MAHONING VALLEY Official: Jobless to still get help

Job counseling services will still be available after employment offices close.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Displaced workers should not fall through the cracks when employment offices across the state start closing next year, a state official said.
Jo Ann Davidson, interim director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, said she won't allow the centers to close until one-stop centers are up and running to replace them.
JFS officials said Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties will each have their own one-stop center.
The JFS was formed when the former bureau of employment services and department of human services merged in July. It oversees the employment offices.
Gradual closings: The department announced in February that 56 local employment offices across the state will gradually close within the next 15 months.
Offices in Lisbon and Warren are targeted for closing.
Also to be closed is a claims center in Salem that is generally not open to the public. It handles complex claims referred to it from other jobs offices.
The jobs office in Youngstown will be replaced with a phone center.
The state had said it also would increase the number of telephone centers from seven to 21, allowing clients to file claims by telephone.
But local officials and residents complained that the telephone system would be unreliable and said a venue for face-to-face counseling sessions would be more desirable.
James Conrad, administrator of the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation, said the planned closure of employment offices is supposed to dovetail with opening or expansion of 91 one-stop service centers across the state.
Services: A variety of services, including employment counseling, will be available at those centers, he said.
Conrad is chairman of a management review team appointed by Gov. Bob Taft to assess the department and help streamline its operation. He and Davidson met Monday with Vindicator editorial staff to discuss the JFS changes.
The one-stop centers will be operated in conjunction with county job-training facilities as part of the Workforce Investment Act, which went into effect in July.
Valley's needs: Davidson, a former speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, said she understands that it is especially important to keep job counseling services available in areas like Mahoning and Trumbull counties, which are being hit hard with massive loss of employment because of hardship in the steel industry.
"We're not phasing out any [employment] office until we have a one-stop center that is fully operational in that area," Davidson said.
She and Conrad said they are also working to overcome problems with delivery of child support checks that have arisen in the past few months. County child support enforcement agencies also fall under the JFS umbrella.
"We have only been on the job five days so we don't have all the answers," Conrad said.
The child support program has been blasted by complaints from people who say the new Support Enforcement Tracking System does not work.
"The first thing we have to look at is identifying what the problems are," Conrad said. His committee has until May 1 to complete its review, after which it will submit a report of recommendations for changes.