San Diego Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee Meeting - February 13, 2017
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San Diego Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee Meeting - February 13, 2017
The Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee met on February 13, 2017, to review workforce development programs, the Tourism Marketing District performance report, the San Diego Regional Chamber Foundation's regional jobs strategy, and the committee's 2017 work plan. The meeting was chaired by Councilmember Zef and included Councilmembers Bree, Kersey, and Alvarez. No public comments were made and the consent calendar was approved unanimously.
Consent Calendar
- The record of action from the November 17, 2016 meeting was approved by unanimous consent without discussion.
Public Comments & Testimony
- None.
Discussion Items
- Workforce Partnership Presentation – Tina Yo Bartel, overseeing business programs and research, presented on the Workforce Partnership's initiatives. She highlighted that 95% of San Diego County employers have fewer than 50 employees, and the partnership has a $40 million annual budget, 90% from federal sources. Key programs included: a free HR hotline for small businesses, "Hiring at Happy Hour" networking events (funded by a Department of Labor grant), a retail grant from the Walmart Foundation ($400,000/year for two years) covering 50% of training costs for career advancement, and apprenticeship programs (life sciences, ICT, pre-apprenticeship). The partnership also launched Tech Hire San Diego, aiming to place 1,500 people in coding and programming jobs by 2021. In 2016, the Connected Careers internship program placed 1,000 interns. Councilmembers discussed outreach strategies, placement rates, and the shift under the WIOA legislation to focus on businesses as customers.
- Tourism Marketing District Performance Report – Brian Hughes, Executive Director of the San Diego Tourism Marketing District Corporation, presented the FY16 annual report. Key metrics: $203 million in Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) collections (9.1% increase year-over-year), 183,000 tourism-related jobs (4.6% increase), hotel occupancy flat, average daily rate $159.21 (4.1% increase). The TMD's return on investment was $20.80 in room revenue and $2.18 in TOT per $1 of TMD investment. Funded events included the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, San Diego Pride, and the Holiday Bowl. Hughes noted ongoing litigation (Corey Briggs case) with a reserve that will grow to $30 million by FY18. Councilmembers discussed the closure of the Poinsettia Bowl, the need for more attractions to increase length of stay, and the challenge of filling new hotel rooms.
- San Diego Regional Chamber Foundation Regional Jobs Strategy – Sean Kerffin, Executive Director of Policy and Economic Research, presented the regional jobs strategy developed with 68 partners. Key findings: San Diego has the highest percentage of millennials in the workforce among competitor metros, but the lowest percentage of women in the workforce. 54,000 youth (ages 16-24) are disconnected from school and work. 57% of renters and 42% of homeowners with mortgages spend more than 30% of income on housing. The strategy includes three goals: focus on issues that matter most for job creation (e.g., supporting innovation, military, tourism economies; reducing cost of living); replicate and leverage proven job creation programs; and improve cross-border collaboration. Councilmembers discussed the need for specific action items and the importance of addressing housing affordability and infrastructure.
- Committee Work Plan Review – Ryan Purdy, committee consultant, presented the 2017 ED&IR work plan incorporating priorities submitted by councilmembers. Chair Zef emphasized growing the economy, easing burdens on small businesses, and connecting San Diegans to employment opportunities.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken beyond the consent calendar. The committee received all reports and discussed them. Next steps include following up on workforce partnership initiatives (e.g., expanding outreach through chambers and trade groups), monitoring the Tourism Marketing District's FY18 budget and litigation developments, and using the regional jobs strategy to identify specific actions the city can take. The committee will continue to work on housing and infrastructure as economic priorities.
Meeting Transcript
All right. Good morning, everyone. Um we have all members of our committee present for uh the first meeting of our economic development and intergovernmental relations committee for this year. Um, Council members Barbara Bree, Mark Kersey, David Alvarez, uh, and uh representing the Deputy City Attorney's Office is Nate Slagers, Jack Straw in the Mayor's Office from the uh IBA, Trisha Tackey, and my committee consultant Ryan Purdy. So thank you all for coming. So uh first up, the record of action of the November seventeenth meeting of the ED and IR will be approved by unanimous consent. Unless anyone has pulled it for discussion, and seeing that no one has, it will be approved. Uh, just a quick housekeeping item. We are going to trail the regional job strategy item. And uh, we will be taking up the San Diego Tourism Marketing Performance Report before that. So the the uh regional job strategy will be last on the agenda. Any public comment? Any items from the public? None? Okay. Seeing none and none from our committee. Anyone else? Nope. Okay, great. Moving right along. We will go ahead and uh bring up our first item from the workforce partnership coming up. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Give me one second while I get it up and running. No worries. Alrighty. Is it still on? Excellent. Uh-huh. Okay, great. So good morning, everyone. My name is Tina Yo Bartel. I oversee business programs and research at the workforce partnership. So if you're familiar with us, you might have heard a lot about our youth and adult job seeker programs, particularly from our CEO, Preda Calstrum, every now and then. But I oversee the labor market information, which drives some of our business programs for the region. And hopefully you'll get something that's a little different than our usual presentation today. For those of you who don't know too much about the partnership, we are a workforce development board. And what that means is that we are basically an investment entity that has about a 40 million dollar budget annually that's made up by private, public, and other types of funding to help us help employers find qualified job seekers in the county of San Diego and for job seekers to find a quality job while they're here. The way the funding works is 95% or 90% of our funding primarily comes from the Department of Labor, and that goes down to the states and then it goes down to the local areas. Typically, the city and county of San Diego have a workforce development board, but through a joint powers agreement, the workforce partnership is acting on behalf of the city and the county. And then we provide in turn contracts or employment and training programs throughout the county. And this is the one that you probably might see quite a bit, which is the America's Job Center of California. They're the ones that receive the bulk of our funding. So think of it as a career centers if you're going to a community college or a university where any students, youth, adults can go in and get some resume writing workshops and so forth to help them prepare for the workforce. So that's a little bit about us in terms of background. So again, what I do is that my I run a team of labor market researchers, and we go into the community and try to ask employers what is it that they look for in the workforce? What difficulties are they having in terms of finding qualified workers? What is it they're hiring for? What skill sets are they looking for?
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