CareerSource Florida, at its Feb. 23 meeting in Tallahassee, will consider consolidating Tampa Bay area workforce training boards, including CareerSource Pinellas and CareerSource Tampa Bay, according to the board’s agenda.
The proposed consolidation is part of an overall effort under a new law that would reduce the number of CareerSource boards statewide from the current 24.
CareerSource Pinellas Interim CEO Steven Meier informed staff of the proposed changes in an email Friday, describing the news as unfortunate and urging employees to “provide any feedback you have to our legislative delegation, the CareerSource Florida board, the REACH office and Gov. (Ron) DeSantis’ office as soon as possible.”
The local agency does not support consolidation. In the email, obtained by Florida Politics, Meier writes that the “recommendation is contrary to the overwhelming consensus expressed by our leadership team as well as a strong coalition of business and education partners.”
Indeed, backup documents in the CareerSource agenda indicate pushback from individual CareerSource boards, though none are indicated specifically.
“Stakeholders reported an overall apprehension and opposition to any potential alignment or consolidation of local workforce development areas,” an analysis reads, adding notation about concerns among rural areas that they would be “left behind” and other agencies worrying consolidation would result in fewer one-stop centers in each county, which are used to help jobseekers identify opportunities.
Sources with knowledge of CareerSource Pinellas’ thinking on the issue further contend consolidation with CareerSource Tampa Bay, which operates in neighboring Hillsborough County, would erode focus on Pinellas County jobseekers; risk equitable funding in favor of larger Hillsborough; lack specificity for Pinellas County’s unique workforce (including its large manufacturing base); fail to adequately accommodate Pinellas County’s unique urban environment as the only county in the state without a rural area; and increase difficulty managing two large work centers in the third (Tampa) and fifth (St. Petersburg) largest cities in the state.
Yet of the three consolidation scenarios presented in the Feb. 23 CareerSource Florida agenda, two would consolidate the Pinellas and Tampa Bay agencies, though the agenda makes clear it would not force one agency to assume another.
“This report is not suggesting that any local workforce development boards takeover another in any of these actions,” the agenda documents read. “Rather, impacted areas will require the dissolving of existing local workforce boards and the creation of a new one to govern the new area.”
Meier’s email references the REACH Act. That is legislation — the Reimagining Education and Career Help Act — was signed into law in 2021. Its goal was to create a more efficient pipeline from the classroom to the workplace by streamlining state career resources.
The law calls for “aligning Florida’s 24 local workforce development boards,” according to CareerSource Florida, including a “charge for reducing the number of local boards.”
CareerSource Pinellas sources, however, point to problems it previously faced when the two CareerSource arms were united. The boards shared a CEO, Ed Peachey, who was fired after extensive reports of inflated job placement numbers that led to big bonuses for Peachey and his employees. The controversy, which unfolded in the summer of 2018, led to the centers on each side of the bay splitting on Sept. 1, 2018.
The issues are still plaguing both CareerSource Pinellas and CareerSource Tampa Bay, with the U.S. Department of Labor demanding the centers pay back $4.3 million misspent under Peachey’s direction, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
“After disentangling the two counties’ workforce development boards five years ago, to recombine them now would be immensely controversial and harmful to the morale of our team,” Meier wrote in his staff email.
“The results of last summer’s employee engagement survey show our rebuilding efforts with respect to leadership trust, organizational pride, and team morale are finally beginning to pay off and this decision would undo all of that hard work.”
But the larger state agency, CareerSource Florida, may have reason to disagree.
Also under the REACH Act, boards are evaluated quarterly on their performance, with grade-like scores on a 0-100% scale, with 100% being the highest mark possible.
CareerSource Pinellas, of the 24 boards throughout the state, was third last, ahead only of CareerSource centers for Okaloosa/Walton and North Central Florida. It scored an 83.19%. CareerSource Tampa Bay, meanwhile, scored 94.07%, which put it at No. 4 in the state behind only centers in Chipola, North Florida and Central Florida.
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