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 Sup. Marcelia Nicholson, Co-Chairs Pam Fendt, Linda Frank, Julie Kerksick, Ted Kraig, Janet Meissner Pritchard, Supreme Moore Omokunde, Pamela Ritger, Erick Shambarger, Rafael Smith, and Freida Webb 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, April 16, 2021 2:00 PM Virtual Jobs and Equity Work Group Location:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82149732800 1. Roll Call Membes present: Aneysha Bhat, Ken Blaeske, Jacquin Davidson, Richard Diaz, Larry Hofman, Courtney Kelly, Julie Kerksick, Robert Kraig, Erick Shambarger, Andrew Simons, Rafael Smith and Ted Wilinski 2. Minutes Approval Minutes approved - Larry Hoffman motioned. Julie Kerksick seconded. Motion passed. 3. Education & Outreach Work Group Presentation Aneyhsa Bhat - Update on pathways; Nothing to report other than the work continues. 4. Update on Green Jobs Mapping Erick S looks at refining info on weatherization. And mentioned future meetings with community partners and the need to hire arborists into the apprenticeship. Julie, Discussed mapping into and Erick S: DOE: Step one - pathways; Step 2 - building interest City of Milwaukee Page 1 CITY-COUNTY TASK FORCE ON Meeting Minutes April 16, 2021 CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC EQUITY Wanting to get 30 people of color hired at end of three year period. Energy Information Hub, MWERC: Clean Energy Technician starting in fall at MWERC. Discussed Electrical Assembly program. 18 people started and only 4 graduated. Wants to target 15 people. Drop off mostly due to COVID. MWERC was very flexible to accommodate. Math requirements were an issue. Took away the grade and made it pass/fail. Partners with IESI. Khan Academy and WRTP Big Step may be a resource to help with math Jacolyn Davidson 5. Continue Brainstorming Potential/Shovel Ready Projects Shovel Ready Projects discussion: Erick Shambarger: Green Jobs mapping, HVAC, Electrical. Taskforce recommendation for if stimulus funds become available. Flushing out an electrical apprenticeship program may be a possibility. Street Lights as a potential area. Staff to mentor and train apprentices is an issue. Training for onsite construction. Math also an issue and needs addressing. May also include CDL (commercial driver’s license) requirement. Ken Blaeske: RPP (Resident Preference Program) requirement. ES - family-supporting jobs Richard Diaz - zip code targeted should be a part of RRP. Milwaukee Jobs Works and SDC to help with training. J. Davidson - talked about soft skills needed. ES - recruitment - helpful to start with current under-employed people. A good resource for employers. RD - Agrees to recruit the under-employed. RS - What is the right wage to hire a good person to keep them. MWERC on research for proper wage to keep people: Member companies did research on it. Placed the wage range right on the flyer for the training. Member companies would put graduates at priority for hiring. $18-$23/hr ES - anecdotal is getting paid, consistently and paid while training. RD - relationship building is critical These partnerships really help. Courtney Kelly - The handoff sounds good, but realistically people have to be "ready" I worked with pre-apprenticeship programs. Having a driver’s license is a huge barrier to get to the jobs...they are most likely not in the City. The other factor is to make sure that in addition to the training they have job preparation to do well on the interview. LH - likely to meet up with push back from the others at the workplace. Ken Blaesek IBEW - says that he definitely won’t tolerate racism on the job. RD - Pathfinders’ work gave him a perspective that it takes dedication to overcome these issues. City of Milwaukee Page 2 CITY-COUNTY TASK FORCE ON Meeting Minutes April 16, 2021 CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC EQUITY ES - Prevailing wage law (average of employees of each craft in that geographic area) - is that still followed. KB says that because WI not following it, drives more people from out of state who are paid lower. RK - Lowest bidder is an issue and that tends to mean lower-paid employee contractors. JD - Transportation to and from a job is an issue. RS - Wage, RRP, transportation are important for equity and creating that pipeline for sustaining jobs. ES - Compete MKE (MKE public works program) may be worth looking at. JK - get between the employers and social programs to navigate and persuade employers to participate. RK is tied into a San Fran program using ARP money and report back. RS - what is our next step. ES - Get it on paper, Google sheet or some other form on paper. Get it started so we can discuss and refine it. TW - will pull info out of minutes to start this process. ES will do this RS - what is a pipeline? Recruitment training placement employment and the employer has to have the contract. JK - A lot of this has been done already. Part of the conversation has to be how do we gt the incentive right so the would-be workers take ownership. This needs to be part of our work, part of the pipeline. Have to find a balance between delivering stuff to people and engaging them/ having them take ownership (how do we get them excited and want to succeed). CK - We have to start with the exposure. Who are the targeted audiences and how we can present the opportunities to them? Also guest speaker from the field. (still part of the pipeline) Also, we have to know that potential students may come from many different areas, education and work backgrounds, so it cannot be a "cookie-cutter" situation I've seen this a lot and this is another reason you lose good students People agreed with JK on her statements. CK - Drivers license recovery is still active. WCS provides this service as well. JK - Suggestion - wanna put together the type of pipeline that different stakeholders need to do. Focus on deep thinking of what have we learned about recruitment. Word of mouth is very important recruitment, how do we use our personnel networks to do this. RS - Question - Recruitment subgroup. Many said they would participate. Julie will head up that sub-group (Recruitment and outreach) RS has a list of names. Also one on jobs, maybe ES head that up. These subgroups would make recommendations back to this group. Jobs group - where are the jobs and for the electrician piece, have ES work on that one. City of Milwaukee Page 3 CITY-COUNTY TASK FORCE ON Meeting Minutes April 16, 2021 CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC EQUITY JD - a couple of levels of jobs. Entry-level, and higher. Training sub-group: RS, TW LH, and others Retention sub-group: CK RD - BlueGreen Alliance connection - he is part of the field staff. Looking for good stories for sharing with the alliance and getting the Biden Administration to acknowledge and meet at Century City. Tie into American Rescue and American Jobs Plans. If anyone has ideas, email him: rdiaz@bluegreenalliance.org 6. Agenda Items for Next Meeting Action Items Form subgroups: Lists of names taken by RS and to be distributed by him. Groups to meet before the next meeting and start work. Recruitment and outreach headed by Julie K Jobs group headed by Erick S. Training sub-group: RS, TW LH, and others Retention sub-group: CK Next Meeting Agenda Date: Friday, April 30, 2-4 PM MPS discussion and maybe participate in the meeting. Dr. Hill End at 3:57 PM City of Milwaukee Page 4