The Bowling Green-based South Central Workforce Development Board has a new fiscal agent and will soon have a new service provider as the 10-county organization continues to change.

A Chicago-based not-for-profit organization with a multistate reach in workforce development was selected Wednesday as the workforce board’s new fiscal agent.

National Able Network, which handles Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act services in the Chicago area and several other communities, was approved by a unanimous vote to handle the board’s finances at a meeting of the Barren River Local Elected Officials organization at the Warren County Courthouse.

The next change for the workforce board will come May 17, when the board will meet to approve a new service provider to replace Louisville-based ResCare Workforce Services. ResCare’s contract with the board to provide employment-related services for adults, dislocated workers and youth was terminated at an April 9 meeting of the board’s executive committee.

National Able will replace the city of Bowling Green as fiscal agent for a workforce board that has a $2.8 million budget for the current fiscal year. The contract calls for National Able to be paid $85,755 for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The city of Bowling Green has been handling the fiscal agent duties under a $19,000 contract for the fiscal year, but the city’s leadership indicated it would not continue in that role after June 30.

“Bowling Green saw their role as an interim,” explained Robert Boone, the workforce board’s president and CEO. “They weren’t interested in being involved again.”

Despite the disparity between what the board is paying Bowling Green and what it will pay National Able, Boone said the contract with the Chicago nonprofit is “actually less than what I thought it would be.”

He said it was important to find a fiscal agent with experience handling Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act funds. National Able has overseen such funds in Chicago and in communities in Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Delaware.

“The fiscal agent monitors all spending and releases funds for payment,” Boone said. “A big part of that is making sure all funds are managed according to federal rules and regulations.

“There are several pots of money, including WIOA and grants. You need to make sure you’re pulling from the right pot and staying on track in your spending so you don’t leave money on the table.”

Bridget Altenburg, president and CEO of National Able, said her organization has the necessary background. National Able, with more than 100 employees and annual revenue of more than $22 million, specializes in financial management for nonprofits, she said.

“This is our 41st year, and we have been involved in the workforce system from the start,” said Altenburg. “We have the financial expertise and a lot of experience.”

Altenburg indicated that National Able would have a presence in the Bowling Green area, either full time or part time, but would also utilize technology to tap into the expertise at its Chicago headquarters.

Now that he has the fiscal agent in place, Boone is preparing to recommend a service provider at the May 17 meeting. Boone and contractors Lori Strumpf and Rebecca Busacca of Washington, D.C.-based Strumpf Associates have been handling workforce services along with five former ResCare employees on an interim basis after ResCare was terminated.

Boone cited “file management” problems he identified and that he said were confirmed by a Kentucky Department of Workforce Investment review as the reason for ending ResCare’s contract.

ResCare was operating under a $1,979,622 contract for the fiscal year and had 13 local employees. ResCare oversaw workforce services at the Kentucky Career Centers in Bowling Green and Glasgow and was also charged with providing services at affiliate sites throughout the 10-county region served by the Barren River Area Development District. Hart County Judge-Executive Terry Martin and other Barren River Local Elected Officials members expressed disappointment in the amount of time invested by ResCare in the counties outside Bowling Green and Glasgow.

Boone expects that to change when the new service provider is on board.

“I think they will have more staffing capacity than ResCare,” he said. “They will run a completely different system.”

Although the Request for Proposal calls for the new service provider to start work July 1, Boone said he hopes to accelerate the schedule if his recommended service provider is approved at the May 17 meeting to be held at the Glasgow campus of Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College.