County to Monitor Job Training Agency

Ventura County leaders agreed unanimously Tuesday to hire an analyst to monitor the financial operations of a local job training agency, intent on gaining better supervision of a program that has been troubled in the past.

The new position comes a year after the U. S. Labor Department found that the county Job Training Policy Council had misspent $500,000 in the 1980s. State law passed months later made counties liable for such misspent funds.

“For that reason and because of the increasing emphasis on and need to link job training programs with community development and economic development activities, a higher level of county involvement, oversight and coordination is necessary,” Supervisors John K. Flynn and Susan Lacey wrote in urging the board to pass the measure.

Supervisor Maria VanderKolk asked how the county could justify the new staff members after thinning the ranks of analysts in July’s budget cuts.

“The county is taking on a great big liability,” Flynn responded.

The county will contribute about $25,000 toward the salary and benefits of a senior analyst overseeing fiscal matters for the job training agency.

The remainder of the $101,000 in costs will come from the jobs council.

In August, 1993, the Labor Department found that the council had improperly spent at least $500,000 during the 1980s.

The crux of the problem was that a former director, John Chase, was drawing salaries from two federal agencies at the same time, the Labor Department said. In addition, Chase had awarded a contract to a private firm that he headed, they said.

The charges led to his firing in 1990, but a grand jury found insufficient evidence to indict him on charges of fraud.

Labor Department officials reviewed the files and demanded that the jobs council or state officials overseeing the program repay the program. Legislation approved in October now shifts that responsibility to chief administrative officers in counties.