TO:        LWIA Contacts

DATE:   May 16, 2000

RE:        MOU Assessment Tool and Next Steps Toward July 1st Implementation

Subsequent to a meeting between executive staff from NYSDOL and the NYATEP Board, the attached MOU Assessment Tool was prepared for use by local areas as a gauge of ensuring that all areas are progressing with the involvement of all partners toward WIA implementation. The development of the MOU is one of the most prominent and tangible activities that a local area will undertake to articulate the vision of the One-Stop System and the responsibilities of all of the one-stop partners for the delivery of core services in that system. The absence of an MOU will leave a local area and the State out of compliance with the requirements of the Act and casts doubt over an area’s ability to create a system that will be operational at the sunset of JTPA. The Assessment Tool should be thoroughly reviewed by all local partners to ensure that the MOU that is under negotiation, in fact, is moving in the right direction.

USDOL recently advised the states that the criteria listed in their latest version of WIA plan guidelines will be issued as WIA policy and will be used to judge whether a state should get its full WIA grant, or some portion of it, pending satisfactory completion of the implementation requirements. Under current thinking at USDOL, states whose WIA programs are not substantially implemented would be ineligible for some or all of their incentive grants, regardless of how well they perform as measured by their negotiated performance goals. Attached is a copy of USDOL’s Draft policy on substantial implementation.

Currently, no local area in this state meets the USDOL definition of ‘substantial implementation.’ Acting in our oversight and monitoring capacity, Workforce Development & Training is strongly suggesting that each local workforce investment area that has not already done so utilize the "One-Stop System Building in New York State Toolkit" in their local MOU process. This Toolkit was developed by a workgroup of state and local partners and provides strategies and decision points to consider as your MOU is developed.

Each area should complete, as part of its negotiation process and in conjunction with all partners, the "Shared Costs Matrix" found on pages 16A through 16D of the Services and Funding section of the Toolkit. This Matrix will help each area to identify and define the shared system costs for inclusion in the MOU and should form the basis for assessing the costs and contributions that will be made on behalf of the overall system. If the Toolkit was not used as part of the negotiation process, a local area must be able to demonstrate how its shared costs were determined in a manner that involved the concurrence of all of the partners.

NYSDOL has committed to two different teams that stand ready to assist local areas reach a successful conclusion to their MOU negotiations:

• Technical Assistance Team: This team will consist of Workforce Development fiscal and program staff who will sit with partners in a local area to help work through the strategies outlined in the Toolkit and the elements of the MOU Template. The team will help facilitate discussions around the building of the system, and provide options on how to define system costs, shared costs, etc. Although this assistance has been available throughout the past several months, many areas have not seen the need to utilize this technical expertise in a manner to bring the partners together around the issues that remain unresolved.

• In the absence of a request for assistance, local areas can expect a contact from Workforce staff within the next week seeking detailed information on the status of the MOU negotiation process in that area. Local areas will be required to demonstrate that all partners are fully engaged in the process, that the MOU under development is a system MOU – not a center MOU, and that some form of a shared costs matrix has been completed with the input of all partners. Those areas that have not reached this stage of their MOU process will be required to convene a meeting of all the one-stop partners, and, with the assistance of the Technical Assistance Team, commence the process of completing this matrix.

• DoES Team: This team will consist of central staff from both the Division of Employment Services and NYSDOL’s Administrative Finance Bureau, along with the local DoES representative negotiating on behalf of the mandated programs. The team will be brought into the MOU process to ‘close’ the deal as it relates to the mandated programs represented by DoES. No area may request the services of this team unless it can satisfactorily prove to the Technical Assistance team that the steps outlined in the Toolkit have been completed through and including strategy number five.

• This team does not represent a NYSDOL ‘sign-off’ on the MOU as it relates to local plan approval. The review and approval of the MOU will be conducted by Workforce staff only after the MOU has been submitted for inclusion with the local plan. The team’s sole purpose is to complete the cost allocation process as it relates to the DoES programs.

Based on the State’s desire to receive its full grant and be deemed in compliance with USDOL substantial implementation definition, below are some closing thoughts on timelines to bring us to
July 1, 2000, implementation:

Complete the Review of the MOU Assessment Tool:	May 25, 2000
Technical Assistance Teams to Work with Local Areas:	May 25-June 8, 2000
DoES Team To Work With Local Areas:	May 25 – June 16, 2000
Last Date for MOU Submission to Workforce Development To allow timely review and approval prior to July 1st	June 20, 2000

Attachments:	WIA MOU Self-Assessment Tool
	Elements of a Substantially Implemented WIA System