Boone County became the third county to back Northern Kentucky Works after a previous vote on a resolution to support the initiative ended in a 2-2 deadlock.
NKY Works would effectively replace GROW NKY as Northern Kentucky’s primary workforce development office. The office would be charged with developing and overseeing workforce policy and initiatives across Northern Kentucky while partnering with the region’s employers, educational institutions and other agencies to implement strategies that address workforce challenges.
It was first conceived in fall of last year when the Northern Kentucky University Center for Economic Analysis and Development unveiled the GROW NKY Workforce Governance Study – a comprehensive assessment of the region’s workforce investment ecosystem.
Specifically, the Boone County Fiscal Court was voting on a resolution to approve a Memorandum of Agreement with Kenton County, Campbell County and the Northern Kentucky Area Development District for the NKY Works initiative. At Tuesday’s meeting, the fiscal court voted 3 to 1 to approve the resolution, with Commissioner Chet Hand being the lone no vote.
During the first vote, which took place at a meeting on March 19, Judge/Executive Gary Moore and Commissioner Jesse Brewer voted in favor of Boone County joining NKY Works, while Commissioners Hand and Cathy Flaig voted against it.
Since then, both Kenton and Campbell County have subsequently voted to back the initiative.
At the time, Hand and Flaig both cited their opposition to creating additional non-governmental boards, committees or agencies as the rationale behind their votes.
“I’m just unbelievably opposed to the creation of any additional boards, commissions, layers of quasi-government entities — whatever you want to call it,” Hand said during the March 19 meeting. “I feel like that’s what we’re doing with this one.”
Earlier in the year, Hand voted against creating a Transportation Improvement District in Boone County under the same reasoning.
With the initiative’s public unveiling slated for Thursday morning at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Moore introduced a renewal of the previous resolution during the April 23 fiscal court meeting, saying he felt it was important for Boone County to be represented.
“I think it’s so important for Boone County to be at the table,” Moore said.
Before the vote, Moore admitted that he didn’t think he did a “good job of explaining to the commissioners.” Moreover, he reiterated why he personally felt it was the right move for the county to back the initiative.
“The event’s going to be held at CVG here in Boone County,” Moore said. “When we look at the number of companies, over half of them in the three-county region are in Boone County — majority of the job openings and opportunities for jobs are in Boone County out of the three counties and yet we currently would not be at the table as part of this initiative.”
Moore then reiterated that by voting yes on the resolution, Boone County would not be authorizing the creation of another special-purpose government entity.
“If we were to approve this, we would not be creating a new special purpose government entity, an SPGE, it’s not a taxing unit and doesn’t have those kinds of powers,” he said.
This time around, Commissioner Cathy Flaig voted in favor of NKY Works. She explained that she had reconsidered her vote after learning more about the initiative.
“I heard it and I immediately thought that we were going to be creating another board with non-elected officials serving on it,” she said. “I’m not in favor of those boards. There’s so many of them.”
Conversely, Hand remained steadfast in his no-vote but conceded his position was in the minority on the court. He, again, reiterated his opposition to the creation of any new quasi-governmental boards or agencies.
“Judge, my opinion hasn’t changed just because time has gone by so the situation, in my opinion, hasn’t changed,” Hand said. “I was very clear on what it was before and my vote hasn’t changed either. I think I hold a different view than most on all these regional entities and boards and commissions and bureaucracy and layers and everything else.
Hand went on to explain that he does support workforce development in Boone County.
“I’d like to be just clear that it’s not about opposing workforce development and obviously that is a major concern in our area,” Hand said. “I 100% support that.”
