WHY THE SMOKESCREEN?

Federal law gives Tom Barrett the automatic right to run job training programs in Milwaukee. So why did he use taxpayers’ money to fund an unneeded study? Why the smokescreen surrounding the Governor’s – and Mayor’s – efforts to oust Gerard Randall?

Exclusive to the readers of www.milwaukeeworld.com

By Michael Horne

The Governor’s Council on Workforce Development (CWD) will meet Tuesday, March 27^th, 2007 to determine the fate of the Private Industry Council, (PIC) which has administered workforce development funds in Milwaukee County since before it became a private-public agency in 1989.

Originally a branch of Milwaukee County Government, the agency's functions will be transferred to a new City of Milwaukee bureaucracy if Mayor Tom Barrett gets his way. And it appears there is no other way.

Last year, Barrett used state Workforce Development money to hire Donald Sykes, a former Milwaukeean and Washington, D.C. consultant who once headed the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Community Services during the Clinton administration, and earlier, Milwaukee's Social Development Commission. Sykes was given a paycheck and the task of reviewing workforce programs in Milwaukee.

His study, “A Review of the Milwaukee Workforce Development System and Recommendations for Improvements, February, 2007,” filled 29 pages, yet did not make a single mention of the Private Industry Council.

Still, the report faulted job development situation in Milwaukee and recommended the mayor establish his own office – a power any mayor of any city over 500,000 population has had since 1998.

Finding the need for an “employer-driven, responsive, coordinated and well-funded” jobs program, without ever establishing that the PIC was lacking in those things, Barrett issued a press release on the subject, simultaneously appointing Sykes to head the new government agency, to be called The Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development.

He also dashed off a letter to the governor, giving the State’s chief executive no choice but to accept Barrett’s plan to gut the PIC.

HOW HE PULLED IT OFF

Barrett took advantage of a little-noticed provision in the Workforce Development Act of 1998, a specifically cited section 116(a)(2) in his letter to the governor.

Section 116(a)(1) outlines a variety of means by which a governor can select workforce agencies like PIC to fulfill workforce development goals in his state.

Section 116(a)(2), cited by the mayor, takes that power away from a governor if a person in Barrett’s position demands it.

The relevant section reads: “The Governor shall approve any request for designation as a local area ... from any unit of general local government with a population of 500,000 or more.” Thus it appears that Barrett’s study and his rationalizations about the alleged ineffectiveness of the Private Industry Council was a smokescreen for a pure-and-simple power grab, using provisions of federal law. Can you say, "disingenuous?"

However, the formalities continue to be observed, and the CWD will continue to take comments on this matter until Friday, March 23^rd, 2007, according to a letter from the Governor. In the letter, Doyle rolls over and plays dead at Barrett’s request, offering his wishes in the fait accompli that the power transfer will cause “minimal disruptions for the customers, providers and staff of PIC,” when its operations are shut down on July 1^st, 2007. It is the only time PIC is mentioned in any of the government documents cited above, which tells you something.
The agenda for the CWD meeting on Tuesday, March 27^th, 2007, shows only two speakers on the subject – Roberta Gassman, DWD Secretary, and Mayor Tom Barrett. This council must be the biggest rubber-stamping agency in Wisconsin, since it apparently will only hear sworn testimony from one side of the issue! March cannot be Civics Lessons Month in the Dairy State, that’s for sure! Since you are not invited to speak to the council meeting, your only recourse is to submit your thoughts on the matter by Friday. If you would like to present your comments on this power grab, send them by the close of business, Friday, March 23^rd, 2007 to gary.denis@dwd.state.wi.us

3 Comments:

At 12:06 PM, Anonymous said...: I don't understand. You point out that a 29 page report concerning job development in the city did not mention the PIC. You seem to suggest this is a problem with the report, rather than with the PIC. You point out that the report faulted the job development situation in Milwaukee. Who needed a report for that. Yet you state the mayor does not establish that the PIC lacks an "employer-driven, responsive, coordinated and well-funded jobs program." Do you want another report? Do you need one? Who besides Gerard Randall has ever suggested that PIC constitutes such? And does he heven dare say it?

Gerard Randall has proven he can be a fine guest on talk shows. He's a little long-winded but he is quite competent at establishing that he wants to keep his job running PIC. He is not, however, at all competent in establishing that PIC is sufficiently addressing the real problem of jobs in this city. For instance, his private little PIC playground seems to do little as industries in this very city scream out for welders. Get off the damn TV and train some welders.

You may not like the mayor. You may not think that he should control jobs programs in the city. However, the fact that he does not come out and say PIC isn't doing the job only shows he's not kicking a dead horse. It doesn't show the horse didn't need to be shot. Perhaps all Gerard's defenders could defend the job he's doing (apparently they can't) instead of carping at the mayor for changing a situation that is clearly not working.
At 3:26 PM, Anonymous said...: What he/she said ^
At 8:02 PM, Anonymous said...: When I listen to Conservative talk show hosts in Milwaukee, they utter that everythings on the up and up in this Nation. They say, "we live in a full employment society. Seems they fail to realize how terrible unemployment is within this city. They feel that the immigrants must take on the low paying jobs because no one wants them. I beg to differ because there are many folks who are applying for those jobs and are being told that few jobs are available.

I welcome this new job initiative. It's overdue. This city has been stuck in a status quo mode for too long. We have overlooked many opportunities in becoming a worldclass city.