SB0851sam001 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Sen. Jacqueline Y. Collins

Filed: 4/14/2005

09400SB0851sam001 LRB094 09289 RXD 45209 a

AMENDMENT TO SENATE BILL 851

AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend Senate Bill 851 by replacing everything after the enacting clause with the following:

"Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Opportunity in State Public Construction Act.

Section 5. Legislative purpose. The purposes of this Act are to:

(1) Prepare Illinois women and minorities to fully participate in the construction industry where women and minorities are underrepresented.

(2) Respond to the Illinois construction workforce shortage which increasingly requires high skilled workers.

(3) Provide the Illinois construction industry with a well prepared and diverse workforce to replace retiring workers.

(4) Enhance the viability and competitiveness of local communities through an economic development strategy that will employ qualified residents for jobs that offer self- sufficient wages.

(5) Increase economic opportunities in low-income communities in Illinois resulting in jobs for members of those communities.

(6) Provide support to stakeholders, including, community job training programs, labor, employers, community colleges, public agencies, and others to increase opportunities for women and minorities to be fully represented in the skilled workforce in Illinois.

(7) Develop and sustain local community partnerships among stakeholders resulting in increased capacity to prepare women and minorities in low-income communities across Illinois to enter and succeed in the construction industry workforce.

(8) Develop and widely disseminate best practices to stakeholders.

(9) Assess progress and trends in construction industry training and employment of the target populations.

Section 10. Definitions. In this Act:

"Community-based organizations and institutions" include community-based training providers and faith-based organizations.

"Support services" includes application fees, childcare, union dues, and transportation.

Section 15. Programs to prepare women and minorities for increased participation in the construction trades in Illinois. Programs that meet the criteria provided under Section 20 of this Act, designed to prepare, screen, and evaluate individual women and minorities for entry into apprenticeships in the skilled construction trades based on labor market information and projections, shall be eligible for funding under this Act. Funding shall be made available for the following:

(1) Direct services to clients and participants, which shall include, but not be limited to, outreach, recruitment, and public education; career exploration and assessment; skill development, which shall include, but not be limited to, math remediation, physical fitness, hands-on skills, tool identification, spatial and mechanical aptitude, apprenticeship interviewing and test taking, blueprint reading, career exploration, job readiness, and employment counseling; case management; job referrals; provision of tools and other materials to training programs and their clients; and support services to assist clients during pre-vocational preparation, job training, and through the first 12 months of employment, including a revolving loan fund.

(2) Capacity building for funded programs to organizations that are experienced with the industry and have demonstrated success in increasing access, participation, success, and retention of women and minorities in high-wage, high-skill jobs in the construction trades to increase the capacity of programs to provide training services. Allowable activities shall include materials and resource development, including handbooks, directories, resource guides, and other instructional aids, data collection, and organizational development, including staff training, curriculum development, and technology upgrades.

(3) Technical assistance for workforce development and vocational education systems to organizations that are experienced with the industry and have demonstrated success in increasing access, participation, success, and retention of women and minorities in high-wage, high-skill jobs in the construction trades for technical assistance services to increase the capacity of programs and institutional stakeholders. Allowable activities shall include training staff, including staff of one-stop career centers, high school counselors, superintendents, and gender equity coordinators; development of public education and marketing materials; strategic planning and goal setting; development of institutional and cross-agency protocols and policies, including memoranda of understanding; participation in task force or advisory meetings; and monitoring the utilization and impact of policies and activities.

(4) Technical assistance to organizations that are experienced with the industry and have demonstrated success in increasing access, participation, success and retention of women and minorities in high-wage, high-skill jobs in the construction trades for technical assistance services to train industry partners in supporting, retaining, and advancing women and minorities in the construction trades industry. Allowable activities shall include, training staff, including union stewards, business agents, training coordinators, development of outreach and marketing materials for targeted populations, strategic planning and goal setting, and monitoring the utilization and impact of policies and activities.

Section 20. Eligible recipients of funds; eligible participants.

(a) Eligible recipients of funds under this Act shall include:

(1) Community-based organizations and institutions with demonstrated expertise in serving the target populations, knowledge of the construction industry, and demonstrated success in placing clients in employment.

(2) Organizations offering employment services for targeted populations with expertise in preparing skilled workers for the construction field, not including entities regulated by the Day and Temporary Labor Services Act.

(3) Labor organizations, including subunits devoted to the concerns of the target populations.

(4) Contractor associations that participate in a Joint Apprenticeship Training Council as provided under paragraph (5) of this subsection (a).

(5) Joint labor and management sponsored apprenticeship programs that: (i) have a dedicated trust fund for the administration of their apprenticeship program; and (ii) have a Joint Apprenticeship Training Counsel made up of representatives of contractor and labor organizations.

(6) Public secondary and post-secondary educational institutions with vocational education programs focused on the construction industry.

(b) Eligible participants in programs funded under this Act shall include women, minorities, and residents of low-income communities that lack resources and have critical skills shortages in the construction industry.

(c) The curriculum of any program or organization that participates in this Act shall include, but not be limited to, the following subjects:

(1) Skill development, which may include, but not be limited to, math remediation, physical fitness, hands-on skills, tool identification, blueprint reading, and special and mechanical aptitude.

(2) An overview of apprenticeship programs and their requirements.

(3) Apprenticeship interviewing and test taking.

(4) Language skills.

(5) Employee rights.

(6) Labor history.

(7) Mandatory drug testing.

(8) A valid driver's license.

Section 25. Data collection and reporting.

(a) The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity shall collect annually from each program funded under this Act the following information: the number of individuals that participate in training programs funded by this Act over a 12-month period, including participants that enrolled for program services, participants that completed program services, participants that are accepted into apprenticeship programs, participants that entered apprenticeships or other employment training programs, participants that entered employment in a chosen field upon completion of apprenticeship selection process and preliminary training, measuring participant employment skills through pre-program and post-program assessment, and participants that entered an industry other than construction.

(b) The Department of Labor shall collect data on the labor force in the construction sector to track the participation of women and minorities in the sector, and shall examine the status of women and minorities in relation to the remaining workforce. Data collected shall include gender, race, age, cross-tabulation of gender, race, and age, occupation by trade, geography, advancement, income, pay equity, and assignment disparity measured through income, hours worked, and skill level. The Department of Labor shall collect this information on an annual basis and submit it to the Governor, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the Department of Employment Security, the State Board of Education, the Department of Transportation, the Inter-Agency Opportunity in State Public Construction Working Group, the Illinois General Assembly, the Illinois Statewide Nontraditional Leadership Team, and the public through the Department of Labor's annual publication entitled "Progress of Women and Minorities in the Illinois Workforce".

Section 30. Inter-Agency Commission on Opportunity in State Public Construction Working Group.

(a) There is created the Inter-Agency Commission on Opportunity in State Public Construction Working Group. The Working Group shall consist of the Director or Secretary, or his or her designee, of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Capital Development Board, the Illinois Department of Employment Security, and the Illinois Department of Labor. The Director of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, or his or her designee, shall serve as chair of the Working Group. The Working Group shall appoint additional members to the Working Group to include equal representation and geographical representation across the State from labor union organizations engaged in collective bargaining for the building trades and construction contractor associations that participate in Joint Apprenticeship Training Counsels as provided under paragraph (5) of subsection (a) of Section 20 and engage in collective bargaining. The Working Group may also consult with various groups, including, but not limited to, representatives of labor union organizations, the construction contractor community, organizations that advocate for the civil rights of African-Americans, Latinos, women, and other underrepresented groups, community-based training providers, and federal government agencies. The Inter-Agency Opportunity in State Public Construction Working Group shall:

(1) Undertake a thorough review of training programs, data collection abilities, and grant programs administered by State, federal, or private entities that are designed to prepare Illinois minorities and women to fully participate in the construction industry and provide the Illinois construction industry with a well prepared and diverse workforce.

(2) Prepare a report containing the information compiled under Section 25 of this Act, as well as recommendations for policies or programs designed to encourage the full participation of minorities and women in the trades and technical occupations. This report shall be presented to the General Assembly no later than one year after the effective date of this Act.

(3) Develop a 5-year plan to encourage the full participation of women and minorities in the trades and technical occupations. The plan shall include roles and responsibilities of both the public and private sector.

(b) Administration of the Working Group and its functions shall be shared among the members pursuant to an interagency agreement from funds appropriated for this purpose or from existing funds within the budgets of the Working Group members.

Section 35. Allocation of funds.

(a) The State may reserve up to 5% of the funds provided under Section 45 of this Act for administration of activities provided under Sections 15 and 25

(b) The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity shall consult with the Working Group in the administration of grants under this Act. The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity shall award, through a competitive grant process, 3-year initial grants to eligible entities for services to be provided under Section 15 of this Act. Each organization receiving multi-year funding shall annually report on its programs and outcomes. The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity shall provide the Working Group an annual report of the grant applications and awards. Subsequent grant cycles shall be for 2 years.

(c) In each grant cycle, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity shall award at least one grant per economic development region, provided that a qualifying proposal is received from the region in question.

(d) In awarding grants, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity shall consider the size of the construction projects in the geographic area covered by the proposal, relative to the size of the construction labor force statewide. In addition, the Department shall consider the areas that have the largest disparity of workforce representation in the construction industry.

(e) In awarding grants, preference shall be given to community-based training programs that represent the communities where delivery of service is targeted, including collaboratives in which a community-based organization is a primary partner.

(f) A representative of a prospective grantee shall not be involved in the review of his or her organization's proposal.

(g) Program training providers and industry collaborators shall work with apprenticeship program coordinators among the various trades to establish articulation agreements to facilitate program graduates entry into the apprenticeship programs where applicable based on the variant selection processes among the trades.

Section 40. Accountability, evaluation, and oversight.

(a) The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity shall establish performance measures related to the data collection requirements provided under Section 25.

(b) Evaluation of program impact shall be based upon an increase in the percentage of the targeted population in industry jobs, the increase in the rate of acceptance, completion, and retention among targeted populations, raising the skill levels of individual participants contributing to their overall employability, and the increase in rate of employment, including hours, and annual income as measured against pre-program participant income.

(c) The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity may contract with eligible providers to deliver the technical assistance services under this Section.

Section 45. Funding authorization.

(a) This Act shall be subject to appropriation.

(b) The funds are to be allocated to and administered by the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, which shall, through a competitive process, solicit proposals from qualified service providers.

(c) Each recipient of funds under this Act shall be required to provide a 25% match through any combination of funds and in kind contributions.".