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Workforce Board Outlines How Good Jobs Ordinance Targets City-Funded Construction
Summary
Kathy Awad of the Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board briefed the board on Waterbury's Good Jobs ordinance and the First Source referral program, explaining that publicly funded projects over $500,000 are subject to local hiring goals and that training funds cited are from outside grants, not city coffers.
Kathy Awad, president and CEO of the Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board, told the Waterbury Board of Education that the Good Jobs ordinance applies to publicly funded projects of $500,000 or more and sets local-hire expectations the district should understand.
"The city requires that publicly funded projects of $500,000 or more are subject to the ordinance," Awad said, adding that the ordinance asks contractors to make a "good faith effort" to achieve a target that 30% of craft workers be city residents and that subsets of that 30% include apprentices, minorities and women. She clarified that the ordinance treats the apprentice target as nested inside the 30% local participation goal.
Awad and the workforce board representative explained how monitoring works: project administrators receive certified payrolls and tally Waterbury residents by subcontractor; weekly payroll reviews and pre-bid engagement are used to monitor compliance. She told commissioners that at the height of recent school construction the board monitored payrolls for more than 140 contractors and that administrator costs were historically approximately $40,000 per year, with smaller renovation projects costing in the $5,000—$10,000 range.
Awad also emphasized funding limits and referrals: while the workforce board manages a First Source referral program and provides career navigation, "there is no funding provided by the city to support job training for city residents," she said. The board seeks state and federal grants and discretionary funding to run training programs that serve residents across the region; when cohort training runs, Waterbury residents are prioritized for referrals to city-funded jobs.
Commissioners asked whether the sub-targets for apprentices, minorities and women are part of the 30% goal; Awad answered that the 25% apprenticeship objective is a portion of the 30% and that minority and women targets are applied within those expectations. Commissioners also asked about outreach to students and high school pathways; Awad described partnerships, pre-apprenticeship curriculum with the Home Builders Institute and after-school earn-and-learn programs that provide credentials and summer pipelines.
Board members welcomed the workforce board's plan to modernize outreach and update the Good Jobs ordinance compliance approach to reflect online job platforms rather than classifieds. The presentation closed with logistics for contractor monitoring and an offer to share recruitment and orientation details with district schools.
