Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

With our public comments.

Pursuant to the City Council rules of procedure and order of business resolution, the members of the City Council and the public are reminded that they must preserve order and decorum throughout the meeting. In that regard, members of the City Council and the public are advised that any delay or disruption in the proceedings or a refusal to obey the orders of the City Council or the presiding officer.

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Pursuant to the city council rules of proceed

Alright. Well, looks like they're having technical difficulties back there, but I'll go ahead and read it then. So public comments regarding items on this agenda or any matters in the jurisdiction of the city council can be submitted via the ecomment feature or in person or on the phone. And if you'd like to participate, you can do so. We have no callers in, online, and we have no speaker cards in office.

So I'll go ahead and close public comments and move on to item number two, which is the presentations. And this is a business excellent series, UCR Office of Technology Partnerships and Excite Incubator annual updates, and we are gonna invite doctor Rosebel Ochoa, associate vice chancellor, as well as a couple of other people from her team to participate. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Councilmember Robillard, Councilmember Cervantes, members of the Citi. I'm very pleased to actually spend a few minutes with you giving you an update of our efforts at the University of California in Riverside to support the growth, scale and attraction of innovative companies to our region. So the organization that I represent is called Office of Technology Partnerships or OTP for short. And what we do is we manage all the intellectual property, industry collaborations and research as well as innovation and entrepreneurship, not only for the campus but also with the community. So when we started OTP about ten years ago, we decided that every single program that we were going to create needed to be made available not only to the campus community, but also to the community at large.

So what we have created is what we call EPIC. EPIC is an integrated platform to support our region's entrepreneurs. And I'm going to use tech entrepreneurs in a very in a more liberal way, which is any company that leverages technology for growth and that has potential of scalability. So there are four key pillars to our program to support entrepreneurs. One is mentorship, access to capital, education and incubation facilities.

And each one of those pillars have multiple programs underneath and the key glue that connects all these programs is the role of a mentor, an entrepreneurial residence that guides the entrepreneur or innovator through the whole process of discovery, validation and growth. So when we started back in 2010, not only we focused on securing the funding and also designing the programming around Epic that was going to support entrepreneurs, but also we put a lot of effort and emphasis in physical infrastructure. And for that, we actually created we have invested in several laboratories and accelerators spaces that are designed for the entrepreneurs to connect with each other, but also to validate, create prototypes and products that they so they can access to the market faster. This slide shows you several examples. One is makerspaces on campus for students.

We count the Riverside X Sight Technology Incubator are one of those spaces, the oldest ones and we'll talk some more about it in a second. The UCR Life Science Incubator, the only one in the whole region focused on supporting biotech and agriculture biotech companies. The Plant Transformation Research Centre and the Northside Ag Innovation Centre with the City of Riverside, very soon we are already in the process of buying $600,000 worth of container farms that are going to be installed in that facility with for training and growth of agriculture innovative companies and Sokal Oasis Park that is going to be opened in December. The whole purpose here is that these facilities are a site for these innovators to start their journey, but also keep in mind that all of these facilities plus our programs are anchored into the major research infrastructure for the university, which is $250,000,000 in expenditures, 26,000 students state of the art facilities. And the idea is that we want to turn and we are turning this the campus as well as all the innovation corridor into what we call a living laboratory.

So companies, they say there is no other place in The United States that you can do this type of validation and get to market as fast as possible. That's why you choose Riverside. So the journey another differentiator for us is the journey that we take the entrepreneurs to support them where they need to be. Most of the programs, particularly those anchored at universities, they work with the entrepreneur, they provide some training and then they hand off that company to somebody else. What we have done here is really to create a complete journey for the entrepreneur that starts with an educational program where you have an idea or a concept and we guide you through what is it that the market needs and does your idea really fits a market opportunity.

The second is how do you actually turn that idea that is validated for market into a potential product? How do you protect your intellectual property? We help you with incorporation, with access to capital, with securing intellectual property and then we hand you off to the network of incubators, including X Sight, where you can actually have a place for operations, but at the same time for growth. And then the last stage is what we call the graduation and scale, up, which is more focused on connecting you with the private sector. If you can see in this slide, that journey, particularly for technology companies is not short.

It's in the order of four to five years. Why? Because technology takes time and takes capital. And that is something that we are very cognizant and I'll give you an example shortly about what it takes to build companies of this caliber in any ecosystem. Another differentiator that is key to our ecosystem is the role of the experienced executives that provide individualized mentorship to these companies.

When you're technology innovation, it is important that the mentors that you work with are not generalists, they know how to build companies in that particular sector. So for that, we have recruited senior executives that with many years of experience in biotech, in clean tech, in defense related technologies, artificial intelligence, manufacturers. And then there's also the what we call the generic support. In the beginning, these mentors work individually with a company and as the company mature, then we assemble them in teams. That way the company gets the team support and actually the experience of multiple advisers that it will be very expensive for them to secure if you were doing it yourself.

This is our current portfolio, 119 start ups as of February 2026. We get about lately three to four applications from businesses every week. And about 50% of those get admitted into our program. The portfolio is quite broad. But in terms of technology sectors, healthcare, sustainability related materials.

But more and more in the last five years particularly, we've been really more focused on areas in which the university as well as our region has particular advantage and differentiator. And yesterday, we talked about cosmetic chemistry, that's a perfect example of what we're talking about. So rather than being everything for everybody, focus on what we're really good at. So I'm going to show you an example of Starnab. Starnab is a company that is incubated at X Sight.

X Sight right here in Riverside. X Sight is a technology incubator managed by UCR, but it's really funded by the city and the county of Riverside. And it has a series of spaces, temporary space or help desk as well as offices. But StartUp joined UX Sight back in 2020 with what we call the help desk and three cofounders. Immediately, not only you have your space, we assigned them three mentors to work with them and we focused primarily on the customer discovery, what is called Innovar and the second part is getting you funded, funded through SBIR's government funding.

That includes even helping you with writing the proposal. Fast forward, as the company was progressing, not only they were adding additional employees, the level of support that we provided increased, including how do you properly organize your corporation so you're ready to accept capital. Second, how do you actually engage with the non defense sector and how do you actually put a strategic plan to for engagement with the community even international community. So now after hundreds of hours of support, StartNav is 11 full time employees, a very well recognized CEO that loves Riverside and they are ready to graduate from X Sight and move to a different a larger facility. That's common and Standard So is an example of how many of these companies we support.

And that type of approach, what we call very intensive support, has yielded six twenty companies, companies, thousands of jobs created or retained, hundreds of millions of dollars injected into these companies. And that type of approach not only, of course, focus in supporting our local region, as you can see, out of the 600 companies, five sixty are in our region and vicinity. But now these companies from outside the region in The United States and internationally like this type of support and are seeking our services or our advice so they can actually build connections with our community. So we believe that this is a model that we want to actually scale and we think that we want to we have something that is unique that can be it is an asset for our region that we're leveraging. One of the X Sight is one of the and is the longest incubator managed that has been managed by us.

Is has a number of spaces and offices and it provides very low barrier to entry, particularly for technology startups that are in these earlier stages of development. X X Sight provides not only the space, but UCR EPIC provides all that business expertise that I just mentioned. What we have observed with the companies at X Sight is that originally there really more like an office that they were looking for these entrepreneurs, but more and more these offices are turning into workspaces. So now we have film hoods and assembly room. And so that is really what these more offices are becoming.

And in fact, we use this type of experience to design what Oasis Park is going to be, which is a place for prototyping and building more than a place for office and a computer. So this is Riverside X Sight by the numbers for eleven years since I've been and I'm joined here by Maricela Corbarruvias, who is the manager of X Sight. She is doing a tremendous job, not only supporting the entrepreneurs, supporting the board as well as engaging with the community, X Sight has supported 43 companies, and I apologize by the typo, 43 companies, 59,000,000 of capital, two sixty jobs, five company graduates, dollars 800,000 of mentorship support over the years, almost $1,000,000 Where are we today? We have about 18 companies, six in the office space that are actively working in manufacturing and growing their products. Also, have three companies right now that we call it soft landing.

Soft companies that are moving from outside region that want to come to Riverside, for example, SooGen and Hybrid Avitas are in New York, and then we have several in our, what we call, the soft temporary desk. How do we support X Sight? It's really a true collaboration among the three partners, the City of Riverside, the County and UC Riverside. UC Riverside provides not only the salary support for the direct manager of X Sight, but also we provide cash as well as all these hours of mentoring. And we're very proud and we think that X Sight plays a very important role, not does not compete with the other places that we are trying to build, but also we need to really it's important that the community continue embracing and expanding what X can do for the region.

So now how does what is next for us for OTP right now where we want to continue want to continue support X Sight as much as we can, but now our focus is really the next what we call the next phase for these companies that are growing. These companies now need to access to particular testbeds so they can actually validate their products and that's what Oasis Park is going to be. Oasis Park is a 40,000 square feet 34,000 square feet facility with laboratories from the university, incubator space and training facilities all in one location. And it's really strategically proximity with the California Resources Board, with the University Campus and with the Riverside Innovation Courier. So you can imagine that the whole area is really a living lab.

And now a company that is at Aloasis Park can actually test their products in anywhere in network of facilities. So Caloasis Park will have 12 workspaces similar to what we saw at Excite but for more developed companies. And companies at Oasis Park will have as part of their membership access to all these living laboratories that I just described. So we're very excited about what's coming in the pipeline. We're happy to we're really very appreciative for the support.

We think that what we have built in the region is of great interest, not only for our local entrepreneurs, but also for companies from outside the region. So I really appreciate your support and the partnership that we have with the city. And thank you. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Doctor. Rosobellochoa. That was a fantastic presentation. And I look to my colleague here if she wants to have any questions or anything she'd like to add.

No, thank you. Well, it's been exciting to have a lot of this in Ward 2, but I know that we also have the downtown office here, the Excite office that I've been able to go to and meet very I mean, I've I've heard about research and the work that people are doing here, and I'm sometimes mind blown to hear about what we're doing in our own community or just or even further ideas that people have that they wanna start exploring, investing into, and just really truly brilliant minds, but, you know, a lot of folks trying to drive and move climate forward. I mean, so many different incredible initiatives. And so I just I love that we get to have this here. I guess one question I'd have is, you know, we see and we've heard stories of, like, Silicon Valley, right, how they are able to kind of somehow frame and, I guess, like, really market the incubator that they've been able to build, and we've seen that in even other places.

So how and I think we're doing a great job with really pushing this out now and making Riverside have that mark. So I guess what can we continue to do to really make sure that we make other folks aware of the opportunity here and that, yes, we want to see it continue to grow and thrive?

So thank you for the question. We have that conversation around Silicon Valley and our value proposition all the time. And I will tell you how we see it, right? For example, if you're a company and you go to Silicon Valley, nobody pays attention to you, right? You come here, you have a phone call away from you, from Council Member Robillard, from the Mayor and they really and we heard that last week during the Accelerator for America conference, which is they not only the university, all the partners in this region pay attention.

So you get this white glove that you will not treatment that you don't get somewhere else. The second part, I think that is not I think, it's really fantastic not only that we are working together, but also the low cost of doing business here. You have the talent, you have the utility cost, you have the cost of living and also all the it's almost like this environment of a large city with a it's a large city with amenities, but also a small city in terms of collaboration. All of that is attractive for companies. So I think that we have something that we can if we work together, we can market, I would say market better, but that is differentiated.

I love that. No, that's really great. And I definitely tell people when I describe that, big city, small town feel.

Right.

Right. And so that's definitely what we have for us, which is really great. So I love to hear how you are marketing us and love to see how it's working with our city, our economic development team. How can we continue, I think, as we're working on branding for us, how we can pull that branding in and the storytelling because I think it's compelling. So just thank you for all your hard work though. I know it's a lot behind the scenes.

No. I'm happy to do that.

Thank you. Yes. With regards to marketing, this is exactly what we've been doing for the last two years. We've you know, that's why we go to SelectUSA. So I've been going to these international trips to Korea and Japan, going across the country to shout out from the rooftops what Riverside has to offer because so many times I always use the example of the the consul generals in LA.

They're an hour and a half away, and they've never been to Riverside. And they are bringing in companies all the time, and they do the traditional tour to USC or UCLA or maybe UCI even, but it is very limited in scope, and they just keep on showing these companies the same people and the same stuff every time. And these companies from these regions are like, well, you've seen it before. We don't really like California. And it's like, well, there's a whole rest of the state to go see.

And so what we've been going is actively reaching out to these consul generals, inviting them out to our city, showing them what we have to offer. And a great example that we've had quick quick turnaround is the consul general of Finland. They are you know, think you of Finland, you don't think of, like, this giant economic powerhouse. But when it comes to technology, they're a small country but with tons of innovation coming out of it. And we met them in December, and we signed an MOU this morning with them.

And they are already we already have a connection with two Finnish companies that are already starting to operate here in Riverside. And that was how quick that that frame of reference of coming to Riverside for the first time, what they we what we we presented, and they were sold in that single day. And we've had multiple meetings since then, and it is just you don't get that kind of response unless what you're showing them is worthwhile. And so I think we really, really have shown the countries and the the world, really, what we are doing is really special, and, we're just gonna keep on telling it until it's the worst worst kept secret, in in California because it really is a success story. Thank you for your presentation, Rosebel.

I really, really appreciate it. We'll ahead go and move on to our next item here, which is the innovation month, April, programming overview and highlights, and we'll have someone from the county of economic development. Where's that county of economic development? She's not here today. That's why I said someone. I don't see Kimberly White. Maybe we can step in.

Good afternoon, honorable chair and committee. Apologies. I'm not sure. I know Kimberly is extremely busy right now, so we'll follow-up. But, as you know, happy innovation month.

There's no shortage of amazing things happening in Riverside in April and every month of the year, to be honest. So, today, you're really going to hear an update on companies who pitched out and are preparing for the regional pitch finale coming up next week on April 29. And through amazing partnerships that we have in Riverside with the County Office of Education, Kimberly and her team, with doctor Ochoa and the amazing UCR team. We have culminated these efforts into actually hosting a SelectUSA spin off event here in Riverside. So that is next week.

We've been talking about it almost every month now at all of these meetings and working very hard to prepare and position for success. But I don't wanna underscore the achievement of bringing SelectUSA and a spin off here to Riverside. We aren't just going and seeking investment. We're bringing investment to us here in our community, which is truly fantastic. So that's finally happening next week, April.

The culmination of innovation month has been the pitch finale and that is what we're looking forward to on the evening the twenty ninth next week. This really is an overview of the Riverside County data and our value proposition. So we are the forty first largest economy in the entire United States. And really what's so special about this approach, it's not just the city focusing on economic development, it is a county and a regional approach. So we are the tenth largest county economy in California and the fourth largest economy in the world.

And this county economy is larger than the economies of 13 different US states. Wow. The work that we've done together through you've heard from doctor Ochoa in building off of that work, additional talent attraction, additional investment opportunities. That's culminated in more than 75,500 jobs in the between 2021 and 2024 and continuing to grow every single month. We are working hard on that.

These are the innovation centers, and they're ready for innovation. Just this week as well, I need to announce our amazing partners in Murrieta. They celebrated the ribbon cutting and grand opening of the Murrieta Innovation Center. So really in the county as a whole, you heard about Xcite and Oasis that's being built out. We have less than a year to go. We're counting down the days to their opening in February 2027. But you see here, one, two, three, four, 10 different innovation centers. So we are a hub for innovation, and we have three of these resources right here in the city of Riverside. This is innovation month. This is all culminating in April.

So there's five different regional fast pitch competitions across the entire county. And the one that I was mentioning, we just had the Southwest Regional Fast Pitch Finale, and that was April 14. And now the best of the best will compete on the stage here in Riverside next week on the twenty ninth at the Convention Center. And the winners from each of these Regional Fast Pitch Competitions have advanced now to this pitch finale. And then from there, the winner will go to represent Riverside on the world stage at the World Cup Startup World Cup, and they can win a chance at $1,000,000 in equity funding.

I had the opportunity and privilege to attend the Startup World Cup last year. Glide, they won the pitch competition this time last year for Riverside County and they did a fantastic job competing on the world stage and having Riverside represented there is truly a fantastic feat. Oh, perfect. I actually and this is I don't know what's in the slides because this isn't my presentation, but it was a perfect segue because this was Glide. So they did a fantastic job pitching.

I cannot wait to see who attends this year. So mark your calendar, April 29 at 06:30PM at the Convention Center. Our team will be there. The UCR team will be there and investors from around the world will be there. We have right now 17 investors RSVP'd to come to our road show for the SelectUSA spin off event.

And so what a fantastic opportunity for them to come and see the best of the best for our regional talent here in Riverside and connect with them as well. You can really see innovation at work, not just during innovation month in April, but throughout the entire year. These were some workshops and more, including the Myriad Innovation Center grand reopening that just happened this week, SelectUSA spin off as we've been talking about, and there's a Coachella Valley Business Conference and Economic Forecast, April 30. And so with that, happy innovation month. What a successful April it has been, and we look forward to executing on a excellent spin off event next week.

Alright. Thank you for that presentation and stepping in to bat or pinch hit, just to say. And, yes, great. Great. I don't know if we can have any questions for you because, like I said, it wasn't your presentation. So everything that was on the PowerPoint is what we know. And I I would do other share that the the SelectUSA coming to Riverside is such a huge, huge deal. And I've been seeing the emails coming through with all the different companies that are coming through and represented in a lot of investment and excitement. It's just huge for our region. So thank you for your partnership with the Rose Lake County, and we thank them for their partnership. And we look forward to hearing them next time from them.

Thank you for your flexibility.

Alright. We'll go ahead and move on to item number four, which is the walk and talk walk the talk initiative strengthened through strategic partnerships presented by Carlos Aguilera, project manager, community and economic development. Carlos.

Hello. Hello. Good afternoon, chair, Councilwoman Cervantes.

Is

the presentation up? Perfect. Okay. So today I'll be presenting on Walk the Talk Riverside entrepreneurs, a program that blends our economic development, community engagement and also wellness. At its core, it's really about how we build relationships in the city of Riverside and how those relationships translate into business growth.

So a little bit of history on Walk the Talk. Program started in 2025 as the Riverside Founders Hike. However, you know, taking some feedback, Founders Hike. The the word founders can be you know, thought of just individuals that may be founding a company. So we wanted to actually change that and that's where we kinda came up with the Walk the Talk and we rebrand that to include anyone and everyone in business community.

Really, it's a amazing program that was awarded the award of merit from CALED, our California Association for Local Economic Development. And the reason, you know, again we wanted to rebrand was to be more intentional about business engagement and to expand beyond founders and to create a professionals and small business owners. This wasn't just the hike anymore, it was a platform for economic connection. So the goal is to provide a consistent accessible space for people to connect, connect with us, connect with each other and really learn what the city of Riverside is doing and how we can provide support. We focus on relationship building, knowledge sharing, business growth.

This is a network in motion where we these relationships are built naturally and not forced. So the program format, we meet on Fridays in the morning at 8AM. As you can see, it starts to get pretty warm in the city. So we try to meet early. We go in a one to one and a half hour walk.

We rotate locations across the city of Riverside in different areas. So we've gone to Mount Rubidou, we've gone to the Citrus State Park, also to UCR and the Botanical Gardens. We try to make sure walk itself and the format is really fresh, inclusive and citywide. We emphasize that really there's no barrier to entry, it's just show up you know, with a positive attitude and come walk with us, wear some comfortable shoes. So what's new in 2026 that's changed since last year.

We really have introduced business spotlights. So last walk we had in March, we did Baluku Pop, which is a woman owned business. This was especially important in March as its women's month in March. We really spotlight our small businesses, give them visibility, share with them our resources here in the city, let them know that we're here for them. We're just not just connecting entrepreneurs, but we're actively promoting them so they know we're here for them and we can support and that they have other people in the community that can help them.

We've also partnered with Blue Zones, the Blue Zones Project. They're a great partner of ours because this is important as it is a walk because of the health, longevity and community well-being. So it helps that it's not just about business, but it's about health. So kinda mixing both together that aligns well with what they're trying to pursue in the city of Riverside and then also the economic development with what we're trying to do. So a blend of economic development, business and public health.

Really the importance here is physical activity, mental wellness and social connection. We're building a healthier business connection literally as we're walking and talking. So why does this matter? Entrepreneurs often lack informal networks, peer supports. They may think that they're on their own.

That they may feel also not connected to the city and know where to go for resources. So we have this program to offer them that connection where we're there in person, we hear them out if there's anything we can provide support with and they also have the opportunity to organically network with others in the community. It's cross sector collaboration, so we have people from different businesses. We have the Crazy Tuna, I believe you may know him. So there's individuals like that that come out and then there's the Baluku pop, right?

When would they have ever met? So again, kinda introducing them to one another so they know that regardless, this is their city, their community and we're here to provide that support. Sometimes the biggest barrier really to growth being with one another is just the space and we provide that space and that connection for them. So city and community benefits, again, we promote public spaces, we promote wellness, civic pride, city pride engagement. We position Riverside as entrepreneur friendly again.

We're a leader in people centered economic development and we want the community to know that that we're here for them. We have resources and we're happy to assist in any way we can. This is what modern economic development looks like. It's visible and community driven. And in closing, the program represents again an award winning initiative with that blends economic development, public health, community engagement.

And we invite you to our next WalkClip Talk, which is actually tomorrow at Emilmore Nature Center. It'll be at 8AM. We have some flyers here to share with you all For later, it'll be with the Pilates circle. So we will will share those with you. And again, this is something that we that I have been doing last year.

We have other colleagues taking lead as well. And it's just something really exciting to do once a month where we connect with people in the community. And I'm proud to say that last month we had about 12 or 20 plus individuals. So again, we're continuously growing and we really expect this momentum to continue growing and just see more people. So please invite individuals and help us promote it. Recommendation is that the EDC committee receive and file the Walk the Talk Riverside entrepreneurs update.

Thank you. Alright. Thank you for the presentation, Carlos. And I'll go ahead and look to my colleague if she has anything she'd like to add. Alright. She's good. Yeah. The I shout out to bulk bulk Bulku Pop. They are the world three business, and they they served up soluble at our Easter. Sweetman was in Midtown, and I had one of those, and it was great talking with her. And everything is fresh, made in house. They don't buy in bulk like a lot these other places do. It's all real organic stuff. And so and they do come to your place. If you wanna hire them out and have a little sidebar at your event, they'll come to you.

So shout out to them. Alright. Thank you. We'll go ahead and move on to item number five, which is apprenticeship week, which is April 26 through May 2. We want to recognize and celebrate the launch program. And we have Charles Henkels, Executive Director and Keith Gamil, Senior Manager of Business Engagement at the Launch Apprentice Network. Thank you.

All right. Afternoon. So actually today, it's going to be just me. Keith is ill. So I'm Charles Henkels, I'm the executive director for the Launch Apprenticeship Network. I'm not sure if any of you were aware or involved. In October, Riverside hosted the Advancing California Apprenticeship Summit. They're at the Convention Center. We had over 400 folks from different places in the country and the state that were coming here specifically to learn about our region's apprenticeship innovation. And so we were able to do tours of different school sites, some employers here local that trained registered apprentices.

And afterwards, we did a survey of the attendees, and all we got was nonstop praise about the walking corridor there from the convention center through through Downtown Riverside. It was really, really popular. So alright. So the Launch Apprenticeship Network was actually formed and built right here. So I used to actually be an employee over at Riverside Community College District.

The community colleges here in the region had put together a project called Launch, which was really about creating new and innovative apprenticeship programs that would help support talent development for businesses here in the region using our kind of our existing CTE infrastructure. Since that time, we have about 40 different occupations that are dual registered with the Division of Apprenticeship Standards and the Department of Labor. And we've expanded to where we even administer other program sponsors, and we partner different groups to do that. This slide could be updated to show that we actually have over 2,000 apprentices registered, served over 400 employers and partner with about 20 different CBOs, both our workforce development boards here in the Inland Empire and other intermediary partners. To give you an idea kind of how the growth of this program has looked, so I mentioned before we started in 2018, we had about two different occupations, a cluster of businesses that were training some apprentices.

Over the years, the partnerships have grown and so has access to apprenticeship employment and opportunity. So you can see this past year was our biggest. We had over six fifty new apprentices start. We're doing pretty well this year as well, a 133 year to date. So to give you an idea, sort of the the way that the way this system works is we take a the name Launch Apprenticeship Network pretty seriously.

It's a network model where we're bringing together partners really for multiple sectors and multiple different types of organizations to accomplish three big things. So one is to develop apprenticeship institutes. The other one is to bring together what we'd refer to as kind of regional apprenticeship committees through a leveraged statewide network. The idea of an apprenticeship institute is pretty much to work, like I said before, with our our CTE infrastructure so that students that are job seekers that are going to our community colleges, for example, and want to do an earn and learn pathway, which means that instead of taking on debt, they're earning an income as part of their education, they would have to have access to those kinds of employment opportunities here in the So apprenticeship institutes aren't necessarily new institutes or new buildings, but it's actually leveraging the ones that we have here to be effective at creating those earn and learn opportunities. The regional apprenticeship committees, what those are, those are clusters of business partners that get together within industry sectors.

So it could be manufacturers, it could be automotive dealerships with service centers, but they get together. And what they do is they kind of lead the development of training standards, they set competency requirements, and they really help us figure out what these programs need to look like to be effective for those talent pools. And finally, this idea, this leveraged statewide network, is launched is actually now really powered by the California Community College overall. The California Community College Chancellor's Office recently put a really significant investment to really help drive and boost this program forward across the state working with other regions. These are the programs that we have.

It sounds like you have my slides, so I'm not going to read off each one. Plus the print's really small, to be honest with you. But this gives you an idea of the different training areas that we work with employers and other partners to make sure that apprentices are progressing in these professions. A particular interest, I think, you know, at the City of Riverside, one of the groups that we want to call out is our manufacturing and aerospace regional apprenticeship committee. So this is one of the earliest ones that came together in 2018.

They have trained over 800 apprentices in industrial technology occupations. So that includes production manufacturing, also includes industrial maintenance, assembly, different elements that go into when we say advanced manufacturing, we're referring to anything that's involved with the manufacturing of goods, also transportation. Right now, they have about 191 active apprentices here in the region. That's across 11 occupations and 72 employers within the Inland Empire. So to give you an idea kind of of how this thing works or how it it how it stays together.

So how does like, how does this group of partners come together and and train that many people? So pretty much what happens is we bring together, like I said, groups of businesses that have a shared need in regards to the labor market. So they're trying to access the same talent or they're trying to develop the same talent. And what we do is we bring them together and we partner them with education and training providers in the region that have robust comprehensive career education programs that could support that talent recruitment and development and retention. As I mentioned before, so as you're seeing kind of on the slide, this is kind of a picture image of it.

You'll see on the left hand side, these are companies here in the region that employ industrial technician or advanced manufacturing apprentices. And you'll notice on here that the kinds of participants really range. These are big companies, small companies, midsize in some of our programs. There's public, there's private employers. But like I said, what they each have in common is really a shared interest in the region's talent pool.

And so what the structure allows us to do then is as a program sponsor, that's what launch is, is we register the programs that those employers create. We register them on behalf of this group and serve as an intermediary. So we basically take care of a lot of the administrative lift of running a registered apprenticeship program on behalf of these partners who do the provide the on the job learning and the the education institutions that provide the the training classroom training and and help help recruit and develop these programs. You'll notice too, there's there's a lot of other logos on here. So there's the San Bernardino County and the Riverside County Workforce Development Departments.

We partner with them and their Youth Opportunity Center. So here in Riverside, that'd the California Family Life Center. They've got a few different centers here. What they do is they help ensure that our residents have good access to these programs. So if they're struggling with barriers to employment, we work directly with like the youth opportunity centers to help get people ready for apprenticeship employment.

Similarly, we work with both the Riverside County Office of Education and the San Bernardino County School Superintendent's Office. They have the highest number of registered pre apprentices in the entire state. And they're eclipsing the other regions. And they do that in coordination with partnerships. So of our state's registered apprenticeship pre apprenticeship system, I think Riverside County is far and away the largest. It represents probably about a third of the state's registered pre apprentices. It's really significant. And like I said, they do this they do this in partnership with these groups. Alright. So I said a lot really quickly.

Hopefully, it was hopefully, it was helpful and useful. I wanna like I said, I kinda wanna bookend it with just, you know, something to celebrate and think is really this city has been a leader. Like I said, it was a really cool event that we had in October. There's energy. There's going to be another Advancing California Apprenticeship Summit, and this thing really set a powerful precedent of what can really be accomplished within these kind of communities. So yeah, we just want to say thanks to the city and thanks for the support.

All right. Thank you for that. And I'll talk to my colleague if she has anything she'd like to add.

I would just say thank you so much for the breakdown. A lot of different folks that are listed that are new to me, so it's like always fascinating to just see again the amount of work that's happening in these spaces. So I can't say that we are not driving and leading an apprenticeship. So just really thank you for bringing this information to us. Looking forward to seeing how we could again continue to elevate, make folks know that these are spaces and places that they could go seek. Thank Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you. I know Desi's been talking about us working together. There is, I think, a lot of opportunities that we've been working on at the city level and account development, especially on different initiatives that will grow into an apprenticeship or have apprenticeships apprenticeships kind of tie into it. One of them is the the LIFT program, Learning Institute for Flight Technology, that we are working with RUSDA, USD, RCC, UC, RCBU to coordinate training for aerospace jobs at the Riverside Airports, and they are continuing to we that just happened, like, two months ago.

So we're in the infancy stages of that, but this will definitely be a part of it as that grows. Also, when it comes to our AFL CIO, our trades, they are actively looking seeking depart to continue to grow their apprenticeship programs. So, you know, definitely could could reach out to them because that's something that they approached me with, and they said that, you know, we really want to expand our apprenticeship programs for the AFL CIO. And I will say that there's a when you say Riverside is kind of leading the way when it comes to this, I think there's a because we're growing. We are the population growth.

Manufacturing is coming here. We are seeing the explosions in the DOD space, in the green tech space, advanced manufacturing of all kind. And also our auto dealers. Don't know if you've been talking to our local auto dealers. They are in desperate need of technicians.

And they're actually they formed the new Inland Empire Auto Dealers Association, and the local association is gonna be work is working with RCC to expand their program to provide technicians to be teachers because I know that's a limiting factor right now at their program is they don't have enough teachers, but there's a huge demand right now for especially EV and hybrid technicians in the auto auto dealer space. And Dutton Motor, which is a GMC dealership GMC Cadillac dealership in Riverside, They had one EV technician for the whole dealership, and he was making $230,000 a year. And he left to go to Irvine to get a better paying job.

And

they 30% of the vehicles they sell are EVs and hybrids. And so the demand is absolutely massive. And this is something that has to be done every year because every year these cars are changing. And you know, and there's new technology in them. And so definitely could support you guys and I think worth continuing the conversation in the future. Presentation. Thank

you. Okay.

Thanks. Alright. We'll go ahead and move on to our communications and this economic development week, May. You want to recognize that and have Miranda Evans, our community interim community economic development director.

Thank you so much, chair. So we go from innovation month to economic development week, and we're grateful for this opportunity to share this early in April as our May meeting will be after Economic Development Week. So Economic Development Week is, I'm calling it a holiday, a recognition, a commemoration if you will, is declared by the International Economic Development Council, IEBC, who we are proud to be members of and have been working very closely with your support on to earn our International Economic Development Organization accreditation, which would make us the third entity in the state of California and less than a 100 around the world. So our partnership with IEBC is very valuable to us. So this Economic Development Week, it really is an opportunity for us to highlight the vital role that strategic investment, business growth and community partnerships play in strengthening our local economy.

And I think on today's agenda, we hit each one of those different verticals and so it really is a testament to the great work and collaboration happening in Riverside. So Economic Development Week is about how economic development drives job creation, grows innovation and enhances quality of life, which really is the circular economy and reinvesting back into Riverside that is our top priority every single day. So in May, we are working strategically on advancing these efforts by promoting our community on a national stage as we prepare, I heard the office of sustainability call April and Earth month their Super Bowl. So May and June are our Super Bowl in economic development and everything we've been working on and building towards and I'm so proud of my team and want to give them a shout out for is happening now. So in May, we're actively advancing these efforts by promoting our community on a national stage.

We're starting next week with a spin off. We're engaging with global investors at SelectUSA and connecting with retail and commercial leaders at ICSC where we will have our first booth that we're so excited about and putting Riverside on the platform that it deserves so that we can attract new opportunities strengthen our economy here. So we're excited to mark this week, May with the rollout of our refreshed branding and we have the soft launch I'm excited to share with you on May 4 as part of Economic Development Week of our new website, www.riversidebusiness.org. So we have a splash page up and we will have the soft launch of that, rolling it out, sharing success stories, highlighting our amazing partnerships, and just doing a better job at telling our story and Riverside's value locally on the world stage and beyond. And so this will really be a dynamic platform to showcase our assets, connect with partners, and drive investment.

So we will be unveiling that to you at our May Economic Development Committee meeting and looking forward to a fantastic Economic Development Week. It's Economic Development Week every week Riverside, but this is the official celebration. So thank you.

Alright. Thank you for that communication and anything to add. Alright. I do have a certificate of recognition for the economic development committee and the sorry. The department, not for ourselves, for the departments. In recognition of your leadership and commitment to the city of Riverside, proudly recognizes the economic development division of the community and economic development departments for outstanding leadership and lasting impact in advancing a strong and resilient innovative local economy. Alright. And with that, we'll go ahead we'll take a picture afterwards since we're at the end of the meeting anyways. I'll go ahead and close the meeting. Do we have any legislative updates? We do not. Items for future consideration? We do not. I'll go ahead and close the meeting. Thank you.