Posted by Hal Dardick at 5:23 p.m.
Three suburban community college presidents are asking Cook County commissioners to help fix a job training program that’s been ordered to return $8.4 million since 2003 because of mismanagement.
In response, commissioners called a special meeting next week to discuss the President’s Office of Employment and Training, a troubled program beset by criminal theft charges. It’s another sign County Board members are chafing under President Todd Stroger’s final six months in office.
The presidents of Prairie State College in Chicago Heights, Triton College in River Grove and South Suburban College in South Holland recently wrote letters complaining about the program.
“I must express my shock at the quality of management of this agency and total frustration over the significant loss of productive assistance to a population that now more than ever needs help,” Eric Radtke, president of Prairie State, wrote in a May 5 letter.
“In my conversations with college presidents across the state, I hear none of the problems we face here in Cook County and, to the contrary, numerous cases of positive and productive working relationships,” he added.
Commissioner Peter Silvestri, R-Elmwood Park, was one board member who called for next Wednesday’s meeting to look at the issue. The letters “all reflect problems in the program,” Silvestri added, laying the blame at the feet of the Stroger administration for its alleged failure to follow federal employment training guidelines.
“I would rather see that money used to train people for new jobs,” Silvestri said.
Stroger, however, sent a letter blaming the state for the program’s problems. In his letter to Warren Ribley, director of the state’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Stroger said the state’s federal grant administration “precludes successful delivery of service” through the job training program.
In a separate letter to Gov. Pat Quinn, Stroger proposed that the suburban job training programs be placed under his leadership, then evaluated by an outside expert who would help craft a merger under his successor. Stroger lost the primary election, meaning a new county board president will take over in December.
The state wants someone else to take over the job training program in the south and west suburbs and work toward suburban consolidation, with the goal of turning over the entire program to the county within two years. In 2004, the state took over the employment training program in the north suburbs, leaving the south and west suburbs under county control.
Last year, the state cut off the program’s access to $2.35 million and demanded the return of another $1.8 million. Officials accused program administrators of letting ineligible youth aged 14 to 24 in a jobs program, failing to provide a “meaningful work experience” and ensuring the youth got paid.
Also last year, Shirley Glover, who once oversaw the program, pleaded guilty to stealing more than $100,000 from the agency. She was sentenced to four years in prison.
In January 2008, authorities also had charged three county officials and five others with stealing $1.6 million from the program.
Commissioners’ willingness to make this debate public underscores their restiveness under Stroger, who placed last in February’s four-way Democratic primary. They recently voted to limit his spending authority.