§ 3-02 Network of Referral Sources.
a. Directory of Referral Sources. The Director will maintain and publish on a website maintained or controlled by the City a directory of Referral Sources approved pursuant to this section that perform employment recruitment services or other workforce development services.
b. Criteria. The factors that the Director may consider when evaluating prospective Referral Sources, include, but are not limited to:
1. any pre-existing agreement with an agency for employment recruitment services or other workforce development services;
2. current and past experience with workforce development programs or initiatives;
3. references, past performance and reliability working with workforce development programs with different legal requirements;
4. organization, staffing and operational capability to undertake the services necessary to advance employment of Community Hires;
5. relevant experience, operational capability and availability of resources to serve a particular population of Community Hires;
6. financial capability, responsibility and availability of appropriate resources for the type and complexity of the services;
7. record of compliance with all applicable federal, state, and local laws, regulations, licensing and funding requirements;
8. ability to comprehensively address the needs of the Contractors and Subcontractors to meet the Community Hiring Goals;
9. ability and reliability to develop quality assurance for monitoring and reviewing performance indicators, including the availability of appropriate technology and resources for data management and quality improvement;
10. experience with entering data into multiple data systems and mechanisms and ability to transfer such data to the Director and agencies, upon request; and
11. record of maintaining harmonious labor relations.
c. Determination. The Director may approve a Referral Source using any of the following methods:
1. authorizing one or more entities, as appropriate, to function as Referral Sources based on responses to a publicly released solicitation that includes a description of the functions of a Referral Source, the manner in which responses must be submitted, and the criteria by which the responding entities will be evaluated for approval;
2. authorizing an agency, in writing, to function as a Referral Source; or
3. authorizing, in writing, an entity engaged pursuant to an agreement with an agency for employment recruitment services or other workforce development services to function as a Referral Source.
4. Notwithstanding the above, the Director will deem any Union Referral System identified in a Project Labor Agreement to be a Referral Source for the purposes of this title. For any Union Referral System that is not identified in a Project Labor Agreement, the Director will deem such Labor Organization to be a Referral Source, in writing, provided that the Labor Organization demonstrates that it has either:
(a) an affiliated registered apprentice program with direct entry access from at least one pre-apprentice program compliant with United States Department of Labor and New York State Department of Labor regulations; or
(b) an affiliated community recruitment program.
(Added City Record 12/24/24, eff. 1/23/25)
