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Committee approves forwarding JobsNow grant action and continues emergency contract increase for special meeting
Summary
Human Services Agency asked the subcommittee to expand emergency authority for the JobsNow employer-reimbursement and payroll contract from $10 million to $44 million to carry the program through September amid uncertain federal reauthorization; the committee forwarded the grant acceptance to the full Board and set a special meeting to continue the contract amendment.
The Human Services Agency (HSA) told the subcommittee it needs substantially more contract authority for the JobsNow wage subsidy and payrolling contract than originally requested because program enrollment and employer participation grew faster than projected and federal reauthorization remained uncertain.
Trent Rohrer, director of HSA, said the agency initially sought a $10,000,000 emergency declaration to carry the employer reimbursement and payroll components through May, but rapid program growth and delays in federal reauthorization prompted a revised request to increase emergency contract authority to $44,000,000 to carry operations through September and into October for final payroll processing. Rohrer said the additional authority is federal money and that the department has done projections based on enrollments and wage averages to estimate the increase.
Rohrer described two possible paths if the program is extended by Congress: move the employer‑reimbursement component in‑house and re‑procure or complete a procurement for payrolling. He said bringing employer reimbursements in‑house could speed reimbursements and reduce costs but would create short‑term operational burdens and possible disruption for participants if done prematurely.
Committee members discussed operational timing. Dave Curdo, director of contracts, explained invoices from hundreds of employers typically arrive a month after the month of employment, so staff recommended a contract end date of Oct. 31, 2010, to allow sufficient time to process September invoices. The committee agreed to three department amendments in substance: (1) note that the $10M covers May and additional amounts are needed for June–September, (2) replace $10,000,000 with $44,000,000 in the emergency declaration, and (3) replace the $19,995,000 total with the amended contract total (committee language reflected about $53 million). The Chair said the amendments would be taken without objection.
For scheduling, the subcommittee decided to forward item 6 (the accept-and-exped grant and salary ordinance changes) to the full Board with recommendation and to continue item 5 (the contract authority increase) to a special Budget and Finance meeting immediately before the Board meeting on June 18 to finalize the contract amendment.
The committee emphasized continuity of participant pay and employer reimbursements as the guiding priority.
