Kenton County is officially supporting the Northern Kentucky Works initiative.
On Tuesday, the Kenton County Fiscal Court unanimously voted to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement with Boone County, Campbell County and the Northern Kentucky Area Development District to support Northern Kentucky Works.
Northern Kentucky Works is a workforce development initiative that would develop and oversee workforce policy and initiatives across Northern Kentucky while partnering with the region’s employers, educational institutions, and other agencies to implement strategies that specifically address workforce challenges. It would effectively replace GROW NKY as the region’s primary workforce development office.
“This is the next step on workforce development,” Judge/Executive Kris Knochelmann said during the meeting;
Under the Memorandum of Agreement, the Northern Kentucky Area Development District would serve as the service provider, fiscal agent and employer of record for Northern Kentucky Works personnel.
A Northern Kentucky University Center for Economic Analysis and Development workforce governance study recommended the initiative after completing a comprehensive analysis of the region’s workforce development ecosystem.
Workforce development has been a focus of regional political and economic leaders throughout 2024. In January, the judges/executive of Kenton, Campbell, and Boone County collectively advocated for the region to focus more on workforce development at the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce’s Eggs ‘N Issues breakfast panel. Later that month, it was the primary topic of discussion at the BE NKY Annual Forum.
Kenton County’s decision comes nearly one week after Boone County didn’t back Northern Kentucky Works due to a deadlocked 2-2 vote by the fiscal court.
Boone County Commissioner Chet Hand, one of the two dissenting votes, cited his personal opposition to the creation of more boards or quasi-governmental entities as the rationale behind his vote.
Knochelmann gave his thoughts on the Boone County vote before the vote took place.
“I think it was an error,” Knochelmann said. “Quite frankly for them, they’ve got the most employers, employees challenges in Boone County, and this is a regional effort that they need to support.”
Commissioner Jon Draud brought up the critique during the meeting.
“One of their critics said it was a lot of duplication of effort,” Commissioner Jon Draud said.
Knochelmann responded by calling the criticism “absolutely incorrect.”
“I’ve watched this from day one being put together, and this is absolutely, probably – in fact, in my view – it needs to be ramped up multiplefold for Northern Kentucky,” Knochelmann said.