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SEPTEMBER 1998

Sunnyside Job Service Center may not last
Changes to take shape
on state employment scene
SUNNYSIDE (Friday 9-11-98)--State and private-non-profit officials have proposed a federally funded "One-Stop" system to help get workers together with employers, according to a proposal submitted for funding in this region by local officials.
 
The statewide budget for the employment program hasn't been hammered out yet. But some local "Job Service Center" employees fear they may be out of work when the new program hits the area in ernest beginning next year.
 
One source said some staff are leaving or attempting to leave Employment Security positions in anticipation of changing funding patterns. Some are long gone.
 
Until the budget is completed, it's difficult to tell where all the good jobs will be for persons who are "busily employed to keep the unemployed employed."
 
One source believes federal employment funds will flow more to private, non-profit groups who "have no union or government rules to contend with." In addition, private non-profit expenditures aren't regularly covered by the press, even though it's public money being expended.
 
"ES employees will be out on their butts," one source believes.
 
The "One Stop" system reportedly would serve about 10,000 persons in Yakima, Kittitas and Klickitat Counties during 1999. It would be entirely in place by June 30, 2000.
 
Though the plan doesn't spell it out, the new operation might close down existing Employment Security Job Service Centers, including the one in Sunnyside. Such a local center would be replaced by a "Career Development Center."
 
It is unclear at this time whether a new Sunnyside CDC would be located in a new facility, possibly built at taxpayer expense.
 
Officials say the 60-page plan for this area was developed by ad hoc "technology, ownership, and oversight committees." Committee members were mostly employees of tax funded private and public groups.
 
The written plan with budget was submitted by Patrick Baldoz, who heads up the Tri-Valley PIC in Yakima. Dennis Cole, executive director of the "One-Stop Career Center Implementation" program, Olympia, has so far coached Baldoz through the plan process.
 
Fiscal agents for the new employment program would be the Tri-Valley Private Industry Council and Yakima County Dept. of Employment and Training.
 
Some 30 "partners" are listed as aiding and abetting the new employment operation. The majority of the "partners" themselves receive tax-funded grants from yet other tax-funded agencies.
 
Partners in One-Stop include regional Employment Security, plus ES Job Service Centers in Yakima, Sunnyside, and White Salmon. Whether some of these employees will lose their ES jobs in the new shuffle remains to be seen.
 
Also in on the plan are the Tri-Valley PIC, Perry Technical Institute, Yakima Valley OIC, Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic, YVCC, Yakima County Development Assn., People for People, DSHS, Washington State Migrant Council, Laborers/Carpenter Union, and Yakima Chamber of Commerce.
 
"Resource partners" reportedly include AARP, Catholic Family/Child Services, Central WA Comprehensive Mental Health, Ellensburg Business Development Authority, Fort Simcoe Job Corps, Goodwill Industries, Heritage College, Providence Health Systems, Provident Services, Rural Enterprise Community, Sunnyside Inc., Tree Top, the Women and Minorities Enterprise Program, Yakima County Aging and Long Term Care, and Yakima County Coalition for the Homeless.
 
Planners note "there are many ongoing and future efforts to increase the number of connections the partnership has with the K-12 (public school) system. The partnership has a developing relationship with the leadership from ESD 105," planners said. That would be Supt. Mike Bernazzani.
 
One-Stop claims it will get jobs for some 10,000 folks by 2000, including:
Milestones along the way to developing the One-Stop program include or have included: