Resolution 120067

..Title Authorizing the Committee on Commerce and Economic Development to hold hearings on the merger of the City's workforce development agencies. ..Body WHEREAS, The Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation (PWDC) is a private non-profit organization that has been providing employment services to the residents of Philadelphia for over thirty-five years, both unemployed and underemployed individuals; and WHEREAS, Founded in 1999, the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board, Inc. is a non-profit organization that serves as the staff to a volunteer Board appointed by the Mayor of Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board works to align the skills of the region's labor force to meet the needs of industry, in support of the region's growth and prosperity; and WHEREAS, Over the last four years, half a billion dollars in public funds were spent in Philadelphia in the name of workforce development-helping residents get jobs or skills and employers find workers to sustain or expand their businesses. These services, which include training for workers and recruiting for employers, were funded largely by federal and state dollars at an annual cost that ranged from $118 million to $134 million. All of these services were free of charge to workers; most were free to employers. Had these efforts been part of City government last year, and they were not, they would have constituted its fifth biggest department, surpassed only by police, fire, prisons, and human services. Roughly 1 in 10 working-age Philadelphians have sought help at a workforce development center on an annual basis. Behind this system have been the Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation and the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board. For years, the performance of the two organizations received little attention and their complicated division of roles sometimes led to confusion and impasses. In recent years, unpublicized state audits have found isolated problems with their financial controls. That structure is now being changed, and a new strategy is being implemented. The development corporation and most functions of the investment board are to be combined under a single agency, Philadelphia Works Inc., which will formally take over by June 2012; now therefore, be it, RESOLVED, That the Committee on Commerce and Economic Development is hereby authorized to hold hearings on the merger of the City's workforce development agencies. ..End