Abele wants worker training agency back

He asks Walker to take control from city and give it to county

MADISON - Ten years after the previous governor took it away, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele wants GOP Gov. Scott Walker to put a worker training agency back under county authority.

In a letter to GOP Gov. Scott Walker on Friday, Abele asked that Walker move control of Employ Milwaukee from the City of Milwaukee to the county, bringing with it millions of dollars in federal and other training dollars.

The letter could give Walker an opportunity to undo a change made a decade ago by his Democratic predecessor, Gov. Jim Doyle, who shifted responsibility for the agency to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

Not surprisingly, a spokesman for Walker said the governor is willing to consider the change and will decide in the coming weeks after consulting with the state labor department.

“It’s something the governor is open to,” Tom Evenson said.

Employ Milwaukee, a workforce development board, seeks to connect workers and businesses, offering help with the training needed to make both employers and employees successful. The agency spent $16.6 million in largely federal funds in the fiscal year ended on June 30.

In the letter, Abele argued that it made sense to have Employ Milwaukee overseen by the county because worker training calls for a regional approach that goes beyond a single municipality.

“Returning the designation to the county is in line with national best practice — to administer workforce services at a more regional level,” Abele wrote.

Abele said he wants to keep working with the city on initiatives such as Barrett’s Earn and Learn program, which provides summer employment opportu-

nities for youth.

In an interview, Barrett said he believes the program is working well and doesn’t need to change.

“We’re proud of the work that we’ve done,” Barrett said of Employ Milwaukee. “I have not heard a single complaint.”

Abele believes that Walker can make the designation for Employ Milwaukee together with his Council on Workforce Investment and does not need approval from lawmakers or others.

But Barrett said that under current federal law he believes the governor can step in and decide only if local officials can’t work out an oversight arrangement.

In April 2007, Doyle designated the City of Milwaukee as the new authority for what was then known as the Private Industry Council.

At the time, the Democratic governor said his decision would improve accountability and effectiveness.

Noting the high unemployment rate in the city, Milwaukee Ald. Tony Zielinski said he would put a nonbinding resolution before the Common Council urging the state to keep the program as is.

“We feel that the people who are most in need are in the city,” Zielinski said.

Politics are an inevitable part of such decisions — Walker is a prominent conservative who even in 2007 was considered a top potential Republican candidate for governor.

Though Abele is a Democrat, he works more closely with Republicans than Barrett, who ran unsuccessfully twice against Walker for governor.