Invest in young people to replace aging workforce, officials urge

Sept. 05--VICTORVILLE -- San Bernardino County Supervisors Chairman Robert Lovingood made the case on Wednesday for the High Desert as a better-than-advertised jobs market backed by the commitment of educators to prepare young students for immediate careers after high school.

Emceeing the yearly State of the County address, Lovingood called upon business leaders to invest now in the youth as a quarter of the workforce is set to retire within the next decade.

Ted Alejandre, the county superintendent of schools, piggybacked on the sentiment, noting that High Desert superintendents had formed a joint powers authority to focus on career opportunities and connect to industry leaders.

Career and college readiness have garnered a prominent place in the state's new accountability system that replaced the Academic Performance Index, which was largely concerned only with English and math proficiency, Alejandre said, and there are triple the number of high school students attending college classes through Victor Valley and Barstow community colleges than just four years ago.

Describing the desert region as "a community in transition," particularly as it continues to rapidly grow, Lovingood also cast a prepared young workforce as a boon to capitalizing on available jobs that he often hears others suggest are in short supply.

"One of the things we hear out there: 'There's no good jobs up here, there's no good jobs in the desert, there's not,'" Lovingood said. Yet in fact, there were more than 500 jobs paying $70,000 annually in aerospace and hospital industries, he said, requiring career technical education -- a central focus of the region's two community colleges.

"We have to help grow the product to get them to succeed so that they stay here," he said, "because once we do, they don't leave and they make us a better community."

The county's Workforce Development Department is also partnering with K-12 students on career pathway programs to expose them to work-based opportunities with the eventual possibility of paid internships. It's a program started down the hill that will soon roll out to the High Desert, according to county CEO Gary McBride.

The address Wednesday followed previous warnings by officials that companies would be hesitant to invest in locating to the High Desert without a capable workforce to fill the jobs they would offer.

For Lovingood, that potential investment outlook can only be boosted by conveying an accurate depiction of the region. Beyond his suggestion of a rosier job market, he emphasized that direct cash aid recipients -- 7 percent of the local population receives the entitlement -- and Section 8 housing, which encompasses 2,000 homes, were typically overstated in the High Desert.

To that point, he urged community leaders to "turn the conversation" -- "the negative what you hear is not always the truth" -- and also revealed he would be pitching to fellow Supervisors a policy that would limit welfare for able-bodied, non-exempt adults between 18 and 49 years old to 90 days within a three-year period.

The insinuation is that too many entry-level career opportunities exist to offer long-term cash aid for those able to work who aren't pursuing a job.

Meanwhile, Sheriff John McMahon also spoke on Wednesday, describing an improved public safety climate over last year, when violent crime had risen 20 percent and homicides 35 percent through the first eight months of 2017.

McMahon attributed progress to $1 million allocated last summer by the Board of Supervisors toward gang sweeps, resulting in nearly 2,000 arrests and the recovery of hundreds of guns and roughly 100 stolen vehicles. The Board has re-committed another $1 million this year and an additional $1 million more toward similar crime-fighting programs.

He said the department continued to zero in on homelessness, which affects Victorville more than almost every other city in the county, and plans to expand full time a church-run inmate outreach program in hopes of reducing recidivism.

He and Lovingood both asserted that the perception of an increased homeless population had been exacerbated by a segment of teenagers and those in their early 20s who have homes yet have taken to the streets to socialize or search for drugs.

"Most people panhandling are not homeless," Lovingood said.

The First District supervisor also spoke directly to community members concerned with a series of state laws that authorities say have complicated their public safety efforts, primarily ones reducing criminal penalties and shortening the length of time offenders spend in jail.

Lovingood encouraged them to write state lawmakers to express those worries. McMahon briefly addressed the latest policy decision to give pause for concern -- eliminating cash bail in favor of a risk-assessment algorithm.

"I'm not convinced (the suspects) are all going to show up (to court) if there's no hook to bring them back," McMahon said, "and bail's a pretty good hook to keep them coming back."

Shea Johnson can be reached at 760-955-5368 or SJohnson@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DP_Shea.

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