04/24/2009 GAAS:197:09 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Print Version |
Governor Schwarzenegger Sends Letter to City and County Elected Officials
Urges Working with their Local Workforce Investment Boards to Expend Recent Recovery Act Funds Quickly & Effectively
Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger today sent the letter below to city and county elected
officials, urging them to work with their local Workforce Investment Boards to
ensure Recovery Act funding is expended quickly and effectively to assist
unemployed Californians in job training and finding new jobs. On April 7, 2009,
after being expedited at the Governor's request, $415 million Recovery Act
funding was distributed to the state's 49 local Workforce Investment
Boards.
Please contact your local Workforce Investment Board (http://www.calwia.org/lwia/index.cfm)
for information about how this Recovery Act funding will be expended into your
local community to aid the unemployed as quickly and efficiently as
possible.
April 24, 2009
Dear Name,
It is vital that American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds be spent efficiently in ways that
truly help our state through these difficult times and create jobs. The
people demand it, and so does our economy. As California's unemployment
rate tops 11 percent, you know full well the devastating effects job loss is
having on your community. At the state level, I am committed to passing
on Recovery Act dollars quickly and to helping local governments use these
dollars. My administration recently sped $415 million in Workforce
Investment Act ARRA funds to California's 49 local Workforce Investment Boards.
But before we can see the
benefits of this funding, you must do your part to ensure the money is being
spent - and spent well - in your community. I urge you to work closely
with your Local Workforce Investment Board (LWIB) to expedite the use of these
funds. Where bureaucratic roadblocks exist, clear them. Where
political distractions may be slowing the process, eliminate them. Every
day of delay is another day our state and your community is not working its way
out of an economic slump, and I am committed to helping you use Recovery Act
dollars to hasten our recovery.
Workforce Investment Act funding
is now available throughout the state to help workers understand where jobs will
be created, gain new skills, receive training and education and move into
career paths that will help them succeed in the labor market. The funds
can be used for businesses at risk of more layoffs, and to help those displaced
move more quickly into new occupations and jobs. This funding will also
create summer job opportunities for thousands of youth between the ages of 16
and 24, which will give them work experience, education, and wages - an
investment in California's future in more ways than one.
As an elected official there are
three critically important roles you can play in this process:
First, ensure that a large-scale
summer youth program is up and running in your community. The U.S.
Department of Labor has made it clear that the majority of the youth funding
should be expended this summer on summer youth employment programs. I
couldn't agree more. You should be directing your city and county
departments to make jobs available, as wells as working with your LWIB to
ensure that there are jobs available in your community's nonprofit
organizations and in the private sector where appropriate. This all has
to be done immediately as summer will soon be here.
Second, remove bureaucratic
obstacles so this funding can get to work in your community as quickly as
possible. Thousands of your constituents are walking through the doors of
your local One-Stop Career Centers, some experiencing unemployment for the
first time in their lives. They need help. By expediting
procurement and spending authority, you will help get the resources to those
who urgently need services.
Third, you can play a pivotal
role in ensuring that there is coordination among all of the job
training-related Recovery Act resources coming into your community.
Funding through the Workforce Investment Act is a large share of the ARRA job
training funding, but there are also resources going to other local agencies
for weatherization, construction, brown field cleanup, energy and
transportation projects. Use your Local Workforce Investment Board as a
convener and broker to maximize your community's job training funds in the most
effective and accountable manner.
Thank you for all you are doing
to help get our economy growing and to get jobseekers back to work again.
I, along with my Recovery Task Force and state agencies, stand ready to work
with you to see that the funds coming to your local area are spent with the
greatest speed and economic impact.
Sincerely,
Arnold Schwarzenegger
/la
