Kane County unemployment agency quickly reorganized

Concerns about a Kane County unemployment agency sparked fears of a lack of transparency in Kane County government Tuesday as officials pushed through a last-minute reorganization.

Officials with the River Valley Workforce Investment Board asked the Kane County Board for cooperation in their reorganization plans. The investment board uses federal dollars — $6.1 million last year — to help address unemployment problems in the region.

That includes oversight of what's known as “one-stops,” including the Kane County Department of Employment and Education, where qualified unemployed workers can receive scholarships of up to $8,000 for retraining that will place them in high-demand careers.

But a recently commissioned audit of the agency found organizational flaws, including improper self-governance and financial oversight.

The flaws almost resulted in the agency being stripped of millions of dollars even as unemployment hit more than 11 percent in some local communities. Officials indicated they had lost track of the money they had to spend.

“At the end of the year we had almost $2.4 million that we almost had to give back,” Workforce Investment Board Chairman Frank Griffin said. “We are not running right. At the end we almost had a huge problem. When you have to give money back, you usually never see those dollars return back to this area.”

The agency will see a budget cut for the fiscal year that just began July 1. That's also the date the agency should have had its new structure in place.

Investment board officials want to shift oversight from the county's Human Resources Department to the Office of Community Reinvestment. The office handles most of the federal grant dollars the county uses. Community Reinvestment is, in turn, overseen by the county's Public Health Department.

That's where the problems begin with the change for several board members.

Most of the board had not reviewed the proposed change as it appeared as a last-minute addition on Tuesday's agenda. The description of the change also contained no information about how the shift in job responsibilities affects the salaries of the county employees involved.

An identical problem sparked similar frustration when the county hired a new development director without explaining where the money for a salary increase would come from.

“My concern is the structure within Kane County and who they'll report to,” county board member Jim Mitchell said. “I believe there are some financial implications to this change that I have yet to hear any answers to.”

Board member Bonnie Kunkel also indicated she didn't like the idea of the Public Health Department adding responsibilities. The recently downsized agency is already involved in a lawsuit over alleged actions it failed to recognize in its Animal Control Department.

“To just rush through is doing a disservice to everyone,” Kunkel said.

Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay said the board had to act immediately or risk losing local help for the unemployed. A delay would put the Workforce Investment Board more than a month into its new budget with no management direction.

“There is a timing issue here,” McConnaughay said. “They want to get back to the business of finding unemployed people work in Kane County.”

McConnaughay is one of the people who appoints the members of the 40-person Workforce Investment Board. It involves several current and former board members, as well as an executive director, Tracy McDonnell, who has ties to McConnaughay's current and former political campaigns. Those are factors some county board members also expressed some discomfort with.

Despite those factors, the board agreed in a 17 to 7 vote to implement the suggested change and leave the salary questions that may affect the county budget for another time.