The following people are at the table and introduce themselves: Amanda Hughes, Keith Griffith, Randall Svedbeck, Larry Giventer, Karl Reitz, Michelle Weber, George Boodrookas, Debbie Gilbert, Bill Anelli, Richard Anderson, Mike Smedshammer -- and his kids, Samantha and Calvin
1. Keith Griffith, Senior Manager for Education, Stanislaus Economic Development and Workforce Alliance, 567-4985; griffitk@stanalliance.com
2. Lawrence Giventer, Professor, Politics and Public Administration, CSU Stanislaus, (209) 667-3509, LGiventer@csustan.edu
3. George Boodrookas, Dean of MJC's Community and Economic Development , 575-6714 boodrookasg@mjc.edu
4. Michelle Weber, Ph.D. (political economy) Financial Advisor Edward Jones Investments 848-4496 mweberphd@gmail.com
5. Randall Svedbeck, Research Manager, Stanislaus Economic Development & Workforce Alliance, 567-4636 SvedbeR@stanalliance.com
Richard explains how Stanislaus Solutions came about: he wanted a program, like MAPS, but with more of a sociological approach to local problems.
Amanda requests presentation for those prepared to do so.
Larry shows us a set of interactive maps that visually present the changes in national and local unemployment rates over the last five to ten years. The documents are called:
•“When Did Your County’s Jobs Disappear”
•“The Decline: The Geography of a Recession”
•“Unemployment in California”
-->They can be found at blackboard.csustan.edu, search course name “American Government” then go to topics – employment, education, social services
Larry summarizes his findings: The San Joaquin Region has always had about 5% worse employment than California, even in good times, as well as dramatic seasonal shifts. We have a weak manufacturing sector and more annual, dramatic seasonal shifts than other regions; this situation is only partly due to agricultural rhythms. It’s hard to know exactly what’s going on since we don’t keep track of employment rates according to industry. The San Joaquin Region is a severe pocket of unemployment comparable to three other regions in the U.S.: the Iron Range, the Deep South and Appalachia. Something distinct is going on in our region vis-a-vis California at large, but no one really knows why it is so anomalous.
Keith says that we have isolated three main reasons for the high unemployment:
•low education rates – Stanislaus County has a 68.1% high school graduation rate
•high illiteracy rates – Stanislaus County has 23.8% functional illiteracy
•drugs
George reads from a document entitled “Central Regional Economic Overview” prepared by Michelle Marquez, director of MJC’s Center for Excellence; it’s a twelve-page report that provides an industry and occupational overview of the Central Region and includes a one-page cover sheet that lists growth sectors. (I think we can email George for it.)
Michelle says that one solution would be to incentivize entrepreneurial activity. 15,000 out of the 45,000 unemployed are skilled and/or have other credentials; they are potential entrepreneurs. She thinks that we need to focus on providing entrepreneurial opportunities – what she calls organic economic growth or incubator projects – rather than trying to get big companies to relocate here. She is looking for similar projects in cohort-type regions to study so as to predict and plan out the future.
Minimum job qualifications in the region have shifted in the last 40 years: less than 10% of jobs in Stanislaus County can be done without a high school diploma; in the 1970’s 68% of jobs could be done without one.
George points out that a lot is being done already to train people and prepare the workforce but the picture isn’t changing much. His question is: What can we do differently to be more effective?
Keith believes that a major problem is that we don’t provide incentive to companies to move here. He drew a comparison to a county that gave Hyundai $100 million to build a factory.
George asks: What kind of jobs do we want? That’s another question for this panel.
Larry mentions two projects with potential: a UC Merced teaching hospital and a transfer center at Crows Landing (stuff would be shipped from Oakland and warehoused there). Both would create ancillary jobs
Keith thinks that the Crows Landing plan has potential especially when considering that 16.7% nationwide are in moving goods. The relevant curriculum is called logistics.
He mentions two more projects with potential: Riverbank Army Plant and a VA Corrections Hospital.
He then points out that the state spends $7,000 to keep a public student in school per year and $52,000 to keep a prisoner in jail for a year; spending money on education is cost effective.
Michelle fears that if we don’t create opportunities now, when the economy starts to improve we’ll have mass relocation of the skilled unemployed who will leave for jobs in the Bay Area or elsewhere making our situation worse yet.
The problem, when considering green jobs is that, most probably, new jobs wouldn’t be created. Instead, workers will simply retool by adding green skills to their qualifications.
At this point in the meeting, the conversation turns to assets of the local region including:
•affordability
•good schools (see cde.ca.gov for education statistics including local school ratings)
•available land
•cheap water
•sun
•agriculture
•an aging population (thus providing job opportunities)
A good analysis will look at assets versus obstacles.
Two major growth industries are: geriatric goods and service, education.
George makes the comment that what we’re doing in this meeting is important and novel because faculty is asking for it. He summarizes what we are doing as “raising awareness to lead to potential solutions.”
Google analytics can determine where money and demand are and may be a good tool for determining what kinds of businesses make sense locally.
Stanislaus County only has 529,000 residents which prevents some companies, like Nordstrom, from considering setting up shop.
George makes a request: Since what we’re doing – incremental adaptation – has not worked, he would like part of a session devoted to thinking completely out of the box.
Michelle suggests that in the first session we discuss context and causes including opportunities.
Dan points out that we should decide who we want our audience to be and be sure to let our speakers know.
Larry suggests a one-day, six-hour session.
Possible speakers for our series:
•Dan suggest we invite non-profits from the Airport District who are trying to get people into jobs and unemployed people with innovative ideas
•Balvino Irizary
•Virginia Medueno
•Carla Strong
•Bill Bassett
•Jeff Rowe
•Dennis Cardoza
•Rich Homer (?)
•Bill Lyons
•Ann Venomen
•Curtis Clark
•Someone from Stoobies Organic Dairy
•Hans Bjornsen, UC Merced (he has experience creating alternate business models)
Amanda, Bill and Debbie decide on October 15th from 1-6 and book Sierra Hall 132 for that day.
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