By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
Boone County Judge Executive Gary Moore started the discussion on a proposed MOA with Campbell County and Kenton County, along with the Chamber of Commerce, and the NKADD and quite a few other agencies for the Northern Kentucky Work Initiative, called NKY Works.
“I support it completely,” said Moore. “I’m for it.”
But the other commissioners had plenty of questions, and didn’t hesitate to voice their opinions.
Judge Executive Gary Moore supported the new NKY Works effort. (Photo by Patricia Scheyer/NKyTribune)
Commissioners Chet Hand and Cathy Flaig ultimately voted no on the MOA, and Commissioner Jesse Brewer joined Judge Moore in a yes vote, but the resolution did not pass.
Boone, Kenton and Campbell Counties have been working to develop several initiatives aimed at working on workforce challenges within the Northern Kentucky region. This effort, coupled with a recommendation from an in-depth study performed by Northern Kentucky University, resulted in a proposal to develop NKY Works, a program which would highlight an office tasked with developing and overseeing workforce policy and initiatives, all the while partnering with the region’s employers, the education community and other agencies to find ways and means to address workforce challenges.
This new plan would leverage the resources currently available in the region, including the Northern Kentucky Area Development District’s role as fiscal agent for the Workforce Investment Board and other services.
Commissioner Chet Hand led the opposition, immediately questioning the need for yet another governmental agency to do a job when there are so many other agencies tasked with the job of workforce development.
“I know we are saying we are not creating another entity per se, but it does seem like we are creating something,” said Hand. “Do we not have workforce development already covered under the scope of the area development district?” He noted that there are 16 other agencies partnering in the new agency who all have pages devoted to workforce development. “I am unbelievably opposed to the creation of any additional boards, commissions or layers of ‘quasi governmental’ agencies, or whatever you call it.”
Three Boone County commissioners had questions about how NKY Works would work. (Photo by Patricia Scheyer/NKyTribune)
Judge Moore said that this agency would be modeled after the drug control policy from the office of drug control, and that agreement started out with a lot of other agencies and reduced down to a few efficient, lean groups to make it a success.
County Administrator Matthew Webster said Hand’s point was well taken but he said there will be no additional funding for this agreement. The county helps to fund the BE NKY group under the NKADD, and the $100,000 that is involved in that funding would be the only money going into the agreement.
Hand replied that it might be revenue neutral today, but in the future it might not be, and it is very hard to take funding away from something already in existence.
“Boone County has one of the highest workforce participation rates of any county in the Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati region,” said Judge Moore. “The shortage of employees is noted, and arguable, and we know that companies have a hard time finding employees. The current system is efficient, but disjointed. All the agencies have the same mentality, but they don’t communicate as well, so we thought we would have a better outcome if we had it all in one place, which is NKADD, and had a leader, Correy Eimers, from NKADD, to pull it all together and coordinate the efforts.”
He said they were not creating a new agency or budget, but making it a one stop shop. He thought this agency would connect all the good work done by the other agencies.
Hand said he thinks NKADD should have some responsibility there, and so should the other agencies.
“I have a real problem with the Chamber,” he stated. “I think they ought to stop spending time on these extreme progressive social issues and spend more time helping our businesses, workforce development being a critical part of that.”
Commissioner Cathy Flaig agreed with that statement, saying she is a business owner and the Chamber did absolutely nothing for her company. She did acknowledge that they were a small company, but said the support would have been helpful.
Hand said if there are that many agencies that all had the same goal of workforce development, and any one of them could take the lead in this effort, but they weren’t doing their job, the solution should not be to create another entity to make them do the job, but to encourage them to step up and do the job. Hand said if the other agencies can’t do the job, why do they exist?
Judge Moore countered, saying he thought it would make a leaner operation. He said NKU studied the problem and came up with this recommendation to create NKY Works with Correy Eimer at the helm. He said he sure didn’t like the optics to the business community if they thought the county didn’t want to help with this effort.
Hand thought that before they created something new he wanted to look at how they can leverage the ones they already have.
“I am always wary of government continuing to bloat itself and get bigger,” he stated. “My interpretation is that this is what this is. This is not about workforce development, this is about government expansion. I don’t like the idea of passing something to see what it can do. It kind of sounds like ‘let’s pass this bill so we can see what’s in it’. I’m opposed to it.”
Commissioner Flaig agreed.
“I have seen a lot of boards come and go, mostly come, and I don’t know that what we have shouldn’t be enough,” she explained. “I don’t know if we’re creating more of a monster. I know that sounds bad, but I don’t know what we are helping. There is a job fair somewhere every weekend. I think the businesses should promote themselves.”
Judge Moore was obviously taken aback when the issue was voted down.
“I don’t know what I’m going to tell them,” he said. “There is no doubt there is a workforce shortage. We need to do better. We have been known to do better.”
Commissioner Hand told the judge that he would be happy to talk to the people and explain his position and he could give them his phone number.
