LAS VEGAS -- Nevada remains near the top of the nation's unemployment list, which makes it all the more unusual to learn that millions of dollars in federal money -- devoted to job training -- were never spent.
Each year, millions in federal employment grants are sent to Nevada and are administered locally through Workforce Connections. A recent audit showed that the public agency did not spend several millions of dollars that could have been used to create new jobs locally.
The organization has had all sorts of problems over the years.
Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval is trying to consolidate the Workforce Connections programs, one in Las Vegas, and one in Reno, and put them under his direct control, in part to make sure the money gets spent and that there is accountability.
Previous audits of the local program found "deplorable practices" including "a complete disregard for government, accounting standards and disdain for the taxpayers."
Workforce Connections Remains on Shaky Ground
Workforce Connections killed what was a successful job training program that helped solve another problem -- Nevada's severe shortage of nurses.
"These nurses were getting their education, not finding jobs in Nevada, so they were leaving Nevada," said CEO Doug Geinzer, Southern Nevada Medical Industry Coalition.
Geinzer had an idea for improving Nevada's second-worst in the nation nurse-to-patient ratio. His group, the Southern Nevada Medical Industry Coalition, took a $750,000 grant from Workforce Connections and used it to pay nurse trainee salaries for a few months while they got on-the-job experience. It worked. Medical providers proved they were willing to hire and keep such trainees.
"During that nine months, I believe we equated it to 81 jobs that created a gross economic impact to southern Nevada to the tune of $10.2 million. Average cost per job of $7,750 to create a job that pays well over $50,000 a year," Geinzer said.
It was not only the most successful job training program in workforce history, it was perhaps the most successful model in the country. Geinzer thinks he knows why the the training program was stopped.
"They wanted to own our program," he said, "Workforce Connections has been acquiring successful programs and bringing those programs in-house so they could take credit for those outcomes rather than the service provider themselves."
Southern Nevada's workforce program is overseen by a massive 25 member board. A structure this unwieldy cedes a lot of power to its staff, which in eight years, had increased from a mere eight employees to more than 70.
Geinzer says the executive director John Ball insisted that his organization hire more staffers too, and when he (Geinzer) said he'd rather put the money into training, accusations began flying.
Workforce staffers accused Geinzer's groups of financial improprieties and classified them as "high risk," but would not allow Geinzer to address the charges in front of the board. At meeting after meeting, Geinzer and his board chairman Ann Lynch asked to be put on the agenda. The board okayed it but then staff would pull them off the agenda.
"I've never seen anything quite like it. It's hard to tell who was running this asylum," Las Vegas Councilman Bob Coffin said.
He was appalled after he joined the workforce board last year. By putting Geinzer's group into the high risk category, Workforce Connections had put itself into the same tight spot, along with every other member organization, which includes most area hospitals, the university, and the health district. Workforce's director first cut the budget for the nurse training program, then eliminated it by refusing to issue a new contract.
"The program was working but it was being undermined from within by bureaucratic tangles with the bosses," Coffin said.
To Geinzer, the idea that workforce would accuse anyone of financial improprieties reeked of irony given its own history of scandal, cronyism and lack of accountability.
"It was discovered they had 10 individuals earning over $100,000 within their ranks. Their executive director was paying himself more than the governor," Geinzer said.
In the end, the director departed, but the contract with Geinzer's group died too.
"We are no longer able to provide services, so at the end of the day, it is costing a lot of folk's jobs. It's going to impact your health and my health," he said.
Although Geinzer's organization, which developed the model was cut out, a version of the training progeram for nurses was set up in Reno. Coffin, among others, hopes it can be renewed in Las Vegas and that Geinzer's group can be included. Coffin adds, since the I-Team began working on this story months ago, the local Workforce Connections has cut salaries, staff positions and spending.
Governor Sandoval thinks the agency would be much more accountable if it were put under his control but the new director is fighting against a state takeover.
Doug Geinzer
