Commissioner Starkey NACO manufacturing and housing resolutions

1:08:19There's two things on here I want to draw your attention to and then I I have to discuss something for the county attorney's office.

1:08:25Then it's my turn.

1:08:26Um all right, so the top one here, um I I this was brought by a bunch of states, so I want to show it to you. Um resolution on strengthening and sustaining the manufacturing workforce in the United States issue. The manufacturing sector depends heavily on its ability to maintain and attract a skilled workforce. If continued investments in the manufacturing workforce are not sustained in the coming years, counties and the overall economy will lose out on economic and social gains. The NASTNACO urges

1:08:56the federal government to work with local and state governments to build a strong workforce pipeline for the manufacturing sector by one. Funding programs aimed at creating opportunities for high school and post-secondary students to explore career opportunities in the manufacturing sector and encourage workforce development programs too. Connecting residents with skills training, digital access, career navigation, and employment opportunities via workforce development centers, community colleges, and trade schools.

1:09:27thereby strengthening neighborhoods and local economies. three. Designating scholarships and grants for students enrolled in vocational and technical schools, and four developing strategies to support the growth of key economic sectors to support the retention and expansion Of existing businesses, attract new businesses, and showcase the United States' competitive business ecosystem. Taken together, these policies can advance equitable and sustainable development by helping manufacturers

1:09:57expand, collaborate, network, innovate and hire. To me. This is one of the most important things facing our country today. We have to One of one of the most pressing things is that we have to rebuild. all the munitions that we have ex expended. And we don't have the workforce to do it. We also have to learn how to build our own ships. We haven't built a naval ship in decades. A Australia is building our ships for us. So the government is pushing out all

1:10:28kinds of programs, she can speak to that, to get more people into these pipelines. So This is so important for us. This this last one, I want Kathy to pay attention to this because I don't know of no enough about this one. Um but I think it'll affect uh Commissioner Oakley's um what maybe what he's trying to do here or So let me know if we need uh what we need to do on this one. Families for whom counties provide this is the resolution supporting family emergency shelter. Families for whom counties provide

1:10:58emergency shelter through a system that is funded 100% locally. not with federal dollars, are required to report the benefit as income. And that counts towards their income eligibility for federal programs. So NACO is suggesting that they they urge the federal government to incentivize counties to provide emergency shelter to families in crisis. NACO further urges the federal government to remove financial penalties and disincentives. that

1:11:28discourage or prohibit families in crisis from seeking and securing emergency shelter when facing homelessness. I didn't know any of this. So I'd I'd like to learn more about this and Um And see, you know, we can put our lobbyists on this because we don't need to be hurting families who are seeking help in a crisis. The last thing I I wanted to bring up real quickly and I know I know you just took over and you and I talked about this. But it came to my attention. that

1:11:58the contract For the sports for the park, V O P H park. had been sitting in the attorney's office since January.

1:12:10And so um

1:12:13And I learned there's a bunch of others that have been sitting there a long time. And so um we had a conversation, David came up with a great solution. Um and he um sent the uh I think four or five parks and recs contracts out to an outside attorney. But I know there's chat there's David has mentioned there's chat. Well why don't you speak for your office and what your plans are yourself? I won't speak for you.

1:12:39Well I mean there is admittedly I took over the office with a significant backlog of procurement items. Um we also recently lost one of our procurement attorneys to the private sector, so we have a Deficit of procurement attorneys in our office. Um We just hired a new procurement attorney from Brevard County who starts on the 17th, so we're hoping that will alleviate some of the backlog. In the interim, we're also looking to send some matters, particularly

1:13:09some of the new DR matters that are coming into the office to outside council to address some of the backlog. Um we're also gonna be cross-training some other attorneys that don't do procurement now and procurement to Address some of the backlog. Um I'm working on trying to Do some better metrics in our pro law system to figure out our response times to RLSs so that I can better track them and see. when items come into our office and when they leave and so

1:13:39I can track them better to see how long they've been in our office. So Yes, I'm working on those improvements, but I've only been in this seat for a week. Um only so much I can do in one week. But yes, I have a plan of action to get it's my number one priority is to get the procurement items moving. Um but step one was to getting those things to outside council. But yes, I'm fully aware that We have that backlog and we're trying to get it.

1:14:07Six months is better than what I think the uh utilities department went through when they had I think it was utilities three years getting their master water plan out. I don't know if that was procurement or attorneys, but I I understood that one was in there.

1:14:21But I will say that as a general rule, it's it's more difficult to hire procurement attorneys than it is other types of attorneys. They're not

1:14:32So I wondered if we should go to a law school and recruit and say, hey, we will pay Your law school fees You know, we'll pay X amount for every year you stay with us. Uh I mean let let's get creative if we have a problem.

1:14:49Um we we have there's we have we're doing that right now with one attorney. Um we probably can look at doing that. with procurement. It it's a little more difficult than it sounds because you can't You can't enforce slavery. I mean th there's there's a They signed on to it. They agreed to it. So the Constitution has something to say about that. So but I'll worry about the Constitution. Yeah. But There's a there's a general issue with

1:15:20the law schools that they tend to put out personal injury attorneys and criminal attorneys more than they do contract attorneys. So That's a general issue that I have with law schools generally, but I'll Um But we'll look at doing something like that in the future. But I have a plan of action. I just it's gonna take me a little time to get it implemented.

1:15:38All right, I'm gonna pass these out. And and can you give that other one to to Oakley that did you give him one of the copies? This is what NACO's doing on Davis Bacon. I won't I won't read it, but we've made progress.