May 14, 2024 Minutes

Workforce Development Board Minutes

Employment Services - 315 N. 11th Ave, Bldg. B, Greeley, CO 80631
Meeting Location: First Floor Conference Room
Meeting: May 14, 2024 - 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Board Members Present:
Amanda Ericson, HRx Services; Bill Johnson, Yoder Family Companies; Cecil Courtney, Denver Pipefitters Local 208; David Thompson, FMS Bank; Elizabeth Barber, The Greeley Dream Team; DVR-Meghan GreeneJill Eaton, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation; Justin Booker, City of Greeley Fire Department and IAFF Professional Firefighter's Union, Local 888 - Greeley Firefighters; Kelly Folks, Colorado Department of Labor & Employment; Lisa Taylor, The Weld Trust; Lisa Vaughn, Golden Aluminum; Matthew Hortt, High Plains Library District; Deena McBain-Aims proxy Nick Spezza, Aims Community College; Phil MacHendrie, City of Greeley; Robert Rigg, Elder Construction; Shawn Croissant, Envision; Victoria Cordova, Banner Health; Zach Huston, Chevron U.S.A. Inc.; Nick Spezza’s Proxy, Deena McBain; Aims Community College; Rich Werner’s Proxy, Audrey Herbison. 

Quorum Present: Yes

Others Present:
Andrew Chadwick, ESWC; CeCe Majchrowski, ESWC; Greg Cordova, ESWC; Karina Amaya-Ragland, ESWC; Ruth DeBoer, ESWC Tami Grant, Weld County DHS; Jesus Borrego, CDLE; Luke Hammond, Learning Source.

  1. Call to Order: 12:00 pm
    1. Introductions
    2. Chair Elect Motion to approve Victoria Cordova as Chair Elect; Motion made by Justin Booker, Seconded by Shawn Croissant.
  2. Changes to the Agenda:
    1. Addition of the MSFW Monitoring Report to the Announcements section and the PY23, Quarter three (3) Dashboard in the Miscellaneous section: Bill Johnson motioned to approve the updated agenda, Cecil Courtney seconded.
  3. Approval of Minutes - Robert Rigg motioned to approve, Cecil Courtney seconded.  
  4. Unfinished Business
    1. Regional/Local Plan Public Comment
      1. Deputy Director, CeCe Majchrowski gave updates on the public comment period, the appendix A addition and the accessibility updates made. Everything is as discussed in March.
        1. Motion to approve – Lisa Taylor motioned to approve; Elizabeth Barber seconded.
      2. Wagner Peyser Merit Staffing Certification
        1. No board approval needed as the board was aware of the issues and pursuits of ESWC. ESWC received a 2-year certification and will be updating it again in 2026.
  5. Announcements, Updates, and Celebrations
    1. GED Graduation
      1. Greg Cordova gave updates on how the ESWC graduation event. They had 13 graduates show up, but 35 in the past year that received their GED. They get a cap and tassels. The youth team at ESWC does a wonderful job of putting this together. – Vincente G. Vigil - 19th Judicial District Judge came and spoke to the graduates about also obtaining his GED and the path that he took to get where he is now. It was a story of hope and encouragement.
    2. USDOL Veterans Audit
      1. Colorado Division of Labor and Employment (CDLE) was being audited by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL) Veteran program. We have a couple of DVOPs in our office that assist disabled veteran’s.
      2. They took away 3 promising practices away from our visit.
        1. They loved ESWC’s veteran triage form.
        2. They liked the SOP that the Registration Unit utilizes.
        3. They liked the Resource Room flag system that helps the Career Resource reps know there is a vet waiting and that they are the next in line to be taken.
    3. Awareness Committee
      1. Andrew Chadwick and Dave Thompson gave updates – The second issue of the WDB Newsletter went out May 1st. Please share, we are working on growing awareness of ESWC and the Board and what we do for Weld. We highlighted Jessi Norris, our new WBL Navigator and Golden Aluminum’s achievement.
      2. We are proactively working in conjunction with Larimer County, on the 2024 Workforce Symposium. It’s going to be held Sep 24th at Aims Welcome Center. We’ll be sending out a save the date. If you are interested in sponsoring, please reach out to Andrew Chadwick.
    4. Youth Committee
      1. Youth Apprenticeship Week – Greg Cordova gave an update – It was a bit of a surprise for us this year so we did the best we could, the state helped greatly with hashtags, and standardized language so we could all be on the same page. Next year we plan on conducting more as we’ll be more prepared.
      2. Weld County Youth Committee has been ahead of the game because we have had youth apprenticeship events in November because it’s apprenticeship month. But we’ll probably change this to May so we can align timelines with the state and the feds.
      3. Lisa Taylor & Elizabeth Barber gave an update on the Youth Committee
        1. Jake Marshall, head of the drone program at Aims came and spoke to us and gave the variable certificate programs you can pursue. He talked about the need for tools and the options available to kids.
        2. Thomas Hartman also joined us and gave information on the mycoloradojourney.com website and how it has grown. It has been revamped to be more holistic approach to pursuing work. It takes the approach of finding something you are passionate about and telling you how to achieve it.
        3. Ruth will send out the slides to both the youth committee and the WDB.
      4. A new Youth co-chair joined the committee; Jesse Granados, he is a sophomore and is coming from the Boys and Girls club and is also a Dream Team kid.
    5. MSFW Monitoring Report
      1. Workforce Director, Karina Amaya Ragland, gave an update – we received our results last week and I wanted to share with you. They visited both our offices in February this year. They review our complaint system, interviewed our employees, reviewed some of the farmworkers and farmers themselves.
      2. We received no findings or issues on the report, and we have already achieved our performance measures for this program year.
      3. Our MSFW Case worker is moving on to the state within the MSFW program, so we’ve posted for the job and hope to find a good replacement.
  6. Board Focus
    1. CWDC Updates
      1. Lisa Taylor updated us on the WIOA reauthorization process. One of the things that concerns her is the narrow definition of training being written into the law. This could put a pinch on how the local areas are able to spend their funds.
      2. This may be something that ESWC comes to the board and asks them to advocate on this issue in the future.
      3. There is a certain amount of funding – Performance Improvement Funding (PIF) being discussed as well at the moment. If you want to discuss these things and help me advocate for Weld County Workforce Board at the state level.
      4. DHS Deputy Director, Tami Grant stated that RMWDA has sent a few letters out but there is more work that we need to do in Colorado, and she has been talking with the Commissioners about doing the same thing that Lisa Taylor discussed.
      5. Hopefully we can sway perceptions and additional thoughts.
      6. Kelly Folks and Lee Wheeler Berliner are working together to help educate the governor’s office about the impacts on these things at the local level. Kelly has given advice from the perspective of a local area because she has come from a local area.
      7. There seems to be a disconnect of what is labeled in law to what comes down through the TEGLs and such. But Kelly thinks she is breaking ground on their understanding of these various pieces.
      8. With the discretionary funds, CWDC receives those. Kelly Folks stated that they are working on educating the governor’s office on what will happen to the local areas if they take more than the 25% that they are currently capped at. There is the possibility of the governor’s office being able to take up to 33%, but with budgets already being cut, we hope to help push the importance of getting the funds to the locals.
      9. Robert Rigg asked about what the justification would be for the governor’s office taking those additional funds. Kelly couldn’t speak more on this as she has not received the Governor’s request for CDLE to give an amount to the Governor’s Office.
      10. Mandatory activities cannot get cut, so if there are going to be cuts it’ll come out of things like PIF because they aren’t mandatory. Kelly stated that she can’t speak to everything, but you know how it goes when these talks happen; they work with what isn’t mandatory first.
    2. HR Compliance
      1. Fair Labor Standards Act
        1. Amanda with HrX updated us on laws passed within USDOL.
      2. Non-Compete laws.
        1. The FTC is regulating this. We are following this closely. It essentially means that they are going to restrict who can have a non-compete clause. There were 2 lawsuits filed the very next day.
      3. JAFA – Job application fairness act
        1. Has passed and starting in July 1 you will not be able to ask things like when did you complete college, etc. when interviewing. This is to reduce agism issues.
    3. 2024 – 2027 Strategic Plan
      1. The WDB is required to have it’s own Strategic Plan that is updated every 3 years.
      2. We did not change the Mission, but we removed the bullets in the Vision and left it to the shortened statement.
      3. Our 4 strategic goals did change
      4. Please read through the Board’s strategic plan and let Ruth or CeCe know if you have questions or concerns before June 15th.
  7. Miscellaneous
    1. Workforce Innovation Grants (HB21-1264)
      1. Karina updated the board on the WIG Grant. We will be returning the unspent funds and the funds that were disallowed.
    2. PY23 Q3 Dashboard.
      1. Some of our funds we will be fully spending out this year, we usually like to carry in 30% but this year we will not be able to on some of our programs. But we are monitoring the funds.
  8. Action Items
    1. Approve Multiple Submissions
      1. LWDB Recertification
        1. We are required to recertify our board every 2 years, we’ve put together the packet with our board member list, our updated bylaws. Motion to approve Zach, Shawn seconded.
      2. Regional/Local Plans
        1. Already approved earlier in the agenda.
      3. Compliance Plan
      4. We’ve put this packet together for the state and it is due on the 31st of May, we need the board to approve this plan so we can send it to the state. Motion to approve by Lisa Taylor, seconded by David Thompson.
  9. Adjournment – 1:20 pm
    1. Tour of Chevron

Strategic Goals

Continue seeking clarity and improving connections for programs and services between Employment Services and the businesses and individuals in the Weld County Community.

Increase awareness and clarify the impact of Weld County's workforce network by attracting organizations and businesses to utilize the available funding provided to Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) targeted populations.

Increase Weld County Workforce Development Board (WCWDB) member engagement by involving board members in planning, leadership pipeline development, and committee involvement.

Working with intention by participating and supporting ESWC, sector partnerships, and their workgroups to ensure our regional workforce has equitable access to opportunities for quality, life-long education, and individual advancement to secure the future of work in Northern Colorado.

Board Recruitment

The following positions are vacant:

One Business Representative from any of the below industries –

  • Other Services (except Public Administration)
  • Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting
  • Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services
  • Transportation and Warehousing.

If you know someone interested in workforce initiatives and can fill one of these roles, please direct that person to Andrew Chadwick or CeCe Majchrowski.

Upcoming Events

Required Meeting: 07/09/2024; 11:45 AM to 1:30 PM (12:00 PM-1:30 PM Virtual)
Awareness Committee Meeting: 06/11/2024; 11:45 AM to 1:00 PM (12:00 PM-1:00 PM Virtual)
Youth Committee Meeting: 09/17/2024; 11:45 AM to 1:30 PM (12:00 PM-1:30 PM Virtual)

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