Pinal and Gila counties may go separate ways on tailoring workforce programs for their residents
By James Hodl | Copper Area News
After nearly 15 years, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors appears poised to end its partnership with Gila County in conducting jobs programs under the US Workforce Investment Act (WIA).
Executives in both counties are resigned to the decoupling as the two counties have grown apart since the partnership was established in July 2000, with Pinal growing increasing suburban with population densities in its northern and western regions increasing while Gila has remained rural. As a result both now have different needs when it comes to tailoring programs to find employment for their residents and training citizens in skills required for available or future jobs.
The current WIA partnership agreement runs until July 1, 2015. During the interim, Pinal County is looking to realign with the primarily urban Maricopa County while Gila may seek to partner with another county closer to its rural makeup.
How the breakup will affect the Central Arizona Association of Governments (CAAG), under which the two counties partnered on WIA programs, is not known. A CAAG spokesman said it is likely that the two counties will continue to work through CAAG on economic development, transportation and environmental (mostly related to water and sewage) issues but not workforce issues.
“The reason we decided to end our WIA partnership with Gila County is simply that we are no longer a match,” said Anthony Smith, chairman of the Pinal County Board of Supervisors. “When we first entered the partnership, we were both rural counties. But that was before the fantastic development and growth in population around San Tan Valley and Maricopa. Now the north and west sides of Pinal County are more like Maricopa County than Gila County.”
Tim Kanavel, manager of the Pinal County Economic Development Program, was more succinct, noting, “Remember the people you knew in elementary school and met years later and found you no longer had much in common? That’s what happened to Pinal and Gila.”
