University Painters Corruption
Chapter 18 – Connecting the Dots
Brenden Moore
My quest for the truth began with a simple search on Google. Previous simple searches that I had sporadically been conducting brought up an article that portrays University Painters in a negative light, complaints from the Better Business Bureau, and citations from the Federal Communications Committee. I decided I should now try a more in-depth search. I used Rider’s databases to access old newspaper articles on the Company. I typed in University Painters and went through everything that came up. I then typed in Sean O Hare, Josh Jablon, Tom Torres, and Don Cusick. I searched for different spelling variations of each of these people’s names. I searched for the parent Company, past names of the Company, and people that have worked for the Company before. My week of conducting searches would prove constructive.
Apparently in April of 1997 Don Cusick had posted a website dedicated to his newly born son. I discovered this website and began to browse it. I soon came across a guestbook on the site that would lead to more information. In case you are wondering, a guestbook is a forum that can be added to a webpage. It allows users to leave messages for the site owner, however; anyone that is able to view the website may also view the guestbook and the messages contained within. The very first message in the guest book was posted by Ann Brozek and Joshua Jablon. I was curious as to who Ann Brozek was, so I did a search on her.
I began to browse through the results on her name and I soon discovered something interesting. First, she is Josh’s wife and goes by the name Ann Brozek-Jablon. Second, she is the Chief of Staff for US Representative Richard E. Neal, a democrat from Massachusetts. I immediately recognized the name of Richard Neal, and grabbed my University Painters Client Manual. There I found a letter from him on the Congressional letterhead commending the fine job University Painters did painting his home. I also found another letter in the Client Manual where he thanks Josh and Ann for contributing money to the 2001 SIDS Race for Life.
I thought back to my phone conversation with Josh. I recalled how I informed him that part of the reason why I couldn’t find painters in New York is due to the union. To this he replied, “Everything is unionized in Massachusetts, and we don’t have any problems up there.” I now wondered if Richard Neal had anything to do with the Company overcoming the union in MA. I began to search for voting records on Richard Neal, but he did not submit his voting records to any of the places I checked. The only information I was able to gather that remotely tied in with Josh’s comment was that Richard Neal is a proponent of an immigrant labor force and voted along those lines.
Although I couldn’t prove any conspiracy between Richard Neal and University Painters, I did find the knowledge that I acquired useful. I then ceased my search on Richard Neal and continued to look for more information on Josh’s wife. I soon came across the website for the Center for Public Administration and Policy that is located in Northern Virginia. I searched through the site and came across her name and email address as being enrolled in the PhD program at this center. Being that I had never heard of the school, I was interested to learn more about it. As I read through the pages, I found out that the Center for Public Administration and Policy is actually part of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The name Virginia Polytechnic Institute sounded familiar, and then it struck me. When I was in the process of improving my Client Manual, I had come across the website for the school. I was looking for a logo to add into the list of organizations that University Painters makes charitable donations to. Indeed, University Painters donated to the school.
I found it interesting that the Company would make donations to the same school that Josh’s wife was currently attending. I wondered if we were truly making donations or simply paying her tuition and writing it off as a donation. Again I had no proof to show any signs of conspiracy, so I moved onto my next search which would give me information I could not even imagine.
I began to search for articles on Josh. At first, I was not finding anything, but then all of a sudden I came across an article that was in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in June of 1998. The article did not focus strictly on Josh, but on the student painting industry as a whole. As I read through the article, I read something that would shock me: “University Painters, part of JZA Development Corp. in Alexandria, VA., centers its efforts in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Since its founding in 1990 by a former College pro manager, it has grown to about 100 franchises.” I reread the sentence and said, “Wait a minute.” College Pro Painters, founded in 1971, is the largest and original student painting firm. Josh had never before told us that he was a College Pro Manager. In fact, he would often bad mouth the Company in the training sessions.
In addition to this, the article stated that University Painters was founded in 1990. However, our Client Manual reads, “We have been providing professional house painting services since 1986.” I began to search the Internet for Incorporation dates on the Company. I discovered that University Painters had not been in business since 1986. It had only been in business since 1991! After doing a little math, I realized that it was more than likely true that Josh did work for College Pro Painters. Josh who is anywhere from thirty-five to forty would have been anywhere from eighteen to twenty-three back in 1986. Chances are he was recruited at Temple University, where he attended school, and undertook the painting business.
Now, what does all of this mean? It means that Josh didn’t create the system, he stole it! All his claims of creating this system, testing the system, and building the system are false. It now made sense why his version of the system had such a high failure rate. Josh did not understand all the philosophy behind it. Without a true understanding of the underlying philosophy, he was unable to execute the system properly. Josh was neither the creator nor the innovator of the original system, but a mere imitation. Therefore, when Josh made the change from hiring students to do the actual painting; to obtaining subcontractors he was unable to recognize the inherent flaws. When problems arose from this modification, he did not know how to address them, and could only rely on past experiences.
Once this realization was made, things became increasingly clear for me.
I now understood why in my contract there was such a strong covenant not
to compete clause. Josh viewed his system as easy to steal, simple to modify,
and capable of duplicating. He did not want to suffer the same fate that
his previous employer had suffered from him, loss of income due to an employee
stealing ideas. I was also able to see why Josh became so defensive when
I would tell him that the system doesn’t work. He knew it wasn’t his system.
Most importantly, I knew that if I needed to take him to court, he more
than likely did not have any mathematical, factual, of philosophic proof
that the system works everywhere, or for that matter anywhere. I began to
realize that under Josh’s system, success was the exception and failure
was the norm.
Recent Updates
VIDEO: FOX NEWS video exposing University Painters CEO Josh Jablon
Petro Sues University Painters For Scamming College Student Workers
Seeing Red: students at Johnson & Wales regret ever becoming involved with University Painters
According to the Progressive Blog Alliance, the career services office of Duquesne University sent an e-mail to its students and recent graduates warning them of and providing a list of questionable companies, of which University Painters is one.
Research
Scammer 101: PMG (College Pro Painters)
VIDEO: FOX NEWS video exposing Josh Jablon
Ohio Attorney General sues University Painters
Ohio Attorney General sues painting company for fleecing college students
Ashley Wisecup of Miami University files suit against University Painters
Bowling Green State University Students Darrell Kendall, Adam Hickey
University Painters, JZA Development, Jablon/Torres FCC Citation for Telemarketing