What would be different if you’re elected?
● I’ve talked to a lot of businesses, anywhere from a four-man shop to a 2,000-employee industry, and the one thing they complain about is the lack of communication and the lack of a good relationship with the Department of Labor. It’s an ongoing complaint I hear from business to business to business. They say it’s a very anti-business atmosphere between them and the department. We’re going to change that.
● I have good relationships with a lot of different organizations that do economic development work ... and they say that, whereas the Department of Labor is always cooperative when they’re called upon, the information and data they have is practically useless because it’s not in a form or it doesn’t have the proper amount of information to be useful.
Because the technology is so archaic over there ... you have to update the systems that are over there, you have to modernize.
What should be the focus right now?
● What I want to see us do is connect with the business community and create a very solid partnership with them. You have to have a relationship with the people who’re providing the jobs and understanding the skill sets that are needed.
● If we’re not providing the right education and the right training to develop our work force to compete on the world stage, then we’re not doing our job. That’s a big part of what I think the Department of Labor can and should be doing right now to help Georgia ...
What will get Georgians back to work?
● One thing I would like to see the Department of Labor do is be more proactive when it comes to helping out the work force — work force training, work force development. One of the ways that we can do that is if we are able to collect data in a useful way, (so) instead of having to react to downturns like this after the fact and seeing where sectors have lost chunks of jobs ... if those systems had been set up right and had been updated and modernized, they could have already been tracking the trends and you could also have been collecting data about the skill sets of that workforce.
Then you should have a team working at the Department of Labor that is looking at emerging industries. Take their information about what the needs of those industries are going to be and start looking at trends in your work force, and then you can start developing training programs that can modify those existing skill sets in areas that are starting to trend down ... to fit these new jobs, and you are not starting from scratch. It’s about flexibility in the work force; you’ve got to have job skills that are transferable toward several different vocations. We’re not doing a good job of that ... of identifying these areas.
● Here’s the thing ... government does not create jobs. The people who are out there creating jobs are the existing industries and the ones that are going to create jobs the fastest are the ones that are already here.
● We would have to have legislation to change something like this ... but it would be great to help people start their own businesses and not kick them off unemployment in the process.
What’s facing Georgia’s work force short-term?
● A lot of those jobs that we knew were eventually starting to go away, they’re just gone (now). The effect of this recession has sped up the demise of those (industries) in Georgia, so therefore we have to start re-purposing and retraining that workforce in those areas. They can’t be holding out hope that we’re going to get a new textile plant. There’s a chance we may get some of that back, but not like we had.
The Mark Butler file
Education: Bachelor's in public administration, Auburn University
Experience: Real estate appraiser for 20 years in a family business. Elected in 2002 to the Georgia House of Representatives for the district encompassing Carroll and Haralson Counties. Served as the chairman of the Appropriations Human Resources Subcommittee, which oversees the budget for the Department of Labor and other state agencies.
