Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

JOBS, JOBS, JOBS

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

The late U.S. Senator Bobby Kennedy used to say, “Most people see things as they are – and ask why? I dream of things that never were – and ask why not?”

Why not build a city where good jobs are plentiful? Why not create an economy where clean industries can prosper? Why not promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship that can make the world a better place?

Bob Filner’s plan to create good jobs is not, like his opponent’s, just a roadmap of redundancy, but a set of unique proposals that can make a significant difference in the historical trajectory of job, income and investment growth in the region. It can make our City more competitive, our businesses more profitable, and our workforce more self-sufficient. This plan envisions jobs across industries that combine our “green” sectors (alternative energy, efficiency technology) with the “blue” sectors (maritime trade, ship-building, ocean research) into an Aqua Economy.

Bob Filner has identified specific goals that are essential to moving San Diego forward toward a stronger, diverse base of well-paying jobs. Implementation of this plan will add 50,000 jobs in the city by 2020, with a focus on jobs that pay at least an average of $50,000. The Filner Plan aims to accomplish these goals by growing the Aqua Economy, expanding the capacity of the Port, leading the creation of a Southern California Innovation Cluster, local preference in construction, and resurgence of niche manufacturing. The plan also calls for prioritized employment of veterans.

While in Congress, Bob Filner has been a champion of good jobs. He has worked in a bipartisan fashion to secure funding for our defense industry, biotech and stem cell research, veterans employment, facilities construction, and border entry projects. He has been a stalwart in international trade, having represented U.S. interests in countries around the world.

Bob Filner will bring these decades of leadership and experience to serving as your Mayor. No longer will San Diego be held hostage by special interests – and we will finally put people first!

Contents

INTRODUCTION 5

FILNER PLAN OF ACTION 7

5 Goals: Working together to work better 8

Diversity in our Economy 8

I. THE PORT AND THE AQUA ECONOMY 10

1. Global perspective to trade 11

2. Strategic Port and Military Investment 12

3. Intermodal infrastructure 13

4. Marine highways, short sea shipping 14

5. Revitalize Fisheries 14

6. Aqua Technology 15

II. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INNOVATION CLUSTER 17

III. LOCAL JOBS 20

IV. MANUFACTURING 21

V. VETERANS’ EMPLOYMENT 22

A Job-Creating Legislative Record 23

INTRODUCTION

With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, San Diego’s economy began a dramatic shift. While the rest of the nation went through a brief recession beginning in 1990, San Diego was impacted worse than the rest of the nation. Declines in active duty military spending coupled with the loss of defense contractors such as General Dynamics, which had provided tens of thousands of middle income jobs, made the recession here both deeper and longer. City government (including Councilman Bob Filner), however, reacted aggressively and, working with large and small business interests and higher education leaders, implemented a comprehensive economic development plan. By 1997, San Diego was regarded as a national model in how to fundamentally change a local economy. The plan focused on high technology industries – both by transitioning defense contractors to new, commercial uses and assisting the blossoming biotechnology sector – and on the small business sector - which historically supports the greatest job growth during a recovery. As a Member, and then Deputy Mayor, of San Diego’s City Council while that plan was being developed and implemented, Bob Filner was proud to play an active role in San Diego’s economic resurgence.

With the 2007 global economic collapse driven by Wall Street, again San Diego has suffered. But unlike the City’s efforts in the early 1990s, local government has done little to respond to these economic challenges. While the global and national economies are the main components driving the local economy, we showed in the 1990s that by acting locally we can strongly and positively influence our economic fate.

Nationally, there are glimmerings of economic hope. Yet San Diego’s unemployment rate remains well above the national average. Local defense expenditures since 2003 have helped to mitigate the worst effects of the Great Recession, but with the nation’s military operation in Iraq ended and in Afghanistan being drawn down, San Diego may soon see significant declines in defense spending. If we do not take aggressive steps once again to restore our economy, we will continue to be mired in economic stagnation.

In terms of average annual wage per job, San Diego has still not recovered from the loss of manufacturing jobs in the 1970s. During the 1981-1982 recession, our standard of living fell below the nation’s and the gap is widening.[1] This is because in the past two decades, the region has been adding eight low-paying jobs for every one high‑paying job. The figure below[2] shows that even when adjusted for inflation, the average wage per job in San Diego in 2010 pays less than the average wage per job in 1972. And when compared to statewide statistics, real wages in San Diego have been trailing during the last decade.

There are still almost 68,000 people unemployed in the city of San Diego who are willing and able to work.[3] In addition to the unemployed, one-in-five workers is underemployed, which includes people who are working fewer hours than they would like to, and those who have not looked in the last four weeks, perhaps because they were disappointed by the lackluster job market.

The combined impact of job losses and lower wages is felt on the overall economy of the region. During the recession, retail sales in San Diego fell by $12.1 billion, as battered consumer confidence and slimmer wallets led to severe cutbacks in household spending.

FILNER PLAN OF ACTION

To bring San Diego into the 21st century, Bob recognizes the need to build our economy in a sustainable manner. We are emerging from the deepest recession that most of us have experienced in our lifetime. As San Diego rebuilds our local economy and adds jobs, it is important to attract and retain quality high paying jobs in diverse sectors. Bob Filner has identified five goals that are essential to moving San Diego forward toward a stronger, diverse base of well-paying jobs. The Filner Plan to accomplish these five goals involves fully utilizing the Port of San Diego and a budding Aqua Economy sector, leading the creation of a Southern California Innovation Cluster and preparing for a resurgence of local manufacturing.

Bob Filner has a record of championing good jobs locally, and supporting the defense and biotech industries in our region. As Mayor, he will work to attract more middle-class jobs to the region.

5 Goals: Working together to work better

As Mayor, Bob Filner has the following goals to attract, create and sustain good jobs for our region’s workforce:

1. Achieve “full employment”[4] in our city, with our private and public sectors creating at least 50,000 jobs by 2020.

2. Build a robust middle-class by attracting industries that pay an average wage at or above $50,000, and assisting other local industries in improving their average wages.

3. Create 6,000 jobs in the Aqua Economy, by pursuing a Strategic Plan for more public and private investment to the Port and increase the competitiveness of our region’s goods-movement economy.

4. Create a Southern California Innovation Cluster extending from Los Angeles to the border that positions us to be a globally competitive region. This cluster would attract thousands of good jobs and over a billion dollars annually in venture capital to San Diego.

5. Establish a Veterans Employment Department within the Mayor’s Office to ensure that veterans are given the opportunity to be self-sufficient in civil life.

Growing San Diego’s economy will require that we expand opportunities for middle class jobs, continue to diversify the businesses that import dollars to the region, and support small businesses that are key to job growth and revitalization of our communities. These are the three legs of a stable economic base.

Diversity in our Economy

San Diego’s economic base – the source of dollars coming into the region for local recirculation– has historically come from manufacturing, defense (both uniformed services and defense contractors), and tourism. Manufacturing has been waning nationally and locally for decades because of globalization. However, we have retained important pockets of manufacturing, especially in the Rancho Bernardo area. While defense spending declined in the early 1990s, increases during the two Middle East wars have provided a buffer of sorts for San Diego’s economy. Currently, about 25% of San Diego’s economic base derives from defense spending, and the city faces challenges in maintaining that share.

San Diego took advantage of every economic development tool available during the 1990s. Unfortunately, the City’s current economic development effort is not coordinated either regionally or even locally within City Hall. For example, city policy calls for an Economic Development Plan to be updated every five years – yet the current plan was last updated in 2001. The city’s Independent Auditor has found that the economic development strategy is outdated, lacks clear objectives, and is not coordinated with the Capital Improvement Plan.[5] To make matters more confusing, economic development activities are now carried out in two separate departments. Bob Filner welcomes the City Council’s commitment to streamlining their efforts by establishing a standing Committee on Economic Development. The growth of local jobs is primarily driven by the growth of our home-grown businesses, many of which seek a well-educated workforce. As Mayor, he will work closely and cooperatively with the City Council to ensure that we operate an effective and well-coordinated economic development program to diversify our economic base and support the kind of innovation that will be an essential component of San Diego’s economic future.

In the absence on an economic development strategy, the city has been drifting towards jobs that are in the lowest paying industries. In order to build a robust middle-class, the city needs to focus strategically on industries that pay an average wage at or above $50,000, and incentivize other industries in improving their average wages. It makes good business sense to invest in industries that yield the highest returns on investment in terms of economic impact on all San Diegans.

I. THE PORT AND THE AQUA ECONOMY

We have a beautiful bay, with a waterfront where thousands of San Diegans go to work. The maritime industry consists of more than 1,400 companies producing over $14 billion of direct sales and a workforce of almost 46,000 jobs spread across an array of traditional and technology-oriented sectors.[6] Indeed, some economists estimate that the industry may directly or indirectly be supporting as many as 120,000 jobs in the region.

Bob Filner contemplates an economy that combines our “green” sectors (alternative energy, efficiency technology) with the “blue” sectors (maritime trade, ship-building, defense, ocean research) into an “Aqua Economy”. Aqua Economy is a cluster of industries that support maritime operations, maritime technology, defense, ship-building, ocean research, climate science, fishing, and aqua energy in San Diego. These “Aqua Jobs” span across blue-collar jobs, white-collar jobs and green-collar jobs, are oriented towards the water, include innovations for sustainability, and are well-paying.

The anchor of the Aqua Economy is our Port. It is the largest break-bulk port in the state, importing and exporting cargo that does not fit easily in containers. [7] The Port’s two cargo terminals process almost $6 billion in imports and $71 million in exports annually. One of the largest clients of the Port is Dole Food Company, Inc. This company operates in a “niche market” because their products (bananas) are perishable and consumed within the region that they are delivered. According to the National University System of Policy Research, the two maritime terminals operated by the port play an increasingly important role in the region’s economy:

· $1.7 billion in regional economic activity: That is the equivalent of 4.5 Super Bowls, 12 U.S. Open Golf Championships, or 60 Holiday Bowls. This impact also exceeds the annual economic impact of the San Diego Convention Center.

· 19,000 jobs are associated with the activities at the maritime terminals.

· The jobs they create are high paying. On average, Port positions pay 28 percent more than the region’s median (private sector) wage. Certain professions, such as longshore workers, clerks, and dock foremen, pay more than double and triple the region’s median wage.

The cruise-ship business is also an important part of our Aqua Economy. The Port estimates that each ship beginning and ending a cruise in San Diego contributes about $2 million to the local economy.

Strategic Plan of Action

Bob Filner aims to create 6,000 jobs in the Aqua Economy by 2020. He will bring more public and private investment to the Port and increase the competitiveness of our region’s goods-movement and cruise-ship economy. Although the San Diego Unified Port District is a separate agency from the city, three commissioners (out of seven) are appointed by the City of San Diego. Hence the Mayor has a significant role in regional policy-setting and as a spokesperson.

These are the five strategic areas that Mayor Bob Filner will focus on:

1. Global perspective to trade

We are located on the rim of the Pacific Ocean, the largest, deepest ocean in the world that is the gateway to emerging markets in Asia and Latin America. Nearly a quarter of the state of California’s economy can be attributed to international trade, along with more than 500,000 jobs for California workers and approximately $7 billion in state and local tax revenues collected annually.[8]

However, we are nowhere near the capacity of what we can do. As Mayor, Bob Filner will utilize the platform of Mayor to bring goods-movement and goods-movement jobs to the Port of San Diego. He will work with Port District officials to make trade (and trade-related businesses) a priority. He will take aggressive action to secure international trade opportunities:

· Bob Filner will reach out to local San Diego businesses to increase local use of the Port of San Diego, for both imports and exports.

· Bob Filner will increase exports from our region 33% by the year 2020. This is a $5 billion increase, which would lead to $20 billion in total exports annually by 2020. As our green energy sector (such as the manufacture of solar turbines) grows, our exports will grow.