Wayne DeBruin - CHAIR OF THE COMMITTEE
Wendy Brower - Member
Senator Arlene Lesewski - Member
David MacKenzie - Member

Guests: Carrie Thomas - Legal Services Advocacy Project
Woody Cox - CFL Staff

Attending - Present at Annex

Approval of Agenda and Minutes

Wayne DeBruin called the meeting to order and thanked Dave MacKenzie for chairing the last committee meeting on March 24^th.

A motion was made by Wendy Brower to approve the agenda and Dave MacKenzie seconded. The motion carried.

A motion was made by Dave MacKenzie to approve the meeting minutes of March 24^th and Wendy Brower seconded. The motion carried.

Mary Ellen Novotny explained the purpose of the meeting. The Workforce Development Committee was given the authority by Mr. Hale and Commissioner Wilson to recommend approval for items related to the Workforce Implementation Act for the Governor's Workforce Development Council. The local WIA plans (see meeting handouts for 6/2/00) and the status of performance negotiations as related to Adult and Dislocated Worker programs were the subjects of the 6/2/00 meeting. (See agenda for 6/2/00.)

The State received the local WIA plans on May 12. A team of approximately 30 individuals (system, program and technical experts in respective areas) was responsible for reviewing the 16 plans. When the plans came in, hard copies were distributed to staff who then worked on an intensive review process. A database was used to record comments from all 30 reviewers. Staff continue to work on compiling the comments.

The local planning instructions were divided into approximately 13 different areas starting with the area identifying their vision and goals. The local plans must tie into and reflect the statewide WIA goals outline in the State WIA Plan.

The Local Plan review process was completed at 1:00 p.m. on June 1. Staff are working now to collate and organize the comments. Each local area will receive a summary letter and stipulations on their local WIA plans. The stipulations are those items in the plan they will need to address for a complete and approvable plan.

Wayne DeBruin inquired as to how many local areas will need extensive work? Mary Ellen Novotny informed the committee that the review team is still working and that of the 16 plans, they have completed the summary of eight of the plans. On Monday, June 5, we will be in a better position to answer that question.

Dave MacKenzie inquired as to the WIA requirement - is it the State's responsibility or the entire Workforce Council's responsibility to approve the local plans? What does WIA require of the council and the state in regard to the local plans?

Mary Ellen clarified for the committee that the Governor's Workforce Development Committee does have to review key WIA planning processes including Local Plans and make recommendations to the full GWDC and the Governor or his designee. The State staff recommendation is to move forward to ensure that all local areas are funded for this program year (7/1/2000 - 6/30/2001), and to work with the local areas whose plans are not complete.

Wendy Brower inquired as to any common elements that have been incomplete in most plans.

Mary Ellen explained that some areas did not speak to the physical accessibility of the WorkForce Centers. In some local plans, the fraud policy was not detailed. The WIA Partner Relations Committee and this Committee also approved an impasse procedure in the Memorandum of Understanding. Some plans did not indicate that policy and they will be asked to include that procedure in their plans. Kathy Sweeney reported that in almost all the plans there is a need to improve continuous improvement efforts. Because staff are still compiling reports, this is a very preliminary summary of incomplete areas on plans.

At the GWDC sponsored Spring Training Institute in April, continuous improvement was an area that was stressed. This would be an example of an area the GWDC and its committees can work on with the local councils over the next year. One local council (Stearns/Benton) went beyond the local planning guidelines and provided a business plan that was practical, readable, and showed how it will improve services. We need to make sure all local councils get a chance to look at this plan. This is a good example of areas where a local council is leading the way for the State.

Dave MacKenzie commented that we are in this process together. WIA is a new law and this is the first year of it. We need to get the plans complete and move forward in the spirit of continuous improvement and come up with the best system we can.

Charlie Robinson updated the Committee on the Performance Negotiations.

The State is in the process of negotiations regarding the Adult and Dislocated Workers Programs with the Department of Labor (DOL) and needs to come to agreement for the Performance outcomes. WIA funds for the year beginning 7/1/2000 are contingent on coming to agreement with DOL by June 9^th.

The local plans are available to the Council and the public at http://www.mnworkforcecenter.org/wia/. All local plan revisions will be posted as they come in. We will send an e-mail with the address of the local plans to the Committee members this afternoon (Friday, the 2^nd).

The Department of Trade and Economic Development is the state agency managing the Dislocated Worker Program effective 7/1/2000 and DTED is also recommending that we approve local plans contingent on completions of incomplete plans. Roger Hughes and Louis Jambois of DTED fully participated in the local planning review process.

Senator Arlene Lesewski asked if summaries of each local plan will be available before next Friday's (June 9) GWDC meeting? Because we have 16 plans and the volume of the plans is so huge, Kathy suggested that the Senator consult with Juanita Lauritsen and the local partners in her Workforce Service Area to see their local plan and look on the website.

Mick Coleman suggested that the Senator might want to go to the local WorkForce Center office and use the higher speed dateline to access the website with the local plans on it.

Mary Ellen asked for action on the recommendation that MDES and DTED move forward with funding all local service areas.

Wayne DeBruin asked if there was any more discussion of the recommendation for suggested changes/revisions in local plans.

Wendy Brower asked about the time frame for negotiations with DOL on the performance measures. Byron Zuidema, the Regional Administrator of the US DOL, has indicated that DOL would like to wrap this up by June 9.

Wayne asked if that will be before or after the GWDC meeting on June 9? Charlie answered, hopefully before the June 9^th meeting.

Wayne asked if there was any other discussion?

The state is working with DOL to reach agreement on Adult and Dislocated Worker measures. There were some preliminary negotiations with DOL on May 10. At that time the state proposed the original percentages outlined in columns 3, 4, and 5 of the handouts (see Attachment). DOL came back with their suggested standards. After discussion with the local WSAs, Minnesota has come up with the current proposal and the proposals now are back at DOL. The negotiations should be completed no later than June 9. The response from Charlie Robinson was that, hopefully they will be done at least a day or two in advance, by June 8.

Senator Arlene Lesewski asked why the original State proposal is lower than the DOL suggested standard? Charlie responded that with Minnesota's original proposal, we did not have the DOL standards.

Wayne DeBruin asked how comfortable the state is with the measures and does the State think that we can accurately measure the results and do we have a system in place? Charlie Robinson answered that we are currently using the Wage Detail system and we are doing runs to get an indication as to where we stand now and how workable the system is.

Larry Eisenstadt reported that the Wage Detail system is subject to some problems. It is time consuming and subject to human error. Included in our proposal to DOL are standards to deal with those problems. Sample runs and tests have discovered problems with the Wage Detail system and other states have indicated the same problems Minnesota has found associated with this particular system. DOL has pledged to work with us on wage detail issues including developing interstate systems to deal with problems of coverage of the Wage Detail system.

Sanctions have been developed by DOL to be applied to states that do not meet agreed-upon performance standards. DOL has recognized that WIA is a new program with a number of measurement problems associated it. Therefore, DOL has indicated that if a state reaches an 80 percent level of its agreed-upon levels , the state would be deemed to have accomplished its goals for the first year.

Because WIA is a new program, DOL has indicated that there would be no penalty or sanctions applied the first year. The focus will be on technical assistance where necessary.

The first year is a learning year and DOL is eager to test principles in the field. DOL is also willing to provide assistance to states and localities.

Minnesota's record under JPTA is that we were the only state to meet the Youth, Adult and Dislocated Worker program standards in all WSAs.

Wayne DeBruin and Wendy Brower asked about what the term "Credential" means on the Performance Standard reports.

Larry Eisenstadt explained that this is a very "soft standard." DOL is not sure how to define credentials and is continuing to work with the states to define this.

Credentialing has been a subjective type measurement which DOL would like to make more objective. There is agreement between all states and DOL that the other standards are fairly objective and that credentialing still requires a lot of work.

Wayne DeBruin asked if committee members could get an update on the issues on June 8 in the afternoon, before the GWDC meeting. Staff agreed to send an e-mail update to committee members on June 8.

Wayne DeBruin asked if there was any other business? There is the GWDC meeting next week, June 9 at the Veterans Service Building near the Capital. The official mailing for that meeting went out yesterday afternoon, June 1^st. The information has been posted on the GWDC website which is located at: http://www.gwdc.org.

Wayne DeBruin asked if there was any other business?

Kathy Sweeney reported that there were a few items in the March 24^th minutes which needed attention. Kathy has met with Chairman Hale (for a strategic planning session) and they plan to have the Executive Committee for the GWDC meet on August 31 for a strategic planning session. They plan to invite the five agency heads to the joint Executive Committee and will review the work of each committee that has been done over the last year, and review the goals the GWDC has accomplished over the last year and where the GWDC will go in the next year.

The Workforce Development Committee will not meet again until after the Executive Committee meeting of August 31. Quorum issues will be discussed at the next Committee meeting which will be set after August 31. Also on that agenda will be bench marking and best practices. It remains a possibility that the Committee members can have a Dakota county visit with LaDonna Boyd and Helen Dahlberg at some point, possibly in the early fall. Kathy looks forward to continuing to staff the Committee. If you have questions, call Mary Ellen Novotny at 651/296-3505 or Kathy Sweeney at 651/296-3700.