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HomeMy WebLinkAbout5.1 Create New Agency for JTPA CITY OF DUBLIN AGENDA STATEMENT CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: July 8, 1991 SUBJECT: Written Communication: Request from Mayor of Fremont to consider applying to the State for the creation of a new Agency to administer Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) Funds. PYL-'(Prepared by Paul S. Rankin, Assistant City Manager) EXHIBITS ATTACHED: Letter dated June 25, 1991 to Mayor Snyder from Mayor Ball of Fremont. RECOMMENDATION: w Consider Request FINANCIAL STATEMENT: City of Fremont estimates the initial cost of making an application would be $5, 500. They have requested a commitment from participating agencies to share the expense on the basis of population. Based on this estimate, Staff estimates the maximum City of Dublin contribution at $660. There is also potential for Staff time to be expended on this process. No funds have been included in the Budget for this program. DESCRIPTION: Mayor Ball of Fremont has directed a request to the City of Dublin regarding the potential formation of a new agency to administer JTPA funds. The City of Fremont is offering to be the lead in the application process, which would create an agency consisting of cities in Southern-Eastern Alameda County. It will be necessary for all participating agencies to have contiguous boundaries and an aggregate population of 200, 000 or more which serves a substantial part of the labor market area. The City of Fremont is concerned about the current administration of JTPA funds under the auspices of Alameda County. Although funding is anticipated to be provided to agencies throughout the County, the cities have no direct influence or control over the allocation decisions. Under the ACTEB operation, the cities had one elected official who served on the Board of Directors. This is no longer the case, since the Board of Supervisors is designated as the "Chief Elected Official" administering the JTPA funds. The City of Fremont is requesting that the City of Dublin consider participating in the application process. An application must be filed by August 1 , 1991 . The City of Fremont has estimated the cost at $5,500 and proposed that it be shared on a population basis. In the event that the application were approved, additional costs would be incurred to become a fully functioning JTPA Administration. The actual operation would occur at some time in the future. Fremont Staff estimated that Alameda County expended approximately $25, 000 to establish their organization. The City's involvement in this program was not contemplated when Staff prepared the Fiscal Year 1991-92 budget. Therefore, Staff time required to review documents or respond to requests from those preparing the application may impact other projects. The extent of this involvement cannot be determined at this time. In the event that the City Council agrees to pursue the application, a budget transfer from the Contingent Reserve Account in the amount of $660 would be necessary. This would cover the maximum City of Dublin cost for submitting an application, in the event that the application process is completed at a cost of $5,500. Staff would propose that if this is approved, a future report be prepared on other costs associated with establishing a new JTPA, prior to the City Council approval to proceed further in the process to establish a new agency. Staff would recommend that the City Council consider the request from the City of Fremont. Councilmember Moffatt, who is the City's ACTEB representative, may also be able to provide additional information. PSR/lss a:L72JTPA.doc.agenda#5 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- COPIES TO: �/ ITEM NO. ('� City of ivE D Fremont - X1991 39100 Liberty Street C.I O- DUBLIN. P. O. Box 5006 Fremont,CA 94537 William"Bill"Ball,Mayor (415) 745 - 2704 June 25, 1991 Mayor Peter W. Snyder City of Dublin Civic Center P. 0. Box 2340 Dublin, CA 94568 Dear Mayor Snyde "�f;: On June 25, 1991, the Fremont City Council will hear an item (Supplemental Agenda 7. 12, enclosed) to consider playing a leadership role in making application to the State for the creation of a new Southern-Eastern Alameda County State Designated Agency (SDA) to administer Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) Funds. Fremont is willing to undertake this task, only with the support of other jurisdictions. To that end, I would like to receive from you, in writing, an expression of your City's interest in such an endeavor. As you are aware, the time line for completing an application to the State is very short and must be accomplished by August 1, 1991. It is our intent to hire a consultant who has expertise in this area, to help us prepare the necessary paperwork and make a presentation to the State. The estimated cost for doing this is $4000. In addition, there may be associated legal costs for document review and consultation. If this cannot be handled by in-house legal staff, we might seek outside counsel. An additional $1500 has been budgeted for this purpose. It would be our intent to prorate a fair share of the costs accrued by Fremont for completion of the application, to each jurisdiction wishing to participate in this venture. We would use population as the basis for doing this once we know how broad a geographic area the SDA would cover. It should be mentioned all jurisdictions wishing to become a part of a new Southern-Eastern Alameda County SDA must have contiguous boundaries. Mayor Peter W. Snyder Page 2 City of Dublin A more formal council action from each participating jurisdiction may be requested in the near future for all cities wishing to be included as part of this venture. Please provide to me, in writing, no later than July 5, the interest of your City in participating in this joint application process. S.i.nceT-e l-- }r, Mayor William (Bill) Ball WB:cd Enclosure: Supplemental Agenda 7. 12 cc: Fremont City Council City Manager 7.12 DISBANDING OF TIE ALAMEDA COUNTY TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT (ACTEB) AND CONSIDERATION OF THE CREATION OF A NEW CO BOARD AND STATE DESIGNA'T`ED AGENCY (SDA) TO ADMINISTER JOB TRAINING PARTNERSH[P ACT(JTPA)FUNDS FOR THE SOUTHERN AND EASTM N CrMS IN AX.A)A=A COUNTY SEPARATE FROM THE SDA .PRESENTLY ADMINISTERED BY THE COUNTY (Shenfil, 745-2804) BACKGROUND:, In the mid-1970's two Joint Power Agencies were "established in Alameda* County, one to receive monies'from the Economic.Opportunity Act, to operate programs in the war. against poverty. Thi$ was called.the Associated Community Action Program (ACAP). Original signatories to ACAP. in 1974 included the. County, Livermore, Fremont, Newark, Ray-ward, Pleasanton; San Leandro and Union City, The Cities of Alameda, Albany, Emeryville and Piedmont joined in 1976. In 1975, the County of Alameda and the City of Fremont created a second Joint Powers Agency, the Alameda County Training and Employment Board (ACTEB),. which was established to receive Federal job training monies under CETA, the Comprehensive Employment and 'I'raining Act. June 25, 1991 . Supplemental Agenda Fremont City Council Meeting Page 4 A single Governing Board was established to administer both joint power agreements with elected representatives serving from the Board of Supervisors and each represented jurisdiction. The Cities of Alameda, Albany, Emeryville, Hayward, Livermore, Newark, Piedmont, Pleasanton, San Leandro, and Hayward have participated with full voting rights, in the ACTEB Joint Powers Agency since its inception, even though they were not signatories to the original agreement. Voting has been weighted based on population with Fremont having the greatest number of votes, followed by Alameda County and Hayward and smaller jurisdictions. Under the CETA legislation, cities with a population of 100,000 or more persons could act as prime sponsors and independently operate their own employment and training programs. The Cities of Berkeley and Oakland chose to run their own programs. In 1983, Federal manpower legislation changed. The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) was replaced with the Job Training Partnership ACT (JTPA) and the Economic Opportunity Act was replaced with Community Service Block Grants (CSBG). The JTPA Program required a jurisdiction to have a population of 200,000 or more persons in order to operate an independent program, or be a state designated agency (SDA). A second requirement of JTPA created a new governing body called the Private Industry Council (PIC). JTPA law required the majority of PIC members, a minimum of seven, to be from the private sector with six from other organizational entities. With the change in Federal legislation in 1983, Berkeley applied to the State to become an independent SDA and to continue to operate its own program even though it did not have the required 200,000 population base. In late August, Governor Deukmejian, concerned with restricting the number of SDAs in the State, designated ACTEB as an SDA, but not Berkeley. The alternative was to allow Berkeley to join the ACTEB Consortium. However, participation on the Governing Board was denied to Berkeley because of a controversy related to Berkeley's policy with regard to saluting the flag. A suit ensued which finally resulted in Berkeley joining the Consortium in 1984 with agreement to special conditions: • Berkeley would receive pass through JTPA fund; • Berkeley would have first right of refusal to deliver JTPA services to its residents; and, • Berkeley would be admitted into the consortium as a full voting member. The relationship between Berkeley and ACTEB during 1984-85 was one of guarded cooperation. In subsequent years a number of issues arose around deficiencies in Berkeley's JTPA programs and requests from ACTEB that corrective action be taken. In both 1988 and 1989, Berkeley was placed on administrative probation. Last year the City of Berkeley refused to agree to the proposed 1990-1992 JTPA Program Plan which was submitted by ACTEB to the State in April 1990. Because all chief elected officials in a consortium must agree to the plan, the Governor could not approve it. In July ACTEB appealed the Governor's decision to the Secretary of Labor. On September 14, 1990, the Secretary of Labor issued a decision upholding the Governor's decision to deny approval of the proposed plan. The State encouraged ACTEB and Berkeley to negotiate a compromise and granted them until October 31, 1990, to achieve an agreement. The State Employment Development Department worked diligently to mediate the situation between the disputants. However, disagreement was not resolved and the Governor redesignated June 25, 1991 Supplemental Agenda Fremont City Council Meeting Page 5 the County of Alameda, effective November 1, 1990, as the service delivery area for the balance of Alameda County (excluding the City of Oakland which is a separate SDA). The Board of Supervisors delegated lead agency responsibility for the transition to the County's Social Services Agency. A new PIC Department has been created within the Social Services Agency to administer the JTPA program Impact of JTPA and Community Service Block Grant Funding for the Tri-City Area: Of the approximately $6.8 million dollars received by ACTEB, roughly $1.55 million has been used to assist in areas where there are plant closures or layoffs. Of the remaining $5.25 million, 30% has gone directly to the City of Berkeley. The remaining $3.68 million is allocated to the other areas within the consortium. A four-part formula has been established to determine how this money should be allocated geographically.Three parts of the formula are based on the formula used by the Department of Labor to allocate JTPA funds to California; and by the State, in turn, to allocate funds to State Designated Agencies. The factors in the formula include: 1) total low income population, 2) total unemployed population, 3) total excessive unemployed population (unemployed above 6.5%). In addition, ACTEB has added a fourth variable — gross population — to account for significant population growth which has occurred in the southern part of the County since the 1980 census was taken. Based on the above formula, 20.93% of$3.68 million, or approximately $770,224, has been used to provide job training and employment services to Tri-City residents. This figure includes administrative cost, participant certification of eligibility, marketing, job placement and linking of participants with educational programs. One of the major providers of these services in Fremont is the Mission Valley ROP program. Funding also goes to the FUSD Young Mothers Program and Vallecitos in Union City for youth services, the California School for the Deaf and Resources to Family Development for Child Care Vouchers for those enrolled in training programs. It is as yet undetermined as to how the County will chose to allocate JTPA funds. It is likely some unknown amount of funding would continue to flow to agencies serving Fremont, but the City would have no direct influence or control over those allocation decisions. Transition of JTPA Program to Alameda County and Disbanding of ACTEB: As part of the transition of the JTPA program from ACTEB to the County, the County,entered into an agreement with ACTEB, through June 30, 1991, to maintain the established service provider network, to provide current planned services to participants and to perform related administrative activities identified by the Social Service Agency which would assure the continuity of JTPA services to residents of Alameda County. As part of the transition, the County has agreed to hire some of the ACTEB staff. The County will take on 21 of the existing 33 personnel, based on seniority. Once program services and staff have been transferred and audit issues resolved between ACTEB and the Department of Labor, cities will be asked to adopt a formal resolution disbanding the ACTEB Joint Powers Consortium. The County has redesignated and appointed a new Private Industry Council (PIC). One of the concerns expressed by city representatives was that appointments to the PIC were made by at least two Supervisors, both of whom represent interests in large sections of Oakland, which is not part of the SDA. The PIC, as well as the Board of Supervisors, approved and submitted an Alameda County Job Training Plan to the State on April 23, 1991. Problems with Alameda County' s Job Training Plan: Despite the County's stated objective to "fairly receive local government input on how to best administer job training funds," the County failed to find a solution to the primary concern of local jurisdictions, i.e. that cities continue to June 25, 1991 Supplemental Agenda Fremont City Council Meeting Page 6 have a meaningful role in making decisions about how Job Training Partnership Funds are allocated and used in local areas throughout the county. From the perspective of many of the participant cities which have worked in a collaborative manner for almost 15 years to create a manpower agency which received both State and National recognition for excellence, there is extreme reluctance to see the program placed under County control. The County agency which will administer the program is already seen as a large bureaucracy which manages the welfare program and which has little expertise in managing job training, there is uncertainty as to how the program will be operated. In particular, there are strong reservations by South County cities, which feel County resources are not always shared equitably in the southern and eastern parts of the County and are disproportionately used in the northern urban areas. As a result, eight of the thirteen consortium cities, including Fremont, filed a petition to the State of California in objection to the Alameda County Job Training Plan. Objections included arguments the plan was in violation of Section 103(d) of the JTPA legislation which requires there be plan approval and authorization for plan submittal from all chief elected officials in the SDA. This is the very same argument which Berkeley used the previous year. To date, the State has indicated it intends to deny the petitions of the eight cities which have objected to the County plan. A decision from the Department of Labor is still pending. Alternatives for Local Jurisdictions Interested in Continued Involvement in the Administration of Job Training Partnership Act Funds: The remaining alternative for local jurisdictions in Alameda County interested in continued involvement in the administration of job training funds in their local areas is for Southern-Eastern Alameda Cities to join together in making application to the State to form their own State Designated Agency(SDA). A new consortium could be created as long as the units of government participating have contiguous boundaries and an aggregate population of 200,000 or more which serves a substantial part of the labor market area. A formal request to establish a new SDA must be made to the State no later than August 1, 1991. Applications for SDA redesignation are only accepted by the State every other year. It has been suggested, because Fremont has played a leadership role in the ACTEB Consortium for many years and represents the jurisdiction with the largest population, it should now play a leadership role in submitting a request to ask for the formation of the new SDA. Requirements for Requesting a New SDA Designation: The following is information which must be gathered and presented in a comprehensive way in order to convince the State of the need to create a new SDA serving Southern-Eastern Alameda County: • Documentation and a case showing the proposed SDA serves a substantial part of the labor market must be established. The term "labor market area" means an economically integrated geographic area within which individuals can reside and find employment within a reasonable distance, or can readily change employment without changing their place of residence. We would have to convince the State the southern and eastern interests of the County might not be best served by a County administrative entity, where north county interests frequently take precedence. In addition we would have to establish, through considerable documentation, our own economic subarea within the county with unique industry and labor patterns which are uncharacteristic of the county as a whole. June 25, 1991 Supplemental Agenda Fremont City Council Meeting Page 7 • City Council Resolutions and signatures of authorized representatives are required for submittal. Prospective members must assure the State of their intent to enter into a joint powers agreement. • A contact person must be named to communicate and work with the State as the request is being processed. • A map of the proposed SDA must be submitted, with indications of commute corridors and major employment areas. • A description must be submitted for existing employment training services and linkages for these services. • New requests must show evidence activities are underway to assure coordination with the existing SDA. Additional Requirements if a new South County SDA is Created in Order to Become a Fully Functioning JTPA Administration: • Negotiation of a Joint Powers Agreement; • Establishment of a Private Industry Council (PIC) and securing of State certification of the PIC; • Developing an agreement between the PIC and Chief Elected Officials; • Selecting an administrative entity; • Establishing adequate financial and management control systems; • Passing the State's pre-award financial and management systems survey; • Drafting, submitting, and securing approval of a Job Training Plan; and, • Developing and implementing a Transition Plan from the current to the new SDA administration. Time has not been available to establish a cost estimate for completing the requirements to become a fully functioning JTPA administration, once SDA approval has been granted. It is believed the County's cost to meet these requirements has been about$25,000. Cost to Prepare and Submit South County SDA Application to the State:The City of Fremont does not have available the staff time or the expertise to complete a South County SDA application in a five and a half week turn around time. It is possible some technical assistance might be provided by ACTEB staff until the end of June 1991, if the agency can charge the costs to non JTPA resources. It is also possible the City might contract with a former ACTEB employee to prepare the application. Inclusive of travel time to Sacramento for presentations on the request. The estimated cost for doing this is $4,000. In addition there may be a need for review of documents by outside legal Counsel if the City's Legal Department is unable to due so. Costs are estimated at $1500. The estimated total application preparation fee would be $5,500. June 25, 1991 Supplemental Agenda Fremont City Council Meeting Page 8 It is known there is interest by other jurisdictions in participating in this effort although no confirmation has yet been received in writing. It is unknown if those other jurisdictions would be willing to assume a portion of the costs necessary to complete and submit the SDA application by the August 1 deadline. Because of the very tight timeline for establishment of a new SDA, the Mayor has sent letter to the other involved jurisdictions inquiring as to their interest in formation of a new joint powers agency. RECONEVIENDED AC'T'ION: If Council determines the best interest of the City would be served by formation of a new joint powers agency, the following action should be taken: 1. Subject to confirmation of other cities' support for designation as an SDA, direct staff to have prepared an application to the State for designation of a new joint powers SDA for administration of Job Training Partnership Act funds for southern and eastern Alameda County, and authorize the Mayor to sign the application. 2. Authorize the utilization of consultant services, not to exceed $5,500, for the preparation of the application, and direct staff to secure a commitment from the participating agencies to share the expense on the basis of population. Additional costs could be accrued to meet the additional requirements of becoming a JTPA Administration. Council would be given an opportunity to review these costs before proceeding to the next step in the process. A pro-rated share of these costs would be passed on to other participating jurisdictions. June 25, 1991 Supplemental Agenda 11-em011t City Council Meeting Page 9