State Workforce Board

January 26, 2018: 9:30 AM
Frances Perkins Room, CMCC

STATE WORKFORCE BOARD MEETING

JANUARY 26, 2018

Present: Fred Webber (Chair), Mel Clarrage, Jonathan Mason, Suzan Beaudoin, Tracey Cooley, Ed McKersie, John Butera, Richard Freund, Governor Paul LePage, Guy Langevin, Laura Zajac, Anna Black, Rhonda Fletcher, Doug Ray, Terry Young, Robert Watson, Andrew Nichols, Thomas R Davis, Peter Anania, Scott Good, John Leavitt, Renee Kelly, Representative Ryan Fecteau (Phone), David Duguay (Phone), John Fortier (Phone), Senator Amy Volk (Excused), Ryan Bushey (Excused), Dan Belyea (Excused), Thomas J Davis (Absent), Jeremy Kendall (Absent), Jennifer McKenna (Absent)

Staff: Garret Oswald, Joshua Howe, Cheryl Moran

Welcome & Introductions - Fred Webber first asked, do we have a Quorum before he opened the meeting. Garret Oswald responded, yes.

Fred Webber opened the regular meeting with welcome and introductions and asked the new Board members (Peter Anania, Thomas Davis, John Fortier, Andrew Nichols, Robert Watson) to introduce themselves and their affiliations. Fred thanked the new Board members for their willingness to serve on this Board. Fred also asked if people can speak loud so everyone will be able to hear including the people on the phone. Fred announced that the next State Workforce Board (SWB) meeting will be held on March 30th.

Approval of the 12/01/2017 meeting minutes ? Fred Webber asked for approval of the 12/01/17 meeting minutes. Garret Oswald first explained Robert?s Rules of Order because one of the Board members questioned the previous meeting?s minutes. Before asking to approve the minutes, Cheryl Moran advised what was amended. Guy Langevin called for an amended motion to Senator Amy Volk?s proposal that was carried at the last Board meeting to define case manager. Ricker Hamilton seconded. 12/01/17 minutes approved as amended.

Chairs Report ? Fred Webber Fred stated he had nothing to report at this time.

WIOA Performance Dashboard ? Joshua Howe Josh provided a handout on the SOM Performance Dashboard. Josh stated the Dashboard represents how Maine is doing and actually accomplishing. Demographic information is what we are looking at. More performance base measures will be pulled ? common measures across the program. This Dashboard is not to collect additional data and put additional burden on case management. The SOM Performance Dashboard will be open to the Public making is readily available. Richard Freund ? We will start posting things as data becomes available even if incomplete. This will move us faster to getting this complete. Tracey Cooley asked, are we required by WIOA to collect Q4 as well? Because Job Corp captured both Q2 and Q4. Josh responded, yes. Tracey Cooley stated they are collecting high school and college credential attainment as well. She suggested looking at entry level credentials such as a CNA at the state level may be worth our while. Josh stated the MaineSpark group will be looking at these. Tracey Cooley stated if you need any assistance, please let her know. John Leavitt ? We need to reach out to drywall to connect with employers to see how things have changed. For example, an independent contractor ? the Workers Compensation rates. This affects retention especially statewide because of the wage. Dave Wurm stated how are we going to serve people when we are receiving less resources and budget constraints? This is the biggest challenge!
Jonathan Mason asked how are we defining in measuring retention?

Garret Oswald ? Effectiveness in Serving Employers, Garret referred to the 3 Approaches. He stated the Board members can pick 2 and this will be to our own benefit. It is up to us to what we choose. He pointed out that they are not going to collect data that is already there or pay for a data collection system instead they want to take what is already there and put into one place.
John Leavitt suggested to add skilled worker to Approach #2. Ed McKersie called to motion to select Approach #s 1 & 2. John Leavitt seconded. Tracey Cooley asked if it is okay not to vote? Garret Oswald responded, anyone has the ability to abstain. Fred Webber ? And it will not be held against you. Garret Oswald stated recommendation is a good word at this point. It is important to come back and report. Fred Webber stated take it as a guidance. Josh stated we can live with all of them. Fred Webber called for the vote. 20 yes. 0 opposed. 0 abstained. Motion carried.

Adult Degree & Credential Attainment 2018 Report ? Garret Oswald Garret provided a handout on the Adult Degree & Credential Attainment 2018 Report. Garret stated we will not ask to vote on this. This Report needed to be approved and submitted. The approval to release and distribute just happened. Garret apologized not having the material for people on the phone. Joshua Howe then distributed the Report to members electronically. Garret stated States have been setting goals. Tennessee was the first State. Two years ago, we stated to focus on this. Last Legislative Session, they had a conversation on this. What came out of that Session is on page 2 of the Report. The State Workforce Board is now responsible on an annual basis to report this. Garret mentioned that he sits on the Steering Committee of the MaineSpark Coalition. Maine?s Education and Workforce Coalition is now known as the MaineSpark Coalition.
What you have in front of you is the inaugural report. The challenge is trying to figure out the credential piece. He pointed out that Maine?s educational attainment is pretty close to the Nation?s. The attainment goal in Maine is 60% by 2025. We will need to be more connected to the Community because of lack of funding, resources and time. This Report will speak to a lot of the labor shortage. Guy Langevin asked where are we now as to the 60%? Garret responded, we are at about 39%. This comes directly from Lumina. Gail Senese provided the website to MaineSpark: www.mainespark.me Richard Freund stated it would be interesting to see regional data. David Duguay stated he is curious how the skilled workforce will fit in. Garret responded the skilled workforce absolutely will be included going forward. Jennifer Kimble asked if children and adults with disabilities are included? Garret responded, they will be part of this data but he is not sure if the data will be sliced showing that individually. Garret asked Jennifer if she can help them with that. Fred Webber stated they will come back to the Board with this.

Legislative Update ? Nina McLaughlin Nina provided a handout on A Brief Overview of Bills Pertaining to The Workforce This Current Legislative Session which includes a list of Bills that the Maine Department of Labor is working on and other Legislation that the Department is monitoring. The first Bill she will be speaking on is L.D. 1757, ?An Act to Protect Maine?s Economy by Slowing the Rate at Which the State?s Minimum Wage Will Increase and Establishing a Training and Youth Wage?. She stated the hearing will be on January 31 at 2pm. She also mentioned that L.D. 1769, ?An Act to Confirm the Laws Regarding a Salaried Employee Who Is Exempt from Overtime and Minimum Wage Requirements to Federal Law? goes hand in hand with the Minimum Wage Bill. She stated if there are any questions, her contact information is at the top of the front page. Nina McLaughlin, Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs, Commissioner?s Office Maine Department of Labor Office: 207-621-5096 Nina.mclaughlin@maine.gov

Fred Webber stated before we go onto the next agenda item (Review of Action Taken on Training Expenditure Policy), he asked Tracey Cooley to provide an update of their project with BIW. Tracey announced Job Corps new partnership with BIW back in July 2017 and how Job Corp conducted the pre-screening but did not officially screen. She proudly announced that this Project produced 500 graduates. Fred stated she will be able to complete this report at the next SWB meeting because we need to go onto the next agenda item as the Governor has now arrived.

Review of Action Taken on Training Expenditure Policy ? Fred Webber stated Governor LePage is a voting member of the Board. He welcomed and thanked the Governor for attending. Governor Paul LePage stated before he was Governor, he had 45 years in business and any business in this State that has an administrative cost of 70% will never be successful. He stated when he first became Governor in 2011, he simply tried to make it more efficient.
He strongly stated his priority is to make sure more of the money goes to training. Services are being duplicated in the CareerCenters. Seventy percent (70%) goes to administrative cost. The Governor stated he agrees that laws are written that way. He stated he went to the Feds and asked if they could change this and the Feds said no. The Governor wants to have as much of the money available to go into the hands of the 3rd party trainers. He suggested asking that 70% go towards the hard training, then lose 10% of the funding if not met in the first year. If goal is not met in the 2nd year, decertification.
Once again the Governor asked, raise the amount of money spent on skills training to 70%. Let?s fix this once and for all. Let?s do good for the people of Maine or not at all. Let?s make sure the money received from the Feds is used efficiently. The Governor made motion to amend the vote that was carried at the 12/01/17 meeting:  70% PY18 & PY19.  If goal is not met in the first year, LWBs will lose 10% of their funding.  In the second year if goal is not met, decertification.  Occupational Training  OJT  Customized Training  Entrepreneurial Training  Support services needed while in training  Incumbent Worker Training Classroom Training  Workplace Training with related instruction  Transitional Jobs (maximum of 10% of total Adult and Dislocated Worker allocation)  Job Readiness Training when combined with one of above training services  Adult Education and Literacy activities including English language acquisition and Integrated Educational Training services when combined with above training services  Work experience
Mel Clarrage seconded. Fred Webber stated if motion prevails, Maine will lead in the country. Representative Ryan Fecteau thanked the Governor for coming to the meeting. He stated he was very hesitant to see if this vote will not be held today due to not being on the agenda - wants it to be tabled. Terry Young stated he agreed with the Governor if companies had 70%, they would be out of business. He stated he is all for the amended motion. Scott Good stated it?s important to have some support in being able to achieve that goal. He then asked, will there be? Garret Oswald responded, the Department (MDOL) is responsible to provide support. Representative Ryan Fecteau stated he would like to see numbers to support the 70%. Tracey Cooley ? We spent 2 hours back in December. I thought we came to an agreement? She stated she is hesitant to vote on something like this without data. We were not thwarted opportunity to craft a plan. We are not going to solve this in 5 minutes. More work needs to be done and data. Laura Zajac asked is there data out there that shows duplication? She stated she would like to have everyone talk about it more and believes we can achieve. Richard Freund stated CareerCenters do things the same as what the Local Providers do. There?s too much talk and, where are we? Nothing has changed. Commissioner Ricker Hamilton stated it?s time to be bold! He stated he supports the vote and now is the time. Peter Anania asked is it the 70% of the 10 million dollars sent to the LWBs? He stated he supports the vote. Garret Oswald responded, yes. David Duguay stated he agrees with Representative Fecteau because we already decided on this. Let?s go as an incentive (70%) without penalty because we are not going to solve this in 5 minutes. Commissioner John Butera stated the Governor clearly was thinking about looking down the road. John Leavitt stated he agrees redundancies is not effective. He stated he wants clarification on amendment and he asked, what do we do to fix this (training)? Cutting the percentage may look good but may not be beneficial. Garret Oswald replied, 3rd parties are service providers such as; Goodwill Industries of Northern New England, Western Maine Community Action, Maine Department of Labor, and Eastern Maine Development Corporation. We always wanted to be a demand-driven system. The Future of Service Delivery Group is an idea of having greater business input of the training needed. Garret asked Scott Good (who is a member of the group) to talk briefly about the Future of Service Delivery Group. Scott Good briefly spoke about the 4 areas they will be concentrating on. John Fortier stated he agrees with the Governor that there does seem to be a tremendous amount of redundancies. He will vote yes. Renee Kelly stated her biggest concern is the unintended consequences. We don?t want to hurt employers that get services from the System. She asked if those items will be included in the 70%? Garret Oswald responded, the last vote included what was in the original Policy. Fred Webber stated we need to sit down to clarify definitions ? gut says it?s achievable. Tracey Cooley asked why did we jump from 60% to 70%? She stated she supports the Governor however; duplication of services, she is concerned and where did they fall? She stated she is just cautious of moving forward. Fred Webber responded, 60% was in PY17. 70% should be starting in the next Program Year. Richard Freund stated the CareerCenters will continue. We have 12 and plan on continuing 12 in the future. Fred Webber asked Jonathan Mason to reiterate a statement he made at the previous meeting in December. Jonathan Mason stated it?s not easy and we do not have a clear tactical plan but that?s how it starts. Antoinette Mancusi stated we need to be smart on how to spend money, she gets that. She stated she is not sure where the Governor get 70% because they spend 10%. She stated she can show the contracts. She stated if you would like, she will provide her email. There is a definitive difference in numbers. Fred Webber stated we will really have to work more closely as partners. We need to set-up those workshops.

Vote: Representative Ryan Fecteau called motion to table proposal of 70% PY18 & PY19 including sanctions. David Duguay seconded. Fred Webber called for vote. 3 ? yes to table 17 ? opposed 0 - abstained Motion to table failed to carry.

Final Vote: Fred Webber stated back to original motion 70% PY18 & PY19 - which includes added sanctions and allow additional activities to be included in that calculation (Transitional jobs, Adult work experience, English language acquisition, Work Ready/occupational skills training, and Integrated education and training). Fred Webber called for vote. 17 ? yes 3 ? opposed 0 ? abstained Motion carried.

Meeting adjourned at 12:30pm. Next meeting will be held on Friday, March 30 from 9:30 ? Noon in the Frances Perkins room, CMCC Augusta.

Respectfully submitted by Cheryl Moran

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