First 2009 Partnership board meeting is March 13 at Harris Ranch

The California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley Board of Directors will hold its first 2009 quarterly meeting at Harris Ranch Inn & Restaurant in Coalinga, on Friday, March 13, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

In-depth reports will be presented by the Air Quality, Transportation and Water work groups. As part of its report, the Water Work Group will present to the board the Integrated Regional Water Management Plan. An update will be presented of the recent developments related to UC Merced’s efforts to establish a School of Medicine to help serve the San Joaquin Valley’s health needs. Results of California Forward, a regional leadership initiative, will be reported.

For details, download the Partnership Board meeting agenda available at www.sjvpartnership.org.

Future 2009 Partnership Board meetings will be: June 12 in Modesto, September 11 in Tulare County, and December 11 in Bakersfield.

'Tune In & Tune Up' receives
governor's 2008 top environmental leadership award

Governor Schwarzenegger in November 2008 honored Valley Clean Air Now (Valley CAN) with the 2008 Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award (GEELA) for Tune In and Tune Up, a partnership with The Maddy Institute seed grant Air Quality Education in Environmental Justice Areas. Tune In and Tune Up events brought air quality awareness to three rural Valley communities: Arvin, Avenal and Parlier.

GEELA is California’s highest and most prestigious environmental honor, recognizing demonstrated exceptional leadership for voluntary achievements in conserving California’s resources. Valley CAN was one of 21 recipients to receive awards in 2008.

Download Governor’s Press Release. Valley CAN is listed on page 4 of 5. For more information about Tune In and Tune Up, go to www.valley-can.org.

Exemplary Practices conference attracts
300 education, community, business leaders

Education leaders from nine counties—Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Tulare—joined together to facilitate the Exemplary Practices in Education Conference held at California State University, Fresno, on Jan. 13. Approximately 300 education, business and community leaders participated in this first conference. Overall feedback was positive enough to plan a conference in 2010. Possible dates are Jan. 13 and 14.

General sessions featured Drs. James Lanich and Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana as well as a video presentation of 32 Valley schools identified by Just for the Kids—California as “star schools.”

Several of the 32 schools shared their “secrets to success” during the 24 breakout sessions, the core of the conference. Valley schools and programs making an outstanding difference in student performance and outcomes include the English Learner Summer School from Dinuba Unified School District; Success Strategies from Del Rey Elementary in Sanger Unified School District; and Mariposa’s Firefighting Technician Program. Merced County Office of Education coordinated a full day of preschool planning led by Dr. Karen Hill Scott.

Stay tuned to the Central Valley Educational Leadership Institute Web site for presentation materials from the Exemplary Practices in Education Conference.

Meet the Board:
Jeff Rowe, collaboration to reduce unemployment rates

Jeff Rowe left his hometown of Santa Barbara to attend California State University, Stanislaus, where he received a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration. He quickly grew to appreciate the San Joaquin Valley’s rural atmosphere, lower cost of living, and proximity to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and decided to make Turlock his permanent home.

Rowe is the director of Alliance Worknet, a Stanislaus County program sponsored by the Stanislaus Economic Development and Workforce Alliance. Its purpose is to prepare the county’s workforce to meet the needs of local business. His focus as director is the development of a workforce that has the necessary skills to contribute to a thriving economy.

Governor Schwarzenegger in 2007 appointed Rowe to the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley to represent the Central California Workforce Collaborative (CCWC).

The one thing Rowe does not appreciate about the Valley is its ongoing high unemployment rate.

“Local government resources are strained by the results of high unemployment such as crime, homelessness and inadequate health care,” he says. ”And until we bring those rates down to acceptable levels, we will never realize the potential vibrancy of our Valley communities.”

Stanislaus County addresses this problem by incorporating local economic, workforce, and small business development programs under one organization, one CEO, and one board of directors.

Rowe believes it is his experience working in this unique environment that brought about his appointment to the Partnership Board, which has already been instrumental in helping CCWC achieve some major accomplishments: regionwide adoption of WorkKeys, a workforce skill assessment system, and development of the regionwide Web site, careersinthevalley.com, a one-stop source for job seekers to find labor market information on high-demand jobs in the Valley and training programs to prepare them for those jobs, and for employers to search for resumes of job seekers throughout our region.

One of the most rewarding Partnership experiences Rowe says he has had is the CCWC-facilitated meeting that brought together the Economic Development, Higher Education and Workforce Development, and PreK-12 Education work groups.

“All of the participants took away with them a thorough understanding of how each system must work together in a planned, coordinated approach to improve the economy of the San Joaquin Valley.

“For real progress to be made toward an improved Valley economy,” Rowe says, “it is vital that this collaborative work continues.”

When he first moved to the Valley, Rowe was often asked why he chose to leave the beautiful coastal village of Santa Barbara.

“People told me I was crazy,” he says, “but the lower cost of living in the Valley has allowed my family to have a higher quality of life than many of my friends who stayed in Santa Barbara and must dedicate 75 percent of their income to housing.”

Rowe and his wife, Lisa, a third grade teacher in Turlock, have two children.

“We have been able to enjoy the recreational and entertainment opportunities that surround us here in the Valley,” he says.

“The biggest transition I had to make [when I first got to the San Joaquin Valley] was trading in my surfboard for a pair of skis,” Rowe says.

New secretariat leadership 'digs in their heels'

Though they may feel like it’s been years since they arrived, Mike Dozier and Christine Nutting, interim director and associate director, respectively, for the Office of Community and Economic Development at Fresno State (aka, the Partnership Secretariat) only landed mid-January. They have hit the ground running, meeting all of the work group consultants and getting “caught up” on what’s been happening for the past two years. For those who haven’t had the opportunity to meet them, here’s an introduction.

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Christine Nutting is a Stockton girl who made her way to Fresno from Sacramento seven years ago. She has been involved in the human resources side of workforce for her career. Nutting served as deputy director of Human Resources/Business Services with the Fresno Area Workforce Investment Connection from 2002 to 2006 and vice president of Human Resources/Operations for KTDA Group Homes Inc. from 2006 to 2007 until becoming part of the Office of Community and Economic Development.

Nutting’s professional and community service affiliations include Society of Human Resources Management, Human Resource Association of Central California and Habitat for Humanity, Fresno. She was honored as Central California’s 2006 Human Resource Professional of the Year. Nutting received a bachelor’s degree in business from University of the Pacific and an MBA from California State University, Sacramento.

She and husband Attorney Matt Nutting make their home in Friant with Bubba, Spanky and Chuck—their three “four-legged children.”

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Mike Dozier spent five years in the Air Force, stationed primarily in Mississippi and England. He arrived in California, he says, in the 20th Century version of the early pioneers’ covered wagon: Ford’s Country Squire station wagon.

Dozier, as many of you may know, came to Fresno State from City of Clovis Community and Economic Development after more than 15 years with the City, which began in 1992 as project manager for its redevelopment agency. Other prior experience includes assistant to the City of Livingston city manager/planning director and the redevelopment director with the City of Atwater. He is a graduate of Merced College and California State University, Stanislaus.

“I am a strong believer in economic development through innovation and collaboration,” Dozier says. “As lead executive of the Partnership Secretariat, I am committed to keeping this collbaration strong and vibrant."

Dozier and his wife, Dora, have five children between them and live in Clovis. He served as director of operations for Stage 4 of the Tour of California that finished in Old Town Clovis on Feb. 18.

Blueprint summit recommends 'higher density in the Valley'

A milestone for the future of the San Joaquin Valley was reached on Jan. 26, 2009. More than 500 people came together at the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint Regional Summit to make a recommendation that the San Joaquin Valley’s housing density increase during the next 50 years.

Summit participants evaluated four growth options to determine the average number of residential units, per acre, which would exist in the Valley in 2050. At the close of the Summit, a final vote was taken which resulted in the selection of the scenario with the highest residential densities, recommending an average growth option of 10.0 units per acre in 2050. 53% of those participating in the selection process chose the highest density growth option.

The Summit was part of the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint, a planning process that is a significant part of the work and goals of the Partnership’s Land Use, Agricultural, and Housing Work Group. The Blueprint Process is working toward the creation of a regional vision to ensure that California’s fastest growing region will thrive in the 21st Century. This process has allowed the Valley’s eight counties an unprecedented opportunity to work together to develop better land use and transportation patterns for the entire region.

The selected growth option is the Valleywide Hybrid Scenario and was developed based on future regional development being more compact and emphasizing safe, walkable and bikeable communities to accommodate significant transit opportunities while protecting open space for unfragmented agricultural and environmental uses. This scenario also was recommended by the Blueprint Regional Advisory Council (BRAC) in November 2008.

“The summit attendees favored the scenario that most gives the San Joaquin Valley counties an opportunity to meet the new state laws about climate change and regional planning,” says David Hosley, president of Great Valley Center. “It is also clear that they do not want to grow in the ways the Valley has in the past decade or more; and that means better planning and more transportation choices and mix of housing.

“With the Blueprint Regional Advisory Council selecting the same scenario in November, we’re on our way to building consensus about how people in the Valley want to grow in the next four decades.”

To view all four regional scenarios, voting results, and presentations from Jan. 26, visit www.valleyblueprint.org.

The recommendation from the Summit in support of the Valleywide Hybrid Scenario will next be presented in March to the San Joaquin Valley Policy Council which will decide whether to accept the recommendations from the Summit, as well as BRAC’s recommendation for the Valleywide Hybrid Scenario option. (The San Joaquin Valley Policy Council consists of two elected officials from the governing boards of the Councils of Government from each of the eight San Joaquin Valley counties.)

Following the San Joaquin Valley Policy Council’s action, supervisors from each county and all city council members from the San Joaquin Valley’s 62 cities will meet and vote on ratification of the final regional Blueprint.

Dates to Know

March 13

California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley Board of Directors
10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Harris Ranch
24505 W. Dorris Avenue
Coalinga, Fresno County
Contact: Melanie Allen, 559.294.6021, meallen@csufresno.edu

April 30

Air Quality Work Group meeting
10 a.m. to noon
Council of Fresno County Governments
2035 Tulare st., Ste. 201
Fresno
Contact: Jennifer Johnson, 559.294.9119, jejohnson@csufresno.edu

May 21

Advanced Communications Services Work Group meeting
1 to 3 p.m.
Great Valley Center
201 Needham St.
Modesto
Contact: Dejeune Shelton, 209.522.5103, dejeune@greatvalley.org