full community benefits jobs stimulus 4

8/14/2019 Full Community Benefits Jobs Stimulus 4

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Applied Research Center arc.org

Full Community Benefits

Employment Initiatives

Economic Stimulus Through

Inclusive High Quality Jobs

April 2009

Terry Keleher

Applied Research Center

arc.org


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Full Community Benefits Employment Initiatives

With the passage of the federal economic stimulus package--the American Recovery andReinvestment Act of 2009--billions of dollars in new monies are flowing to states and

municipalities, much of it intended for job creation and retention. To ensure these public fundsare used to create high-quality jobs that benefit all peopleespecially low-income people,

communities of color and those who are most disadvantagedgrassroots organizations will needto take leadership in proposing ways stimulus funds can be used most effectively and equitably.

Community residents can propose that states and municipalities develop Full Community

Benefits Employment Initiatives for all programs involving job creation and retention. Thisinvolves the adoption and implementation of a framework of inclusionary principles and

objectives, along with a participatory planning and development process. Once fair standards andprocesses are adopted, community organizations and advocates can work to negotiate and

incorporate various exemplary practices when jobs programs are being developed.

Proposed Full Community Benefits Employment Initiatives are modeled after communitybenefits agreements where local communities negotiate and win concessions from prospective

new employers by getting them to agree to such things as hiring local residents, utilizing localcontractors and resources, and providing living wages and union jobs. This way, opportunities

and benefits are spread equitably around the entire community. Community organizations andcoalitions can use a similar strategy to negotiate with policymakers and government agencies

that are now responsible for deciding how to spend federal jobs stimulus funds. By demandingthat public officials adopt and implement Full Community Benefits Employment Initiatives, all

residents--especially those most disadvantaged who face a disproportionate share of barriers anddiscrimination--can access the new opportunities and needed benefits.

The Presidents Memorandum of March 20, 2009,Ensuring Responsible Spending of Recovery

Act Funds, among other things, directs departments and agencies to achieve long-term publicbenefits by, for example, investing in technological advances in science and health to increase

economic efficiency and improve quality of life; investing in transportation, environmentalprotection, and other infrastructure that will provide long-term economic benefits; fostering

energy independence; or improving educational quality; and to satisfy the Recovery Act'stransparency and accountability objectives. Furthermore a U.S. Presidents Office on

Management and Budgets Memorandum of April 3, 2009, Updated Implementing Guidance forthe American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, advises agencies to take into account

considerations such as supporting projects that ensure compliance with equal opportunity lawsand principles, support small businesses including disadvantaged business enterprises, engage in

sound labor practices, promote local hiring, and engage with community-based organizations.

These federal directives clearly establish the elements of equity, transparency, equal opportunity,sound labor practices, environmental protection, accountability, community engagement and

many other positive principles and practices. Community advocacy organizations must ensurethat these elements are fully reflected in the development and implementation of all Recovery

Act funded programs. (SeeAppendix A and B for direct language from the federal directives).


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How to Use this Framework and Toolkit:

Step 1: Ask policy makers and public officials to adopt thePrinciples and Objectives.

Step 2: Also ask them to adopt theParticipatory Planning and Development Process.

Step 3: Then uses the principles and process to advocate for theExemplary Practices.

Contents:

Introduction

Principles and Objectives

Participatory Planning and Development Process

Exemplary Practices

Appendix A: Federal Policy Goals for Implementing Recovery Act Funds

Appendix B: General Recovery Act Provisions


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Principles and Objectives:

Principles Objectives

1. Inclusion To remove significant barriers and provide sufficient supports to makeall jobs fully accessible to everyone.

2. Equity To ensure that all employment opportunities and benefits are fairlydistributed, with preference given to disadvantaged peopleespecially

people of color, women and low-income peopleand communities.

3. Dignity To ensure that all jobs are safe and respectful of the rights of workers.

4. Stability To create, retain and support jobs that pay livable wages and benefits

that help families and communities survive and thrive.

5. Sustainability To support jobs that protect the environment, conserve energy and

improve community infrastructure.

6. Accountability To institute ethical, transparent and participatory processes to ensurethat all programs and expenditures are implemented fairly and result inequitable and successful outcomes.


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Participatory Planning and Development Process:

1. Establish a well-publicized process for soliciting and considering public input when

developing jobs stimulus programs and deciding how to distribute funds. Proactively

engage key stakeholders, especially representatives from disadvantaged communities.

2. Develop a draft strategic program plan, open to final public review and comment.

3. Conduct aRacial Equity Impact Assessment to analyzes the impacts of proposed

plans on different racial and ethnic groups to ensure equity and inclusion. This can help

anticipate and prevent possible adverse impacts and unintended consequences.

4. Revise and improve the Strategic Plan based on final input and impact assessments.

5. Prioritize the approval of inclusionary proposals that best meet the principles and

objectives and contain the most exemplary practices.

6. Implement, monitor and evaluate the program with ongoing data collection,enforcement measures and public reporting to ensure fairness, effectiveness and

accountability.


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Exemplary Practices:

These and other elements can be incorporated into employment program plans. They can be

tailored to the needs and interests of different communities and elaborated with sufficient

specificityincluding qualitative and numeric goals, timetables and actions-- to ensure success.

Affirmative Action: Develop numerical goals and specific affirmative steps to ensure that high-

quality employment opportunities are fully accessible to people of color and women.

Anti-Discrimination: Ensure that all people are provided equal opportunity and fair treatment

and are not discriminated against on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin,

age, sex, disability, familial status, immigrant status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or

other characteristics; with all anti-discrimination policies fully implemented and enforced.

Community and regional equity: Ensure a fair distribution of opportunities, resources and

benefits within and across different geographic communities--including metropolitan areas,

neighborhoods and rural areas.

Economic Stability: Incentivize the creation and retention of high-quality, good-paying long-

term jobs by responsible employers.

Education & Job Training: Expand educational access and job training for people who are

unemployed and underemployed, with supports and services for finding good jobs.

Green Jobs: Prioritize and incentivize eco-friendly green jobs that advance environmental

protection, energy conservation and efficiency, community improvement, and an equitable and

sustainable economy.

Immigrant Rights: Ensure fair treatment and full rights for immigrants (e.g. by supporting

legalization, amnesty, human rights and worker rights and opposing the E-Verify system,

immigrant enforcement raids and other punitive actions by law enforcement or employers).


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Livable Wages and Benefits: Require new jobs to pay prevailing or livable wages, with health

insurance.

Local hiring: Include first source hiring provisions, transit-accessible jobs and job creation

in low-income communities and communities of color.

Occupational safety: Ensure fair and enforced safety standards so that workers are not exposed

to dangerous working conditions, harmful pesticides or other occupational hazards.

Preferences for Low-income people: Develop numerical goals and specific steps to ensure that

those who are most economically disadvantaged have full and preferential access to high

quality employment opportunities, using hiring incentives, set-asides and supports such a

childcare and transportation assistance. Create clear pathways for recipients of Temporary

Assistance to Needy Families (and those still in need who are no longer eligible due to time

limits) to connect to jobs that will actually lift families out of poverty.

Rights for People with Prior Convictions: Remove barriers to employment for people with

prior convictions, by sealing criminal records and providing needed assistance and supports to

job-seekers and hiring incentives for employers.

Small and Disadvantaged Businesses:Provide equal opportunities for Disadvantaged BusinessEnterprises (DBE) in awarding contracts under the Recovery Act.

Union Jobs: Prioritize and incentivize proposals that involve union jobs that are more likely to

pay higher wages and offer more benefits than non-union jobs.

Workers Rights: Ensure the all workers are treated with dignity and respect, with full rights to

organize and engage in collective bargaining.

Youth/Young People Job Opportunities: Ensure that there are training and employment

opportunities for young people (e.g. summer jobs, paid community service jobs, paid

internships and apprenticeships), that provide experience and a ladder to high quality jobs.


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Appendix A: Federal Policy Goals for Implementing Recovery Act Funds

Below is a direct excerpt from Updated Implementing Guidance for the American Recovery and

Reinvestment Act of 2009, Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, April 3,

2009, Section 1.6.

What other policy goals should an agency consider in determining how best to

use Recovery Act funds in order to achieve the Act's objectives?

All Federal agencies should take the following considerations into account, to the extentpermitted by law and practicable, when determining how best to use Recovery Act funds for

achieving the Act's objectives.

Ensuring long-term public benefits, optimization of economic and programmatic results. Inaccordance with the Presidents Memorandum of March 20, 2009 on Ensuring Responsible

Spending of Recovery Act Funds, departments and agencies shall develop transparent, merit-based selection criteria that will guide their available discretion in committing, obligating, or

expending funds under the Recovery Act for grants and other forms of Federal financialassistance. Such criteria shall be consistent with legal requirements, may be tailored to the

particular funding activity, and shall be formulated to ensure that the funding furthers the jobcreation, economic recovery, and other purposes of the Recovery Act.

As the Presidents Memorandum further outlined, merit-based selection criteria shall be

designed to support particular projects, applications, or applicants for funding that have, to thegreatest extent, a demonstrated or potential ability to:

(i) deliver programmatic results;

(ii) achieve economic stimulus by optimizing economic activity and the number of

jobs created or saved in relation to the Federal dollars obligated;

(iii) achieve long-term public benefits by, for example, investing in technologicaladvances in science and health to increase economic efficiency and improve quality of

life; investing in transportation, environmental protection, and other infrastructure thatwill provide long-term economic benefits; fostering energy independence; or improving

educational quality; and

(iv) satisfy the Recovery Act's transparency and accountability objectives.

In evaluating projects for funding, departments and agencies accordingly should allocateRecovery Act funds toward projects that will achieve long-term public benefits as outlined

above, optimize economic activity, deliver programmatic results, and meet transparency andaccountability objectives.

Ensuring compliance with equal opportunity laws and principles: Federal civil rights laws and

principles are at the core of our nations commitment to ensuring that everyone has a chance toshare in economic opportunity. All Federal agencies should take steps to ensure that recipients


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of Recovery Act funds comply fully with their responsibilities under the full range of civilrights laws, including (but not limited to) Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal

Pay Act of 1963, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and Titles I and Title Vof the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Wherever possible, agencies should implement

appropriate oversight mechanisms to ensure that Recovery Act funds are expended in a manner

consistent with civil rights obligations. Furthermore, to the extent possible and consistent withthe principles underlying our national commitment to civil rights and equal opportunity,agencies should encourage recipients to implement best practices for ensuring that all

individuals regardless of race, gender, age, and national origin benefit from the RecoveryAct.

Promoting local hiring: Departments and agencies should seek to maximize the economic

benefits of a Recovery Act-funded investment in a particular community by supportingprojects that seek to ensure that the people who live in the local community get the job

opportunities that accompany the investment.

Providing maximum practicable opportunities for small businesses. Small businesses play acritical role in stimulating economic growth and creating jobs. Because support of small

businesses furthers the economic growth and job creation purposes of the Recovery Act,agencies should supp ort projects that provide maximum practicable opportunities for small

businesses. In the sphere of government contracting, agencies should provide maximumopportunities for small businesses to compete and participate as prime and subcontractors in

contracts awarded by agencies, while ensuring that the government procures services at fairmarket prices. Accordingly, agencies are strongly encouraged to take advantage of authorized

small business contracting programs to create opportunities for small businesses. AgenciesOffices of Small Disadvantaged Business Utilization and SBAs District Offices can assist

with market research to help identify qualified and capable small business sources, both at thenational and local level, including small businesses that may be able to respond quickly to

solicitations and otherwise get their firms contract-ready.

Providing equal opportunity for Disadvantaged Business Enterprises: Agencies should seek toprovide equal opportunities for Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBE) in awarding

contracts under the Recovery Act, to the extent allowed by law.

Encouraging sound labor practices: The federal government invests substantial resources inenforcing wage and hour, occupational safety and health, and collective bargaining laws, to

ensure that American workers are safe and treated fairly. All other things being equal, agenciesawarding Recovery Act funds should seek to support entities that have a sound track record on

these issues and are creating good jobs. This will strengthen the recovery effort and theeconomic prospects of American workers.

Engaging with community-based organizations: Agencies should seek to support projects that

make effective use of community-based organizations in connecting disadvantaged people witheconomic opportunities.


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Appendix B: General Recovery Act Provisions

Provision DescriptionOverall Purposes

(Sec. 3)The President and federal agency and department heads must

manage and expend funds to achieve the following purposes:

1. Preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery.2. Assist those most impacted by the recession.

3. Provide investments needed to increase economic efficiency by spurring

technological advances in science and health.

4. Invest in transportation, environmental protection, and other infrastructure

that will provide long-term economic benefits.

5. Stabilize state and local government budgets, in order to minimize and

avoid reductions in essential services and counterproductive state and

local tax increases.

Accountability and

Transparency

(Title XV)

Sec. 1511 requires governors, mayors, or other chief executives to certify

that infrastructure investments have received the full review and vetting

required by law, including a description of the investment, the estimated

total cost, and the amount of covered funds to be used. The certificationmust be posted on a website and linked to Recovery.gov.Preference for Quick-Start

Infrastructure

Activities

(Sec. 1602)

Recipients of funds for infrastructure investment must: 1) give preference to

activities that can be started and completed expeditiously, including a goal of

using at least 50% of the funds for activities that can be initiated within 180

days; 2) use grant funds in a manner that maximizes job creation and

economic benefit.

Funds Generally

Available Until

September 30, 2010(Sec. 1603)

Funds appropriated are available until September 30, 2010, unless expressly

provided otherwise.

Wage Rate

Requirements

(Sec. 1606)

All laborers and mechanics employed by contractors and subcontractors on

projects funded under this Act must be paid prevailing wageswages and

fringe benefits at rates not less than those prevailing on projects of a similar

character in the locality as determined by DOL, pursuant to the Davis-Bacon

Act.

Funding Distribution

to States

(Sec. 1607)

For funds provided to any state or state agency, the governor must certify

within 45 days that the state will request and use funds provided. If any funds

are not accepted by the governor, then acceptance by the state legislature

shall be sufficient.

Transfer Authority

(Sec. 1612)In fiscal year 2009, federal agency heads may transfer up to 1% of any

appropriation in this act between appropriations funded in this act of that

department or agency. This authority is in addition to any other transfer

authority available under current law. It does not apply to appropriations in this

act that include express transfer authority in this act.

Source: Bringing Home the Green Recovery: A Users Guide to the 2009 American Recovery

and Reinvestment Act, by Green for All and PolicyLink, an excellent resource available at:http://www.greenforall.org/resources/recoverytoolkit/

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