STANDISH – Last week, Gov. Paul LePage appointed Fred Webber of Standish to lead a 22-member committee tasked with training Maine workers.

The Maine Workforce Investment Board, which Webber will chair, is tasked with directing about $6 million of federal funds to various job-training efforts throughout the state. Webber, who recently served on the veterans committee of the Maine Jobs Council, is determined to reduce waste, he said, since he was told 75 percent of federal funding now goes to overhead.

The 73-year-old Webber lives on Whites Point Road, near the Windham border, and is excited about the opportunity to use his background in working with government agencies to advance private enterprise.

Webber has a lengthy resume leading trade associations based in Washington D.C. In a career that spanned 40 years in the nation’s capital, he headed the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the American Chemistry Council, and the National Soft Drink Association. Webber also worked in the Nixon and Ford administrations as assistant secretary of the Treasury for legislative affairs and served as chief staff assistant for the late John Dellenback, an Congressman from Oregon.

The Lakes Region Weekly sat down with Webber at his home overlooking Sebago Lake last Friday, a few days after his appointment.

Q: Were you surprised by Gov. LePage’s appointment?

A: It came about as a complete surprise, frankly. I had connected with the commissioner of (the Maine Department of) Labor, Bob Winglass, late last spring and over the summer. He’s a former Marine and we had a mutual friend in the Marine Corps who was anxious to get us together. And Commissioner Winglass learned of my interest in veterans, especially veterans coming back from the Middle East looking for jobs, looking for help trying to get reconnected with the economy. And lo and behold I end up on the veterans committee of the Maine Jobs Council this past summer.

Then I was invited to (last) Tuesday’s meeting of the Maine Jobs Council. The Maine Jobs Council and the state workforce investment board are all one and the same. We’re going to end up with one name, the state workforce investment board. And it is my understanding the Maine Jobs Council term will disappear.

So I was at that board meeting, delighted to be there, enjoyed listening to the issues, the programs, the challenges, and was told at the beginning of the meeting that the board was looking for a chairman, would I be interested? And I thought it over for about an hour, trying to figure out what’s in store for the chairman and trying to get the feel for goals and objectives going forward. The governor was first on the program, so I listened to him, liked what he had to say, liked his priorities, liked his sensitivities. And I could tell for him, workforce training was very much a priority for the state of Maine. That he wanted to see us do a better job of it. And I think more than anything his speech convinced me this would be one heck of a challenge for a guy at my stage in life and so I met with the governor afterward. To make a long story short, I accepted the challenge.

Q: How are you feeling about accepting the challenge?

A: It’s like buying a new car, you go home and say, now what have I done? There’s no buyer’s remorse but you really have to think it through, especially given the fact that now that I’ve been studying day after day and getting emails from people all over the state, I’m beginning to realize this is going to be a big challenge. But I’m not backtracking. I just hope I can do a good job. I’m going to need a lot of help.

Q: What are your next steps?

A: The most important step for me in the next couple of weeks I suspect is to meet with the governor. To sit down with the governor and get a handle on his priorities, what he would really like to see happen. I got a flavor of that at the meeting on Tuesday, but going one-on-one with the governor is going to be very important because I want to be sure that I know what his expectations are because that’s going to be my mission. He’s the commanding officer, so to speak.

Secondly, I want to get out into the state and talk to the key people who make up the board, and listen. And have them talk about past, present and future. By and large, though, I want them to tell me how we can do a better job. How we can spend those federal dollars more efficiently, how we can conduct more training. How do we reach out to those who really need training, and how do we keep businesses as partners in all of this, because if they’re not there offering the jobs, then we’re going to be beating our heads against a stone wall. So the partnership concept is going to be critical here, not that it doesn’t exist now but my sense is the governor wants to see vast improvement on all fronts.

Q: Are we talking just about training for high-tech jobs?

A: No. We’re talking about jobs across the board. We want to identify those jobs that require training, that require skills, and then make sure there are programs out there using these federal dollars to train people to have those skills so they can get in there and fill those jobs.

I’ve always been impressed with the work ethic that exists in Maine. And although I’ve been away from Maine a lot, especially 40-plus years in Washington, I’ve never seen a sign that that work ethic has disappeared. Mainers like to work, they are reliable, they’ll give you good quality work, and that’s one of the real assets of the state. That in itself ought to appeal to industry. And I wish more industry would come in, especially manufacturing. Therein lies the challenge.

Q: So the clay is there. It just needs to be molded.

A: You bet.

Q: What are some of your longer-term goals?

A: I’m told 25 percent of the federal dollars from the U.S. Workforce Investment Act (for workforce training in Maine) actually goes into training. The rest goes for overhead. That’s unacceptable. But I want to get the hard facts from the people out in the field about what is really happening and why it is happening. Is that much going into overhead? What goes into those numbers? And what can be done to flip that percentage around, because that ratio is obviously not healthy. We want a higher percentage of the federal dollars going into training our workforce needs.

Q: How much does Maine actually receive?

A: In 2009, we received $5.3 million. Last year, we got $5.6 million. So for Maine, that’s a lot of money. That’s good potential in terms for funds for training.

Q: Didn’t Maine a few years ago trim the number of career centers?

A: Well, a lot of people mix up career centers with the investment boards, and you want those career centers, you want them active out there in the local areas, spread throughout the state. There are four investment boards, and five career centers.

Q: Who makes up the investment board?

A: You’ve got 22 members on the board, 55 percent of whom are business persons. You’ve got two state senators; two state representatives; two local elected officials, one from Penobscot County and one from Franklin County. You have two members from organized labor, an individual from the Job Corps, and also Jobs for Maine Graduates, which I have to get familiar with. And then you have a fellow from Coastal Enterprises, and another from the Disability Rights Center, so it’s quite a group. And you have state agencies represented as well.

Also, Wayne Holmquist from Raymond is on the committee, and he’s certainly going to be one of the persons I’m going to be listening to and getting background from. We had a great discussion in Augusta Tuesday, and I was very impressed with his depth of knowledge.

Q: What do you think of past and current job training efforts in the state?

A: That’s what I’m going to have to become familiar with, that judgment I can’t make. All I know is I think my mandate is to make sure they get better.

Q: Who are some of the job trainers?

A: Community colleges play a role here, for example. That’s the best example I can give you, but I’m going to find out where the other training comes from.

Q: Is a part of this also funding on-the-job training?

A: I think so. Sometimes the business itself is the best entity to train a worker who is unskilled, and maybe the business needs some financial resources to do that. And maybe that’s happening, I’m not sure, and that’s one of the things I’m going to find out.

Q: Does this dovetail with the potential cuts to Medicaid and welfare?

A: I have no idea, but given the fact that that might happen, and the governor’s got an awful challenge in terms of the budget and I don’t envy the man and he’s trying to meet that challenge and get the cooperation of the Legislature.

But let’s say thousands of people go off the welfare rolls, that’s all the more reason to revitalize this program because they’re going to need – they’re going to want – jobs. So, our mission is clear. What can we deliver? Let’s try to deliver more.

And those veterans coming back from fighting our battles are going to need our help. They have transferable skills and sometimes it’s easy to identify those, but retraining is probably going to be needed.

Q: What is the job situation in our area, the Lakes Region?

A: Well, I haven’t seen any numbers, but having been here all these years, as far as the state is concerned, this is a high-growth area in terms of jobs and population, and school enrollment. It’s been a hot area. I don’t know if that’s tapered off or not. But I would like to think it continues and that the state workforce investment board will have a role here because if companies are coming here or staying here and need skilled individuals to work at their companies we should be in a position to help the companies and individuals.

Q: Sounds like a gargantuan task.

A: Over 30 years ago, Gov. Jim Longley asked me to take a leave of absence from the Scott Paper Company and help launch the Maine Development Foundation, and I did. It works under the auspices of the state government and works to try to entice companies to come to the state and keep companies here in the state, especially the manufacturing sector. It works with the chambers of commerce, etc. I was unable to finish that job, stayed there only six months because my son had a very serious health problem and I had to stay in the Washington area. So, for me, this is a little bit of unfinished business. I want to come back and pick up where I left off, and see if I can help the state.

Q: LePage is a conservative. You’re a conservative. Traditionally, conservatives have thought people should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, as Ronald Reagan used to say. How does that personal philosophy mesh with your new role?

A: They’re helping people pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Look, Maine sends a lot of money to Washington. Washington in turn sends some money back to Maine. Whether you like that or not, it’s always going to be the case. So, I have no problem using federal funds to help train and retrain people in the workforce as long as we do it effectively and efficiently. It’s stewardship. I can’t speak for the governor, but I do know from reading some of his statements, he wants to make sure we’re getting more bang for the buck, and that we really carry out this stewardship role, and therein lies the challenge.

Fred Webber