Councilman calls for more aggressive economic development
| Thursday, May 19 2011 04:11 PM
Last Updated Thursday, May 19 2011 04:12 PM
The city of Bakersfield needs to go from being reactive to proactive on job creation and economic development.
That's what Bakersfield City Councilman Russell Johnson told a quarterly breakfast Thursday sponsored by Moneywise, a business and finance radio program that airs weekdays on AM 1180, at the Bakersfield Marriott at the Convention Center.
Johnson called for a change in mindset from focusing mainly on redevelopment of blighted areas to a broader range of economic development activity.
"The city has done some great things with competitive grants and loans, but a lot of that money is restrictive. It can't be used outside of designated areas," Johnson said.
That's not a slam on city staff, Johnson insisted, noting that laudable improvements have been made downtown, along Mill Creek and in the southeast, among other places. But Russell said he'd like to see the city beef up its Economic and Community Development Department and work more closely with the Kern Economic Development Corp.
That's a laudable objective and absolutely worth striving for, said city economic development director Donna Kunz in a telephone interview after the breakfast. But between limits on how federal redevelopment funds can be used and municipal budget constraints in a weak economy, "It's going to be a while before we can jump into it at that level," she said.
Russell also called for lobbying that will "change Sacramento" to make the state of California a more business-friendly place.
He criticized proposed taxes on oil and gas that he said would kill energy sector jobs, and said Gov. Jerry Brown's effort to slash state economic development funding would be disastrous.
In the meantime, at the very least the city should be attending trade shows to woo new businesses and reaching out to companies displaced from other areas.
"It's a marathon, not a sprint, but over time I know we can create more jobs here," Johnson said.
