JobConnect positions cut

Three positions designed to be the public face of JobConnect centers in northern Nevada will be eliminated as federal funding for workforce development declines.

The center manager positions held by Tina Grefrath at Reno Town Center and Jim Dunnavant in Sparks will be cut. A position at Carson City that has been vacant for several months also will be cut.

Despite their title, the positions haven't involved day-to-day management of the centers, said Tom Fitzgerald of Nevadaworks, the agency that oversees the JobConnect Center.

Instead, Fitzgerald said, the center managers have coordinated the activities of the individual employment-related agencies 18 of them at the Reno center that operated under a single umbrella.

The center managers also have been high-profile participants in business organizations as they spread the word about the availability of services through Nevada JobConnect

The decision to eliminate the positions, Fitzgerald said, came as federal funding for workforce development in northern Nevada fell to about $11.5 million from $22 million about five years ago.

Fitzgerald said Nevadaworks leaders believed the best use of shrinking funds was providing service directly to job-seekers and businesses that need workers.

The Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation the largest single agency under the Nevada JobConnect umbrella expects that the change will be transparent to businesses and jobseekers.

"We are dedicated to making sure our services are not disrupted in any way," said Cindy Jones, administrator of the DETR employment security division. "It's our goal to make it a seamless transition."