WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BOARD (WDB)
Of Genesee and Shiawassee Counties
Meeting Minutes
Sylvester Broome Jr. Center
4119 N. Saginaw Street
Flint, MI 48505
Friday, January 24,
2004
8:00 a.m.
PRESENT: Michael
Zelley, Khalil Saab, Gary Gosaynie, Jimmy King, Edith Prunty-Spencer, Larry
Ford, Willie Meadowbrooks, Harry Blecker, Cheryl Gifford, Sue Howell, Ivan
Love, David Miller, Gary Smith, Zachary Tomlinson, Eric White and Calvin Wright
STAFF PRESENT: Pamela
Loving, QB Pittman, Sharon Bowen, Craig Coney, John Rhymes, Tanesha Malone,
William Hetchler, Lila Lipscomb, Margaret Broden, Debbie Rose, Kim Etheridge,
James Robinson, Eunita Wingfield, Helen Brown, Sherry Goble, Nichole Taylor,
Sally Savage, Peggy Kendrick, Jamie White, Lou Lethbridge, Dan Rathburn, Richard
Curtis, Carol Piesko and Niki Theeuwes
OTHERS PRESENT: Peter
Goodstein and Andre Hatter
I.
Meeting
called to order at 8:13 a.m.
II.
PUBLIC
COMMENT: None
III.
ACTION
ITEMS:
A.
Approval
of WDB Minutes of November 25, 2003: A motion to approve the minutes of November 25,
2003 was made by Mr.
David Miller and supported by Mr. Cal Wright.
MOTION PASSED
B.
Appointment
of EAG Alternate: A motion to appoint Mr. Allen Murray as Mr.
Jack Krueger’s alternate was made by Mr. Jimmy King and supported by Mr. David
Miller.
MOTION PASSED
IV.
APPOINTMENT
OF 2004 WDB SUBCOMMITTEE: The appointment of 2004 WDB subcommittee is
rescheduled due to death in Ms. Loving’s family.
V.
PRESENTATION
A.
Michigan Pre-Apprenticeship for the Future: A slide
presentation was shown by Ms. Nichole Taylor, Special Projects Director for CAI
along with Mr. Aaron Minor, Program Manager and Mr. Yusef Robinson, Assistant
Program Manager from Michigan Pre-Apprentice for the Future. The presentation gave an update and a recap
of the Northpointe Village Project. Mr.
Minner and Mr. Robinson gave an overview of their backgrounds, contributions
and their interest in the NorthPointe Village Project. They outlined a work program schedule and 4
to 6 month training period with counseling.
Focus is carpentry driven training.
They have the construction training material from the union. They introduced several instructors and their
credentials. Mr. Zelley asked since they
will be housed in the Broome Center, will they be engaged in the other services that
are available through the Broome Center whether it is employment service or WIA programs. They answered yes. Ms. Loving reported on the three lots given
by the County to CAI on Buick Street and the impending construction on those
lots. She expressed the hope to have the
three-block area around the Broome Center represent a model of community rebuilding. She stated that the program is not only for
students but for people wanting to go into other fields and dislocated
workers. The Community Foundation and
the Ruth Mott Foundation are providing funding for the piers. The County and the City are working very
closely with us and we are partnering with GCCARD, and with the Flint Schools and the Skill Center in this endeavor.
GCCARD is buying the Earl Shieb building on North Saginaw Street converting it into a facility where houses can be
built similar to the program at the Skill Center.
B.
Status
Report on ODEP Grant: Ms. Carol Piesko, Project Director,
introduced Mr. Tim Steinbrink who will be the facilitator and navigator of the
ODEP Grant. She stated that they have
been utilizing the services of one of their consultants, Mr. Joe Skiba. He is providing and guiding us through the
strategic planning. They are three months into the program and will file the
first quarterly report. She stated that
they are doing some in-house training, which helps the staff to understand the
obligations and responsibilities of this grant.
They are also reaching out and identifying partners in the community who
will play an important role in the success of this grant. She will meet with the evaluators today. An important aspect of the grant requires an
outside evaluator to assess the progress of the grant. The federal government also has its
evaluators who will be here in a month or so to look at what we are doing. Mr. Zelley asked Mr. Steinbrink his opinion
on the progress of the grant. Mr.
Steinbrink discussed the importance of interacting with the community, the
providers and the employers. Once the
relationships are built, we will be able to better serve the individuals who
are out there seeking employment. The
Pre-Apprenticeship program very committed to this endeavor also.
VI.
SUBCOMMITTEE
REPORTS – UPDATES
A.
Economic
& Community Development Initiative: Mr. Cal Wright stated that the report has already
been given.
B.
Shiawassee
Sub-Committee: Mr. Gary Gosaynie stated that he did not
attend the meeting, but he consulted with some people in attendance. There were updates from MRS, FIA and service
providers.
C.
EAG
Update: Mr. Gary Tower reported the last meeting was
December 4th with the opportunity to meet in Shiawassee County at the Michigan Labor’s Training & Apprenticeship
Institute. He stated that Ms. Patti
Cantu discussed future funding and announced they have been approved for Tech
Prep and Perkins allocations. She
discussed issues at the state department level they have a new name, which is
the Michigan Department of Career Development Labor and Economic Development. Their next meeting will be February 25th
at the Broome Center. Mr. Zelley asked Mr. Tower
how the funding cuts on career prep programs are being handled. Mr. Tower stated that the Career Prep
subcommittee of the superintendents was very clear they wanted us to continue
to provide as much support as possible.
D.
FIA
Update: Neither Ms. Denise Chambers nor Mr. Mark
Stevens was in attendance.
E.
MDLEG
Rehabilitation Services Update: Ms. Sue Howell stated the State Director, Ms.
Jaye Balthazar was impressed by Ms. Loving and her visionary style, the innovative
programs and the community response. She
stated that Ms. Balthazar will return to Flint with all of the state managers in June along with
Mr. Dennis Sykes for a two-day management meeting. There has been an increase this year in the
collaborative programs with CAI enabling them to serve more people with
disabilities. She mentioned the
continuation of the mentoring program.
She looks forward to completing the relocating of their office to CAI
headquarters building.
VII.
PRESIDENT’S
UPDATE: Ms. Loving indicated the budget crisis in Washington has hit Michigan and CAI.
If the bill passes CAI will lose $1 million by the end of today. She stated that they are trying to work with
technical assistance from the state, move some monies around so we can capture
as much of that million dollars as possible.
She stated there was an additional $5 million cut in TANF and REED
dollars. Of that $5 million CAI was
asked to take a hit of $1.4 million and Grand Rapids $1.1 million resulting in two agencies taking
fifty-percent of the cuts. She had
discussions and negotiations with the state and fellow MWA directors. They had a very intensive meeting yesterday
and one of the end results was that resulting in a vote of the colleagues to
make the cuts pro rata. They felt it
also an inappropriate way to do business.
Mr. Sykes was in attendance and heard some of the concerns that came
from the MWA directors and had the state leadership stay with us afterwards. Mr. Sykes then met with the MWA directors to
determine a more equitable distribution of the $5 million cut. Seven MWA’s ended up with 91% of the cuts
with 4.2% pro rata for all the 25 MWA’s.
It was agreed that any formula which called for 2 or 5 agencies to take
the bulk of any reduction was unfair.
She thanked the senior leaders of the Pre-Apprenticeship program for
giving back to the community. She
mentioned that CAI in partnership with the State, has
installed three phone booths and three computer terminals to make them
available to the public to access the Unemployment Agency. She recognized the student interns. Mr. Ivan Love asked which fund the $1 million
cut was coming from. Ms. Loving answered
Welfare-to-Work and that some contracts are going to be amended.
VIII.
CHAIR’S
UPDATE: Mr. Zelley discussed the visit from Ms. Jaye
Balthazar, State Director, Michigan Rehabilitation Services and Ms. Betty
Shaw-Henderson, Deputy Director. He
expressed how pleased he was to see board members in attendance. He mentioned a report that was just finished
called the National Task Force on Technology and Disability. It was a two-year project funded by the Mott
Foundation. In talking about the Northpointe Village project he mentioned the importance of visitability. He reported on the meeting with Dan Kildee
Genesee County Treasurer who started the Reversion Project Initiative The Resident Council decided to incorporate visitability on
any new builds they do. He has been
invited to Baltimore to participate in a think tank with CMS, which
governs the National Medicaid system to investigate its resources, which can
encourage and support persons with disabilities to return to work. Also discussed was the possibility of the
availability of personal attendants to assist persons with disabilities in the
workplace. He recently returned from a
meeting in New
Orleans
dealing with new performance standards being introduced by the Department of
Labor. Ms. Loving corrected the
newsletter that was sent out during the holidays stating there was an
incomplete sentence about Mr. King being honored as a MCC
alumni along with her. Mr. Zelley
asked Mr. King if he wanted to comment on how the world was like apart from
Consumers Power. Mr. King stated that he
is working for Rowe, Inc. and is having a good time. Ivan Love shared couple of things in the
Heritage Foundation Report regarding political poverty. Eric White informed the board that Lutech, is
taking over Job Corps, a contracted service of the Department of Labor
effective March 1, 2004; therefore he will resign from the Board. He thanked the board for all of its
support. Mr. Benji Williams will return
as the Director of Job Corps.
IX.
Meeting
adjourned 9:43
a.m.
Signed
_____________________________
Ms.
Katie Wolf
Secretary,
Workforce Development Board
March 30, 2004
Date: _________________________