ABOUT THE SERIES
The Journal-News is reprising its special series “Following the Money,” which examines how government spending impacts business and job growth.
Last year’s inaugural series included six stories and was recognized by the Ohio Associated Press Media Editors. It placed second for Best Enterprise Reporting in 2014 by Ohio newspapers with daily circulation of 25,000 to 74,999.
New stories on this topic will publish every Thursday and Sunday in September. Find all articles online at: www.journal-news.com/projects/following-the-money/
SEPT. 3: New government created in Butler County just for Liberty Center
THREE WAYS THIS MATTERS TO YOU
1. TAXPAYER FUNDING: The Workforce Investment Board of Butler, Clermont and Warren Counties receives federal funding for its job search and job training programs and operating costs. Its total allocation was $3,877,656 in the fiscal year that began July 1, 2015, to run OhioMeansJob centers in the three counties and other programs, as well as the board offices.
2. YOUR JOB SEARCH: Even if you've never heard of the workforce board, it's possible you have or could be impacted by its decisions. The federal workforce program offers job placement services for youth, laid-off adults and any job-seeking adults. Workforce boards decide program priorities, the amount of training dollars residents are eligible for and requests contract proposals for carrying out the services. That includes some oversight and direction for the OhioMeansJobs centers in each of Butler, Clermont and Warren counties.
3. YOU'RE ELIGIBLE FOR SERVICES: One misperception about job training programs and the OhioMeansJobs centers is that you have to be unemployed or on public assistance to use them. Not true. Any adult can use the job center's resume-writing assistance, computer lab for online job applications or attend a job fair organized by the government agency, for example.
ONLINE EXTRA
See a full list of board members of the Workforce Investment Board of Butler, Clermont and Warren Counties online only at www.journal-news.com
THREE WAYS THIS MATTERS TO YOU
1. TAXPAYER FUNDING: The Workforce Investment Board of Butler, Clermont and Warren Counties receives federal funding for its job search and job training programs and operating costs. Its total allocation was $3,877,656 in the fiscal year that began July 1, 2015, to run OhioMeansJob centers in the three counties and other programs, as well as the board offices.
2. YOUR JOB SEARCH: Even if you've never heard of the workforce board, it's possible you have or could be impacted by its decisions. The federal workforce program offers job placement services for youth, laid-off adults and any job-seeking adults. Workforce boards decide program priorities, the amount of training dollars residents are eligible for and requests contract proposals for carrying out the services. That includes some oversight and direction for the OhioMeansJobs centers in each of Butler, Clermont and Warren counties.
3. YOU'RE ELIGIBLE FOR SERVICES: One misperception about job training programs and the OhioMeansJobs centers is that you have to be unemployed or on public assistance to use them. Not true. Any adult can use the job center's resume-writing assistance, computer lab for online job applications or attend a job fair organized by the government agency, for example.
ONLINE EXTRA
See a full list of board members of the Workforce Investment Board of Butler, Clermont and Warren Counties online only at www.journal-news.com
A local government agency in flux for years and once in danger of losing local control over funding for job seekers has made a series of changes its leaders hope better serve business and workers alike.
The Workforce Investment Board of Butler, Clermont and Warren Counties is a three-county government agency that decides employment program priorities, the amount of training dollars residents are eligible for and requests contract proposals for carrying out services such as operating OhioMeansJobs centers, according to Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Hopes are the changes, such as naming a new director and rebranding, make going to one of the county job centers feel less like an employment line and more like a career center that provides business-driven skills training and hiring events, said Butler County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, who represents the county on the investment board.
The Butler, Clermont and Warren county investment board is now in growth mode, said Adam Jones, who became the board’s administrator in July 2014, filling a vacated position and one of two staff positions.
“That’s the $50,000 question is what does the board do? And for a while we haven’t been able to answer that,” Jones said.
There are 20 workforce investment boards statewide funded by the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014, according to Ohio Job and Family Services, which allocates the federal dollars. Board members represent business, government and education sectors. The act provides funding for dislocated worker training, youth job training and low-income or underemployed adults who are searching for new jobs, said John Weber, deputy director for workforce development for the state department.
Anyone who has used one of the OhioMeansJobs centers in the three counties or who currently needs a new job could be impacted by the board’s decisions, even though it acts mostly behind the scenes.
“They’re making the decisions on the direction the local area should be going,” Weber said. “When anybody comes in the door, no matter what level individual you are, whether you’re on public assistance or you just graduated college… you can use OhioMeansJobs centers for all your needs.”
However, elected county government officials have final say on all workforce board decisions and can vote for and against the recommendations, he said.
For example, does a career field require job seekers to obtain four year degrees or industry recognized credentials? The area board decides how long local people will spend in school if they qualify for federal dollars to be retrained in an in-demand field, Jones said. What are in-demand fields in the area? The board conducts research to determine that too, Jones said.
REDRAWING THE LINES
The local board has been threatened to be absorbed by surrounding workforce investment boards serving the Dayton or Cincinnati areas, which would mean less control to meet the needs of the local economies that aren’t the same as bigger cities. The local designation has been maintained for now, Jones said. But, it’s more important than ever that the agency meets thresholds for performance on finding clients jobs, job retention and youth literacy, or else face dissolution in the future, Jones said.
The local three-county board’s designation was in question by Ohio Job and Family Services due to a statistical error that occurred prior to Jones starting his position, he said.
Jones credits this year’s fly-in of Warren County leaders to Washington, D.C., for a meeting with U.S. Department of Labor staff that addressed the problem of how local workforce areas are designated under the federal workforce act, Jones said.
As a result, a new policy letter from the state was sent out that local area boards that met or exceeded performance measures in at least one of the past two consecutive years can qualify for certification under the new federal law. The state’s new policy was a different interpretation than before, Jones said.
Before, boards were required to meet all performance measures in both prior years, he said.
“We had an issue that was facing our board with designation that should not have been an issue,” he said.
When asked if the state is changing the geographic areas served by workforce investment boards, Ohio Job and Family Services spokesman Ben Johnson said, “We have begun the process of redrawing Ohio’s workforce areas. Ohio is a diverse state, and it is important that our workforce areas align with the state’s many regional economies.” However, a new map has not been finalized, Johnson said.
“WE WERE FLOUNDERING”
A year ago in July, the volunteer board for Butler, Clermont and Warren counties hired a new administrator, Jones, the third new administrator in as many years. The position was vacant for about five months between the time the previous director Doug High left and Jones filled the spot, based on High's LinkedIn profile. The director of 11 years before that, Jeff Weber, resigned in 2012.
“I think the culture of the previous leadership of the agency existed for decades and evolved from the old employment office system and they hadn’t transformed into the new workforce development (model),” said Butler County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter.
New goals have been written for the organization in the last year, Jones said. Goals include strengthening internal operations and decision making; positioning the board as a top authority on local workforce development; and improving collaborations between workforce development organizations, economic development, chambers of commerce and educational institutions, Jones said.
The board also hopes to play a bigger role in workforce development and is working with educational institutions to design curriculum for employer-focused training programs, Jones said. For example, it’s working with a local university to create a customer service program based on needs of new employers such as call centers in Hamilton and tenants of the Liberty Center development in Liberty Twp., he said.
“In the past we had policies in place… but I don’t know that the direction we were going always tied back into the needs of both business and the job seeker,” said Karen Whittamore, director of the OhioMeansJobs-Warren County job center. “We were floundering for a while.”
Previously, the board consisted of about 37 members, which suffered from non-involvement including committees failing to even meet, Jones said. The list of board members has been cut down to 20 since the end of June, while still meeting requirements that 51 percent of membership represents the private sector, he said. New board officers will be elected at the next board meeting on Sept. 18, he said.
County commissioners also approve all board member appointments.
“The biggest difference is an engaged board,” said Jones, who was previously director of OhioMeansJobs-Butler County and is currently a Fairfield councilman. “For a long time it was just meeting for the sake of meeting.”
“We’re going to have a lot of new faces on the board,” he said.
Whereas the board failed two of nine performance measures in the budget year ending June 30, 2014 (in part due to the mentioned paperwork errors), it’s no longer failing any per preliminary reports, according to Jones.
“The board wouldn’t have made the strides it has over the last year without the vision and support of our membership,” he said.
IT’S “HARD TO STEER THE SHIP”
Changes to the Butler, Clermont and Warren county board have occurred at the same time the new federal workforce law was passed in 2014 and went into effect this year. It amended the former Workforce Investment Act.
Ohio and its local area boards are forced to plan under interim regulations without yet knowing what final changes will take place to services and funding, Weber, of the Ohio jobs department, said.
“The biggest challenge is probably our economy,” Weber said. “When the economy turned it was very hard for our system to change quickly and so when the economy started to get better, we’re having to change again.”
“Workforce programs are constantly being tweaked and altered based on what the demand is,” he said. “I think it’s hard to steer the ship quickly.”
Because the Butler, Clermont and Warren county board has had to contend with impending federal law changes and the possibility of redesignation, it’s had less time than hoped to achieve the goals that were set, said Bob Proud, a Clermont County Commissioner and now an ex-officio board member.
“Most people don’t understand the bureaucracy that is contained with the federal (workforce) legislation,” Proud said.
“We need to be better at letting people know who we are and what we do with our one-stops in each of the three counties. We can’t just sit back and wait for people to come to us. I think we need to be a little more aggressive and getting out in the workforce environment and talking to employers,” Proud said.
However, Butler County Commissioner Carpenter is happy with the progress. “What we have now is a reputation in the community that we provide and train the workforce and we’re the go-to agency for the employers that are expanding,” she said.
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