Wednesday, March 1, 2006
3:30 - 5:30 pm
Anne Arundel Community College
Arnold, Maryland 21012

Download the minutes in MSWord format

New GWIB Members

Mr. Gemignani introduced the following new board members (see attached CVs for more information)

John Belcher - President and CEO of ARINC Corporation.
Donna Gwin - Director of Human Resources, Safeway Corporation
Patricia J. Mitchell - Vice President, IBM Corporation
Daryl Routzahn - President and CEO, Routzahn's Department Stores.

Mr. Gemignani announced that the board would vote to approve the minutes when a quorum was present. He met with the University System of Maryland's Board of Regents about workforce development and talked about the past, present and future of the GWIB. This is a great opportunity and an exciting field. He also mentioned the upcoming May 8, 2006 Governor's Workforce Conference and the need for GWIB members to ask other people to attend and sponsor the conference. He also mentioned the group photo of the GWIB members and the Governor from the December 7, 2006 Board meeting.

Dr. Marty Smith, President of Anne Arundel Community College, showed board members the new AACC marketing packet about the kinds of customized training that AACC offers for high growth, highly skilled occupations. Mr. Gemignani then noted that a quorum was present and the December 7, 2005 board meeting minutes were approved.

DLLR Secretary Jim Fielder said the 2006 session was proving to be divisive. He mentioned several bills including funding for adult education and a bill to provide an income tax exemption for military pensions. He encouraged board members to get engaged in these issues. Another bill he mentioned was HB 1127, the Statewide Commission on the Shortage in the Healthcare Workforce. The bill would require the commission to do what GWIB and DLLR have already accomplished. One major problem agencies face this session is that it is difficult to oppose legislation when the legislature is going to approve the budget.

Maryland Department of Aging Secretary Jean Roesser said that legislators are empathetic towards aging issues. Issues that she mentioned included the income tax exemption for military pensions, legislation to exempt foreign-based employees from state taxes and the increase in the R&D tax credit that DBED was behind. Secretary Roesser also announced the May 2, 2006 Governor's Conference on Aging.

DBED Secretary Aris Melissaratos described the R&D tax credit legislation and also said that he thought the legislation to exempt state income taxes from military pensions would pass this year.

Kathy Oliver from the Maryland State Department of Education also referenced SB 650, a bill to increase funding for adult education programs. The bill hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, March 8, 2006 before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee. Mr. Gemignani asked the Senate and Delegate board members for their opinions about the legislative session. Senator Hooper said that he would talk with Senator Hogan about the adult education issue. Delegate Krebs said that she was seeing more government imposition in business in the introduced bills. She said that because it was an election year there would be a lot of anti-business legislation offered.

Secretary Fielder also said a lawsuit had been filed regarding the "Walmart bill". Senator Hooper added that there would be more opportunities to stop legislation rather than getting legislation through.

Secretary Kenneth Montague from Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) said that that Governor's FY 2007 budget proposes an 18% increase in DJS's budget. One of the initiatives would be to get more young people to enter the workforce. Secretary Fielder said that the board needs to determine its role and find good legislation to push along.

Department of Human Resources (DHR) Secretary Christopher McCabe mentioned that Congress just approved its annual Budget Reconciliation Act. The legislation impacts DHR because of the TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) language added which includes more stringent requirements on Maryland to engage people in activities leading towards employment. This is an opportunity for more businesses to get involved (primarily in hiring for entry level positions). He said that Kevin McGuire is the point person at DHR for the welfare to work program. Marion Pines stated that the requirements are very stringent. There is a 90 percent participation rate for two-parent families. The TANF block grant amounts to $229 million to the state every year.

Secretary Fielder said that Congress has not acted on the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act and the Wagner-Peyser Act, which expired in September, 2003. Mr. Gemignani commented that the U.S. Department of Labor is extremely supportive of Maryland's work. He introduced Irka Zazulak and Donna Gwin who recently arrived at the meeting.

Art Taguding said that the summit was extremely successful with approximately 61% of the attendees from the private sector. He also mentioned the sponsors of the legislation and commended Halima Aquino for her work with the Aerospace Steering Committee. Mr. Taguding gave a brief overview of what happened at the Summit and introduced Harold Stinger, Chair of the Aerospace Steering Committee who presented on the strategies and recommendations that came out of the summit (see attached presentation). He thanked Art Taguding, Halima Aquino, Anoop Mehta (vice chair of the steering committee) and Harry Solomon, who wrote the monograph. He also thanked Glenn Fountain, former chair of the steering committee.

Ms. Aquino and Mr. Gemignani also thanked everyone for all of their work. Several people asked for copies of Mr. Stinger's presentation. Mike Blackwell from Honeywell was also commended for his help in pulling the summit together. Secretary Melisssaratos said that math and science were important and that young people need to focus on these two areas. Secretary Roesser also said baby boomers can be a real resource for younger people stating there is currently no formal mechanism for communicating between older and younger people.

Mr. Gemignani asked Wayne Hockmeyer to update the board about the Bioscience Steering Committee efforts. Dr. Hockmeyer said the committee is currently defining the industry and what businesses in Maryland are included. The bioscience industry is diverse. They are focusing on high demand occupations, doing surveys, and also have a committee working on other broader workforce issues. The committee is splitting the demographics between Baltimore and the rest of the state. A majority of companies are located in a small area of the state. Baltimore City has 50-60 companies. Ninety percent of Maryland's bioscience industries are located in Montgomery, Prince George's County, Howard County, Baltimore City and Baltimore County. The staff support has been very good.

Secretary Melissaratos thanked Dr. Hockmeyer for the confidence he has in Maryland's workforce. MedImmune has made a $350 million investment and doubled the size of its Frederick location. There will be 300 new employees at the research and development facility in Montgomery County. There will eventually be one Maryland economy which will be geographically and demographically diverse. Maryland also plans to extend the metro line to Fort Meade and BWI.

Marge Thomas said that the committee wanted to bring together non-traditional organizations to address the challenged population. More than 50% of their committee is from industry (see attached presentation for more information). Several weeks ago, the group visited men's prison complex in Baltimore, which operates in a vocational environment. The committee is recommending that the following issues need to be addressed: increase in funding for adult education and liability. Ms. Thomas said that employers are resistant because of liability issues and there needs to be a way to address that fear. The interest of people in participating may ebb and flow, and will be determined by what group they are focusing on. She commended Trudy Chara for all of her help. Kevin Garvey said that the role of the committee is to work within each cluster group. They have a representative from each cluster on that committee.

Secretary McCabe said that currently there is not a natural link with the business community and this is a good opportunity. He mentioned DHR's foster parent recruitment campaign but that the reach is limited. Mr. Gemignani hopes to get all thirteen clusters engaged by the end of the year in order to link those clusters with the Challenged Population Committee. Secretary Fielder said that this showed how well business, education and government are working together. He mentioned the listening sessions that they were working on with Brit Kirwan, Chancellor of the University System of Maryland. Secretary Melissaratos asked that the Economic Development Commission be included in the project.

GWIB Executive Director Bob Seurkamp talked about the Subcabinet activities, the board advance and also asked the board members for suggestions about issues to discuss at the advance. The board will be developing strategies at the advance. Secretary Fielder talked about the changes in the past two years - Maryland is a leader in workforce development, DLLR has made changes over the past 2 ½ years and the DLLR website has had 67 million hits. The big problem nationally has been on the Gulf Coast and surrounding states. Unemployment has increased and the state has had to make up the difference in funding as federal funds decrease. DLLR is continuing its efforts with the Department of Labor. Secretary Chao has been to Maryland three times in the past year. Marion Pines added that the Bush Administration's tax strategy is to decrease discretionary funding.

Kevin Garvey recommended involving the local areas in the process so that they are in the loop. Mr. Seurkamp said that there would be a GWIB-LWIB meeting on March 23. GWIB is working with the locals 
on the agenda. Marge Thomas said that this needed to be a collaborative effort to address the loss of federal funds. She thanked Jim Fielder for all of his work.

Torin Ellis said he appreciated all of the interest in helping people and asked if the May 8 conference would be appropriate for young people. Secretary Fielder said that the youth issue could possibly be an agenda item. Jean Roesser reminded everyone about the Aging Conference. The meeting adjourned at 5:15pm.