September 26, 2005. The Toledo Blade.
Toledoans aren’t getting a fair shot at the jobs their local tax dollars help to create.
That’s the theory of a church service agency that has persuaded city and county governments to follow the lead of some other cities that require businesses that get government incentives to first hire locally.
Members of Toledoans United for Social Action will accompany representatives of Toledo and Lucas County to Atlanta today to see first-hand how one community uses the program.
Known as First Source, the program requires companies that receive government incentives to seek local workers, even if that means training them, before bringing new workers into the area.
TUSA organizer Sara Bedy said if the city and county adopt the program the cost would be the coordinator’s salary, between $ 60,000 and $ 100,000.
Ms. Bedy said First Source has been adopted by more than 20 cities around the country, including Atlanta, Washington, and Portland, Ore.
The program would require a firm to interview locally for the first three to six months, and turn to the county’s training agency and its partners, including the University of Toledo and Owens Community College, to train employees.
“For example, if a Jeep supplier is coming into town receiving public incentives, they would sign the contract, meet with the coordinator, and by the time the plant opens, perhaps in a year, they would have trained, qualified applicants to interview,” Ms. Bedy said.
Toledo’s tax abatement program requires new companies to provide at least 10 percent of new jobs to people living within the central part of the city. Ms. Bedy said those requirements get little oversight.
Atlanta’s program, targeted at requiring city contractors to hire 50 percent of their work force locally, generates about 200 jobs a year, she said.
Franklin County, Ohio, also has a First Source program, involving a 10-page contract for employers to sign.
John Loftus, a special assistant to the mayor, is going on the day-long trip, with his air fare to be paid by the city. Mr. Loftus said the idea makes sense, as long as it doesn’t erase the value of economic development incentives.
“We’re using incentives to attract people to Toledo. Let’s not minimize the value of that incentive by creating too many hurdles,” Mr. Loftus said.
One local woman who said she has been unable to land a job, despite training as a legal assistant and a drug counselor and possession of a college degree, said employers should have to offer jobs to her and others like her.
“All I know is, I actively put out applications. I actively look for a job, and I’m unemployed,” said De Borah Williams, the single mother of one child. “If I did not have a child, I’d leave the state and go somewhere where there’d be more opportunity to get a job.”
Companies would likely list their jobs through Lucas County’s One-Stop-Employment Center, called the Source. The agency opened in 2004 and helped 2,072 workers find new jobs. Another 16,000 people sought jobs through The Source, according to county officials.
