Workforce board recommends month-to-month agreements with city of Springfield 

Moving forward, contracts between the city of Springfield and the Ozark Region Workforce Development Board will be put on a month-to-month basis, if that board recommendation is approved by the Council of Local Elected Officials this week. 

The WDB met Friday in special session to discuss its four contracts with the city. One of these is a one-stop shop agreement – that is, the agreement for the city to host and operate the Missouri Job Center. 

Another is a fiscal agent agreement that has recently been a source of conflict between the board and the city. A payment request from the board for a consultant hired to develop a strategic plan was denied this month by the city after the procurement process for the consultant was determined to be out of step with city policies and requirements for the use of federal funds. According to past Springfield Business Journal reporting, city Finance Department officials queried officials with the state Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development and referred the request to an outside reviewer, Forvis Mazars LLP, before declining to pay it. 

The other two agreements between the board and the city are an administrative agreement and a youth services program agreement. 

The next step is for the CLEO to consider and vote on the board’s recommendation, and Chair Bob Dixon, presiding member of the Greene County Commission, said that body will get together in person for a vote this week, as they are all attending a conference. 

An earlier disagreement between the WDB and the city occurred when the city opted to move the Missouri Job Center location from its Sunshine Street location to a new building on Boonville Avenue. The WDB expressed concern about the lack of sufficient advance communication about the proposed move, since completed, as they learned about it just a week before the plan was presented to Springfield City Council in the form of a funding measure. 

From that point, the WDB entered into a series of short agreements, most 120 days, for the city to continue to provide the four services as they considered a possible change for the long term. 

The proposed plan to go to month-by-month agreements with the city allows either party to cancel them with 120 days’ notice without the WDB having to pass new agreements every three months, Chair Andrea Sitzes explained to the board during the special meeting, which convened online via Zoom and was open to the public. 

“That allows us as a board to move within our process and to not have to continue to revisit these and to put them on agendas,” she said. 

Board member Kevin McGill of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 453 asked if it would be more fluid to do yearlong contracts while the city is in a hiring process for its new city manager. He said he heard that the previous city manager, Jason Gage, who has since left his role, was part of the lack of communication that caused the friction between the entities. 

“Maybe if we hit a reset and see if things are a little more cooperative, we might be well served to just continue on that direction,” he said. 

Diane Rozier, board secretary, noted the month-to-month agreement allows the board to keep the relationship status quo indefinitely so it doesn’t have to revisit it every 120 days. 

“It allows us some continuity so that we can continue to monitor the changing environment, but it gives us the flexibility as we move forward with an RFP,” she said, referring to planned request for proposals for the four agreements currently held with the city. “It doesn’t lock us into a full year if something should change or the RFP yields something different. The intent is to give us some continuity over time.” 

Susan Johanson of Guaranty Bank, a board member, noted the 120-day notice period is a way of ensuring continuity of services for people who rely on them. 

Toby Stevenson, who serves as the city Finance Department’s liaison to the board, spoke up during the meeting to ask board members to consider the city jobs that would be impacted by the short-term agreements. 

“I just want to say, there is a human element behind this,” he said. “There’s 20 staff that this affects, and they were already concerned when this was every quarter, every three months – and so they’re scared.” 

Bill Skains, a city of Branson alderman and a consultant to the board – though not the one whose payment is under scrutiny – expressed some trepidation of his own when it comes to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act funds, which pay for the board’s services. 

“For the first time since I have been doing this since 1978, I have never seen so much uncertainty in allegations,” Skains said, citing possible cuts by the White House and its Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. “We’re looking at the cutting block – chopping block – for WIOA.” 

That matters for any RFP the board might issue for the four agreements, according to Skains. 

“Nobody in their right mind is going to respond to an RFP if you don’t know how much money is going to be involved or whether the program’s even going to be funded or not,” he said. “I know we want to move forward; we just don’t need to shoot ourselves totally in the foot in this process that we don’t know what the funding mechanism’s going to wind up being or if they’re just not going to take and chop youth or adult programs altogether.” 

Sitzes said that’s why the first phases of the consultant’s report, which the board has already received, call for the continuation of diversified funding sources for the board – “to ensure that whatever happens on the federal level that we can continue to serve the job-seekers and those that wish to upscale within our seven counties,” she said. 

Board member Pat Shay of Thousand Hills Golf Club added in a remark to Stevenson that there is no intent to make anybody nervous. 

“The intent was to do what we believe is correct for the workforce of the Ozark region,” he said. 

The board also considered next steps toward paying the consultant, New Orleans-based Dadco Consulting Services Inc., the money it owes. Sitzes said outstanding invoices amount to $16,000, and the board has that money in an outside fund it maintains for contributions. The board voted to rescind the request for payment to the city using WIOA funds and instead pay the invoices out of its account for pledged funds. 

Thomas Douglas of JMark Business Solutions Inc., vice president of the board, said he wanted to go on the record as being disappointed. 

“I’ll just reiterate the disappointment and frustration with this process,” he said. “These were approved and allowable funds from the federal government, from the state, and the city is making this difficult, and it’s wasting time, money, energy, all the things.” 

A report from an outside review by Forvis Mazars LLP found the board followed only 10 of 16 requirements in the city’s procurement process, failing the other six, including the requirement to seek closed bids. The board passes agreements every two years, and has since 2014, to abide by the city’s procurement policies.