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Genesis Rail Services is looking to hire people as operators to unload railcars at its crude oil transfer station in Walnut Hill.

Genesis Rail and Workforce Escarosa invite job candidates to the Walnut Hill Community Center, 7850 County Road 97 at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Workforce Escarosa is a nonprofit employment and training agency.

The hires are part of an expansion plan by Genesis Rail.

“We will be creating about 30 new jobs over the next couple of years and are pleased to partner with Workforce Escarosa and Rail Solutions, LLC to help us fill these quality jobs,” Paul Davis, Genesis’ senior vice president of business development, said.

Operators will be responsible for unloading railcars containing crude oil. Operators will be paid $16 to $20 per hour and will be required to work 12-hour shifts, four days on and four days off. Genesis Rail Services offers a full benefits package.

Applicants must have a high school diploma or GED. They also must possess a valid driver’s license and be able to pass a drug screening, background check and physical.

Brittany Callahan, a Workforce Escarosa outreach representative, said employment applications will be available on premises, though employment resumes and credentials relevant to the job description are always helpful.

The only way to apply is to attend the hiring event, but a complete job description and full list of requirements can be viewed at www.employflorida.com, job order 9677713.

“Certain individuals who may be well-suited for the position may be interviewed on-site,” Callahan said. “Appropriate interviewing attire is encouraged.”

The first day of full-time employment is expected to be in mid-July, though several weeks of extensive training will be held beforehand.

The Walnut Hill transfer station will allow Genesis to gather domestic crude oil from markets outside of the company and deliver it to the Gulf Coast refining markets.

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By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON |
Sun Jun 3, 2012 11:05am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The lead internal investigator at the Securities and Exchange Commission, who is on leave after employees complained he wanted to carry a gun at work, previously tried to get a gun permit when he worked for another government agency, but the permit was denied.

David Weber, the assistant inspector general of investigations at the SEC, applied more than two years ago with the Maryland State Police to carry a concealed weapon while he worked as a special counsel of enforcement at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

In his application, he cited feeling threatened while he was working on an undisclosed Pennsylvania case involving federal prosecution of several high-ranking officials with ties to organized crime, according to an August 2010 investigative report from the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Inspector General that was viewed by Reuters.

While the Maryland State Police found that Weber “does have a risk of retaliation” due to his role as the lead prosecutor in the case, Weber’s supervisors told police that he had no need to carry a gun, they were unaware of any specific threats, and he could alternatively receive protection from the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the U.S. Marshal Service.

In addition, the report and supporting documentation say that police determined he had a “propensity for domestic violence” – an allegation that Weber says has no merit and was made by his ex-wife during divorce, child support and custody proceedings.

The Treasury inspector general’s look into Weber’s denied gun permit was part of a broader investigation into whether he inappropriately flashed his OCC credentials at a police officer during a traffic incident in April 2010.

Now, that 2010 report is in the hands of SEC commissioners as they continue to review the volatile situation inside the agency’s watchdog office, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The office has been in turmoil since March after Weber came forward with allegations of misconduct in the SEC’s inspector general office involving former SEC Inspector General David Kotz as well as the agency’s acting inspector general at the time, Noelle Maloney, according to people familiar with the matter.

In May, roughly two months after Weber says he blew the whistle, he was placed on administrative leave after employees in the office complained they felt physically threatened by Weber and were uncomfortable that he spoke openly about wanting to carry a gun.

The drama has left the watchdog office, charged with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse at the SEC, in a state of disarray.

It has caught the attention of U.S. Senator Charles Grassley, who has asked the SEC for more information about whether the turmoil is compromising the office’s important function.

In the past few years, the office has played a central role in investigating high-profile matters at the SEC, from the agency’s missteps on detecting Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, to the SEC’s oversight of Wall Street during the financial crisis.

On Wednesday, the SEC temporarily installed Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Inspector General Jon Rymer to lead the office while commissioners search for a permanent new leader.

SEC spokesman John Nester declined to comment on matters related to Weber.

WEBER’S DEFENSE

In his first interview since being placed on paid administrative leave in May, Weber told Reuters that employees in his office only started complaining about him after he met with the SEC’s commissioners in March to discuss concerns he had about “certain disclosures” that Maloney had made to him.

Weber declined to discuss what he alleges Maloney told him.

But people familiar with his claims said it involves allegations that Kotz engaged in questionable conduct that may have tainted investigations into the SEC’s handling of evidence related to Madoff’s and Allen Stanford’s Ponzi schemes.

These people said Weber has alleged that Maloney knew of these allegations and sat on the information.

“From that day forward… I have been subjected to unrelenting retaliation,” Weber said.

Maloney declined to comment on Weber’s allegations against her, but people familiar with the matter have said she has denied them both to congressional staffers as well as in a formal letter to a federal council that oversees 73 government inspectors general.

Kotz has also denied Weber’s allegations.

Former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt, who is known for representing employees facing inspector general investigations, recently started working as Weber’s attorney pro-bono.

In an interview with Reuters last week, Weber acknowledged applying for a gun permit from Maryland, but says it had nothing to do with his recent interest in arming investigators in the SEC inspector general’s office, including himself.

Pitt, who participated in the interview with Weber, said that Weber previously sought a gun in part because of concerns that a person involved in one of his investigations had ties to organized crime. Also, Pitt said Weber felt he needed a gun because he had been the victim of a road rage incident involving a driver with a criminal history.

The Maryland State Police insisted upon having the OCC conduct a threat assessment to determine if he needed a gun, Weber said, but the OCC refused and the permit was later denied.

For his work at the SEC, Weber said, he was seeking to arm investigators using a provision in the federal law that allows certain inspector general employees to carry guns.

Weber also said the mention in the Treasury inspector general’s report of domestic abuse is without merit.

“I want to make it absolutely clear to you: she never made any claims remotely like this during the time when we were married,” he said. “There was never any domestic violence.”

An attorney for Weber’s ex-wife declined to comment.

The background investigation conducted by Maryland State Police also acknowledged that no domestic violence incidents were ever reported to police.

In addition, Weber disputed the findings by the Treasury watchdog which determined he had misused his OCC badge by presenting it to the police and the other driver, who later complained about it.

He said he only presented it to the police officer for identification purposes, and he fought the OCC when it proposed to suspend him over the incident. The OCC later dropped the matter when Weber was offered a new position at the FDIC, he said.

“I disclosed all this to the FDIC before I commenced my employment there, and FDIC security personnel found me suitable for a government security clearance,” he said. He added that he also disclosed it to the SEC as well before he was hired.

Spokesmen for the OCC and the FDIC declined to comment.

Pitt said he is concerned that the SEC’s move to place Weber on leave may run counter to federal laws designed to protect the independence of the office. He also fears this matter will deter other future whistleblowers from coming forward.

“If this is the way the agency responds when somebody comes forward with information about potential improprieties, what will other employees do if they become aware of potential misconduct on the part of persons who have the authority to fire them and turn them into public scapegoats?” Pitt said.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Karey Wutkowski and Tim Dobbyn)

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When the U.S. labor secretary came to Philadelphia a few weeks ago, she helped Mayor Nutter launch the city’s ambitious teen summer employment program.

“When you know people are relying on you, you have to do your best,” Hilda L. Solis told dozens of teenagers in an ornate room in City Hall. “You have to show up on time, and you have to understand the culture of the place.”

On Wednesday, in a rundown strip shopping center at the edge of Camden, teenagers showed up for job interviews for a new county program aiming to put 50 youngsters to work in science and technology summer jobs.

Just as Nutter pressed Philadelphia’s business community to step forward to hire 7,000 teenagers, Jeffrey Swartz, executive director of the Camden County Workforce Investment Board, was mounting a campaign to raise $100,000 to support Camden’s program.

“We hope it’s the start of a sustainable program for years to come,” Swartz said.

“I just want a simple job so I can enter the workforce,” said Khari Turner, 17, of Sicklerville. He has worked for his mother, and she cut him a lot of slack. He said the discipline of a real job would benefit him.

Not every teenager has to work, or wants to, but among those who want jobs, there’s an unemployment crisis — nearly one in four people ages 16 to 19 is out of work. In May, the unemployment rate for teens, 24.6 percent, was triple the 8.2 percent for the general working-age population.

In New Jersey, the situation is even worse, according to an analysis of U.S. census data by the Employment Policies Institute in Washington. As of April, teen unemployment in the Garden State had reached 26.1 percent, averaging monthly data for the preceding months.

In Pennsylvania, teen unemployment was 16.5 percent in April, the institute found. Teenage unemployment in Philadelphia reached 34.1 percent in 2010, according to the most recent available data from the U.S. Labor Department.

Beyond putting cash in teenagers’ pockets, summer jobs provide a crucial attachment to the labor force that pays off six to nine years later in higher wages, said Michael Saltsman, a policy analyst at the Employment Policies Institute. “The flip side of that is, basically, if they don’t get that experience, they are at a greater risk of being unemployed again in the future.”

In addition to whatever practical skills teenagers pick up at work, they also acquire “soft skills,” which Saltsman describes as “the invisible curriculum” — how to show up on time, act, talk, even how to dress.

Nutter urged employers to participate in the summer job program run by the Philadelphia Youth Network, a nonprofit that is primarily government funded.

Employers pay the network an average of $1,671 a teen for six weeks of part-time employment, 20 hours a week. The young person will earn just 58 percent of that amount, $960, or $8 an hour. Employers have the option of paying the students more. Most of the rest remains with the network.

The gap between what employers pay and what young people earn raises the question of what constitutes a summer jobs program. Is the idea simply to put teenagers to work? Or are there broader social goals?

“Today’s interns could be tomorrow’s CEOs,” said Scott Mirkin, president of ESM Productions Inc., a Philadelphia event-planning company that takes a handful of youth network interns a year.

“I think it’s pretty important to provide some opportunities to young people who may, in some circumstances, sadly, not know what it means to see two parents, or even one parent, go off to work every day.

“That to me is really rewarding,” he said.

Mirkin said he had no idea about the proportion of money the young people were earning in the youth network program, but said it didn’t surprise him, given the way the program is designed with its emphasis on training.

What makes the program different is that the youth network acts as the employer of record for the young people. The interns may report to Mirkin’s company, or to Independence Blue Cross, Comcast, or City Hall, but their paychecks come from the youth network.

So, in effect, it acts as a staffing agency, handling wages, payroll processing, and taxes such as Social Security and workers’ compensation — for about 65 percent of the total cost. The network’s overhead, which includes recruitment, training, placement, administration, and liability insurance, accounts for the remainder.

“That’s real money,” Mirkin said of the extra payroll costs.

In the for-profit world, staffing agencies such as Kelly Services Inc. spend about 85 percent on wages and related costs and 15 percent on overhead. Profits can be slim (less than one percent in Kelly’s first quarter).

But the Philadelphia Youth Network and the Camden program, along with most youth programs, spend extra money on training.

In Camden, the young workers will begin their program with a three-day orientation.

In Philadelphia, “we have a Friday seminar,” said Stacy Holland, the network’s chief operation officer. The weekly seminars provide reinforcement for soft skills such as punctuality and proper dress, while also giving students a chance to talk over what happened on the job.

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