Columbia County Commission leaves
Florida Crown in the lurch – again
(Part 1)
Columbia County, FL (posted April 15,
2009)
Part II • The Columbia County Position • (coming tomorrow -
April 16th)
By Stew Lilker
The Florida Crown Workforce Board
packed their board room in preparation of a joint
meeting with the County Commission, which was once again
cancelled at the 12th hour.
On Thursday, April 9th, Florida Crown Workforce Board
(“FCWB”) Chairman, Larry Thompson, opened what was
scheduled to be the planning session for the 6 p.m.
joint Columbia County -- FCWB meeting.
The strain is evident on Florida Crown's Chairman Larry
Thompson. At the conclusion of the meeting, Mr. Thompson
told the Observer,
"Especially as tight as things are now, we've
spent so much time doing this that we haven't
been able to do what we're supposed to be
doing.
Ignoring the hardship and the second consecutive
Columbia County 12th hour meeting cancellation, FCWB
Executive Director, John Chastain took the high road and
e-mailed a personal invitation to each of the
Columbia County Commissioners inviting them to attend
the FCWFB meeting, hear his presentation and ask
questions. Columbia County Manager Dale Williams was the
only official from Columbia County to show up. From
information received by the Observer, it appears that
Jack Berry protégé, Commissioner Jody DuPree, and
Commission Chairman, Steven Bailey, had left town,
leaving the twenty six people that had showed up for the
meeting in the lurch once again, along with those who
were going to speak on behalf of FCWB and the other
county residents who had made plans to attend the joint
meeting.
Undeterred by the events, Mr. Chastain began his
presentation by telling the group, “Ninety five percent
of what’s going on here is a misunderstanding of what
the mission of Florida Crown is ... Nowhere does it talk
about economic development. We are the people side of
economic development ... Everything that we do is tied
to people.”
Florida Crown is inundated by applicants.
Executive Director "JC" John Chastain makes a point.
Mr. Chastain said that Florida Crown is inundated by
applicants. “Everybody is just looking for a job ... The
wages are not keeping up with the cost of living.”
Mr. Chastain continued, “We administer Federal and
State Grants. Each one of them has a distinct
funding stream. The funds cannot cross streams.”
“At the end of the day we must account for everyone that
comes in here. If we don’t, we get violated.”
Dispelling the rumors that some folks come to Florida
Crown to receive welfare checks, he explained that when
it comes to welfare transition, “Our mission is to find
them a job. Nobody comes here and receives a check.”
Dispelling another rumor, Mr. Chastain told the group
that Florida Crown has a food stamp education program
and nobody comes to Florida Crown and just gets food
stamps.
What else does Florida Crown do?
Florida Crown is now helping the state of Florida
with unemployment claims and putting people back to work
as soon as possible.
Since Feb. 19, 2009 when Commissioner Dupree sprung his
motion on the people of Columbia County, Florida Crown
has spent 133 man hours gathering information and
answering questions. They have made over 1300 copies and
have accrued over $4,000 in charges to the County.
Chairman Thompson told the Observer, "So far, the S4,000
is an investment on our part to try and resolve this."
Florida Crown’s customers are low income and the
federal government sets the guide lines. Florida Crown
must put the people in those jobs. Florida Crown will
not put people in jobs that pay nine dollars an hour.
Florida
Crown is designed to give people self
sufficiency wages. Florida Crown finds jobs that pay
$11.77 an hour for entry level employees.
Florida Crown will place folks with “mom and pop”
businesses. Mr. Chastain said, “If I place somebody at a
nine dollar an hour job, I’ve got to find a fifteen
dollar an hour job to offset it.” “We refuse
services to no one at anytime for any reason.” Mr
Chastain explained that if Florida Crown does not find a
fifteen dollar an hour job to offset the nine dollar an
hour job, (according to the Federal guidelines, $12.44
is the wage FCWB must meet) Florida Crown’s performance
is reduced and that is related directly to the funding
that is brought into the region.
Florida Crown’s relationship with Lake City
Community College.
Mr. Chastain explained that Florida Crown gives its
customers a choice, “We don’t try to Shanghai people and
send them over to LCCC.” He said we try to direct
them there, but if they don’t want to go there, it’s
where they want to go to school. “They get to select
where they want to go.”
Later on Mr. Chastain spoke again of Lake City
Community College. He said, “Lake City Community College
has the first right of refusal. If Suwannee can do the
job cheaper, we go with them. It is competitive.”
Mr. Chastain said, “Some customers need a lot of
help. They camp out here. They want to work.”
Mr. Chastain said, “There is an allegation that we
cook our books here. There is no cooking the books ...
We can only take credit for the services that the state
and federal government allow.”
The performance of Florida Crown
The performance of Florida Crown over the past four
years speaks for itself. After reading the facts, it is
impossible to know on what the County Commission is
basing its decision to wreck the Florida Crown Workforce
Board:
•
From FY 04 - 08 FCWB contacted over 350 separate
employers annually. Some weekly, some monthly, some
quarterly, some annually.
•
FCWB listed over 3,400 job openings and placed over
7,700 people in employment.
–
FCWB had over 99,700 individual customer contacts.
Customers may return multiple times for service.
•
FCWB provided over 200,000 services to the workforce of
this region during this period.
Part II • The
Columbia County Position • (coming tomorrow - April
16th)
