Catalyst Program Webinar Q and A
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Question 1
Will this webinar be available after the fact?
Xavier Nazario:
We do plan on providing it on the KCCD website so that this webinar recording is available.
Question 2
As a new community leader, you are quickly getting up to speed on the California Jobs First Initiative. From your unique perspective, can you share what you view as some of the opportunities on the horizon that you see for this initiative?
Georgia Petropoulos (Regional Convener):
I'm here for 3 months in California. I'm originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I want to bring that up because I came from a city that also created a new economy—working off its historical strengths. Pittsburgh moved from a steel manufacturing economy to now a global leader in innovation, with a strong emphasis on biotech and robotics. But they did this over time because they had a vision.
They had many plans that worked together, they had strong collaboration and partners, and they invested in three very important things. First and foremost, they invested in their people. We had extensive colleges and universities. We had workforce programs and technical assistance providers. Very important. The second is, they celebrated the history and the heritage of the city, of the many immigrants, of the many languages, of the many cultures, the different foods, the diversity. They celebrated the place, the three rivers, the mountains, the sports teams. So, we made sure that we promoted an image of the region and the area that were our strengths. And last and not least, they created an economic footprint plan that worked off of its historical strengths. So today, again, a global leader.
Luckily, I've now found myself in yet another region, Kern County, which, exactly like where I left, is in the throes of also moving into a new economy, working off some pretty amazing strengths. So here again, what I see is, we all together are working on vision and plans. And there could be multiple plans. By the way, we share goals. And what I'd like to suggest, and what I see as opportunities, is, first off, to promote the strengths of our people. It's amazing that I can walk around five blocks of a city and I can hear many languages. I can experience so many different foods. There's an extensive nightlife and wonderful festivals.
We need to promote that. We need to promote our amazing geography and our amazing assets of those geographies. Again, in less than 2 hours, you can be at a mountain. You could be on an oceanfront, a lakefront. You can be in a desert, or you can see greenery that's beyond impressive in terms of what we have. And lastly, we have an incredible history of industrial strengths that historically made us very competitive, nationally as well as globally, and will continue to. So I'm not surprised to see that this current coalition plan, that this plan coming out of the California Jobs First initiative, is focusing on three core industries. It's focusing on clean energy. We're going to leverage our national resource advantage as a region. It's focusing on advanced manufacturing. So we're going to advance current existing strong industries, such as clean energy, agriculture and aerospace. And, of course, it's going to focus on agriculture. Because today, as in the past, we continue to have that national competitive advantage. So, I see great opportunities in these industrial focus areas. I see great opportunities in this plan and this collaboration.
And I think, as we continue to move forward, just remember, as we focus on our assets and we focus on our strengths. And we continue partnering and collaborating. We will see innovation, and we will see just enormous, enormous economic change as other cities have experienced it. So I'm excited to be here and thank you for having me, and happy holidays to everyone.
Question 3
When will the Sector Investment Coordinators RFP be re-released?
Norma Rojas (Fiscal Agent - KCCD):
We released the RFP, and we had a failed RFP. So, the current coalition conveners are evaluating whether we are going to internally divide up the sector investment coordinators to identify individuals that can serve in that capacity or whether we will be going out with a full RFP again. The RFP process will be determined on the technical expertise that is needed. We had a great conversation with the Governance Council as well, who asked a similar question. And so we are evaluating, based on the State guidelines, that number one, we do have the opportunity to take on the role of sector investment coordinators divided up amongst the five conveners. Or do we really need to go back out with a full RFP? So, we are evaluating that again. Any RFPs that go out will be made public, and we will be providing that information via our social media and website.
Question 4
$9 million is fantastic to have for the area, but when there are 11 incorporated cities and the unincorporated county with hundreds of potential projects, it really doesn't go far. Is it the intention of the group to prioritize funding for larger projects, or to spread the money as much as possible with micro/small projects?
Lori Pesante (Governance Council Chair):
The scoring matrix has really emphasized this aspect of the projects that we're looking for. It remains to be seen, obviously, what projects actually do get submitted. But, for example, in all of the categories that we are looking at, it emphasizes some categories that really get at the heart of transformational economic development. really get at the heart of Kern's most disinvested communities, and therefore the projects that really score highly in those emphasized areas are to be prioritized for additional technical assistance because we already know that the very folks who need this economic transformation to happen, like, right now are the very folks who might have the most barriers to submitting projects and actually getting funded. So I can definitely say that the Governance Council has had days and days worth of conversations about how to make that happen, and you're more than welcome to reach out to me, loripesante@gmail.com if you want to share any of your thoughts about how you think we should be evaluating things and thinking about your situation.
Question 5
What is the best way to get involved, especially when you're in an unincorporated community?
Norma Rojas (Fiscal Agent - KCCD):
You have an opportunity to really get involved at the sub regional level, and at the sub regional level, really, that table setting is for everyone to come to the table. If you're in an industry that is looking to bring quality jobs to that region, how do you incorporate community into the conversation? Well, it's going to be at that sub regional level. How do you develop a strong application for that subregion? You really need to, based on the scoring matrix, involve community. You also need to address one of the priority sectors that has been outlined in the Regional Plan Part 2. Because all projects have to lead back to how we create the ecosystem within Kern County to really go deeper into those sectors and bring in the braided funding for all to bring it to the end result. So I really want to emphasize that at the sub regional level, you'll also have your Governance Council representatives there. And so that brainstorming that Lori is talking about can happen there. And I think it really is an opportunity for us to think outside of the box about how rural communities can bring very viable projects to the table, working in partnership with their municipalities, their community, their industry. So that is what the hope is that at the subregional level is where you can really take action.
Georgia Petropoulos (Regional Convener):
There's many layers also, in addition to what Norma noted and also what Lori noted. First off, all of us hope to have a very robust and extensive outreach. Whether it's person to person, whether it's through digital means, our sector investment coordinator. They are providing technical assistance. They, too, will be in conversations with all of these various layers, and of course, we have our director as well—Manpreet, who, again working through the Governance Council and working with the conveners. So we hope that there's just various different ways that we can both communicate as well as receive and connect.
Question 6
Can you participate in all subregions?
Manpreet Kaur (Kern Coalition Jobs First Regional Director):
Participation in multiple regions is allowed.