FOR DISCUSSION PURPOSES ONLY

Plan of Sustainability
Acknowledgment of Funding Reduction
Without in any way agreeing as to the propriety of the proposed funding levels or reductions thereof,
OPIC acknowledges that the Citys WIB staff has proposed that the Comprehensive One Stop Career
Center operation for 2015-2016 is to be funded with $1,216,400, which represents a reduction of
$291,600 (19.34%) from the 2014-2015 funding level.
Means of Sustaining the Comprehensive One Stop Career Center
The COSCC is fully sustainable for the coming fiscal year, assuming that appropriate levels of service
can be agreed upon. While we have not been provided any kind of road map for a sustainability plan,
we do feel that the elements of sustainability are there. As we see it, program sustainability is based on a
number of factors among which are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

appropriate, fully equipped facilities;

accessible/convenient location;
access to the clientele;
experienced, knowledgeable and culturally competent staff;
fiscal and administrative infrastructure;
appropriate funding (including stable match, where required)

Every one of these elements, with the exception of the last, is already firmly in place at OPIC, which has
provided the COSCC services for more than 14 years and employment training services for more than 3
decades. Only in the last few years has any issue arisen concerning the sustainability of the COSCC
operations and it has arisen (in our view) because the contracted service performance levels (particularly
for intensive services) simply are not supported by the funding levels. Because OPICs primary concern
is the service to the public, especially during these past four years of historically high unemployment,
OPIC has endeavored to meet contracted service levels using its own reserves and providing leveraged
resources far in excess of the 20% required under its contract with Oakland WIB. However, because
OPIC has depleted its reserves, OPICs plan of sustainability shown will depend only on the reduced
funding, plus appropriate levels of match and leveraging of stable revenue sources. In other words, our
plan of sustainability provides service levels that will allow us to live within the reduced budget.
This, in turn, boils down to simply matching the levels of service to the levels of funding. Admittedly,
this is hard to do without an appropriate cost analysis. However, we believe we can sustain the
performance levels set forth below. The performance levels stated are, in turn, dependent on the number
of staff available to our WIA program calculated in accordance with the reduced funding being provided
by the City and being mindful of the fact that between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2016, we must still
continue to provide Core A, Core B, and Intensive Services as three different levels of service at the
COSCC, in addition to Rapid Response services. [The COSCC, as operated by OPIC, is flexible enough
in set up and operation to be able to accommodate Core A, Core B, and Intensive Services in varying
numbers as high as 44,000 visits for Core A services, 4,500 registrant services for Core B, and more than
800 enrollees into Intensive Services, given appropriate funding. However, Core A, Core B and Intensive
Service levels must be matched with appropriate funding in order to be sustainable at those levels.]
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Our plan of sustainability therefore focuses on cutting costs of operation for the four areas of
responsibility mandated by federal regulations for the Comprehensive One Stop Career Center (Core A,
Core B, Rapid Response and Intensive Services). We do not need to change or add to our matching
resources and leveraged assets as those are already in place and stable and are more than adequate to meet
our required match (20%). Matching/Leveraging is discussed below.
The largest and most controllable cost of operation is personnel (salaries and fringe). Hence, cutting costs
will be focused there for purposes of this plan. However, cutting personnel costs involves laying-off staff
or redeploying them to other programs. That is the sad side effect of cutting funding. We will
nevertheless cut personnel costs in order to meet the funding cuts. OPICs current budget of $1,508,000
is presented below with the $1,216,400 budget proposed by the City for 2015-2016 :

Personnel Salaries
Fringe
Non Personnel (Rent, IT, etc)
The English Center

2014-15
Budget

2015-16
Budget

Difference

$832,439
$209,775
$385,787
$ 80,000
$1,508,000

$604,779
$152,404
$400,787
$ 58,429
$1,216,400

($227,660)
($57,371)
$15,000*
($21,571)
($291,602)

In order to arrive at the reduced Personnel costs ($227,660, plus $57,371 fringe), OPIC will make the
following staff cuts:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

Position

Current
Budget

FTE

Receptionist
Executive Assistant
Contracts Accounting Coordinator
Contracts Administrator
Eligibility / Tech Assistant
MIS Assistant
Business / Workforce Director
Employment Service Specialist
Employment Service Specialist
Employment Service Specialist
Program Specialist II
Program Assistant
Re Entry ESS
Totals
Adjustments

1,204
1,752
2,196
10,932
25,497
27,120
31,640
16,259
34,216
16,480
36,835
30,868
32,026
$267,025
$ 39,365
$227,660

.03 FTE
.03 FTE
.04 FTE
.16 FTE
.59 FTE
.68 FTE
.44 FTE
.41 FTE
.74 FTE
.34 FTE
1.0 FTE
1.0 FTE
.69 FTE
6.15 FTE

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FOR DISCUSSION PURPOSES ONLY

Because of the need to adjust other positions to accommodate these drastic cuts, the reduction in FTEs
assigned to the COSCC is from 19.1 in 2014-2015 (after adjusting for unfilled, vacant positions) to 14.4
in 2015-2016 for a net reduction of 4.7 FTEs.
*Note: PIC also plans to reduce its Direct Operating Costs by the downsizing of its rented space at 1212
Broadway, with a planned vacating of one floor of its rented space. That downsizing of space is being
negotiated now. We are not yet able to build in the cost savings of that downsizing as there are a number
of variables involved in the planned downsizing which have not yet been settled. However, this will have
a significant positive impact on our plan of sustainability.

Service Levels
The downside of the planned cuts to the COSCC funding and the personnel costs (as outlined above) is
that they will have a significant impact on service levels, particularly Core B services (staff assisted
universal services/workshops) and Intensive Services. Even without a budget cut for 2015-2016, an
adjustment would have been necessary based on the pre-existing underfunding of the COSCC in 20142015 and years prior. In other words, the service levels under the current contract are already matched
inadequately against the funding of $1,508,000. Thus, the reduced service level proposed by City staff to
the WIBs Executive Committee (630 enrollments) will not be sustainable under the reduced budget for
2015-2016. The reduced services levels proposed by OPIC are as follows:
2014-15
Registrations (Core B) 4,500
Enrollments
788
Placements
523

2015-16
2,800
535
385

Reduction
38%
32%
26%

The two key service levels impacted by our proposed reductions in service are the Core B services and the
enrollments. Job placements will, in all likelihood, exceed the promised performance because of the
finishing up of carryover clients. In light of the coming changes under WIOA, it is clear that we must
keep enrollments (into intensive services) down, not only to match them to reduced funding levels but
also to allow the job placements (which are above federal guidelines) to clear out the back log of
carryover clients.
We base our enrollment (into intensive services) numbers on our own analysis of the average cost of
serving a client under intensive services and determining from that what numbers we can serve (adding in
our match/leverage to maximize the numbers so served). The cost of serving each client enrolled in
Intensive Services is approximately $2,310.49 per person and involves 40 hours of staff time (on
average). Using support staff and administrative staff to support the case managers who provide the bulk
of the services allows us to keep the costs lower and to reduce our case management staff to further save
costs. It is not optimal to do this, but it is workable. Contrast this cost per client with the cost per
enrollee assigned to the Central Oakland Neighborhood One Stop Career Center, which is $3,800 per
client.
After determining our cost per enrolled client (from enrollment through placement/follow up), we then
determined how many clients we could serve by allocating reduced sums to our Core A and Core B
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services, reducing our Rapid Response/Layoff Aversion by 20% (to match funding reduction) and, in
addition, overlapping some of the sums allocated to Core B and Rapid Response with enrollments, again
in an effort to maximize the number of enrollments into intensive services. These cost allocations to the
four mandated types of service (Core A, Core B, Rapid Response, and Intensive) are shown below.
Budget Breakdown
Comparing our 2014-2015 budget to our projected 2015-2016 budget:
Self Directed (Core A) Services
Staff-Assisted (Core B) Services
Rapid Response / Layoff Aversion
Intensive Services
Totals

2014-15
$283,496
$346,445
$309,000
$1,274,834*
$2,213,775

Revenues for 2015-2016

Proposed Reduced)WIA Funding 2015-2016
PIC Match / Leveraging
Adding in Overlap from Core B and Rapid Response Clients

2015-16
$220,000
$213,000 (hence the reduction to 2,800)
$247,200
$1,236,111**
$1,916,311

$1,216,400
$470,000
$230,000***
$1,916,400

*This figure was a truncated version of our actual costs for demonstration purposes presented to members
of the City Council and the City Administrative Staff.
** This figure is based upon our cost per client enrolled in Intensive Services $2,310.49 multiplied times
our proposed service level of 535.
***Overlap occurs when Core B or Rapid Response services (i.e. assessment testing, workshops, resume
development and other pre-employment competencies) are rolled over into the same client who enrolls in
Intensive Services. Approximately 300 enrolled clients per year previously received Core B services
before enrollment and about 40% of those receiving Rapid Response services through PIC enroll in
Intensive Services.
We can thus sustain enrollment levels of 535 both in terms of reduced staff and in terms of the reduced
budget.
Match/Leverage
We have six different contracts in place which serve overlapping clients which provide our match of 20%
($243,280 for program costs), plus allow us to leverage another $230,000 into the program through coenrollment of our clients into both our specialized programs and our WIA Intensive Services. The total
amount under these other contracts exceeds $2,400,000. However, only those portions attributable
directly to OPIC and the fiscal year 2015-2016 are being considered for match/leverage. PIC does note
that the Match/Leverage shown above is approximately double that which PIC contracts to provide. This
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FOR DISCUSSION PURPOSES ONLY

is done in an effort to keep service levels as high as possible for our job seekers. These contracts are to
serve dislocated worker, CalWORKs and reentry clients, all of whom are also eligible for WIA services,
hence the co-enrollment. Details and documentation of match/leverage are reported annually to the WIB.

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