NoRTEC
MINUTES
WIB AND GOVERNING BOARD
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2001
10:00 A.M.-2:00 P.M.
CHICO, CALIFORNIA

1. CALL TO ORDER

   The meeting was called to order by J. Madden, WIB Chair, and J. Reese, Governing Board Chair, at 10:05 AM.

2. ROLL CALL

   There was a quorum of the WIB and Governing Board. Roster

3. WIB APPROVAL OF MINUTES, APRIL 26, 2001

   A motion by T. Cochran, seconded by D. Beeson, for WIB approval of the April 26, 2001, minutes as mailed, passed the WIB unanimously.
   
   A motion by R. Turner, seconded by E. McCain, for Governing Board approval of the April 26, 2001, minutes as mailed, passed the Governing Board unanimously.

4. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

   A motion by R. Sandler, seconded by C. Barton, for WIB approval of the Agenda, as mailed, passed the WIB unanimously.

   A motion by B. Dennison, seconded by B. Reiss, for Governing Board approval of the Agenda, as mailed, passed the Governing Board unanimously.

5. PUBLIC COMMENT

   There was no public comment. J. Madden asked for everybody in the room to introduce themselves. R. Turner was introduced as the alternate for G. Russell, Tehama County Board of Supervisors. P. Cantrall was introduced as the new Board member from Modoc County.

6. WIB APPOINTMENT

   There were no nominations for appointment to the NoRTEC WIB.

7. PROGRAM COMMITTEE REPORT

   Michele Piller, Program Committee Chair, presented the Program Committee Report.

   1. Program Monitoring

      M. Piller said there were no findings or problems of concern from the recent on-site monitoring visits conducted by NoRTEC staff.

      The next round of programmatic monitoring is tentatively scheduled for November and early December, weather permitting.

   2. State Monitoring

      There are currently no official scheduled State monitoring visits on the horizon.

      M. Piller said they had not received official correspondence in response to the "self-evaluation" guides submitted by NoRTEC staff to the Staff monitoring division. She said no problems are anticipated.

      Unofficial State Visits

      C. Brown spoke briefly about the recent visits to NoRTEC by State staff, including Andy Baron, State WIB Director. He said he believed the visits had helped establish a positive relationship and clarified the rural challenges that distance causes for communication, travel and "consensus." L. Beattie, State liaison for NoRTEC, confirmed that the trip to Quincy demonstrated the (positive) rural flavor of the NoRTEC One Stops.

   3. Welfare to Work (WtW) Client Numbers

      M. Piller said this program was pretty much over by June 30, 2001 (Butte and Trinity spent all funding as of June 30, 2000). There is no new funding anticipated. A total of 571 Welfare to Work clients were served in NoRTEC. T. Brown said that for the most part this was a very staff intensive program, serving the most difficult of client groups, the long term Welfare recipient with little in the way of work experience or transferable skills.

      B. Dennison asked if anything ongoing came out of the program. T. Brown responded that a new collaboration between Welfare and the WIA programs was ongoing in most of the counties. K. Suvia, Director of STEP, said their program was being kept going by new contracts from the local county Welfare Department. K. Schmitz said their public sector work crew was also being funded by their local county Welfare Department. C. Brown said it had also helped to foster a positive impression of the NoRTEC programs in the "Special Projects" division at the State, as he remembered Richard Carroll's praise at the last NoRTEC WIB/GB meeting for the "Best Practice" program models from Butte, Tehama and Siskiyou.

   4. WIA Client Numbers

      There was a brief review of client service levels in each of the Programs and for NoRTEC as a whole. P. Cantrall said the numbers were important, but didn't show the personal success of the AFWD program in her county (Modoc). She encouraged Staff to continue to explore different ways to provide the true success stories of the programs.

   5. Caregiver Training Initiative (CTI)

      T. Brown provided a brief update on the Caregiver Training Initiative (CTI). She reminded the group that this was an expanded NCEN project, including NoRTEC, NCCC, Mendocino and Humboldt (16 counties in all). The time frame for the project is March 1, 2001, through September 30, 2002. Contracts are mostly in place. She said brief project descriptions and dollar amounts for each were posted on the NoRTEC news web site.

   6. Plant Closure Update

      T. Brown presented the Plant Closure update, referring to the NoRTEC news web site for ongoing updates of the closures in the nine NoRTEC counties. There was a general discussion of the increasing number of failed businesses and unemployed in the NoRTEC area.

   7. Featured Community Coordinator Report

      T. Brown presented the Community Coordinator reports. She noted the agenda comment that it is getting a lot harder to pick a clear winner. The quality of the Community Coordinator reports is really impressive. The members gave a round of applause for this quarter's winning report from Trinity Occupational Training (Trinity).

      M. Piller said the Community Coordinator reports were accessible from the NoRTEC news web site. B. Dennison said he appreciated the write up in the agenda giving credit to all the reports for a job well done.

   8. Modoc County One Stop Report

      Kelly Poindexter, Modoc Community Coordinator, and Gary Corderman, Executive Director, of the Alliance for Workforce Development presented this quarters program report, highlighting the Modoc County One Stop.

      A motion by M. Piller, seconded by T. Cochran, for the approval of the Fourth Quarter Program Committee Report, passed the WIB unanimously.
      
      A motion by B. Dennison, seconded by P. Cantrall, for the approval of the Fourth Quarter Program Committee Report, passed the Governing Board unanimously.

8. FINANCE COMMITTEE REPORT

   B. Hamby, Finance Committee Chair, presented the Finance Committee report.

   1. PY 2000/2001 Funding

      B. Hamby said NoRTEC has $19,866,227 in available funds for the just ending program year July 1, 2000, to June 30, 2001. This is a $10,165,785 increase over the amount available in PY 1999/2000, due partly to the the addition of Butte and Shasta ($7,000,000), and partly to the special project funding received during the latter part of the program year ($3,000,000).

   2. Approval of PY 2000/2001 Fourth Quarter Financial Reports

      The members briefly reviewed the year end financial reports for 2000/2001, as presented in the agenda:

      PY 2000/2001 Contracts Summary
      PY 2000/2001 Service Provider Contract Modifications
      PY 2000/2001 Program Expenditure Report
      PY 2000/2001 NoRTEC Administrative Entity Expenditure Report
      PY 2000/2001 NoRTEC WIB and Governing Board Expenditure Report

      B. Hamby said these reports were preliminary, based on available information, but were not expected to change much on the final version. He said the Finance Committee didn't note any concerns.

      A motion by R. Withrow, seconded by L. Bosetti, for the approval of the Program Year 2000/2001 Fourth Quarter Preliminary Finance Reports, passed the WIB unanimously.
      
      A motion by B. Reiss, seconded by B. Dennison, for the approval of the Program Year 2000/2001 Fourth Quarter Preliminary Finance Reports, passed the Governing Board unanimously.
   3. PY 2001/2002 Funding

      B. Hamby said NoRTEC has $17,294,363 in available funds for the PY 2001/2002 Program Year. If an additional $1,503,750 in requested funding is received, NoRTEC will have $18,798,113 available for the 2001/2002 program year. This represents a $1,068,114 decrease in total funding from the PY 2000/2001 program year. The decrease in funding is primarily due to the reduction in NoRTEC's allocated funds (Adult, Youth and Dislocated Worker) for the 2001/2002 program year. NoRTEC received less allocated funds in the 2000/2001 program year because of the drop in California's unemployment rate relative to the rest of the country, and in NoRTEC's relative to the rest of California.

      B. Hamby said they were also concerned with a possible Congressional funding recission.

   4. PY 2001/2002 Contracts Summary

      B. Hamby said this item was for information, included so the members could see how the new NoRTEC funding (July 1, 2001 - June 30, 2002) was allocated to the county level WIA programs.

   5. State Monitoring of NoRTEC

      M. Cross said that during March, NoRTEC received an on-site monitoring from EDD to review NoRTEC's fiscal and procurement systems for compliance with all applicable federal and state laws, regulations, and policies related to the WIA program. He said the State monitor's suggestion that NoRTEC retain a copy of all local agreements, whether related to NoRTEC or not, would not be implemented for practical and liability reasons. He said no other concerns of significance were noted in the monitoring report.

   6. Fiscal Monitoring of Service Providers By NoRTEC

      M. Cross said he conducted on-site fiscal and procurement reviews of all NoRTEC service providers during May and June. The areas under review included accounting systems, allowable costs, cost categories, financial reporting, cost allocation, property management and procurement. As noted on the agenda, for the first time in at least 9 years of fiscal monitoring, there were no findings at any of the NoRTEC service providers. The members applauded the NoRTEC service providers for a job well done.

      B. Hamby said NoRTEC's letters of monitoring findings are available for review by interested WIB/GB members.

   7. Acceptance of PY 1999/2000 Single Audit Report

      B. Hamby said the NoRTEC WIB Finance Committee reviewed the June 30, 2000, Single Audit Report, and is recommending that the WIB and Governing Board accept it. He said there were no findings, questioned costs, or recommendations resulting from the Audit. M. Cross said copies of the report are available for review by interested NoRTEC WIB and Governing Board members.
      A motion by T. Cochran, seconded by D. Beeson, for the approval of NoRTEC's June 30, 2000, Single Audit Report, passed the WIB unanimously.
      
      A motion by B. Dennison, seconded by P. Cantrall, for the approval of NoRTEC's June 30, 2000, Single Audit Report, passed the Governing Board unanimously.

9. LOCAL MOU AND ONE STOP STATUS

   C. Brown said that when the STEP program finalizes their agreement with the State Department of Rehabilitation, all the One Stop Operators in each of the nine NoRTEC counties will have full One Stop designation.

10. STATUS OF FUNDING APPLICATIONS

    There was a brief presentation by C. Brown, consistent with the information presented in the agenda.

11. NORTEC WIA PLAN MODIFICATION

    T. Brown said it was time for the annual update of the NoRTEC five year plan. She briefly presented the "highlights" of budget summaries, participant summary, and local performance indicators and goals that will be submitted with this year's (PY 2001/2002) modification. C. Brown said the plan was mostly prescriptive, a "fill in the blanks" document that does not serve as the "guide" its name implies.

    A motion by R. Sandler, seconded by J. Allred, for WIB approval of the NoRTEC PY 2001 Plan Modification, passed the WIB unanimously.

    A motion by B. Dennison, seconded by R. Turner, for Governing Board approval of the NoRTEC PY 2001 Plan Modification, passed the Governing Board unanimously.

12. RESOURCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (RAC) UPDATE

    Frank Stewart, Forester, provided an overview and facilitated a discussion of the local planning and funding opportunities. His emphasis was on implementing a "hazardous fuels reduction" effort locally as quickly as possible, and to avoid getting side tracked on more planning. In response to a question by J. Madden, he said he would draft a letter the members who wanted to could use as a guide to writing to their elected representatives.

13. NoRTEC STATUS REPORT

    C. Brown said the NoRTEC program focus is on making local business our primary customer. He said J. Cox (WIB member from Trinity) agreed to say a few words to the members about his experience with the Trinity Occupational Training (TOT) program in Trinity County.

    J. Cox said he recently started a small business, and because he was a WIB member, he (reluctantly) let TOT help him find a young person for an internship. He said it worked out better than he anticipated, and now he wanted others to know what a good service the WIB program can provide to local employers. He said it was a good deal for him, and he felt pride in knowing he was helping a young man to make something of himself.

14. OLD BUSINESS

    No Old Business items were brought up for discussion.

15. NEW BUSINESS
    1. WIB and Governing Board - Thursday, October 25, 2001, at Konocti
    2. WIB and Governing Board - Thursday, January 31, 2002, in Redding
16. ADJOURNMENT

    There being no further Old of New business, the meeting was adjourned at 12:30 P.M.