Greg Morris testifies on community hiring accountability and outreach

It's good to see you.

Thank you for making this time.

It's much appreciated.

Madam Chair, it's nice to see you.

Thank you for putting this conversation together.

I'm Greg Morris, the CEO of the New York City Implementing Training Coalition.

I have testimony that's already been submitted, so I'm just going to share a couple of quick notes.

First and foremost,

NYC ETC, the organization I represent, was actively engaged in support of community hiring.

We see it as an opportunity to use public spending to support folks from disadvantaged, economically disadvantaged communities.

And I appreciate the way NYC Talent and the previous administration worked to try to maximize.

The number of folks could fall into those categories.

So I just want to start by saying it's the right opportunity.

I think where we see challenge, and that's sort of what I think you were poking at and probing here, is how it is that we actually can see whether or not it's making an impact, how it gets maximized across agencies.

As you noted, there's a number of agencies who don't participate in this, and that is also a strike against, I think, opportunity.

I also want to just add one or two other notes, and that is,

is to say you also flagged what is the consequence.

And if we rewind the clock to the history with HireNYC, part of the reason why that didn't work is because folks weren't held accountable in a meaningful way for not following through on the expectations related to hiring.

And I think there's a concern here.

As you noted, the rules say you can hold an entity accountable for $2,500.

What's the incentive for an entity to say, I must pay that because that's going to affect my bottom line.

I just don't think we see that.

So I think this accountability conversation is particularly important.

I wanted to note, too, related to community partners.

The executive director talked about a number of organizations within the coalition who are community partners.

However, I just want to note NYC ETC, which represents 220 organizations, wants to see success.

And I think we can be an effective intermediary in trying to hold folks accountable to be able to meet these needs and expectation.

But that only happens, as one of the council members said, if there's active communication.

You also flagged the size and scope of NYC talent in managing this particular effort.

You highlighted that more staffing needs to be in place to be able to support that.

I'd love to see NYC talent be resourced the way they need to be.

They have vacancies.

They have vacancies.

Do you want to come work there?

And not for nothing.

Well, look, I got my hands full as it is right now.

But not for nothing.

Let's just put it this way.

If there are thousands of vendors that have these contracts and it's NYC Talent and the other agencies who have a responsibility for holding those vendors accountable, not just for communication and community partners for training and engagement.

Otherwise, can the team of six, seven, eight be able to accomplish that as effectively as we would want?

That's nothing against the individuals.

It's just about saying your budgets have to reflect that particular investment.

Last but not least, I just want to note for you, as someone who has spent some time at the hiring halls recently,

taking a look and seeing how things work.

I just want you to be aware that I am appreciative and grateful for all the agency commitments that are made in supporting hiring halls.

I do have this data and you've referenced it and you know it, but I just want to state it for the record.

The hiring hall model, the job fair model that the city put in motion served close to 20,000 individuals.

And we know of that, that was over the last year.

And of that 20,000, 2,000 had conditional offers made.

That should tell you there's a lot of people looking and it's not so easy to get hired.

Job fairs and hiring halls aren't necessarily the answer, especially for individuals who come from backgrounds or haven't had access to opportunity.

So I just want to note, like we missed that in some cases.

And I would also suggest to you that.

the vendors that are being held accountable, they may need an adapter to be able to understand how it is that they can commit to, support, and ensure the success of individuals who live in the community that they might want to hire.

I want to highlight that as well.

I think the coalition has a responsibility in that.

Last note for you.

In terms of those hiring halls, and I think it counts here in this conversation, based on the data that we have for the last year of everybody who attended the hiring halls in the city, which presumably could be individuals from the communities we're talking about,

more than half went to those hiring halls with a bachelor's degree or a master's degree in hand, which just leads me to the question.

Is this model related to community hiring working to solve a problem of unemployment, underemployment, or just a transition to a better wage?

Those are different things that we have to talk about in the job space.

I thank you, Chair, for bringing to the table the investment in workforce development.

This administration as it currently exists has not clarified how it will continue to elevate workforce development and instead has been filling potholes along the way.

Thank you so much, Gregory.

And as always, if you have ideas for legislation to codify any of the things that we have to push for, I think we're going to have to advocate for them to expand their office because as you heard directly from the executive directors, they did not seem to

feel the need to hire any additional staff from what they have.

And I believe

I believe right behind you is Anthony DeCarl.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

You can come up and testify.