funding comes from government sources, obviously. What percent?

RJ: Probably 98 percent

TB: And the other 2 percent?

RJ: Private donations, grants, corporate giving.

TB: Are you working to increase that?

RJ: Absolutely. When I got into this job, we were not in a strong financial position. Now, we’re in a little better position. We have about a million dollars in reserve for a $100,000,000 budget.

TB: What reserves should you have?

RJ: Around $7 million. But through the controversy, you know, I think we’re doing well to go from about $200,000 in reserves up to a million. That’s what we’ve done in about 13 months.

TB: Has the controversy impeded your ability to raise funds?

RJ: I don’t think so. I think when people get to know who Rudy Johnson is——when they sit down with me, they see the vision. They see the professionalism . . . the business acumen [and] the talent this agency has never had before. We’re building through what I call a bench draft——individuals we can develop professionally who can eventually take over positions of leadership. When they see all that, I think they get excited. You know, if you just read the paper and never came down and met us, you probably wouldn’t be very interested in who we are. But when you understand what we do, I think it’s exciting. We’ve been able to electrify potential donors. We recently had our best fundraising effort ever——about $170,000 in one drive.

TB: Let’s talk about the broader picture——not just what Head Start can or can’t do. You’ve grown up here. Do you believe the needs of people in San Diego at the poverty level are being met? Or are they better off today than they were when you were growing up here?

RJ: I think we have a long way to go, quite frankly. I think we still have some very serious issues in the inner-city community. That’s part of why I’m here. And if I didn’t think I could make a difference, and improve the lives of those individuals, I would be the first to leave.

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