Mayors' workforce development directors from cities across the country gathered January 16 - 18 in conjunction with The U.S. Conference of Mayors 69th Winter Meeting. The mayors' call for the new Administration and 107th Congress to address the workforce needs of cities was on the top of the Mayors' Employment and Training Council (ETC) agenda. Mayors' workforce priorities are outlined in Conference President Boise Mayor H. Brent Coles' report, Priorities for "The New American City" and includes addressing the skills gap, at-risk youth and welfare reform.

Strengthening the Nation's Workforce Investment System

Raymond Uhalde, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Employment and Training Administration for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), opened the meeting with a discussion on how DOL aims to meet the nation's workforce needs through local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) and One-Stops. Uhalde is focused on strengthening the delivery of the workforce system now underway with the nationwide implementation of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA). "The One-Stop system is the cornerstone of workforce development delivery and must be funded accordingly." Uhalde called for greater partnerships with technological firms, better electronic communication, more sophisticated reporting to the consumers and greater access for people with disabilities.

Uhalde discussed pending legislation including welfare reform reauthorization and reform of the unemployment insurance system. Uhalde predicts that immigration issues, critical to workforce supply, will be a major focus in the 107th Congress. Fees from H-1B immigrant visas are increasing and providing one of the few opportunities to expand funding for skills training that is not subject to appropriations.

Mayors' Workforce Investment Boards

Uhalde praised mayors' local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) as fundamental to making the system responsive to business needs. Uhalde introduced a WIB panel starting with New Orleans Mayor Marc H. Morial's Chair-Elect of the New Orleans WIB, Charles Alexander, who is Regional Human Resources Director of the McDonalds Corporation. Alexander and Thelma French, Executive Assistant to the Mayor, emphasized that they are building a system, not a program. Alexander said, "the bottom line is that we have to get focused and get focused quick to truly serve the citizens of our community, not the programs we run."

Also on the panel was Bill Brown, Chair Elect of the Northeast Indiana Workforce Investment Board and Owner of Summit City Electric, Inc., and Steve Corona, President of Jobs Works in Fort Wayne. Brown said, "key to the success of our WIB is the relationship with Mayor Graham A. Richard who has a great vision for our community and is using us to make it happen." Brown is focused on life-long learning and responding to the labor market needs of the Fort Wayne metropolitan area. Corona said, "the best thing we've done is stay focused on skills. Business is seeing us in a different light especially through the H-1B skills grants."

Workforce Development and the 107th Congress

Jane Oates, Senior Education Advisor for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, praised mayors for championing the cause for youth and getting the additional $102 million in Department of Labor youth funding. Oates supports the ETC's focus on at-risk youth and called for a greater focus on youth in prison. She asked the ETC to weigh in early on what needs to be fixed in WIA to prepare for WIA oversight hearings in the summer and welfare reform reauthorization.

D'Arcy Philps, Professional Staff for the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, reported that a major focus of the 107th Congress will be the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). He challenged ETC members to determine how workforce development will connect with ESEA legislation.

Bill Kamela, Senior Vice President for Global Resources Division, who has extensive experience with Congress and Department of Labor, echoed the Congressional remarks in his presentation on how to increase Congressional support for the workforce system. Kamela said, "we need more show and tell with job training. We need to educate new members and get the endorsement of major corporate clients."

Comprehensive Youth System

Representatives from several federal agencies gave presentations on how they are responding to the mayors' call for a comprehensive youth system that includes at-risk and disconnected youth. Lorenzo Harrison, Director of the Office of Youth Services at DOL, urged the ETC to make the WIA Youth Councils the best they can be and foster private sector connections to strengthen local youth systems. Jon Weintraub, Director of Policy Analysis, at the U.S. Department of Education pointed out that unlike DOL youth programs, Education programs are not fully federal funded. Weintraub reported that Adult Education programs are only 25 percent federally funded and Vocational Education programs are only 7 percent federally funded.

Doug Dodge, Senior Policy and Legal Advisor to the Administrator at the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said that re-entry for youth offenders is a real problem nationwide. Dodge reported on the new grants available for re-entry programs for youth offenders, which are jointly offered by DOJ, DOL and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Steve Yank, Program Analyst in the Office of Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), presented on plethora of HUD youth programs and welcomed ETC input on more comprehensive strategies.

James A. Harrell, Acting Commissioner at the Administration for Children, Youth and Families at HHS, shared the ETC's frustration about scattered youth programs and presented the document, Toward a Blueprint for Youth: Making Positive Youth Development A National Priority, which is a collaboration endorsed by the Conference to promote and support young people as resources and leaders for our communities and country.

Mayors' Youth Councils

At the local level Mayors' Youth Councils are charged with bringing together all the scattered youth programs into a comprehensive youth system. David Brown, Executive Director of the National Youth Employment Coalition, described challenges of Youth Council development including engaging the K - 12 system, involving business, balancing the need for participation of all partners verses the unwieldy size of the council, involving youth, institutional inertia, performance measures, and inadequate resources. Brown said that a major priority of his coalition is to work with the Conference on advocating for youth funds.

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's Youth Council Chair, Skipp Sanders, Ph.D, who is the Deputy Superintendent of the Maryland State Department of Education, presented the "real world" of Youth Councils. Dr. Sanders said Baltimore's Youth Council is very strong due to a long history of building relationships since 1986, but is facing challenges including mapping youth resources and addressing the changing dimension of summer jobs. Karen Sitnick, Director of the Office of Employment Development for the City of Baltimore, said that Mayor O'Malley, who hosted the first Youth Council meeting in City Hall, has played a key role and looks to the Council as his "youth arm" in Baltimore.

Jeff Simering, Director of Legislative Service at the Council of Great City Schools, revealed that superintendents he works with are leery about partnership programs with workforce development such as School-to-Work, though they welcome collaboration.

TANF Reauthorization

Hearings will be held in this first session of the 107th Congress for the reauthorization of the welfare reform law, which includes Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Samara Weinstein, Deputy Director of the Office of Family Assistance at HHS, opened the TANF Reauthorization panel and described three critical next steps. They are 1) maintaining the investment and flexibility, 2) investing in childcare, child support, fatherhood and health care, and 3) taking advantage of the data and research available.

Gretchen Odegard, Director of Human Services Legislation at the National Governors Association, welcomed the opportunity to work with the ETC and said that Governors are happy with TANF flexibility and funding levels. Odegard said that the biggest areas for reform are in related programs including food stamps and child welfare.

Elaine Ryan, Director of Government Affairs at the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA), echoed Odegard's comments by saying that APHSA is pushing for food stamp reform so that there are transitional food stamps for working families. Ryan is also focused on the restoration of immigrant food stamp benefits.

Julie Strawn, Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy, described key questions in reauthorization including: 1) how does TANF work as a funding stream for the working poor, 2) how do we better serve those receiving TANF; and, 3) how do we better help families move off TANF? Strawn reported on the huge drop in cash assistance from $23 billion in 1994 to $14 billion in 1998. The biggest shift in state spending is to childcare, but beyond that it is very difficult to determine how states are spending the TANF savings. Strawn warned the ETC to watch out for a proposal that will cut TANF dollars in exchange for a reduction in the state requirement for reinvesting TANF savings, which is now at 75 percent. She also projected that the new administration will focus on the role of faith-based organizations and perhaps a federal investment in promoting marriage.

Eileen Sweeney, Director of the State Low-Income Initiatives Project at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities warned that Bush's tax cut proposal in 2001 will determine the direction for TANF reauthorization in 2002. Sweeney said that in order to avoid a cut in TANF, Congress must be made aware of the good ways states are spending TANF savings to serve the working poor. Sweeney urged the ETC to provide anecdotes about how people moving from welfare to work get caught between the systems and what ways the systems are not working for them.

Andrea Kane, Outreach Coordinator for Welfare Reform and Beyond at The Brookings Institution, introduced Brookings' "Welfare Reform and Beyond Project" which aims to synthesize research, provide a place for broad based, reasonable and civil dialogue, further the agenda on working families and make sure the media is well educated as it covers welfare reform reauthorization.