News & Announcements
Aug. 13, 2010 |
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Public Policy Associates President Jeffrey D. Padden says it's time for "a systematic, thorough look" at the Michigan Constitution. |
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Mr. Padden, who has been at the center of Michigan public policy for more than 35 years, was quoted in a Detroit Free Press story by columnist Rochelle Riley about the benefits of a constitutional convention. Michigan voters will decide in the November election whether to convene one. |
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Contact:Jeffrey D. Padden |
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Public Policy Associates Announces Leadership Changes |
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LANSING -- Public Policy Associates, Inc. has announced important changes in its leadership team. Douglas C. Drake has become PPA’s business development and marketing coordinator and has also assumed a role as senior policy advisor. He previously was director of the Health, Human Services, and Philanthropy Group. “Under Doug’s leadership, the group has undertaken a variety of important policy projects and attracted talented staff,” said PPA President Jeffrey D. Padden. “He will continue to do outstanding public policy work for our clients and help the company grow.” Mr. Padden said he hopes to have a permanent replacement for Mr. Drake by January 1, 2011. Colleen Graber will serve as interim leader of the Health, Human Services, and Philanthropy Group. She will continue as a project manager in PPA’s Education, Workforce, and Economic Development Group. “I have great confidence in Colleen’s management skills and know she will do a great job in her new role,” Mr. Padden said. Public Policy Associates, Inc., is a leading state and national public policy consulting firm. It is the 2010 winner of the Outstanding Small Business Award from the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce. |
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July 29, 2010 |
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Doug Drake Quoted in Centor For Michigan Special Report Tax plans of the candidates for governor |
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Michigan's next governor will need to consider raising a tax rate, establishing a graduated income tax or expanding the sales tax to services in order to balance the state budget, Public Policy Associates senior policy consultant Douglas Drake says. Mr. Drake was quoted in a Special Report by the Center for Michigan looking at tax issues in Michigan's gubernatorial campaign. |
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July 21, 2010 |
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Gongwer News Service talks past and current politics with PPA CEO Jeffrey D. Padden |
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Public Policy Associates President Jeffrey D. Padden's career in public policy began when he was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 1974, running a shoestring grassroots campaign to upset an influential incumbent. He went on to serve 10 years. Gongwer News Service recently profiled Mr. Padden, looking back at his career and reporting his reflections on this year's campaign. |
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Contact:Nancy Hewat |
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Hoping to Impact the Future of the Nation's Workforce. |
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Lansing – With the nation still struggling to recover economically, the need for developing and deploying a high-skilled work force is more important than ever. Four leading researchers (Public Policy Associates, Inc., Berkeley Policy Associates, the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, and the University of California-San Diego) are calling for a “re-imagining” of the Workforce Development Act to promote training systems that foster regional cooperation and prepare workers not only for the jobs of today – but for the jobs of tomorrow. The researchers have released a white paper, “Strategic Workforce Development as a Catalyst for Economic Growth: Lessons and Insights from the Field and Implications for the Future of WIA.” The report comes at a critical moment, as Congress debates reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA). The researchers, who have vast experience in evaluating workforce development initiatives, recommend that the WIA be re-characterized and christened as the “Strategic Workforce Development Act.” The change would reflect the need to develop integrated workforce development systems that build on collaboration across functional and jurisdictional boundaries. Too often, the researchers conclude, various workforce development entities work in their own silos. In some cases, that can result in training workers for jobs that do not match the current or future needs of employers and fail to retool the workforce in alignment with long-term economic goals. By thinking more strategically, workforce development leaders can work to ensure that the various stakeholders—employers, economic development and workforce development boards, community colleges, and others—collaborate to create effective approaches to transforming their economies and providing high-wage job opportunities for workers. The researchers laid out three central issues that should be considered in re-authorizing WIA:
Recently, the authors of this paper presented their findings to Department of Labor leaders in Washington D.C. This important paper is available here: http://www.publicpolicy.com/reports/Workforce_Development_WIA_Reauthorization_033110.pdf. |
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Contact:Jeffrey D. Padden (517-485-4477) |
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Chuck Wilbur Joins PPA |
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LANSING -- Chuck Wilbur, a senior advisor to Governor Jennifer M. Granholm for more than seven years, has become a senior policy consultant with Public Policy Associates, Inc., company President Jeffrey D. Padden announced today. “As a top-level policy official with Governor Granholm’s administration, Chuck has been very well respected by all parties,” Mr. Padden said. “He brings decades of experience in the public policy arena and will be a great asset to Public Policy Associates and to our clients. Chuck is among the most insightful policy thinkers I’ve ever known. We look forward to injecting his creativity and expertise into our work.” Mr. Wilbur’s initial focus with PPA will be to provide technical assistance to Michigan’s Promise Zones—10 communities working to expand college opportunities for high school graduates by creating universal scholarship programs modeled after the Kalamazoo Promise. Mr. Padden said he expects Mr. Wilbur’s role to broaden quickly to include other projects. Mr. Wilbur played a central role in developing and implementing key policy initiatives for Governor Granholm as her senior advisor for education and communications. He developed and implemented the Governor’s education reform agenda, including the establishment of the nation’s most rigorous high school graduation requirements and the creation of the Michigan Promise Scholarship. He also was a key advisor to the “Cherry Commission,” the Lieutenant Governor’s Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth, which developed strategies and support for increasing college attendance and degree completion. With the Granholm administration entering its final year, Mr. Wilbur said it is important to provide continuity to some important initiatives, including Promise Zones. He said working with Public Policy Associates is a good fit in achieving that goal. “Care and feeding and nurturing of a new social initiative may not be what government does best. People who are doing public policy in the nongovernmental sector may be much better positioned to nurture it along,” Wilbur said. “PPA is a high-quality, reputable public policy organization with the ability to help sustain that work and find ways to bring new resources to the table,” he said. Mr. Wilbur has a wealth of knowledge and experience in public policy at the local, state, and national levels. Before joining the Granholm administration, he held key leadership positions with U.S. Sen. Carl Levin. He served as state director and chief of staff, and was campaign manager for Sen. Levin’s successful re-election campaigns in 1996 and 2002. Mr. Wilbur was news director of Detroit public radio station WDET-FM from 1987 to 1991. In 1992, he became a consultant to the Detroit Public Schools and organized a statewide coalition of urban, suburban, and rural school districts in support of a school finance equity proposal. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in educational media from the University of Michigan. He was an Education Policy Fellow at Michigan State University in 2002. |
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Contact:Jeffrey D. Padden |
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Public Policy Associates Named 2009 Small Business of the Year |
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LANSING -- Public Policy Associates, Inc., a leading state and national public policy consulting firm, has received the Outstanding Small Business Award from the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce. The award honors a local small business that has demonstrated stability, innovation, commitment to community, ability to overcome challenges, and commitment to diversity. The company was recognized at the Chamber of Commerce's annual dinner Wednesday at the Wharton Center in East Lansing. "This award is a reflection not of me but of the amazing people who are PPA and the work we all do for our clients every day," said Jeffrey D. Padden, president and founder of Public Policy Associates. "I am fortunate to have talented, diverse, and passionate people who are committed both to our clients and our community." Public Policy Associates was created by Mr. Padden, a former state legislator, in 1991. Since then, it has grown from a two-person shop to a company with 27 employees as well as affiliated consultants undertaking important public policy research in Michigan, and around the country. PPA has conducted research and evaluation projects for Democratic and Republican administrations as well as for foundations, nonprofit groups and others. Currently, the firm is conducting a large-scale, four-year study of regional economic development strategies for the U.S. Department of Labor. In Michigan, PPA has engaged in a number of projects with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, including its campaign to end homelessness, and it is a partner with the Department of Corrections and the Michigan Council on Crime & Delinquency in the nationally recognized Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative, which helps prisoners prepare for parole and gives them the community support and supervision to succeed after they return home. Mr. Padden has spent more than 30 years in the public policy arena, including 10 years as a state representative. He has also held key roles with the Michigan Department of Commerce and as director of the Governor's Human Investment Project. The firm embraces a culture that encourages innovation and flexibility. Last year, Public Policy Associates was honored with the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility. The award recognizes companies that use workplace flexibility as a strategy to increase effectiveness and yield better results. "We are proud to be a flexible workplace not because of the recognition, but because it is a smart business practice," Mr. Padden said. "It helps us recruit and retain brilliant people who have lots of alternatives. We focus on producing high-quality work for our clients and understand that such work is not always produced between nine and five in the confines of a cubicle." To promote camaraderie among the staff, PPA sponsors outings for staff and families to local Lugnuts baseball games -- within walking distance of PPA's downtown Lansing office -- as well as baby showers, wedding showers and other employee celebrations during office hours. The family atmosphere has contributed to a stable, nurturing environment where more than 60% of the staff have seniority of three or more years. Public Policy Associates shows commitment to the community in other ways. PPA staff volunteer their time to organizations such as the Greater Lansing Housing Coalition and the City Rescue Mission of Lansing. Mr. Padden hosts a Lansing Community College television show "Perspectives" and has played the trombone in the Lansing Concert Band for 20 years. Mr. Padden has promoted diversity both within PPA and as a community leader. He was an active member and sponsor of the Mayor's Initiative on Race and Diversity, and served on the Commission on Race and Diversity, which promotes unity and understanding of race and diversity issues by educating the greater Lansing area community. |
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February 8, 2010 |
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Investing in Michigan's Future Presentation |
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The number of Michigan school children is expected to decline slightly over the next two decades, while the retiree population will grow dramatically, Public Policy Associates project manager Laurence S. Rosen told a group of leading school officials. Rosen, former state demographer, said the population trends will create new challenges for funding the state’s public school system. Retirees often feel separated from the public school system and are less inclined to support proposals for additional revenues, Rosen said. Rosen and Douglas C. Drake, director of health, human services, and philanthropy at PPA, were featured speakers at the Investing in Michigan’s Future summit on Jan. 8 in Lansing. The event was sponsored by the Michigan Education Association, the Middle Cities Education Association, and SOS: Save Our Schools, Students and State. To see Mr. Rosen’s Powerpoint presentation, click here. |
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February 4, 2010 |
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Jeffrey D. Padden in the News |
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Public benefit reforms like those proposed by Governor Jennifer M. Granholm are inevitable, Public Policy Associates President Jeffrey D. Padden told the Lansing State Journal. Mr. Padden said huge declines in state and local revenues are forcing the state to take a hard look at the benefit structure. He was quoted in a Jan. 30 article on the governor’s deficit-reduction plan, which includes encouraging educators and state employees to retire, and reducing benefits for future employees. To see the Lansing State Journal article, click here. |
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Willard K. Walker is Recipient of the First Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award |
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"Willard has been a pioneer as an activist, executive, and researcher who has opened doors, offered hope, and expanded opportunities for people throughout Michigan and beyond," said Jeffrey D. Padden, president of Public Policy Associates, a national research and development firm. "His expertise, leadership, and passion for social justice have helped community leaders create better policies and create better outcomes." In his work at PPA, Mr. Walker is currently working on diversity training for the Lansing CEO Diversity Council to help leaders maximize diversity within their organizations and get involved in public policy discussions and decisions that lead to systematic social reform and positive community changes. He is also providing diversity training to all employees at the Lansing Board of Water & Light to define diversity, explain the importance of diversity as a business strategy, explain bias and prejudice dynamics, and identify the impact of attitudes and behaviors in the workplace. Mr. Willard has also conducted evaluation research of the Kent County School Services Network and crime analysis evaluation for the Michigan Department of Human Services, Bureau of Juvenile Justice. In other research projects at PPA, Mr. Walker has worked with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, addressing the plight of young males of color. He conceived and is completing work on a project for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation entitled "Engaging Students of Color in Michigan's New Economy," an effort to develop strategies to provide students of color greater opportunities to prepare for careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Mr. Walker has also provided consulting services to recruit and retain African-American teachers, develop recruitment processes for urban school districts, and design curriculum for urban students at Grand Valley State University. He helped the Flint Community Schools develop and implement a communitywide anti-racism strategy. He served in a variety of key roles in state government, including as director of Michigan's School-to-Work Office. He also implemented Sections 503 and 504 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which established statewide equal employment rights for people with disabilities. He is the former Human Relations and Community Services Department director for the city of Lansing. Mr. Walker was a founding member and first chairperson of the Greater Lansing Area Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Commission, serving from 1986-1991. |
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LANSING -- Willard K. Walker, a senior policy consultant with Public Policy Associates, Inc., is the recipient of the first Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award.
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The U.S. Department of Labor Announces the release of “Nurturing America’s Growth in the Global Marketplace Through Talent Development: An Interim Report on the Evaluation of Generations II and III of WIRED.” |
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The U.S. Department of Labor recently announced the release of “Nurturing America’s Growth in the Global Marketplace Through Talent Development: An Interim Report on the Evaluation of Generations II and III of WIRED.” The report, which was written by Public Policy Associates, Inc., in partnership with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, summarizes the initial findings of a multiyear evaluation of 26 regional initiatives that received grants from the U.S. Department of Labor. The regions were facing challenges from global competition and changing economic conditions. The grants, each of which totaled $5 million over a three year period, were intended to bring together diverse regional organizations to work towards economic stability and workforce growth. This interim report focuses on the development of partnerships, governance arrangements, and the design of decision-making processes. The report can be viewed here. |
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Public Policy Associates' CEO Jeffrey Padden Details Transformation of Michigan Corrections Through Re-Entry Initiative |
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The Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative has been a massive transformation of state government Corrections' policy and one that is using the best evidence-based research to make the state safer and save taxpayer money. Evidence shows the hard work and careful planning has paid off in making returning prisoners more successful when they return home. Public Policy Associates, Inc. has been a partner with the Michigan Department of Corrections and the Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency on the MPRI since the planning stages early in Governor Jennifer M. Granholm's administration. Public Policy Associates Jeffrey Padden writes about the history of the MPRI -- and its success -- in Dome Magazine. To see the complete story, click here. |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
Contact: Douglas C. Drake |
New Analysis: Proposed Public Employee Health Plan Changes Overestimate Savings, Underestimate Costs |
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LANSING, Mich. — House Speaker Andy Dillon’s proposed mandatory government-run health insurance plan for public employers could cost taxpayers up to $500 million to launch and cost up to $370 million a year to administer, and the claimed savings are dramatically overestimated, concludes a new analysis of the proposal by a respected public policy research and evaluation firm. The analysis conducted by Public Policy Associates, Inc. (PPA), a national research firm based in Lansing, concludes the proposal’s claims of achieving significant cost savings through “administrative efficiencies and economies of scale” are “largely illusory.” That is because large insurance pools already exist in Michigan, and the proposal fails to account for the substantial costs of growing state government and other administrative functions to run what would amount to a $4 billion to $5 billion insurance company. In the public school market, the analysis found that insurance market changes and Michigan’s ongoing budget pressures have resulted in an actual benefit cost decline for Michigan public schools in 2007-2008. The PPA analysis finds the only opportunity for savings is through what proposal backers call “standardization of benefits,” which the report calls “a poor synonym” for reducing benefits for the 500,000 public workers, plus dependents, the proposal would cover or requiring them to pay more for their insurance. “We find the savings claimed by the white paper and based on the legislation are largely illusory, especially those related to administrative efficiencies and economies of scale,” said PPA researcher Doug Drake, who authored the analysis. “The proposal could secure savings by reducing benefits and requiring employees to pay more toward their insurance, but that is happening today. An expansion of state government is not needed to capture savings that are already occurring.” PPA based its analysis on a review of House Bill 5345, and on the white paper issued by Speaker Dillon on July 16 and later revised on September 9. The analysis was prepared at the request of Citizens for Accountability in Reform,a growing coalition representing taxpayers, police, firefighters, teachers, insurance companies and others who are concerned that this proposal doesn’t provide the reform it promises at a price taxpayers can afford. The full analysis (available at www.publicpolicy.com) will be presented to all state legislators and to others for thorough review and consideration. The PPA analysis also found that:
Administrative Costs Efficiencies/Economies of Scale from “Super Pool” Based on Two Critical Errors $500 Million to Launch the Plan
About Public Policy Associates About Douglas C. Drake
The full analysis can be found here. |
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