WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BOARD OF
GENESEE AND
FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 2007
8:20A.M.
PRESENT: Marilyn Allor, Harry Blecker, Edward Donovan, Lewis Driskell,
Erik Eastman, Cheryl Gifford, Margaret Gulick, Robert Hardy, Suzanne Howell,
Kevin Keane, Jimmy King,
ABSENT: Alan Hartter (excused), Willie W. Middlebrooks (excused), Vera Perry (excused), Gary Smith (excused), Katie Wolf (excused).
STAFF:
OTHERS PRESENT: Atty. Peter Goodstein
I. CALL TO ORDER – Mr. Michael Zelley, Chair
a. Meeting
called to order at 8:06 a.m.
II.
CAREER
a. He
thanked the board for giving him the
opportunity to serve as Interim President/CEO and thanked staff, Mr. Martini,
and Ms. McAvoy for all of their help
b. The
staff and board are working closely and cooperatively with the state of
c. The
conflict of interest issue has been resolved and there will be a new policy put
in place (see attachment I)
d. There
has been a freeze in hiring including replacement positions.
e. We
have closed corporate credit card accounts and implemented stronger accounting
controls.
f.
We eliminated non essential travel.
g. The
CAI Annual Award Luncheon has been cancelled to save on expenditures
h. Motivating
the Teen Spirit and Landmark Education has been eliminated to reduce
expenditures.
i.
We suspended renewal of the Amistad project until the
monitoring results are received. The
monitors feel this is a good program. We
are putting together an RFP process and waiting on any findings that may be related
to that program.
j.
Any purchases exceeding $25,000.00 must be approved by
the State of
k. The
Board will be advised of any non service provider checks over $10,000.
l.
The Board will be advised of all Career Alliance
contracts.
m. The
Board Action Committee and representative from
n. We
are creating a request for proposal for an audit firm and a consultant.
o. I
have been attending the monthly directors meetings in
p. I
have had a meeting with the MOTT Foundation and hope to partner on some efforts
this fall.
q. The
No Worker Left Behind Initiative is up and running. A policy issuance has been
changed regarding the dollars to be used for training. Money is being located for this program.
r.
Career
s. We
are constantly looking for ways to save money.
We are looking at every detail to be responsible for our spending and
program initiatives.
t.
Asked for any questions…..
i.
Mr. Love stated that he felt very blind sided by these
issues. He would like to see a revision
made so that the board is made aware of any issues that may be a problem. He stated that all monitoring reports should
come before the board.
ii.
Mr. Moon said he agreed with Mr. Love and moved that
the President’s Update be accepted as presented. Mr. King supported.
MOTION PASSED
iii.
Mr. King suggested Mr. Love become a member of the finance
committee as his background would be helpful.
iv.
Mr. Donavan stated that we rely on certain inputs, and the
communication with the people we relied on in the system, broke down. He believes that there was complicity and the
board got duped. There is still a lot of
accountability that the board needs to exercise. He thanked all who put in hours to work on these
issues. He also commented that Board members should not learn of anything, for
the first time, through the newspaper.
v.
Mr. Ragsdale stated that after all the audits and
evaluations he would hope that the Amistad program could be saved because it is
a great program.
vi.
Mr. Zelley advised the board that it is the intent of
the board and administration to continue the Amistad program which would be run
through service providers. We are just
waiting on some direction from the state on the management.
Mr. Zelley said that the main object here is about services to our community. Last year there were 4,200 people who received jobs from CAI. There were 1000 individuals trained, and 32,000 who accessed employment services.
III. CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY – Atty. Peter Goodstein
a. There
was a footnote in the last audit report dealing with related parties. This issue became a discussion of conflict of
interest of which the footnote did not deal.
After a lot of discussion there was a letter issued by the Department of
Labor and Economic Growth that there was no conflict of interest on the part of
the WDB. For the future we have proposed
a new policy: In addition to the terms
of policy 05-13 (which is the DLEG policy dealing with conflicts) we propose in
the future that prior to dealing with any entity with this board that each
contract go before the Board. The WDB
will be publicly notified and then any member of the board could request a vote
on the entity. If a vote is needed then
the entity related will be excused from the meeting while the rest of the board
votes.
i.
Mr. Moon was given a copy of it per his request.
b. Mr.
Zelley stated that we still have met and exceeded our performance standards. We met eight performance measures and
exceeded nine. Also keep in mind that we
serve more WIA people than any other MWA in the state.
c. Mr.
Love moved to support the new conflict of interest policy, Mr. Donovan
supported.
MOTION PASSED
IV.
BOARD
COMMENTS
a. Mr. King acknowledged the hard work of Mr. Zelley to bring resolution to these issues.
b. Mr. Zelley thanked Mr. Coney and his staff for their hard work.
c. Mr. Love stated that this year it is now required to hand over your internal audit straight to the auditors. He advises that we consult an inside CPA to make audit booklet before handing in the final audit. He wanted to know if Mr. Zelley had any other issues that the board should be aware of.
d. Mr. Zelley stated that we were still working on the issues but there are no longer 27 to answer and the next meeting with the state will be on September 5th.
V.
ADJOURNMENT
a. Meeting was adjourned at 8:52a.m.
Lewis
E. Driskell
____________________________________
Mr. Lewis Driskell
Vice Chair, Workforce Development Board
Date: October 10, 2007
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