Intended to teach local elected officials (LEOs) how to increase their involvement in job training and other human resource programs, this document argues that elected county officials can use strategic issues management (SIM) to assert stronger leadership and to use Private Industry Councils (PICs) more fully as a resource for the delivery of human services. Following an executive summary and introduction, the second section provides an overview of SIM, including how to move from strategic planning to strategic management, issue identification and selection, management of implementation, and the design of strategic management. The third section describes the job training environment for local governments. The fourth section outlines the major steps in strategic agenda-building, what constitutes SIM, the detailed design for a partnership between LEOs and PICs, and how to identify and select issues. The fifth section deals with formulating strategies to address the strategic issues identified and how to manage their implementation. That section also discusses the importance of a continuing issue identification/strategy formulation and implementation process; the impact of multicounty/multi-LEO situations on the process; and the ties of SIM to LEO and PIC annual and biennial planning and budgeting processes. The document concludes with a list of steps in the SIM process and a 16-item bibliography. (CML)