Los Angeles County Strategic Plan for Economic Development IMPLEMENTATION YEAR TWO PROGRESS REPORT 2011 LACountyStrategicPlan.com Prepared by: MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT AND CEO I am truly pleased to present you with the Implementation Year Two, which ended on December 31, 2011, Progress Report for the Los Angeles County Strategic Plan for Economic Development. Just to recap, the five-year L.A. County Strategic Plan for Economic Development was developed during late 2008 and 2009 and unanimously adopted by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on December 22, 2009. It has been adopted by 84 out of the 88 cities within the county either individually or through their respective Councils of Government. The plan was produced through a very public, year-long, inclusive process that brought together over 1,080 stakeholders from business, government, labor, education, environmental, and other community-based organizations to identify and build consensus around a set of economic development priorities to achieve a stronger economy, an improved environment, and broader prosperity across all of our communities. The result of this public, consensus-building process was a community-developed plan that identified 12 objectives and 52 strategies to achieve the following five core aspirational goals : 1. Prepare an Educated Workforce 2. Create a Business-Friendly Environment 3. Enhance our Quality of Life 4. implement Smart Land use 5. Build 21st Century infrastructure This past year, we have witnessed public, private, education, non-profit, and many other community-based leaders step up to take greater responsibility for the health, vibrancy, and prosperity in their communities by advancing programs and policies in accordance with the strategic plan. The report before you catalogs actions taken throughout the region to advance the L.A. County Strategic Plan for Economic Development forward. This past year, we have witnessed our universities, community colleges, and K-12 schools receive positive state, national, and worldwide attention, such as City of Pasadena-based Caltech being dubbed the world’s best research university, and we continue to boost our reputation as a research and development hub for innovation and creativity. With positive policy changes like the creation of the City of Los Angeles Development Services Case Management Office to streamline development projects, we continue moving forward in both becoming and being known as a business friendly locale. We saw a continued effort to reinvigorate our communities and improve the overall quality of life for businesses, residents, and visitors of Los Angeles County with projects like the County of Los Angeles 2012 Bikeway Master Plan, which contains 832 miles of new bikeways. We also witnessed the completion of projects like the City of Burbank Water and Power’s Sustainable Campus—marking yet another step forward in implementing smart land use in the county. Finally, we saw several critical infrastructure projects throughout the region move forward under traditional as well as alternative delivery methods, such as the $18.6 million I-210 Gold Line Bridge which began construction in 2011 using a design-build approach and is already 50% completed. Needless to say, much has happened throughout the region, and we look forward to seeing what unfolds in 2012 to meet our shared vision of ensuring a strong, diverse and sustainable economy for L.A. County’s residents and communities. With the third-year implementation of the L.A. County Strategic Plan for Economic Development already underway, we remain steadfast in our commitment to prepare an educated workforce, create a business friendly environment, enhance our quality of life, implement smart land use policies, and build a 21st century infrastructure. The success of the first two years of implementation could not have been possible without the generous support of the Morgan Family Foundation; the dedication, commitment, and support of our elected officials who are operationalizing many of the plan’s recommendations; the plan’s Implementation Champions who continue to carry the flag for the plan and promote its message to their stakeholders, the broader business community for recognizing the need for such a plan in the community, and to each of you for your unwavering support, commitment and participation in creating a better and more prosperous L.A. County. Sincerely, Bill Allen, President and CEO Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation Aspirational Goals & Objectives PREPARE AN EDUCATED WORKFORCE 1. Ensure successful education outcomes at every level, i.e., all students should, at a minimum, 1 achieve grade-level proficiency and graduate. PAGE 4 2. Ensure that businesses have enough workers with the right skill sets to meet their needs. 3. Prepare job seekers and incumbent workers to enter sectors with high value jobs – as measured by wages, benefits and additional income attracted into the County — and built-in career ladders. CREATE A BUSINESS-FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT 2 1. Establish and promote a business-friendly environment to create and retain good quality jobs. 2. Retain and expand the existing job base while pro-actively attracting new businesses, PAGE 31 industries, jobs and investment. 3. Leverage the County’s research and development facilities for the commercialization of research, technology and similar opportunities. ENHANCE OUR QUALITY OF LIFE 3 1. Make our communities more desirable places to live. PAGE 45 2. Use all available resources and adopt new approaches to revitalize low income communities. IMPLEMENT SMART LAND USE 4 1. Maintain an adequate supply of jobs-creating land. PAGE 56 2. Develop and rehabilitate land to meet strategic economic development objectives. BUILD 21ST CENTURY INFRASTRUCTURE 5 1. Fix the broken infrastructure development process. PAGE 62 2. Build and maintain critical infrastructure for Los Angeles County. GOAL 1: PREPARE AN EDUCATED WORKFORCE GOAL 1: PREPARE AN EDUCATED WORKFORCE Implementation Champion: Los Angeles County is home to approximately 120 accredited institutions offering associate, bachelor and graduate degrees. They range from the nation’s largest community college district (Los Angeles Community College District) to three world-class research universities: California Institute of Technology (Caltech), University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), and University of Southern California (USC). Despite these advantages, L.A. County has been faced with a seemingly widening skills gap and an unemployment rate continuing to linger near 12%. We all know that our schools educate, train, and prepare students figures prominently in our youth’s future success. Unfortunately, we continue to see in L.A. County that the percentage of students at or above the proficient level is not better than 50 percent in any of the subjects tested and is as low as 33 percent in some school districts. In addition, area students on average do not perform as well as others in the state. It goes without saying that improvement in our ability to provide basic education is critical to ensuring our longstanding economic growth within the County of Los Angeles. In today’s global, knowledge-based, innovative, and creative economy, we need to ensure that we prepare our incumbent and future workers to meet the demands of the 21st century economy, which include the need for highly-technical skills and critical thinking. In 2011, we saw specific instances throughout the region depicting marked progression toward meeting the education demand for the 21st Century economy, including dozens of efforts dedicated to improving science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) preparation; an increase in the number of project-based learning programs; the establishment of linked learning programs to ensure college and career-readiness; and the creation and expansion of sector-specific programs in high-demand and emerging sectors. While much progress has been made over the two-year implementation of the L.A. County Strategic Plan for Economic Development and we are moving in the right direction in a number of areas, additional work still certainly needs to be done. The successes on the following pages reflect the commitment of our region’s public, private, non-profit educational institutions, workforce development centers, nonprofit organizations, and private companies to Prepare an Educated Workforce for the County of Los Angeles by improving educational outcomes, aligning education and training programs with business needs, and ensuring that all potential workers are prepared to participate in the dynamic L.A. County economy. 5 ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT - YEAR TWO GOAL 1: PREPARE AN EDUCATED WORKFORCE 1.1 • Make schools better by tracking, assessing and reporting student performance outcomes; increasing the number of charter schools and small schools/learning communities in schools; OBJECTIVE 1 increasing the use of technology at all levels; increasing arts, language, STEM education and preparation for employment opportunities in Ensure successful education outcomes at every key industries; improving teacher quality and level, i.e., all students should, at a minimum, accountability through enhanced training, achieve grade-level proficiency and graduate. recruitment and incentives; implementing multiple pathway approaches which prepare students from diverse backgrounds for college, careers and entrepreneurship and creating and strengthening linkages among K-12 schools, community colleges and universities. In