Red Tape Ties Up D.C.'s Unemployed

In 2002, the D.C. Employment Justice Center, a nonprofit group that advises the poor on labor matters, tried to help 42 District residents get job training through the One-Stops, but 41 of them gave up because of lengthy delays. Another group, Wider Opportunities for Women, reviewed the One-Stop system in 2004 and found similar faults.

Irish said many people who register with the centers do not actually pursue training, sometimes for months. Thus, Irish said it is more valid to assess how long it takes to get people into training by starting the clock when the applicant and the caseworker begin talking in detail about the training programs. By that measure, it takes 81 days.

By comparison, once a person at a One-Stop Career Center in Baltimore is found to be qualified for training, it generally takes about a month to complete the paperwork to place him or her in a program, according to Karen Sitnick, director of Baltimore's Office of Employment Development.

Daryl Hardy, the District's deputy director for training and development, said complaints about the One-Stops overstate the scope of the problem. "Is everything perfect? Of course not. But we've made a lot of progress." He said that in the past six months, the agency has hired new caseworkers who are skilled at dealing with the public.

Hardy also said many people experience good customer service from the One-Stops. As an example, the agency furnished the name of Lamour Rogers, a Southeast Washington resident who said he received excellent service from a One-Stop caseworker who helped him explore training options after he lost his job in a dental office. He waited about two weeks before entering government-funded training to get his commercial driver's license. He now operates a Metrobus and is making more than he was before. "I'll give them mad praise for having that program," he said. "It's working out well for me."

Effectiveness Problems

Most large cities in the United States have a workforce board comprising business and government officials. It is supposed to coordinate efforts by governments and private entities to get people employed.

The District's Workforce Investment Council has had little success making the job training system more effective, say some current and former members. "We have a lot of very nice brochures, but we've not made a real difference in putting people to work" said Barbara B. Lang, president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, who was named chairman of the Workforce Investment Council late last month.

The board has 39 members, including business representatives and top city officials. According to minutes of its meetings, in the group's past four quarterly business meetings, only eight members, on average, personally attended. Seven more sent a representative. Among the members who are not listed as having attended any of those four meetings (though each sent a representative to at least one): Department of Employment Services Director Gregory P. Irish, D.C. Schools Superintendent Clifford B. Janey, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Stanley Jackson and D.C. Council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5).

Irish and Jackson and spokeswomen for Janey and Orange said last week that staffers provide effective representation at Workforce Investment Council meetings.

Lang said that sparse attendance makes it difficult for the board to reform the city's job training programs and that she will no longer let staffers act on behalf of board members.

Unlike in many cities, the Workforce Investment Council has not put in place rules to ensure that successful job training programs get the most money. That may be a factor in what an analysis by The Post found to be mediocre results from job training programs operated through the One-Stop centers.

In the year ended June 2004, the District's One-Stop Career Centers paid 52 training providers, out of 71 eligible organizations, to train 751 students, according a document obtained from DOES under the Freedom of Information Act. The tuition averaged more than $6,000 per student, and subjects were as varied as cosmetology, food service, phone-line repair and office software.