My 10 Point Plan to Create Jobs in Six Months in Oakland-April 17, 2012

By Alex Miller-Cole

As your next District 3 City Councilmember, I will be the first elected official with an entrepreneurial business background since Frank Ogawa (56 years ago).

Develop Our Workforce * Improve Public Safety * Put Our City Back to Work

1. All City contracts over $250,000 must have a community training component that will result in: a) Direct community building capacity b) Jobs for the surrounding community c) Training and skills development for surrounding neighbors d) Give our residents real world experience and journeyman hours

2. Incentivize development and investment in underserved communities by offering less expensive building permits with a fast turn around time in exchange for (proven) local hire.

3. Review all City contracts and make sure that Oakland individuals and business are the recipients and benefactors of these contracts.

4. Whenever the City of Oakland grants city funds through any of its agents or affiliates to ANYONE that group or individual must employ at least 50% of the workforce from the immediate community to carry out the work.

5. All local businesses should be offered the opportunity to hire and train surrounding neighbors in exchange for credits towards their business tax payments in order to help train and develop our workforce.

6. All major city projects should work directly with our local workforce training centers in order to: a) Bring good paying jobs to our city residents b) Increase workforce education and capacity c) Increase civic pride in our infrastructure d) Raise the income and range of opportunities for our city residents

7. Offer our existing and new local employers tax incentives in exchange for hiring locally and for training community members within a defined radius.

8. Leverage working relationships with partnering agencies such as BART and our local businesses (of any size) in order to create a citywide mentoring and summer jobs program.

9. Form the first citizens' "Business and Contracting Oversight Commission" as a watchdog: a) To protect the interests of our city residents b) To Monitor business attraction and retention c) To oversee all city contracts before they are approved

10. Partner with Labor organization to increase local hire and training opportunities to address the needs of our ever-changing jobs market.