CITY-COUNTY ADVISORY BOARD ON CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC EQUITY

200 E. Wells Street City of Milwaukee Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202 Meeting Minutes CITY-COUNTY TASK FORCE ON CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC EQUITY Ald. Nik Kovac and Marcelia Nicholson, Co-Chairs Pam Fendt, Linda Frank, Julie Kerksick, Ted Kraig, Janet Meissner Pritchard, Supreme Moore Omokunde, Pamela Ritger, Erick Shambarger, and Rafael Smith Staff Assistant: Linda Elmer, lelmer@milwaukee.gov, 414-286-2231 Legislative Liason: Luke Knapp, luke.knapp@milwaukee.gov, 414-286-8637 Google documents for this body can be found at : http://bit.ly/CCTFCEE Friday, March 5, 2021 2:00 PM Virtual Jobs and Equity Work Group Location: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84854790970 1. Roll call. Present: Rafael Smith, Larry Hoffman, Ariana Hones, Erick Shambarger, Julie Kerksick, Ken Blaeske, Robert Kraig, Julie Cayo, Bernadette Karanja, Kevin Kane, Jack Hanson, Richard Diaz, Freida Webb, Valencia Brown, Maithilee Kanthi, Aneysha Bhat, Valencia Brown, Deneine Powell, Jack Hanson, Supreme Moore-Omokunde, Max Love, Ted Wilinski 2. Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes A motion was made and seconded and the minutes were duly approved. 3. Continue Equity Metric/Inventory Discussion Work Group Chair Rafael Smith said in order to allow time for this discussion the agenda order will be switched to cover item 4 first and come back to item 3. 4. Green Jobs Mapping Project Update Project Consultant Aneysha Bhat reported on her work building a green jobs pathway map for the City of Milwaukee. She has been conducting a number of interviews to gather the necessary information to display and demonstrate career pathways: the requirements and the training opportunities, so that they are available to the citizens of City of Milwaukee Page 1 CITY-COUNTY TASK FORCE ON Meeting Minutes March 5, 2021 CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC EQUITY Milwaukee. To map the information, want to show the assets and opportunities we have, what we need to develop. What are limitations in programs that currently exist. Interviews are taking place, and will continue. Will have a draft map to share at upcoming meeting. Erick Shambarger reported that he and DOE TA Professor Kevin Grosskopf met to discuss modular construction idea. Pam Fendt reiterated that this idea only supports equity if we can make sure that creating the modular units creates good jobs for Milwaukee residents, and that previous example of HACM doing modular construction at WestLawn did not. Item 4 Rafael Smith re-shared metrics from a report by Dr. Marc Levine at UW Milwaukee Center for Economic Development on African American Wellness in Milwaukee and 50 largest cities. He said we started off our discussion at the last meeting, but we need to get more specific and make some decisions. Robert Kraig said addition to having a baseline, as we now have in greenhouse emissions for Milwaukee Metro, we would also want to create goals for 2030, like we have for climate (45% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030). In addition, as macro-economic and national/international factors (economic cycles) impact these numbers, the city ranking among top 50 metro areas helps us see if we are having impact that is lost in the broader economic cycle. We perhaps could find other measures that also helped us do that. But we should find a way to state the goal(s). Richard Diaz asked what about capacity-building metrics? How do we measure if people we want to benefit from this work is getting skills to build toward upward-mobility. Julie Kerksick mentioned the Water Commons report and how that report gives us a baseline of who has certain jobs now and will be measured into the future. Pam Fendt noted a concern about that report, that for instance Operating Engineers – they work on buildings, bridges, highways, as well as sewer and water. How to capture the real growth in employment in the “green” sectors? Double Milwaukee’s Economic Equity by 2030 / Cut Inequities in Half by 2030 Measures: Employment by Race and Gender Median Hourly Wage Rate by Race and Gender (BLS data) Median Household Income by Race Our rank benchmarked to other cities Discussion of employment opportunities and how to share information. Bernadette Karanja noted that The Office of Workforce Development at the City-Clerk's Office has a smart platform called DirectConnectMKE of which the major employment service agencies are represented. We are driving young job seekers to the platform to make a connection with career specialists and employers. She invited Ken Blaeske, to talk off-line to see how IBEW can get involved talking to more young people from Milwaukee. Julie Cayo stated Employ Milwaukee is providing employment and career services within MPS and other high schools throughout the county. Juniors and Seniors. Aneysha Bhat mentioned taking into account the cultural/qualitative aspects. The combination of qualitative and quantitative metrics will provide the most holistic, inclusive, and representative picture of economic equity. Culture change can’t be measured well with quantitative measures. Surveys and interviews of individuals. Their experience at particular workplaces and in training programs. Pam said that last meeting we discussed Output Measurements (process and steps along the way) vs Outcome Measurements (achievement of goals). Deniene Powell racial equity impact measures being worked on by Greater Milwaukee City of Milwaukee Page 2 CITY-COUNTY TASK FORCE ON Meeting Minutes March 5, 2021 CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC EQUITY Foundation. Not about attracting black and brown workers into an organization, its about retention. It is beyond lip service. MMAC has the program where employers are taking a pledge to be a Region of Choice. Work with those employers to see changes and their data. https://mmac.formstack.com/forms/region_of_choice_corporate_pledge Pam stated we are looking at employment within the “green economy” so it would be the subset of employers who has made the pledge and who work in the “green” space. Discussion of if culture is improved at area employers, will it lead to improvement in our overall metric? Do we feel process items change things on the macro level? Deneine Powell said cultural measure is so low here, we commissioned the UWMCED report with the metrics we are discussing. Need to invest in changing the culture in order to make any headway whatsoever. Rep. Moore-Omokunde noted Black people are leaving for higher salaries and opportunity to advance as well. Aneysha Bhat discussed input and output – have to invest in creating a more inclusive culture to create a balance, and then yes will see Bernadette Karanja said with clear goals and objectives, we can build quantitative and qualitative measures into the overall metrics and their sub-objectives. We can get to a granular level from Aneysha’s map. Representative Moore-Omokunde posed the question that the Governor has put $1m in the budget for green jobs ($500,000 per year for 2 years) and does the group think this is enough? Pam Fendt replied yes, that many of the job training for the jobs that will come online exist, might not be a matter of creating new training opportunities but rather doing a better job connecting people to them. Remember the training program at MATC for building technician regularly goes undersubscribed. 5. Review of Work Group Template Erick Shambarger explained to the workgroup that he set up a Google Folder to save all key documents for the working group, including this presentation: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aHuU64sJETOY75e3Gmr-FQTPpPJzgBbp He then walked the group through and explained the sections of Task Force Template found in the Task Force Google Folder. Wrapping up, Erick Shambarger said the key question for the Task Force is: How can we move the ball forward on green jobs for City residents. He explained the process that we face as: 1. Explain the career options and pathways 2. 3. Build Skills 4. Make sure there are companies who will hire the people who got the skills 6. Agenda for Next Meeting Review refined metric proposal Shovel Ready projects 7. Close & Schedule Next Meeting Tuesday, March 16 from 2-4pm Minutes provided by Rafael Smith. City of Milwaukee Page 3