During my campaign to be your Mayor, I asked Salinas to Imagine a Great City. My vision for a great City was based on three key elements: Prosperity, Peace and Image.
Today I want to focus primarily on prosperity but do want to offer a few comments on peace and image because all three of these are interdependent and cannot stand on their own.
At the heart of imagining a Great City is the economic revitalization of Salinas. Local agriculture interests face difficult days in the coming months and years. Salinas must diversify its economic base as rapidly as it can. Much rides on our ability to do so. A diversified city with the social challenges facing Salinas needs the backdrop of an expanding economy to deal successfully with demands for city services, the needs of a growing and young population and the social challenge of gang violence.
We need to recognize that we live in a competitive world and that every city, state and country is attempting to stimulate economic growth. The good news is that Salinas has some things going for it that other areas do not. But that future is not guaranteed.
Senator Robert Kennedy...once said “ The future is not a gift: it is an achievement. Every generation helps make its own future.” I believe Salinas’ best days lie ahead if we understand what our opportunities are as a community, how to best pursue them and take advantage of our strengths.
Considering the marketplace will determine the ultimate outcome of our business success, here is how I propose we move forward. I am pleased to announce that I will by supported by a volunteer Mayors Cabinet that will consist of Jack Harvey from HSBC who will help coordinate the Propensity agenda. Judge John Phillips will support the Peace agenda along with the Community Safety Alliance, which you will hear more about and Sonya Varyea Hammond will work with me on Image. Shelly Smith of Heald College will serve in a Chief of Staff capacity. Each of these individuals has graciously agreed to volunteer their time toward public service and the future of Salinas.
I believe Salinas is properly positioned for “breakout” opportunities in the following areas: alternative energy, all facets of the bio-renewable economy which is green, clean & solar, nano and bio-technology, bio-medical industries, ag tech and wine-related industries such as packaging and processing. Others in the room today…Rich Gilles from Biofuels, Laura Strohm of the Sustainable Academy ( name other names) share that belief.
Neither a Mayor nor a City can make all of this happen but political leadership, good government and policy can matter. I believe we need to organize our efforts in such a manner that we pursue our opportunities globally, regionally, locally and specifically.
Salinas plays on a world stage. Our leading employers are world leaders in their respective industries….HSBC, Fresh Express, Mann Packing, Taylor Farms and Salinas Valley Memorial to name a few. This room is testimony to the life of one of six Nobel Laureates produced by North America. To ensure that Salinas continues to be competitive in a global economy I will ask Jack Harvey to lead our efforts to bring a World Trade Center site to Salinas and to expand our current Sister City portfolio from 3 to 10. The focus for those new cities will be trade, cultural, tourism and education.
Salinas is uniquely positioned geographically in a way few other cities are throughout the world. We are one hour south of what remains arguably the greatest economic engine the world has ever seen…. the Silicon Valley as well as 20 minutes from the some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.
Former San Jose Mayor Tom McEnery has agreed to serve as a Special Advisor to my office. He will lead a delegation this fall to visit Salinas and explore how our Valley’s might begin to work more closely together. He also will put me in touch with the business and political leadership that created the Irish economic miracle that transformed an agrarian society to one that created high paying jobs, generated new wealth and capitalized on the new economy and ultimately evolved to what is now known as the Celtic Tiger. That offer extends to the Prime Minister’s office and I hope to visit Ireland within 6 months.
Locally I am pleased to announce that Monterey Mayor Chuck Della Salla has agreed to work with Salinas to promote new cultural and business ties. Mayor Della Salla understands that a strong expanding Salinas economy lifts the entire region and benefits Monterey. A new job, an out-of-town visitor, a new Salinas resident all means a lift for the entire Monterey Peninsula. I said when I ran for Mayor we will throw a party in Salinas and invite Monterey and they will come. Mayor Della Salla and I will be announcing some cultural and business initiatives in the very near future.
The City of Salinas has already begun work to designate Salinas and the South County Cities a regional enterprise zone. I am delighted to have the support of Supervisor Salinas in that initiative.
Specifically we are a young diverse city. Our young population can create meaningful economic opportunities that can serve multiple purposes. I will propose the creation of a special Youth Enterprise Zone that is either part of an existing Redevelopment Area or look to create a new theme based area to attract recreation, entertainment and retail businesses geared towards our younger citizens. Economic activity centered on our youth will help expand the tax base, provide real job opportunities for young people and help address the concern there are not opportunities for youth entertainment. Positive alternatives for young people must be one of the strategies to become a City at Peace.
Critical challenges lie ahead of Salinas to ensure it has an expanding economy that allows for the opportunity of significant job creation. It is imperative that Salinas’ LAFCO application moves promptly through LAFCO by the end of this year. Housing starts must resume to get a market correction and expand the stock of affordable housing the City’s new ordinance allows for.
The City of Salinas must do a better job in the planning area to move projects through the system in a timely fashion. There are too many valid stories of how the City has been an obstacle. We will expand capacity to facilitate permitted development through new hires or contracted resources if necessary.
And most importantly we need to get into the Economic Development business. It is not enough to hope for revitalization, tell the Mayor to get a Trader Joe’s, or stop Smucker’s from leaving town. On March 20th I will be proposing to the Council that they make a $750,000 investment over a three year period to hire an Economic Development Director who will be charged with developing an Economic Development Corporation that can be spun off and free standing by the end of that three year period.
I will also propose additional monies be set aside for a series of Economic Action summits that will focus this year on Central City revitalization, Alternative Energy, Nanotechnology and the biomass substitutes for petroleum-based products; bio-fuels, bio-resins, bio-lubricants, bio-plastics, and bio-packaging. The City of Salinas needs to lead the effort to revitalize our local economy and I believe we can promote ecological health and community benefit.
I believe that our community’s image rests on our ability to achieve peace. Before we can improve our image, we must improve the peace. Failure to do so already has had economic implications for Salinas. On March 20th I will be submitting the name of Commander Trevor Iida to the Salinas City Council to be appointed the City’s First Community Safety Director Commander Iida will work out of City Hall and be charged with developing the City’s Community Safety Alliance. He will be introduced to the Community at a March 27th Town Hall Meeting on Peace at 7:00 P.M. But I am pleased to announce along with Chief Ortega…we have the right person at the right time for the right job!
I will also be asking the Council to commit to finding either through the General Fund or Measure V resources a minimum of $1,000,000 per year for prevention programs during the life span of Measure V. We cannot talk a good game and not back it up financially. I am confident the Council will act swiftly to assure the community it supports a renewed effort to restore and expand intervention and prevention programs along with doing what is necessary on the enforcement side.
It is fitting in the home of a literary giant to close with a thought from another great author. Dean Jonathan Swift of Gulliver’s Travels fame, once said, “vision is the art of seeing the invisible!” I like that definition. It fits Salinas. I see a great city through our morning fog. I see, clearly in the future, a city of safe neighborhoods, of thriving industry…of adapted and evolving businesses, of arts and culture…A city that has an impressive past, but is reaching for an even more exciting future.
