i Work First program still in need of fine-tuning Womble calls for study of ?: former welfare recipients t / f By HERB WHITE f CONSOLIDATED MEDIA GROUP 4 4 North Carolina's Work First \\ program has lowered dependence ;? on welfare, but it's still in for some fine-tuning. Reps. Beverly Earle (D-Meck > lenburg) and Alma Adams (D ? Guilford) met last week to work ' out a compromise bill in the i; House. The Welfare Reform Com ;? mittee Earle co-chairs is consider ;! ing seven different provisions ?; between the two bills, five of which are the same or are contained in ? only one bill or the other. The ! House probably won't debate wel ?! fare reform until it votes on a bud get bill next week. "There probably won't be any movement until the budget is out on the House floor," Earle The bills contain iden tical language regarding the maintenance the stan dard of need, the maxi mum allow- Wombh able income a family can have and qualify for Work First. The amount would be cut in half if the proposed bill is not passed this session. Although legislators are look ing at ways to streamline welfare. Work First has been a success at balancing self-sufficiency with a social safety net, Earle said. "The program is going well," she said. "It's moving people off the rolls, but it's not moving people to high paying jobs. A lot of peo ple are working their first jobs and don't have a lot of training, but a lot of first jobs don't require train ing. This has the potential to help them along" to better-paying jobs. Adams' provisions would allow up to 20 percent of Work First recipients to count post-secondary education toward their work requirements and require N.C. Department of Health and Human Services and N.C. Depart ment of Transportation to create strategies to provide low-income people and workers with trans portation. Earle's provisions are a bienni al review and a review of all cases three months before they reach the end WT . ? of their time limit. The two remain ing provi- . J sions are addressed in each bill in differing manners. Adams They are pay after-performance for two parent families and the state-set two year time limit. Earle's bill would pro vide two-parent families with three months of benefits before pay after-performance applies, and would shorten the 36-month ineli gibility period to 18 months, once a family has used their two-year time limit. "If we don't encourage people to get out and work. North Caroli na is going to have to pay more money back to the federal govern ment" in welfare benefits if two parent families don't meet minimal federal guidelines for hours at work, Earle said. "It's a significant amount of money when we're already facing hard times" as the state tries to find new revenues. Adams' bill prohibits pay-after performance from being applied to two parent families and prohibits the state or any county from implementing a time limit other than the federally required five year lifetime limit. Rep. Larry Womble (D Forsyth) asked questions regard ing the well-being of families who have left the rolls. "I wonder if welfare reform is doing what its supposed to and if not why not," he said. "I don't think it is working." He then called for a study com mission to be established to allow current and former recipients of welfare to tell their stories. Earle, co-chair of the committee, said they were planning a public hear ing on welfare reform and Work First for the week of June 8. > "I'm optimistic we'll be able to pass something," Earle said. "We * have to be mindful of who we're doing this for." ! St. Aug vice president alleges sexual harassment in lawsuit ?I By JOHN MINTER CONSOLIDATED MEDIA GROUP V '*1 ~ A St. Augustine's College vice ? president and her husband, a for !? mer assistant to outgoing Presi '? dent Bernard Franklin, have sued ! Franklin, the college and several ; top officials in a federal sexual harassment complaint. ; The lawsuit filed by Angeline ?. and Gregory Sligh comes as 1; Franklin ends his six-year career ? at St. Aug's. He leaves May 31 to 1 become head of Virginia Union ; University in Richmond. But correspondence received ; by The Triangle Tribune, a Con solidated Media Group paper, ?; indicates the lawsuit may be only ? an overt indication of the con ? tentions within the Episcopalian ! Church-supported school over the past year. A number of top administra tors, including Gregory Sligli, have been fired. When admissions director Keith Powell was fired in March, four members of his staff resigned. The Sligh lawsuit, which seeks $7 million in damages, alleges that Senior Vice President Maurice Tay- I fc hJ lor made sex- ? B advances f toward I