CCCW Mediation Request

When this entire fiasco about the dodgy Social/Welfare worker at CCCare hit the proverbial fan the majority of emails; least the ones I were sending, were being addressed directly to the CCCare Development Manager. At the time this was Margaret Fazackerley.

Obviously I'd dropped a bomb shell and cast dubious aspersions onto a staff member, I guess no one likes to receive information like this. Especially a Welfare organisation which operated under the guise of the CCCW board of directors and under the umbrella of a Christian Church.

At the time CCCare was made up of about 5 staff & a handful of generous volunteers, but, it was definitely not structured on the size of well known welfare organisations. To put it simply it was a small welfare organisation located in Box Hill, Victoria.

Maybe CCCare and even CCCW were not au fait with Government guidelines when accepting Grants. Though from what I've seen of their proposal submissions, they didn't have any trouble compiling these to meet Government Dept. guidelines.

So in this sense I found it rather hard to comprehend how they (CCCare and CCCW) would not be well versed in the fact that by accepting a Government Grant, the virtues of this also curtails the expectation that the aforementioned organisation, by proxy, must also abide by general Government Dept. protocols when dealing with such issues as I raised with both CCCare and CCCW.

Unfortunately this was not the case.

Instead CCCare, CCCW, Christian City Church Whitehorse Board of Directors and even the Senior Pastor Peter McHugh (who incidentally at the time was the head of the board of directors) all seemed happy to play semantics.

It was pretty clear that I was not going to get a fair hearing; rather ironic when you consider they preach a doctrine that's supposed to based on fairness and goodwill to all.

Anyway because of this I put forward the recommendation that an outside third party mediation service be used to address these matters.

NB - At the time I was still not working, I'd still not received payment for the 1,400 hours web development work I'd completed for Frank Greco of Connections Consulting. Who turned out to be Tony Ryan's Mate and owed a $10,000 business loan to Brontobyte Financial Solutions (also owned by Tony Ryan), which Frank Greco could not service. Hence my Social Worker and Frank Greco devised a plan to scam me into working for Frank to so Tony Ryan could get his loan repaid. Come to think about it that's almost verging on a conspiracy to commit fraud.

Reiterating CCCare was a small welfare organisation and although I didn't expect negotiations to be finalised in a week, a reasonable time frame to me did not include 8 weeks or more. This was just further proof that they were playing semantics.

When I suggested 3'rd party mediation, there was no rebuff, no dispute, so naturally I assume this was acceptable and would be the way these issues would be handled. However when the time came (9 weeks later) 3'rd party mediation was flatly denied.

The only choice (loose term), option given was to meet with the board of directors solicitor and the CCCare Development manager. Originally they also expected me to front at CCCare for this meeting. That wasn't going to happen. Instead I opted for a public venue and also took alone a witness.

I don't know what information was given to the solicitor but he certainly came unprepared. For some reason he attempted to treat me like a village idiot. Whilst addressing that mindset, my witness cast an eye into his brief case, instead of seeing papers all he saw was a pen and a cheque book; maybe he'd planned to do some banking.

Although it was a meeting that I felt was not conducive to a fair and reasonable out-come, I was prepared to keep an open mind and come to the discussion table with both hands laid open. Obviously they had another strategy.

The final straw came when a further barrage of back handed slaps were deflected directly back to the solicitor. Maybe he's also a bad sportsman, but my counteractive words in defence certainly sealed the end of that meeting.

CCCW

CCCW is the acronym for Christian City Church Whitehorse. Just so we're on the same page, they (CCCW) are Pentecostal evangelists. Actually they run things like a corporation than under the guise of a church but that's their business I guess.

So what's my beef again?

The CCCare Social worker Tony Ryan (was my social worker) who performed the following unethical acts which voided my client duty of care.

• Conned me into working for his mate Frank Greco (Connections Consulting) so Frank Greco could pay back a business loan of $10,000 to Tony Ryan who also owned Brontobyte Financial Solutions.
• Repeatedly promised (gave his word) I'd be paid for work but never was. (worked 1,400 hours)
• When I didn't finally get paid I approached Tony Ryan and he said, "I only introduce people, what's between you and Frank you need to sort out with Frank Greco and not me."
• Tony Ryan as my social worker at CCCare signed me up to a personal loan with Brontobyte Financial Solutions. He was my social worker, social workers don't do this.

My Beef with CCCare (Christian City Care Whitehorse) and CCCW (Christian City Church Whitehorse) are:

• I brought the above claims to both CCCare and CCCW however they did nothing. Instead decided to make me out to be a trouble maker. Even though I provided some pretty solid facts and evidence.

Granted almost three (3) years have passed since these ugly events about the CCCare Social Worker (Tony Ryan) were brought to the attention of Christian City Care Whitehorse; Christian City Church Whitehorse; Peter McHugh and the board of directors who reside over both CCC and CCCW.

However I'm the one who lost out here on a number of fronts. It was the CCCare social worker who was as fault and not me. So in keeping with this fact(s) I will continue to keep this blog open and active until such time as CCCW; CCCare; and or the board of directors of CCCare & CCCW decide to address this in the type of protocol and direction that it should (I should) have received from day one.

Christian City Church Whitehorse

Christian City Church Whitehorse is also known by the acronym of CCCW.

Although I was not able to locate Frank Greco at the offices of Connections Consulting Pty Ltd on the 17/02/2005; he magically disappeared, I grabbed a worker from an adjacent office as a witness and entered the Connections Consulting, grabbed my personal items and exited, tossing the keys through the letter flap in the office suite door.

The effect this had on my health wasn't good, so as you can image I took a few weeks out to grab some R&R. When the dust finally settled and I could actually take some time to figure out my next move, I decided to approach Tony Ryan. After all he was my Social Worker at the time, he was supposed to be in care of my welfare.

Again I received the same stonewalling from Tony Ryan who again stated "I introduce people that's all I do. What's between you and Frank is between you and Frank Greco, it has nothing to do with me."

Since getting mixed up and associated with Christian City Care Whitehorse, I'd also been introduced into the fold of Christian City Church Whitehorse. In fact Mr Peter McHugh the Pastor for CCCW had been more than friendly towards me. I felt a genuine feeling of being wanted in the Church.

So I thought instead of getting myself stressed out further it would be better to contact both Christian City Care Whitehorse and the Pastor Peter McHugh and let them in on exactly what has happen and hopefully they'll be able to sort this mess out.

Well you think you know some people, well let me tell you how wrong was I.

Instead of trying to sort this out, they rallied the wagon around Tony Ryan and didn't want to know a damn thing. The Pastor of CCCW refused to speak with me. Even though I could provide dates, times and facts.

The entire process went from worse to worse.

Having very little money means you can't get a solicitor in turns means you can't fight for the truth.

Which in these events it had clearly shown me that in my honest opinion neither my Social Worker Mr Tony Ryan, Frank Greco, Christian City Care Whitehorse, Christian City Church Whitehorse or even the Pastor Peter McHugh of Christian City Church could be trusted further than I could throw any of them.

CCCare Welfare Worker in Cahoots

In late January 2005 and having worked 3 long months; by this stage clocking up 1,250 hours, on the shopping cart for Frank Greco and only receiving a total of $300 cash, I was growing tired of the lies and the project changes. The shopping cart had more changes that a Broadway Musical. Frank Greco of Connections Consulting had no idea what he was doing. In fact I'd learnt that he'd quoted the job at $3,500. When in fact the job was worth in the ball park of $50,000.

I remember after working all Christmas whilst Frank Greco had holidays, I phoned Tony Ryan my CCCare Welfare Worker and said "that's it I'm not going to do any more work for this bastard!". He (Frank Greco) is a person who holds the truth very loosely.

What's worse is your supposed to looking after my welfare. Instead your looking after your Mate by allowing him to take advantage of my situation, in fact you've helped him take advantaged of me also.

I still remember Tony Ryan saying no that's not how it is. Frank Greco is really in a bind. He went on to say that Frank Greco owed Brontobyte Financial Solutions $10,000 and couldn't pay that loan back if the project was not finished. If you don't help him out then he loses everything and you don't get paid.

For whatever reason I still trusted Tony Ryan. I still bleieved that he held my best interests at heart even though my gut instinct was telling me different. So I returned to finished the last few weeks of the project.

However in the final weeks Frank Greco was getting more and more hostile, abusive and being a down right prick! On a number of occasions I simply walked out. It took Tony Ryan to coach me back.

A few week earlier and thanks to a generous person at Christian City Church Whitehorse, I was given a car that they no longer needed. A 1989 Mazda 929. On Wednesday 16/02/2005 I was going to get the car registered. So I informed Frank Greco on Tuesday night that I would not be in to work until Thursday after noon the 17//2005 when I would put the finishing coding into the shopping cart.

On the 17/02/2005 I met Tony Ryan my welfare worker from Christian City Care at Box Hill Central for lunch at about 1pm. We'd be together no more than 15min when I received a phone call from Frank Greco in another of his usual abuse rages. At that point I said..."When you've calmed down and can speak to me is a civilised manner then call me back." I then hung up on him.

Within minutes Tony's phone rang and I could hear Frank Greco yelling and losing the plot. Tony Ryan simple said "ok Frank I'll tell him.".

What I was told was...Frank Greco wants his keys back and your not wanted back at the office, your fired!

I refused to hand over the keys saying..."really"...Oh and what about my pay?

Tony Ryan turned to me and said... "I only introduce people. What Frank owes you is between you and Frank it has nothing to do with me."

Instead of blowing a gasket I turned from the table and proceeded into the city to take the matter up with Frank Greco of Connections Consulting Pty Ltd.