Economic Development - Create Sustainable Long Term Growth

By Mark S. Littleton, Jr.

"Retail is Retail" is what I was told by our City Attorney, when I asked her what sort of process do you go through when businesses want to leverage our 130,000 and growing consumer base. I say this because of the following; ​​​

Pursuing the right companies for the right reasons.  By using our consumer and current commuting workforce base, we have exceptional leverage with large companies that want to tap into our market. In addition to that our demographic and close proximity to Los Angeles makes us a prime location for the right firms. I will engage high tech, bio and industrial manufacturing firms that are willing to bring their headquarters or branches to our City. The revenue from doing this will NOT disrupt our small businesses as they will not be competing; in fact, it will enhance the small business revenue and bring much needed corporate jobs and big business tax dollars to our City. Our small businesses have notoriously been pushed out over the years because the city has failed to perform their own market research on what is best for our local small businesses and citizens in the long run.   ·    We need to tap into our naturally produced energy market. I spoke with a representative from Tetra Tech Corporation, an organization who works on major natural resource projects around the world. We can generate revenue by converting our natural gas generated by our solid waste into energy and other products, then turning it around and selling the energy and products to Edison or directly to our citizens at lower rates. Thus creating a sustainable energy source that will create jobs not just in the short term but long term positions again giving us more opportunities for long term growth.    ·    We need to put more focus on gaining access to State and Federal grants/funds that will pay for new revenue producing initiatives and cut the constant threats from our local leadership of increasing City taxes and cutting back on city services.