ILLINOIS JOBS, ENERGY PROGRAM FALLING SHORT
Illinois legislators created the Urban Weatherization Initiative in 2009, promising that as much as $ 425 million in taxpayer money would go to train an army of workers in predominantly African- American neighborhoods to identify and fix energy- efficiency problems in homes.
The initiative would put people to work in economically struggling neighborhoods statewide and help homeowners cut their utility bills, supporters said.
But five years later, the program has fallen far short of its goals.
By now, backers had wanted thousands of workers to be drawing paychecks through the weatherization program— which is part of Gov. Pat Quinn’s massive, $ 31 billion Illinois Jobs Now initiative— and to have at least 1,000 homes given an energy- efficiency workover including the additions of weather- stripping, caulking, insulation and new natural gas water heaters.
But records and interviews show:
More than 1,900 people have been trained for jobs as laborers and inspectors for the program. But only a fraction of them have been put to work or found jobs utilizing their skills outside the program. Exactly how many isn’t clear. State officials say they don’t have a figure. People involved with the program say it’s only a small percentage of those trained.
Officials say that’s because no work on homes was done until last spring— three years later than planned. As a result, only 183 homes have gotten energy upgrades.
More than $ 13 million of the $ 16 million- plus spent so far has gone for administrative costs and training.
Worker training didn’t begin until 2011, though Quinn signed the legislation into law in July 2009.
Many of those who have gotten work through the program are being paid not at the $ 20- an- hour expected rate for these relatively unskilled jobs but instead at the scale the state sets for skilled carpenters— as much as $ 49 an hour. That’s because the program’s architects failed to recognize salaries would need to be in accord with the state’s Prevailing Wage Act, which doesn’t have a category for weatherization workers. With each home limited to repairs of no more than $ 6,500, the inflated pay has eaten up money intended for the improvements.
“Contractors are running away from this” because of the high pay, says Kerry Knodle, executive director of the Illinois Youth Build Coalition in Rockford, a nonprofit agency involved in the project.
“It’s killing the program,” says Percy Harris, chairman of the volunteer state board Quinn appointed to oversee the initiative.
In addition, Carmen Colvin, whose husband, former state Rep. Marlow Colvin, D- Chicago, voted for the bill, was later hired by the Quinn administration to oversee state grant programs including the weatherization project. A Quinn aide says she got the post, which pays $ 105,000 a year, based on qualifications, not her husband’s vote. She previously worked in purchasing and budget analysis for Cook County. Carmen Colvin would not comment.
Some supporters say they aren’t happy with the results so far.
“We are disappointed with the program’s outcomes,” says Steve Simmons, a senior policy associate with the Chicago Jobs Council, a not- for- profit agency that has been one of the program’s biggest advocates.
State Rep. La Shawn Ford, DChicago, a member of the Legislative Black Caucus who was an architect of the program, says, “I wouldn’t give it the highest marks because our goal was to put people to work and to train people.”
The money for the program comes from bonds issued by the state. The governor appointed a board to authorize grants from the program to not- for- profit agencies and local governments. The nonprofits and governments were supposed to train people for jobs as auditors— identifying energy- efficiency problems— and weatherization specialists, to work for contractors hired by the agencies and local governments to work on homes.
But there were long delays. Simmons says his agency unsuccessfully pushed the weatherization board, administrators, Black Caucus members and the Quinn administration for years to start authorizing work.
Harris, the board’s chairman, says the panel was being careful with taxpayers’ money. Though the program is authorized to borrow up to $ 425 million through the sale of bonds, so far it’s issued only $ 16.4 million in bonds.
“There’s still some work to do,” Harris says. “But I don’t think it’s been a failure by any stretch of the imagination.”
Ford differs, saying, “We mastered the training, but we struggled with the hiring.”
David Roeder, a spokesman for Quinn’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, defends the program, saying it “was set up with a great deal of oversight.”
Though things have moved slowly, he says the program is poised to complete several hundred more homes in coming months.
State Sen. Donne Trotter, DChicago, an early supporter, says the weatherization effort isn’t a failure, noting that people did get job training. “Once you’ve been educated, they can’t take that from you,” Trotter says.
But Simmons points out there isn’t much demand for weatherization workers and that the state program was supposed to help create that demand.
Roy Waller went through the training in 2013. He has yet to find work. The 64- year- old west suburban resident says the instruction was excellent, but no one helped him find work.
“I can see the vision of the program,” says Waller. “It’s just a real shame it wasn’t carried out.”