Travis County Commissioners Court
November 7, 2006
Item 9
Nine is to consider and take appropriate action on the ex-offender workforce development work plan for fiscal year 2007 from criminal justice planning.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners. I'm carol colburn, interim criminal justice coordinator and I have with me here kimberly pierce, a planning manager with cjp. And we're here this week, we basically have met with hr since last week and we lit on a job description that everyone felt was appropriate for this description and have redone our functional job description to better match that. We've also been working with pbo to where a slot list, we're, you know, just waiting to create that and we want to try to get this person hired yus as soon as possible to get them working. And that is -- that's the difference in your backup today, but we're also going to be looking at our services in lieu of finding out that hhs money was not particularly just for ex-offenders, but for anyone, we're going to be looking for our money for our services, the $20,000 in here and reevaluating that as well.
>> on this, I think this is something that a lot of people have talked about doing for years. The number of ex-offenders in our community who are not working is atouchdowning. And when you consider that without employment it's difficult to support quowr self, and if you've got dependents, it's almost impossible to support them. I just think we can make a whole lot of dins if we help -- difference in we help in this area. The other thing is I'm not sure if we're as systematic as we could be in this area. So if we use this money to do that, we will gain a lot. The other thing is that there are four or five other big categories that we ought to try to attack, ex-offenders, their goal, aspirations, skills, etcetera, employers willing to participate, providers, and any other public entity, especially the state and federal government, that they provide. The other thing is that lately when I see grant possibilities that come from capcog and other entities, more and more state and federal dollars are kind of focusogex-offenders and providing programs and services to help them. But you ought to have a specific project or program that you're trying to implement before you apply for that. I just think there are a world of possibilities, but our goal ought to be I think to be a lot more systematic than we've been so far. So this is just a big -- kind of a big piece of a much larger puzzle, but this is a critical piece.
>> judge, I -- as I stated before, we've kind of been wreltion with this idea for a long time. And fine lip I think we've come to some type of direction where we tried to put our arms around it and go forward, which I'm pleased to hear because when you really look out there and we encourage folks to get involved with the employment of ex-offenders, we kind of pay the employers out there, hey, why not hire an ex-offender. And then when it really looks and get right down to the nitty-gritty of the matter, what is Travis County doing? They can ask the same question, what are you doing in the interest of hiring ex-offenders? And I just really think that this is an appropriate route to go, but not only that, but there are other persons that we set aside some money this year to not only look at ex-offenders, which we've kind of daferb carve bed out a little bit, but there are others that are in critical need of employment opportunities through this workforce initiative. So again, I am very anxious to look forward and dealing with this. I guess my whole bottom line concern I guess is after all of this is said and done, there may be some folks that are unaware of what we've been doing or what we've been doing in the past and how we get to where we are today. It's been a long road, a long process, but we have maintained and stayed the course to make sure that we continue in the road of hiring -- the opportunity of hiring ex-offenders, but not only those ear things that will come up under hhs and other, a whole bufnlg of folk involved in this as far as the network is concerned. And kimberly, I think if you can recall, there was some time ago that you brought that up, we were looking at the demographics, we looked at a lot of data back in the past as to how we could identify all these things. I want to make sure that whoever this person is that we do hire still have the available tools necessary to make sure that they're aggressively looking at all of the opportunities and look at these particular situations, make sure that they're available. So those two that we have already looked at in the past, would they still be available to whoever this person is? How would that work?
>> yes, sir.
>> we're going to take all of our data that we gathered a couple of years ago and make sure the person we hire has all these tools available for to him or her so we have this process available.
>> okay.
>> but rft assured we'll be sure to let the court know how everything is going.
>> judge, that's about my comments on that.
>> okay. Commissioner Daugherty fks.
>> I'm ready to move forward on that.
>> judge, I'm willing to try this thing, although I've got some sear quus doubts about where we're going with this deal. If you look at the barriers to ex-offenders, just pick out three of the thing that I think are the rowbl why these people are so challenged, to why we as Travis County would have a hard time employing people. When you have 50% that do not have high school educations, when yoif got 40 -- you've got 40% that don't have stable residence. When you have 45% that have alcohol and substance abuse problems action you are challenged with those folks. Does that mean that we shouldn't try? No? I mean, but I want to really make sure that if we're going to do this that we've really got the measures to -- which to apply. Because this is one-time funding. And one-time funding is a cries because the next year you say you're essential not going to cut that out, are you? Well, groj we are or not, but unless we can really show the benefits to this, I would think that maybe we use as a model what we're able to do at Travis County. If we can't hire some of these people with Travis County and keep them here, then I'm going to be hard pressed to continue the program for next year, but I think wee -- hey, we're just trying to take on another ill that society has and in the scheme of things it may be relatively inexpensive to try it, but I really want us to be able to measure what we've gotten for $100,000. So I think that's our challenge.
>> I agree.
>> judge, very quickly a comment. Some of the jobs that you think might be available, if you can't pass the drug test or the continuing drug tests, you are not going to be able to get a commercial driver's license, so a lot of the heavy equipment jobs are also potentially not available. And if anybody had anything related to a theft you cannot be be around money. So it is a challenge, but we've got to try. And I think this is worthwhile. My only question is that it has underneath the -- what the f.t.e. Shall. It says the f.t.e. Shall develop the performance measures and detailed work plan. It seems to me if we wait until the person gets hired, we have wasted a lot of very valuable time and it really ought to be a collaborative effort involving all parties and the Commissioners court to decide what the performance measures shall be and what the detailed work plan ought to be as opposed to that it is imposed upon the person who just got there. That what you meant?
>> no, ma'am. What I meant by this is making sure that he or she who was hire also has their input.
>> absolutely.
>> it seem like a lot of the good work can be occurring as we speak so they are ready to go and that person would be charged with carrying out the performance measures and the details worlt plan in addition to providing your input.
>> yes, ma'am.
>> we need this person on board by the first of the year to give him or her nine months to show what we can accomplish. What I have in mind is one person who is -- who can dedicate full time and attention to this thissest, but this one person really needs to be assisted by a whole lot of other people, county supervisors, managers, Commissioners court, a lot of the community group I had said. Friends mine who are retired have boasted about their willingness and ability to volunteer to assist this effort, so this would be mib opportunity really to call on them. The other thing is we can accomplish a whole lot in nine months. I don't know that I expect miracles, but I expect enough to help us determine whether or not this has been a good investment or not. Some of this stuff is kind of similar. We talk about g.e.d. High school education, but the ability to read and write, those abilities are real important. And if you can't read and write, then it seems to me that we probably already have found, along with the city of Austin, agencies that do just that. So if we put reading and writing first after you get your g.e.d. To help you get a job, but there are people in this business who would be be happy to sit down with us I think and help us reason through this. And so I see us really trying to take advantage of opportunities like that hopefully.
>> that was one of the things I mentioned last week is that you can't even get into the very good scwob training things that we've got like capital i.d.e.a., if you don't even have those basic skills and that is why we are indeed trying to do things like the Austin academy and reading is fundamental, literacy office to be able to get people the very basics so that they have the chance be it six months, nine months, two years later to be able to get into those other job program.
>> mr. Derryberry, what are we overlooking here?
>> just include in your motion to allow pbo to process the amendment as necessary to make this work. It's inside that budget, but it needs to go with the personnel line item a lot of it as an automatic. And also to for purposes of a small capital item in here it has to be processed so that we move along as quickly as possible.
>> let me ask this question of staff. Do you know much any other govment al entity -- of any other governmental entity in Travis County or anywhere else that is doing similar things as we are trying to do here now? I wish it was closer to home. Williamson county, somebody else close around, but if not, then do you know of anyone that's doing something similar to what we're doing?
>> no, sir, I don't.
>> okay.
>> [one moment, please, for change in captioners]
>> I think that you have to proactively seek to employ these individuals, otherwise you don't hire them.
>> well, they will definitely be productive citizen. They can do a whole lot of other things if employment opportunities were made readily available where they have an entryway into those particular opportunities. And I really feel that this is an entryway to those opportunity. For better productivity as residents of Travis County.
>> they've still got to do the job.
>> that would be be my motion, judge.
>> the other thing that amazes me is how many ex-offenders have a serious problem because they don't have a driver's license. And they had one but either they can't get it renewed because of other consideration orders other issues. So if that is the issue and they really have skills, then the question is what do we need to do to help them do that? In a way that doesn't cost us or in the long run is fwoicial us as a community.
>> second.
>> I already seconded it.
>> that's why I move approval, y'all.
>> thank you, Commissioner. I got ahead of you that time.
>> we'll go for a dual second, how about that?
>> with authorizations to pbo to process --
>> to process it as automatic.
>> any more discussion of the motion? If I promise not to continue. All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, November 7, 2006 10:11 PM