San Bernardino Employment and Training Agency Funding Extended

San Bernardino Employment and Training Agency funding has been extended 60 days after the San Bernardino City Council asked the City Manager to further explore how to fund the program and take necessary action with auditors to focus on single audits. The City Attorney's office has been directed to move forward with the appeals process. The direction comes following a July 29 council meeting held to further discuss and determine if interim general fund resources should continue to be used to fund the San Bernardino Employment and Training Agency, a grant-funded workforce development agency, pending a determination by the state Employment Development Department of whether funding would be reimbursed. Also discussed was how to proceed with the city's state fund cash-hold status and the Governor's recent denial of the city's application for designation as a Local Workforce Development Area (LWDA) for 2015-17 under the new federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) due to the delay in submitting completed audits. After five hours of presentations, public comments, and discussions, the Council voted 4-2 to proceed with funding SBETA for 60 days with conditions. The City Manager will continue to work with SBETA to seek alternative funding sources in an effort to limit the impact on the general fund; 60-day funding shall not to exceed $250,000. The City Manager is empowered to redirect the outside accounting firm, Macias, Gini and O'Connell LLP, conducting the 2012-13 and 2013-14 audits to focus on the single audits needed to lift the state's cash-hold. Since the cash-hold was implemented in October 2014, the city has supplemented SBETA with 1.5 million dollars from the general fund with the understanding that the City would be reimbursed after submission of the delayed audits. Simultaneously, SBETA and the City Attorney's office will proceed with the appeals process with the California Workforce Development Board to lift the cash-hold and to designate San Bernardino as a LWDA under the WIOA. The council will reconvene Sept. 21, at which time an update and a collaborative plan moving forward will be presented.