I. Preface Our region is undergoing a remarkable transformation. Regional collaboration is increasingly becoming the rule, not the exception. Visitors to the area arrive at a new airport terminal, see a new Downtown Fresno skyline, visit the new Grizzlies Stadium and the soon-to-be-opened Save Mart Center, and they shop and dine at beautiful new malls. The Fresno Unified and Clovis Unified school districts have joined together in a remarkable and hugely successful experiment in high school education reform at the Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART). New business parks and industrial parks, such as the Clovis Research and Technology Park and the soon to be completed Roeding Regional Park, are visible signs of progress. But there is one major priority of our region where we have failed to make progress for too long: our unemployment rate. The Fresno Metropolitan Statistical Area (Fresno and Madera counties) has been plagued with double-digit unemployment for at least the last two decades. Those who have rationalized the problem away, blaming it on our seasonal agriculture, fail to take into account that agriculture now represents only 20% of our area’s employment and that in most years we have had double-digit unemployment even at the peak season of our agricultural harvest. The cost of our high unemployment rate is enormous. Socially, unemployment deprives too many of our citizens of the dignity of a job. Economically, there are the obvious costs of unemployment insurance, social services and health services for those without jobs. Beyond that, the recent “Meeting the Challenge” report produced by Fresno Mayor Alan Autry’s Council of Economic Advisors clearly points out the connection between unemployment and crime and the impact our high unemployment rates have had on public safety spending, draining the City’s ability to spend on other high priorities, including economic development, thereby creating a vicious negative spiral. The other cities and counties in our region have similar issues, and some even worse. There have been many well-intentioned efforts focused on job creation, but they have been fragmented, disjointed and sub-scale. The Fresno Regional Jobs Initiative aims to follow in the path of other metro areas that have successfully overcome chronic unemployment, emulating the five characteristics that have typified all these successful efforts. ¾ Bold and Comprehensive Initiative. Other metro areas have found that minor tweaks to the status quo don’t fix chronic unemployment problems. Bold initiatives are required. The Regional Jobs Initiative has defined its goal as adding 30,000 net new jobs (over and above “normal” growth) in the Fresno MSA over the period 2004 to 2008. That’s bold. It means doubling the “normal” job growth of our region. We take this challenge knowing there is no silver bullet. Instead there will be a comprehensive and sustained approach, comprised of multiple, well-coordinated actions, all contributing to the achievement of our goal. It is important to note that while targeting a specific I-1 number of jobs in a specific number of years is important to energize all those who will participate, the more important objective we are accomplishing is the laying of a new foundation for how we approach job creation and economic development. It is a foundation that we hope will benefit many future generations. ¾ A Regional Approach. Successful efforts in other metro areas have recognized that chronic unemployment does not recognize political boundaries. We are one metro area, one labor market. Employers looking to build new facilities consider the overall conditions of an area, its livability, its business-friendliness, the quality of the area’s workforce, and its physical and technological infrastructure. That’s why political and business leaders from throughout our metro area have led the Regional Jobs Initiative. We made a conscious decision to start in the Fresno/Clovis area, but it has always been our intention to expand the beneficial impacts of this initiative, which is why the RJI Council will have representation from other Central California communities. ¾ A Private-Public Partnership. Other successful communities have recognized that success depends on a solid partnership between the private and public sectors. It is the former that creates most of the jobs, while it is the latter that must help create the conditions to attract private sector investment. Read the list of RJI participants to date shown in the pages that follow and you will see the extent to which we are heeding this lesson. The RJI is an extraordinary private-public partnership. ¾ A Strategically Focused Approach. In the fiercely competitive arena of economic development, communities must have a clear and objective understanding of their competitive advantages. They must understand where they can compete and what it will take to keep and build competitive advantage for its existing employers, attract new ones, and create the environment for innovation that is so essential to enterprise effectiveness and job creation. That is one of the principal objectives of this initiative – to identify the economic opportunities where we offer, or can offer, location benefits to employers, and then focus regional resources on taking advantage of those opportunities. It turns out, as you will read in this report, that there are significant advantages to our Central California location as well as certain of our incumbent industries. The leaders of these industries must play a major role in the implementation of this plan. They know better than the rest of us what they need in order to achieve and sustain competitive advantage: what workforce skills, what infrastructure, what streamlined public sector processes, and so on. An effective climate for job creation is one of constructive and responsible dialogue, with industry driving the train and the public sector acting as the “cow catcher”, removing the obstacles in the way. I-2 ¾ Aggressive and Effective Advocacy. All the other regions that have successfully reversed chronic unemployment have recognized the importance of developing strong partnerships with state and federal governments. No metro area in the country is more deserving of assistance than ours, but effective advocacy begins with a united community, all standing behind a well-developed plan, which is why the RJI is so important to our future. Obviously, we cannot wait for the helping hand to come to us. We must do our part, and that begins with recognition that a substantial amount of the resources required to achieve our objectives is already available to us. We must build on what already exists. We must ensure that the efforts of all our institutions are aligned in pursuit of our shared goals. That is, perhaps, the biggest challenge of this initiative: to ensure that all of us in both the private sector and the public sector, and even among our civic organizations, are rowing in the same direction. If we can do that, we will find that we have more resources than we thought, that additional resources will become more readily available, and we will be unstoppable. We are indebted to the many people who have contributed so much of their time and ideas to bringing the RJI to this point. They are listed in the pages that follow. It has been a remarkable process of collaboration unlike any other we have seen in our region. At the outset, we adopted the regional values shown on the pages that follow. It is amazing what we can accomplish when we all set aside our own agendas and focus solely on the community interests. The September 12 Jobs Summit was a major milestone for our community, a tipping point in our war against unemployment, but it is important for all of us to realize that it was the beginning of the hard work. To succeed, we must ensure that the energy, collaboration, enthusiasm and dedication that have been so evident during the planning phase are sustained throughout the implementation of this five-year plan. Please join us in making that commitment. Our children and our grandchildren deserve nothing less. Board Chairman Juan Arambula Mayor Lynne Ashbeck Mayor Alan Autry Co-Chair Co-Chair Co-Chair RJI Leadership Group RJI Leadership Group RJI Leadership Group Ken Newby Peter Weber Co-Chair Co-Chair RJI Steering Committee RJI Steering Committee I-3 Community Values of the Fresno Region • Stewardship – We will lead and follow as stewards of our region, caring responsibly for our community assets. We will work together to achieve the greatest, long-term benefit for the community as a whole. • Boundary Crossing and Collaboration –We are willing to cross political, social, ethnic and economic boundaries and partner with others to achieve community outcomes. We will lead “beyond the walls” to create an inclusive, cohesive community through partnership and collaboration. • Commitment to Outcomes – We are willing to take responsibility for tasks and achieving specified outcomes. We are committed to staying involved until the tasks are completed. • “Art of the Possible” Thinking – We believe that anything is possible in the Fresno Region. We will envision “success without limitations” and then backward map a specific, attainable strategy for achieving that vision. • Fact-Based Decision Making – To the greatest extent possible, we will base decisions and action plans on objective data, thereby avoiding distortion of issues by personal feelings or agendas. At the same time, we seek to get to the heart of the matter and recognize that facts without context can be misleading. • Truth Telling – We value the empowerment of everyone involved, along with all community stakeholders, to honestly and forthrightly share all knowledge, experiences and insights relative to the work at hand. We take responsibility for ensuring our “truth” is current, not historical. We all share the responsibility for maintaining the truth-telling standard.