Greater New Bedford Workforce Investment Board, Inc.

Executive Committee Special Meeting Minutes

Friday, 1/13/14

3:00p.m.

First Citizens – Fairhaven, MA

Executive Committee members present:,Chair, Peter Muise, Vice Chair, David A. Cabral, Assistant Treasurer, Linda Enos, Clerk, Lisa Lemieux, Ron Rouillard,John Fernandes, and David DeJesus.

Executive Committee members absent:Treasurer, Carl Taber, DavidSlutz

Other WIB members present: None

WIB Staff in attendance: Len Coriaty, Steven Grant

Others in attendance: None

Quorum Present

Chair Peter Muisebegan the meeting at 3:05PM.

Mr. Muise stated that he felt the meeting should be in executive session, citing the need to discuss the mayor’s conversation with Len about the Mackley report and the future of the WIB. Chair Muise stated that the committee will reconvene in open session at the end of the executive session. On a roll call vote, all members voted in support of entering executive session.

Mr. Muise provided background that led to this meeting. His key points:

  • The DCS Review – Report was sent to Mayor on June 27th, not sent to the WIB. WIB members received the report on September 23rd.
  • The budget process. –Terribleexperience trying to work with the subrecipient. Mr. Muise noted his meeting with the Mayor, Mikaela McDermott, and Jim Mathes wherein Mr. Mathes expressed his opinion that ALL funding should go to the Career Center. Jim presented a staffing matrix of the five WIBs in S/E MA with incorrect and misleading information.
  • Mayor asked Mr. Muise to set up a working group to study the sustainability of the workforce system.
  • The Mayor brought on Dave Mackley as an unpaid consultant after the Sustainability Working Group met 2 or 3 times. A Sustainability Task Force was established by the mayor, including representatives from workforce development, education, and economic development; Chair Muise, Terry Romanovitch, and Tony Sapienza.
  • Mr. Muise had received both version 1 dated October 14, 2013 and version 7 dated November 5, 2013 of the Mackley report. He noted that the author’s conclusions of the report did not change even though version 7 interviewed 18 more people (53 vs 35) than version 1, and that to his knowledge most of the WIB Executive Committee and Board Members – most of which had concerns with the Mackley Report - were in this last 18 interviewees. Mackley was specifically asked to talk with many of the 18 simply because he never spoke with these actively WIB engaged members during his initial interviews.
  • Mayor wanted to distribute the report to the WIB members at the holiday meeting, but it was suggested, by Mr. Muise, that was not a good time to do so.
  • The report was emailed to the WIB members from Mikaela on the Friday before Christmas. The Mayor wanted to call a meeting to discuss the report. Peter and Len made phone calls and found that quite a few members had not had a chance to read it.
  • The Sustainability Task Force met to discuss the report and could not come to a consensus on a written response to the Mayor.
  • Mr. Muise had a meeting with the Mayor and secured a face to face meeting for Len Coriaty with the Mayor.

Len Coriaty discussed his meeting with the Mayor. He noted that he was employed by the WIB, and that the Executive Committee serves as the Personnel Committee of the WIB. He mentioned the following from a prepared statement:

  • Mayor referenced Mackley report as an “honest evaluation”.
  • Len felt it is not an objective, balanced report because it does not contain any positive input he provided to the consultant over four hours in two meetings, or positive feedback Len received from board members.
  • Len said the report measures the WIB by what the consultant’s view of what the WIB could be or should be, rather than the strategic objectives adopted by the WIB three years ago.
  • Len cited accomplishments of the WIB, particularly over the past 2-3 years. Documents summarizing funds brought in and annual wage and training impacts were distributed, highlighting more than $4 million in competitive grants awarded to the WIB, $8 million in annual wage impacts in our area, and more than 750 incumbent workers in about a dozen companies receiving training due to WIB initiatives.
  • Len told the Mayor he felt there are major problems with a report based on 53 anonymous interviews.
  • He told the Mayor that with the Mayor’s support and a few tweaks, the system could be improved.

Discussion of Mackley Report

The consensus of the committee was that the report was flawed. Mr. Muise said he told Tony Sapienza that he thought the report was flawed. Peter also spoke to Diane Hurley about any potential effect the report might have at the State level. Several members referred to the heavy fund raising emphasis in the report and noted they did not sign on for that. John Fernandes said he resented the implication that the WIB was going in the wrong direction and that the report is not even the Mayor talking.

Mr. Muise said that the Mayor still wanted to talk to the Board.

Mr. Muise said there is a need to build a bridge. He said we will not go public with any discussion until there is support from both the Mayor and the Board.

The Executive Director and CFO were asked to leave the meeting while the members held further discussion. Discussion ensued about possible courses of action regarding the report and the future of the WIB. The Executive Director and CFO rejoined the meeting.

Mr. Muise said he would contact the Mayor to discuss the possible resolutions and offer the Mayor another chance to meet with the Executive Committee.

John Fernandes pointed out that the strategy is still being developed.

Mr. Muise asked the members to call him with any comments or recommendations.

The Chair said that would conclude matters for the executive session and asked for a vote to return to open meeting. All voted in favor.

Dave Cabral moved to adjourn, Dave DeJesus seconded and all were in favor at 5:35 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Steve Grant, CFO

508-979-1504 ext. 119