Agenda

Return

C.110

To:	Board of Supervisors
From:	Kathy Gallagher, Employment & Human Services Director
Date:	June 9, 2015

Contra

Costa

County

Subject:

Contra Costa WORKS (CC WORKS) Program

APPROVE	OTHER
RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR	RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE

Action of Board On: 06/09/2015

APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED

OTHER

Clerks Notes:

VOTE OF SUPERVISORS

AYE:

John Gioia, District I Supervisor
Candace Andersen, District II Supervisor
Mary N. Piepho, District III Supervisor
Karen Mitchoff, District IV Supervisor

ABSENT:

Federal D. Glover, District V Supervisor

Contact:

Elaine Burres, 313-1717

I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown.
ATTESTED: June 9, 2015
David Twa,

BY:	, Deputy

RECOMMENDATION(S):

APPROVE and AUTHORIZE to continue the process of reimbursement to those employers participating in the CCWORKS (Contra Costa WORKS) Subsidized Employment Program; the Employment and Human Services Department will enter into worksite contractual/financial agreements with employers to allow for reimbursement of not less than $9 per hour not to exceed $20 per hour for those CalWORKS clients worksited with the employers during the period July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016.

FISCAL IMPACT:

$1,000,000: 33% Assembly Bill 98 (100% Federal) and 67% CalWORKs Single Allocation (80% State and 20% Federal) to be used to subsidize wages of up to 100 CalWORKs participants enrolled in the CCWORKs program from July 2015 through June 2016.

BACKGROUND:

Based on the success of subsidized employment programs operated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and in response to Senate Bill (SB) 72 which expanded upon State reimbursements to counties for subsidized employment programs authorized under Assembly (AB) 98, the Employment and Human Services Department (EHSD) has developed a subsidized employment program, known as CCWORKS (Contra Costa WORKS).

Following the guidelines and funding options of SB 72 and building upon the success of previous Subsidized Employment and Training (SET) programs operated under ARRA, the CCWORKS has been designed very similarly to other successful subsidized employment programs operated in the Bay Area. CalWORKs participants will be screened into the program and placed with local employers (for- profit, non-profit, and public agencies) who will be responsible (under contractual/financial) worksite agreements for the payroll, associated taxes, and workers compensation for each CCWORKS program participant approved and worksited within their organization.

The employers will hire the eligible CalWORKs CCWORKS participants upfront and will train the participants to appropriate skills for the position in which they are placed. CCWORKS participants will receive a wage comparable to those workers performing the same of like duties at the worksite.

The worksite agreement will be signed with the employer for each participant that is placed at that employer's worksite. Under the CCWORKS program, EHSD will reimburse no less than $9 an hour and not to exceed $20 an hour (due to the anticipated increase in minimum wage) for a minimum of 20 hours weekly to a maximum of 40 hours weekly (no over time will be subsidized). The individual contracts with each employer will state the reimbursement process and those reimbursements will be paid on the contractual timeline of six months.

Monthly reimbursement invoices will be submitted by participating employers for each client they employ through the CCWORKS program. These invoices will be reviewed by EHSD CCWORKS program staff and submitted to the EHSD Fiscal Unit for payment issuance.

CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:

Without approval, the CCWORKS program will be at risk of not paying minimum wage as required by the State at the time of wage increases.

CHILDREN'S IMPACT STATEMENT:

Not applicable.