Solano EDC breakfast focuses on children

By Barry Eberling
From page A3 | May 30, 2013 |        

 

FAIRFIELD — First 5 Solano made a pitch to the business community Wednesday concerning the county’s youth.

The group hosted the Solano Economic Development Corp. breakfast. It asked businesses and individuals to sponsor sending children to pre-kindergarten academies this summer.

“Today, our goal is really to pique your interest and get your commitment on behalf of Solano County’s youngest citizens,” Solano County Supervisor Linda Seifert told the gathering at the Hilton Garden Inn.

Solano County will have 16 academies this summer, hosted by school district and youth program providers, for 450 children. The academies are for children who have not attended preschool and who will start kindergarten this fall.

Businesses and individuals can sponsor a child for a pre-kindergarten academy for $200. First 5 Solano will match the amount.Go to www.first5solano.com or call 784-1338 for more information.

District Attorney Don du Bain and county Superintendent of Schools Jay Speck made the case that what happens in early childhood education is important for the entire community.

Du Bain told the audience that high school dropouts are eight times more likely to end up in jail or prison as are youths who stay in school.

Dropout rates in the country range from 2 percent for the Travis School District to 9 percent for the Fairfield-Suisun School District to 35 percent for Vallejo City Schools, he said. That means one out of every three Vallejo youths are in that high-risk category for jail or prison.

“You can imagine the problems that creates for the city of Vallejo,” du Bain said.

Finally, du Bain talked about efforts to reduce truancy, such as a truancy court that has worked with 55 parents since its inception in October 2011. The goal is to get the parents’ attention rather than to prosecute them, he said.

“Truancy affects crime,” du Bain said. “My goal is not just about reducing truancy, but about crime prevention.”

He outlined a strategy to deal with such challenges – supportive parenting, preschool and after-school programs.

Du Bain gave an example of a supportive parenting program. He talked about Solano County’s nurse-family partnership, which has nurses work with low-income, first-time mothers on health and parenting issues.

Speck talked about the importance of children simply being at school. Sixty-four percent of children with good attendance in kindergarten and first grade read at grade level in third grade, he said.

“Chronic absence is an indicator we need to pay attention to,” Speck said.

California defines “chronically absent” as missing 10 percent or more of the school year. Speck said about 5,000 Solano County children fall into this category.

“Kids who are not ready, they are already on the path to dropping out or failure,” Speck said.

Today’s children are tomorrow’s work force, Solano Economic Development Corp. President Sandy Person said. The issues discussed at the breakfast involve a “critical economic benefit” for the county, she said.

Reach Barry Eberling at 427-6929 or beberling@dailyrepublic.net. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/beberlingdr.

Solano County leaders see link between crime, dropout rates

By Richard Bammer/ RBammer@TheReporter.comthereporter.com

Posted: 05/30/2013 01:31:14 AM PDT

One Solano County leader noted that 5,000 Solano County public school students have been identified as chronically absent. Another noted that 75 percent of habitual truants will drop out of school, and some two-thirds of U.S. prison inmates are school dropouts. And still another leader said 50 percent of all Solano 5-year-olds receive no preschool instruction before reaching kindergarten.

 

Jay Speck, superintendent of the County Office of Education, District Attorney Don du Bain and Supervisor Linda Siefert made persuasive links between the importance of early childhood education, regular school attendance, truancy, dropout rates and crime during a Tuesday breakfast meeting in Fairfield, sponsored by Solano Economic Development Corporation.

 

Their remarks come at a time when California's high school graduation rate rose sharply last year, to 80 percent, with Latino and black students showing gains higher than those of white and Asian students. Still, the state is ranked 39th out of 50 states in graduation rates, and it ranks 49th, down from 47th in the past year, in per-pupil spending, according to Ed Source, an independent online forum that seeks to clarify education issues.

 

An educator for nearly 40 years, Speck, speaking briefly to some 250 people gathered in the Hilton Hotel, suggested that signs a student may drop out surface before the child reaches high school.

 

Important factors leading to dropout rates, he noted, using computer-aided slides, are school readiness, being able to read proficiently by third grade, making progress toward graduation, student engagement and attendance.

 

The lead architect of "Every Minute Matters," a program designed to stem chronic absenteeism, beginning in the primary grades, Speck noted that absences -- whether excused, unexcused or due to suspension -- stymie a student's ability to succeed, and chronic absenteeism, defined as a student who misses 18 or more days of school, or more than one-tenth of the year, is a harbinger for trouble.

 

In the past year, the SCOE has begun tracking chronic absenteeism, and research shows that 5,000 Solano students, or 9 percent, are defined as chronically absent, he said.

 

Nearly 80 percent of children in the juvenile justice system are classified as chronically absent, said Speck, who dispelled some myths about root causes of absenteeism, among them "missing school has no impact" on a student as long as the schoolwork is made up; and it is acceptable "as long as parents give permission."

 

To battle chronic absenteeism, he noted that SCOE has made some headway. Specifically, it has begun tracking data -- at school sites and even to particular teachers -- supporting families in truancy court; distributing "tool kits" about the consequences of chronic absenteeism, and making public service announcements.

 

Du Bain, in his remarks, noted that two-thirds of U.S. prison inmates are high school dropouts; compared the state's overall dropout rates to Solano's, 13 percent to 16 percent, respectively; then detailed the dropout rates among the county's major school districts: Travis (2 percent), Benicia (3 percent), Vacaville and Fairfield-Suisun (9 percent); Dixon (14 percent), and Vallejo (35 percent).

 

"One out of three kids are dropping out of high school in Vallejo," said du Bain, then asked the audience to guess how much dropouts cost California taxpayers every year. The answer: $46 billion.

 

"Truancy affects crime" rates, he said, adding that supportive parenting -- or lack of it -- before children reach 3 1/2 years of age is "a predictor of high school graduation."

 

Du Bain also cited the importance of nurse-family partnerships, preschool, and the presence of Boys & Girls Clubs in low-income neighborhoods as ways to cut the truancy and crime rates.

 

As many as 75 percent of habitual truants eventually will drop out of school, he said.

 

Siefert, just before recognizing a host of Pre-K Business Champion Award honorees, called the statistics "pretty alarming."

 

More than half of all Solano children never step into a preschool class, she noted, then made a reference to First 5 Solano, an innovative program and services to help young children grow up healthy and do well in school and life.

 

The demand for pre-kindergarten instruction in Solano has risen recently, Siefert noted, from 200 to 400 children countywide.

 

Follow Staff Writer Richard Bammer at Twitter.com/REBammer.

TOURISM CONTRIBUTES TO FAIRFIELD’S ECONOMY IN A BIG WAY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Anand Patel
May 2, 2013 (707) 399-2445
anand@visitfairfieldca.com 

TOURISM CONTRIBUTES TO FAIRFIELD’S ECONOMY IN A BIG WAY
National Travel and Tourism Week, May 4-12, 2013

FAIRFIELD, CA – In recognition of travel and tourism’s significant economic, social and cultural impact in Fairfield, the Fairfield Conference & Visitors Bureau is joining the rest of the nation in observance of National Travel and Tourism Week, May 4-12, 2013.

“This national observance provides us an opportunity to truly appreciate what Fairfield and the SuisunValley has to offer leisure travelers, small conferences and meetings, and tour groups. Attractions that set us apart from other destinations includes Suisun Valley wineries and the Western Railway Museum, Jelly Belly and Anheuser-Busch Brewery tours, plus wildlife viewing and nature hikes at Grizzly Island Wildlife Area and Solano Land Trust open spaces,” said Anand Patel, President/CEO, Fairfield Conference & Visitors Bureau. “It’s also a time to recognize what tourism means for us in terms of jobs and much needed revenues for local businesses,” added Patel.

Highlights of SolanoCounty and Fairfield tourism:

· Tourism generates $583 million in travel expenditures, resulting in an estimated $36.8 million in state and local tax revenues.

· Tourism employs 6,930 SolanoCounty residents, representing a payroll of $156.9 million.

 · Fairfield collected more than $1.7 million in transient occupancy tax (TOT) in 2012.

The Fairfield Conference & Visitors Bureau is a destination marketing organization that was created by a Business Improvement District (BID) to market and promote tourism to the area, including overnight stays. The independent non-profit 501C6 organization is funded by 18 lodging properties in Fairfield.

For more information about Fairfield tourism, call the Fairfield Conference & Visitors Bureau at (707) 399-2445 or visit www.VisitFairfieldCA.com. You can also follow Fairfield on Facebook at www.facebook.com/VisitFairfieldCA.com.

Solano EDC gets role in diversification project

Published by The Reporterthereporter.com

Posted: 04/17/2013 01:05:51 AM PDT

The Solano Economic Development Corp. is now part of a consulting team created to conduct an economic diversification project.

 

The project will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the economic impact of Travis Air Force Base on Solano County and recommend ways that the public and private sectors could further diversify the local economy.

 

Last month, the Solano County Board of Supervisors approved a contract with Economic & Planning Systems (EPS) to conduct the project, which is funded by the Office of Economic Adjustment (OEA), a field agency of the Department of Defense.

 

The board also asked that Solano EDC play an integral part.

 

Economic & Planning Systems, according to county staff, has retained the Solano EDC as a sub-consultant to assist in the public engagement process and to provide review and comment on the draft report.

 

"The inclusion of the Solano EDC into the project team capitalizes on the Solano EDC's vast array of relationships with virtually every segment of the Solano County community," county staff said.

 

The Solano EDC has facilitated past economic studies funded by the county, including the Index of Economic and Community Progress and industry cluster analyses on energy, life science and the food chain. Additionally, Solano EDC played a major role in applying for the OEA grant by initiating the local inquiry to determine if Solano County was eligible for it.

 

The sub-consultant agreement with Solano EDC is for an amount not to exceed $20,000. This contract modification reduces the project contingency amount to $13,860.

Economist: Solano out of recession yet faces regional challenges

Economist says job training needed

By Gary Quackenbush, Special to the Business Journal

 

FAIRFIELD — Solano County is enjoying a resurgence in jobs and taxable sales, but high home foreclosure rates and indications of job importation are among regional improvements needed for the local economy fully to rebound, an economist said Thursday.

Sandy Person and Robert Eyler

“Solano County is continuing to recover, evidenced by the rise in job growth since 2010,” Robert Eyler, Ph.D., said of the newly released 2012 Solano County Index of Economic and Community Progress. “At the same time, taxable sales are up, which is also true across California, but employment is not keeping pace with the size of the available labor force. Nonemployer growth indicates that small businesses are back in the game.”

Local employment hit bottom in 2010, according to Dr. Eyler of Petaluma-based Economics and Analysis and Sonoma State University. Since 2010, private industry in Solano has added back 4,200 jobs, but government cut 1,333 jobs.

“The net effect of these current (national government) revenue issues on local city budgets has yet to be seen, but federal and state reactions to these budget issues will take some toll,” he said.

“Nonemployers” — typically, the self-employed — numbered 20,689 in 2010, up from 20,544 in 2009 but down from 21,730 in 2007 and back to the same level as in 2008, according to the latest Census Bureau data compiled from tax returns.

The county of Solano released the 2012 index last week (solanocounty.com/economicindex), and it was the framework for Dr. Eyler’s keynote analysis at a morning briefing sponsored by Solano Economic Development Corporation.

The index points to signs of economic recovery, while other indicators are still reeling from the recession six years ago, according to Sandy Person, SEDCorp president.

Economic progress in Solano is based on the synchronization financial, labor and goods and services markets, according to Dr. Eyler.

“In Solano County, there is growth in the region now after lags caused by labor, income and housing issues,” he said. “This push-and-pull cycle is affecting California overall. Foreclosure rates in Solano are still relatively high.”

While Solano is emerging from recession, it still faces regional challenges, Dr. Eyler said.

“Community progress is based on specific changes in population and demography, education, health care, housing and government resources,” he said. “These factors are naturally linked.”

An aging population is pressuring labor and housing, with home downsizing helping only certain industries, he noted.

“Aging is a significant issue in Solano as well as California,” Dr. Eyler said. “Standard-of-living changes affect the aging and lower-income populations in the county. What happens if California becomes a retirement state?”

Fewer local options for workers implies more labor is being imported, while some residents have to look for employment outside the county, he observed. As the region continues to export products and import labor, this trend is affecting local housing markets — resulting in the median home price falling to more affordable levels.

“There is a jobs and skills mismatch, and the breach is getting wider,” Dr. Eyler said. “The challenge is reconsidering how we educate people for higher-paying jobs.”

Solano County jobs vs job growth, January 2003–January 2013 (click to enlarge)

From 2000 to 2012, Solano County had a net gain of 4,367 jobs within local firms, along with a 28.3 percent increase in the gross domestic product and a 3.6 percent per capita income increase, according to the 2012 index report. But median household income declined 9.7 percent from 2000 to 2012.

The number of unemployed in the county more than doubled since 2000. The worst of the decline occurred in the peak recession years — 2006–2010 — due to the local housing market collapse, and when local firms cut 12,000 jobs and private industry GDP shrank by 4 percent.

During this period, per-capita income declined 6.8 percent, taxable sales and assessed property values fell by a quarter, and foreclosure figures were breaking records, according to the report.

In December, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Solano dropped to 9.6 percent, down from 12.2 percent in December 2010, resulting in 7,050 more residents employed. Overall, 5.8 percent more Solano residents were employed in 2012 than in 2000, and over the last year the county added nearly 2,800 more.

Solano had bright spots amid recession. Seven local industry sectors had GDP growth, and five experienced job gains. Health care dominated GDP and job growth.

Remaining local challenges threaten the economy, Dr. Eyler said. For example, foreclosure rates aren’t dropping as quickly as most would like.

“There is also a need to provide a pipeline for new workers,” Dr. Eyler said. “The education data point on the trend toward more imported labor indicates a need for better job training.”

Though the Solano high school dropout rate has edged downward, so too, has the local proportion eligible to attend University of Southern California and University of California compared with statewide figures, he noted.

Economy improving a bit in Solano County

By Reporter Staffthereporter.com

Posted: 03/22/2013 01:06:01 AM PDT

Solano County is showing some positive signs of economic recovery but still finds some areas reeling from the financial turmoil of the last six years, according to a report released Thursday.

 

The 2012 Index of Economic and Community Progress, which will be the subject of next week's Solano Economic Development Corp. gathering, includes an analysis by Robert Eyler of Economic Forensics and Analytics.

 

"Once again, there are trend lines for Solano County that are starting to point in the right direction," said Sandy Person, president of the Solano EDC. "Not everything is moving in the right direction just yet, but it appears most of the indicators have stopped going in the wrong direction. It's a start of a recovery that we can capitalize on."

 

The 2012 Index examines local economic condition from three perspectives. The long view goes from 2000 to 2012, which compares the end of the 1990s cycle to the recent recovery. The recession view goes from 2006 (the peak year) to 2010 (the bottom year) in the local employment market. The recovery view represents changes since 2010.

 

Over the long view, Solano County had a net gain of 4,367 jobs from firms located in the county, a 28.3 percent increase in the gross domestic product, a 3.6 percent increase in the per capita income and a 9.7 percent decline in median household income. While Solano County has been better than the Bay Area, the Sacramento region and the rest of the state in retaining local jobs, the number of residents seeking employment grew faster than the troubled regional economy could support. The number of unemployed people in 2012 has more than doubled since 2000.

 

The somberness of the long view happened primarily between 2006 and 2010. As a result of the local housing market collapse and the Great Recession, local firms shed 12,000 jobs and the gross domestic product from private industry shrank 4 percent. Per capita income declined 6.8 percent, taxable sales and assessed property values declined nearly 25 percent and quarterly foreclosure figures were breaking annual records, the report found.

 

The recession view held some bright spots. Between 2006 and 2010, seven local industry sectors showed growth in gross domestic product and five experienced gains in jobs. Health care dominated the growth in both GDP and local job gains, the report noted.

 

Local industry employment hit bottom in 2010. Since then, Solano's private industries have added back 4,200 jobs, but the gains were offset by government sector declines of 1,133 jobs. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Solano County dropped to 9.6 percent in December 2012, down from 12.2 percent in December 2010. That translates to 7,050 more residents employed.

 

"Supervisor Mike Reagan and I pushed for the Index to give us a better perspective on what is happening in the economy and what we can do collectively to move the economy forward," said Supervisor John Vasquez. "In cooperation with the Solano EDC, the county is building the internal capacity to monitor, analyze and report the key indicators shaping our local economy."

 

The complete 2012 Index is available online at www.solanocounty.com/economicindex. Past indexes and analyses of the life science, energy and food chain clusters in Solano County are also available on the website.

 

Thursday's Solano EDC gathering will include a presentation on the report by Eyler. The Solano EDC breakfast starts with registration and networking at 7:30 a.m., with the presentation beginning at 8, at the Hilton Garden Inn, Fairfield. Cost is $25 for members, $35 for non-members. To register or obtain more information, contact Solano EDC at 864-1855.

Assembly members address Solano business, community leaders

By Barry Eberling
From page A3 | February 23, 2013 | Leave Comment

FAIRFIELD — Solano County’s representatives in the state Assembly are getting ready to work on a state budget without facing financial projections awash in red ink, a change from recent years. 

“We are in different times, perhaps more hopeful times,” Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada said at Friday’s Solano Economic Development Corp. monthly breakfast.

Yamada, D-Davis, Assemblyman Jim Frazier, D-Oakley, and Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, D-Concord, each represent a different part of Solano County. They addressed a crowd of local business and civic leaders at the Hilton Garden Inn.

California voters stopped the state’s economic bleeding by passing the Proposition 30 tax increases in November 2012, Yamada said. But, even though the situation looks more hopeful, the Legislature must act with restraint, she said.

“We cannot squander this moment in California’s history,” Yamada said.

Bonilla said that Gov. Jerry Brown would probably like the Legislature to rubber-stamp the proposed budget he has submitted. The Legislature won’t do that, she said. But she did say the Legislature will pass a budget by the June 15 deadline, something that has been a rarity in recent years.

“It’s very important we hear from you in the business community,” said Bonilla, who described the budget as a “tax dollar investment.”

The state in recent years cut about $1 billion from the University of California system and from the California State University system, she said. Now the state can begin filling back in the hole it had to dig, she said.

Bonilla also talked about high school education changes that she would like to see. Students can be bored in classes that fail to reflect the 21st century. Students need to do more than learn how to fill in bubbles on a test, she said.

“Those aren’t the people you want to hire,” Bonilla said. “Last time I looked, that wasn’t on a job description . . .”

Schools need to engage students and educate them to think and solve problems. Students might learn in the context of health care, engineering and the arts, Bonilla said. She also stressed the importance of early childhood education.

Frazier said he has dealt with state regulations as a general contractor. He too has “felt the pain,” he told his audience. He talked about updating the California Environmental Quality Act, a topic that Brown has also mentioned.

An audience member during the question-and-answer session said California overregulates small businesses and called the state Environmental Protection Agency a “rogue agency” that needs to be called to account. None of the Assembly members directly addressed his comments.

Reach Barry Eberling at 427-6929 or beberling@dailyrepublic.net. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/beberlingdr.