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SEMCA WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BOARDWednesday, January 16, 2019SEMCA Michigan Works! 25363 Eureka Rd., Taylor, MIMINUTESMembers PresentAlternates Present Members AbsentCharlie MahoneyWanra PearsonJason EversConnie CarrollDonald O’ConnellTupac HunterNaheed HuqMike SmithRory Gamble/David PagacChris LaJoyGerald Hesson/Mike SmithPatrick LambrixDouglas MessanaFrank LopezSean SimsSheryll RodgersJames VanBurenMalin WagnerPatricia ChatmanMolly Leumpert-Coy Staff PresentGuestsGregory PitoniakTamara Lamper-NorrixTraci SassakAna SalazarDaniel MartinezDeborah TaylorBill HellarSameh ElhadyCall to OrderChair Mahoney called the meeting to order at 2:05 p.m.Board stands for the Pledge of Allegiance.Roll CallMahoney welcomed everyone to the meeting, and asked the board to remember those in California that have lost their lives and property to the fires. The board members and staff went around the room and introduced themselves. A quorum was present. Public CommentNo public comment was made upon request.Approval of AgendaMOVED by Carroll to approve the Agenda of January 16, 2018 as presented, supported by O’Connell. All voting aye, motion carried.Approval of MinutesMOVED by Leumpert-Coy to approve the Minutes of November 14, 2018 as presented, supported by LaJoy. All voting aye, motion carried.WIOA Adult Education Final ReportsWIOA Adult Education Final Reports were sent to the board for review prior to the meeting. No questions were asked and the report has been received and filed.Federal/State UpdatesPitoniak discussed the federal shutdown and the potential effect it will have on Michigan Works. The state reassures us that there is no issue with providing our regular funding at this time, but as we enter into February it becomes of greater concern. Stay tuned.At the State level, the start of the new Whitmer Administration has been a very positive transition for Michigan Works! Jeff Donofrio was the senior policy advisor for the governor’s transition team on workforce and economic development. He was spectacular in his efforts of reaching out across the State to the Michigan Works! Agencies and stakeholders. He attended the December MWA Directors’ Meetings and stated that they view us as an asset for state government. Pitoniak and Mahoney served in an advisory role with Donofrio. Board member Messana’s wife Jessica Brousseau was assisting Donofrio in his efforts and has been selected by the governor to be her Deputy State Director in Washington DC.Stephanie Beckhorn, Acting TED Director, is another very positive for Michigan Works! She has 18 years of workforce development at the state level and is very knowledgeable and supportive of the Michigan Works! system. It is unclear if they are going to reorganize or retitle the TED at this time.Mahoney noted that Gretchen Whitmore has sat on a Workforce Development Board for the Capitol Area Michigan Works in the past.MiLogin – Its intent is for the citizens of Michigan was to be able to log in to all state departments via one portal. An implementation date of October 1, 2018 was established for the Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA). As that date approached it was postponed due to the trial runs not performing as planned. It went online the Saturday before Thanksgiving and unfortunately it has not performed well in the last nine weeks with multiple breakdowns, and existing customers having to re-sign up for the system. UIA requested Michigan Works! to assist new and existing customers with manually creating new accounts. There have been numerous technology issues, and UIA has closed many of their problem resolution offices. Because an individual starts the process for obtaining unemployment with the Michigan Works! Agency, most people think that MWA is UIA, and therefore the Michigan Works! Service Centers have had to deal with extremely irate customers. Across the state, 80-90 percent of frontline service center staff-time is being spent on UI issues instead of their jobs. No funding has been provided for this work, and we have had two to three statewide conference calls a week on these issues. It has become just the MWA’s and TIA on the calls and not the people that created the problem. Service center staff across the state with concealed weapons permits are carrying in the office because of the hostile nature of the situation and threats. The situation has been elevated to the governor’s office. The UIA director offered to bring staff to our service centers to deal with these issues. All of the issues being communicated at this meeting the state’s team under the new administration were hearing for the first time. They were being told that it was just customers having difficulty adapting to the new system. DTMB stated that they do not know when the issues will be resolved. SEMCA has received requests for security or more security at our service centers with an estimated cost of about $50,000. Pitoniak noted to the board if they hear anything to please relay that this is not a MWA issue and that they are helping UIA out as they address these issues. Pitoniak thanked service center staff for their hard work. Pitoniak noted that out of the 38 state senators, 30 are new and 86 of the 110 house representatives are one term or less, and they must be hearing from their constituents about these issues. The MWA Directors did discuss composing a communication sheet to provide the legislators regarding this issue as well as having it available in all of our service centers. We will keep you informed.The second issue is regarding the Skilled Trades Training Fund (STTF). A recent cycle awarded $29 million in funding grants. SEMCA had 91 applications and 52 were funded for a total of $2,629,000. However, what grew in awareness was when the publication of all of the awards were published, Region 4 (Grand Rapids-West Michigan) received 33% of the total STTF funding. Southeast Michigan only received 6-7% of the funding. Region 4 does not have 33% of the population or employers in the state. Understandably, the rest of the state is upset. Beckhorn looked into the matter and discovered that 150 applications were 1 point or less from the threshold for funding and Grand Rapids submitted the most applications. Beckhorn is committed to create more transparency in the future and not doing an absolute percent per region but maybe cap how much a region can receive above the proportionate number of employers in the region. Region 4 received $9 million of the $29 million. WIOA In-Demand Policy 18-21Pitoniak noted the WIOA PY 2018 Demand Occupations SEMCA Policy Update is being brought before the board again because of the point that O’Connell discussed at the last meeting where not all trade positions were listed that will be in high demand with all of the planned construction projects in southeast Michigan over the next ten years. SEMCA will be adding a section to the list that will include high demand industries. We will bring the list back to you for review. If an occupation itself is not listed but can be determined to be a high demand industry sector need, Pitoniak can sign-off on training for that customer. Hopefully this change solves the previous concern. Strategic Plan Progress DashboardHellar had to leave the meeting so Pitoniak did a quick review of the dashboard. The mobile app is on hold. SEMCA’s COO Sonya Grant has moved on from SEMCA and SEMCA’s C-level Team has taken on some of her responsibilities until a new COO is hired. Communications Director Tim Johnston has been committed to the new website design and development for both SEMCA and WIN. Day-to-day marketing as needed is being done but the formal plan is on hold. Pitoniak noted its submission for the Michigan Works! Association’s IMPACT Awards. SEMCA’s winner is the collaboration effort with CVS Health, Henry Ford College and Michigan Works! Going Pro Pharmacy Tech Training Program. Participant Von’Shanique Banks will also receive an award for her successful completion of this apprenticeship program and employment with CVS Health in Inkster. The ceremony will take place in Lansing in February.Program UpdatesState Dashboard ReportPitoniak did a quick review of the State Dashboard Report, which provides metrics for which SEMCA is measured by the multitude of federal and state government funding streams. The economy is good right now so job seeker visits to our service centers and trainings are down. There were no questions. Report is on file.Pitoniak introduced the new Refugee Navigator, Sameh Elhady to the board. SEMCA is one of the few MWA’s that have this funding, which is provided to regions with refugee populations. His duties are to help refugees integrate into their communities by eliminating barriers to that transition and providing assistance with employment and/or job training. Elhady provided his education background in psychology and employment background working with minorities for several non-profits including Michigan Works! He discussed his work with Hamtramck, the new Project Rising Tides community to reach out and connect with the two Arab American community leaders as well as the legislative leaders to educate them on Michigan Works! Highland Park and the resources it can provide. They are strategizing ways to bring those services to everyone in their community.WIOA Youth, Foster Youth, JMG, WCCAN, Manufacturing Day, MiCareer QuestTaylor highlighted the JMG program events in November including the Initiation and Installation Ceremony in November at River Rouge. The State Director attended the event and advised they want to expand the program in the region. She also highlighted the Taylor Visioning Project Marshall Plan initiative and praised the Business Service Reps for SEMCA on their ability to obtain 13 businesses to serve on this initiative. A complete WIOA Youth report is on file.PATH, FAE&T, Adult Ed, Community Ventures-BRN and Project Rising TidesMartinez highlighted the Business Resource Network project. Collin Mays is leading the recruitment efforts for businesses to buy into this design of a career coach to reduce employee turnover by addressing the barriers which most often cause employees to leave or be fired from their jobs. SEMCA has contracted with two success coaches, one in Wayne County and one in Monroe County. They met with six businesses in Monroe last week and two of those business contracts have been signed. They are hoping for their first Wayne County contract this Friday. Connie Carroll and United Way were present at the Monroe meeting and it was exciting to see how we can use community partners as well as other resources to find ways to keep employees employed. WIN obtained the RFP to do a Turnover Study that will provide regional real-time data, which will provide validity in the presentation when recruiting businesses. A complete PATH report is on file.Deep inquired if the data can be broken down by age because that seems to an issue at the hospital. Martinez noted that we can ask WIN to use age. WIN needs employer input and Deep would be happy to be a resource in their efforts. Pitoniak will assure that WIN staff contact her to obtain her input. Any board members that would like to have input on that study, please contact Martinez with your contact information. Hesson noted the decline of pensions as a variable to lack of employee loyalty. Rodgers noted it will be interesting to see how much of it is related to disability. Employees are limited because of a disability and a lot of times do not disclose it to an employer for fear of losing their jobs. The BRN program will be tracking the reasons why employees come to see the career coach so we will obtain and produce the data.Pitoniak thanked Carroll of United Way, Leumpert-Coy of DTE and Lambrix of TWB for help in Monroe County. They were ahead of the curve with their own project that fit easily into the BRN program. Hesson discussed the AFL-CIO Community Services Liaison Assistant and UCAN services. Pitoniak will provide WIN with this information for the Turnover Study.WIOA, ES, TAA, OJT, IWT, Talent Fund, Apprenticeship-Work-Based LearningSalazar highlighted the need for board support pertaining to the Contractor RFP for WIOA Adult, Employment Services, Business Services and Wagner-Peyser. We are shooting for board approval at the May 2019 meeting. Please look at your schedules and make sure you have the board meeting on May 15, 2019 at 2pm on the calendar for quorum. The AARP 50 Plus Hiring Initiative will now go live in all 16 MWA’s with the SEMCA model being replicated from the pilot program about five months ago. SEMCA will provide the technical support for the MWA’s. A complete WIOA report is on file.Lopez recognized and applauded the collaboration that is going on like never before especially with business and education, and thanked SEMCA for its leadership.WINMiBright Future model was granted $4 million to expand statewide and Pitoniak is helping with contact negotiations.New/Old BusinessThe WDB Meeting Schedule was attached again to make sure you have the future board meeting dates. The roster is attached for you to review to make sure the contact information is correct. Contact Tamara if you have any changes.MOTION by Hesson to adjourn the meeting, supported by LaJoy. Meeting adjourned at 3:32 p.m. Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 2 p.m.Respectfully submitted,Tamara Lamper-NorrixExecutive Assistant – SEMCA ................
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