Thursday, April 21, 2011

State launches probe into campaign to provide superhero capes to jobless

State launches probe into campaign to provide superhero capes to jobless


State labor officials asked their inspector general Monday to investigate why a Central Florida agency wants to spend public money to furnish the unemployed with capes.

Dubbed the "Cape-A-Bility Challenge," a $73,000 public-relations campaign by Workforce Central Florida features a cartoon character named "Dr. Evil Unemployment" and includes handing out about 6,000 red superhero capes to jobless Central Floridians.

The campaign, revealed Saturday in a report in the Orlando Sentinel, was met with derision by many unemployed who questioned spending more than $14,200 on capes and $2,300 on foam cutouts of "Dr. Evil Unemployment." They said the campaign's tone risked minimizing the severity of the region's labor problems.

Monday, the executive director of Florida's Agency for Workforce Innovation, echoed those criticisms.

"I have serious concerns with the content and approach" of the project, Cynthia Lorenzo wrote to Workforce Central Florida Executive Director Gary J. Earl. "With more than one million Floridians currently out of work, spending any amount of money on collateral materials such as the red capes included in your campaign appears to be insensitive and wasteful."

Lorenzo also expressed misgivings about the campaign's "compliance with applicable federal regulations."

As a result, she said, she had asked the agency's inspector general to widen an existing investigation into vehicle purchases at Workforce to include money spent on the "Cape-A-Bility Challenge."

Though Lorenzo's agency has no direct authority over the daily operations of Florida's regional workforce boards, it does have some oversight on spending. Last week, a Workforce Central Florida vice president said the "Cape-A-Bility Challenge" did not require Lorenzo's approval.

Lorenzo's letter was released to the Sentinel a little more than an hour after Earl offered a spirited defense of the campaign. In an email, Earl said he "absolutely" approved the project, saying it was part of a board-sanctioned community outreach effort.

He said with any marketing push, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and that "not everyone will agree on creative strategy."

"The plight of the unemployed is why we exist," Earl wrote, "and to help them, we have to engage them, introduce them to our services and connect them with job opportunities."

Earl said his agency would cooperate with investigators but he did not address other questions about the probe. Several Workforce Central Florida board members, including Chairman Owen Wentworth, did not reply to emails or phone calls from the Sentinel.

The "Cape-A-Bility Challenge" is part of an "Everyday Superheroes" theme the agency has adopted. Its website features videos of employers, job seekers and Wentworth in capes similar to those the agency plans to distribute to the unemployed.

Shot in slow-motion and underscored by a heroic soundtrack, Wentworth strikes a Superman pose, dramatically removing his glasses. In another scene he taps out a message on his BlackBerry.

Workforce is a federally funded labor development agency that last year received almost $24 million in public money. It is a private, nonprofit organization governed by more than 40 Central Florida business leaders.

Between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010, the agency says it served more than 210,000 job seekers and helped place more than 58,500 into jobs.

jstratton@tribune.com or 407-420-5379.

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