Councilman wants summer jobs program

Councilman wants summer jobs program

Council shows support, but balks at use of CDBG funds

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West Memphis City Councilman Marco McClendon authored a resolution charging the city’s Department of Community Development with organizing a summer youth work program. His plan called for using Community Development Block Grant money for funding the program.

But, while the creation of a summer jobs program has long been an issue and there was general consensus among city officials that a plan was needed, McClendon heard a resounding no — at least not the way the councilman outlined.

Nonetheless, McClendon was happy to have stirred the pot and brought so many key players to the same table and the same time to discuss the matter.

The leadership from Community Development, Human Resources, and the Police Department took part in a round robin discussion during the council’s pre-meeting work session on Sept. 21 that was, ac- cording to McClendon, a decade in the making.

“We started talking about this since shortly after the DeAunta Farrow situation,” said McClendon. The councilman’s reference was to the 2007 shooting death of the West Memphis 12-yearold by police, who were ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing in the case.

The councilman said he did a lot of research on summer programs and had checked with three other Arkansas cities about how they administered jobs for teens on school break.

“Everyone of them uses the community development grant,” said McClendon.

City councilors objected to the plan on two grounds, first the community development department has not been staffed to spearhead a program, and block grant funds are subject to annual public hearings and have already been structured to fulfill the public wishes expressed in the last round of hearings.

“Almost nobody attends those hearings,” said Councilor James Pulliaum.

“We can’t divert CDBG funds without a hearing,” said Mayor Bill Johnson.

Councilwoman Ramona Taylor thought a job program would best be administered by human resource professionals.

“Why wouldn’t we work with someone like workforce if we got funds?”

asked Taylor. “Because community development is not in the job creation business. I am concerned why we would put this on a department that is short staffed. I’d like us to talk around the table about who is the best to manage it.”

City H.R. Director Janice Coleman chimed in. The resolution as presented by McClendon did not include the city human resource department.

“I meet regularly with workforce and there are certain state laws regarding working with minors of which you should be aware,” advised Coleman.

“It’s important that we collaborate with our local programs and make sure we are on the same page, adhering to requirements there. We have a great partnership with the college and the Academies of West Memphis, so there are some things we can do locally. I am willing to help work with local partners and ensure compliance.”

McClendon and Councilor Wayne Croom pointed to the possibility that the Chamber of Commerce had access to internship programs.

“They have a program called Arkansas Friendship,” said McClendon.

“Yes, they have internships and some are paid while they are working the job,” said Croom.

“Talking about this now, ahead of next summer, is wise,” said Councilman James Holt. “We need a healthy youth program. We often talk about tearing things down but this is building lives up.”

“We all have the same thing in mind,” said Pulliaum. “We’ve got a lot of programs going on but we need an umbrella so everyone knows about the opportunities and what is going on. We have programs that have been going on that no one knows anything about.

We could put in what ever little funds we’ve got into some things like that. These aren’t things that have just started up. We need to make sure at risk kids are invited in.”

That’s where Police Chief Donald Oakes jumped in to cast his vision for summer youth employment. He wanted businesses to embrace the practice of hiring kids identified as at risk to give teenagers a chance.

The police had applied for a grant to put forward such a program but failed to land the funding.

“We’ve gone to other places as part of the Violence Reduction Network and seen job programs,” said Oakes. “The first thing you have to do is identify the kids you have to help.

Just putting open applications isn’t what we want to do. You have to partner with the schools and the police and we have to identify kids that are at risk but try hard. Normally these programs partner with the business community, it’s not normally government hiring. In return we give the businesses great positive publicity for joining in the partnership, we acknowledge what you did.

“If we want something in place for next summer the time is now,” said McClendon. “Because if we have to reach out for grants it will take time to have it all together.”

In the end council opted to table the resolution as written because it saddled community development with initiative. McClendon agreed to reword the resolution to include the city administration in general which would afford the possibility for a multi-department response. Councilors also agreed to meet to begin fleshing out an action plan to move summer youth jobs forward.

By John Rech