Latest / Rick Outzen: (we don’t) color on the dog / Reeves Seeks Faster Path to 3,700 Local Jobs
Transcript
- Rick Outzen: I am Rick Alton. This is We Don't Color on the Dog. We got with us Mayor DC Reeves. Mayor, thank you for doing this so early in the morning. Yeah, we have got the workforce summit coming. You've got great news about the number of stakeholders that have confirmed already. D.C. Reeves: Yeah, absolutely. Happy to. Yeah, so we have fifty-three so far as of Monday. and what's important is it it's all of the key stakeholders here locally. When you think of ⁓ the the career source, UWF, Pittscool Estate, George Stone, the school district, all of the folks that that already play a key role in making sure that not only that they have access to our young people and and young adults that that want to have job opportunity, but ⁓ we're really happy and to have all of the people. From around the state of Florida, the Career Source Florida folks, Secretary Kelly will be here. we have the work the person in charge of workforce for the entire education department of the state of Florida that that's coming as well. So so we just we we have quite a roster of ⁓ of local, regional well. We've got some I know some representatives from Northwest Florida State College down down the way in Niceville. and because we know this is gonna be a team effort ⁓ to to be able to fill these jobs. S and this is not just bird on ST will be there, American Magic will be there. there's a lot of similarity between the MRO space and the ⁓ what you need in the shipbuilding area. So when you have 3,700 jobs on the line in a city of 55,000, you know, we've got to get aggressive. And so I'm I'm very It's probably as ⁓ large ⁓ and robust a of workforce experts that have been in one room in Pittscola, Florida for in recent memory for sure. Rick Outzen: Well, you ⁓ you mentioned at the press conference that w shipbuilding is becoming a major industry for the Gulf Coast, you know, from Pascagoula now to to Bay County, Panama City. so the workforce needs across the region are are gonna magnify. We're we're talking about what what you know, like you said, thirty two hundred jobs, but ⁓ think about what Bay County is gonna be doing, what Pascagoula needs already. we have we have welders go in that direction. D.C. Reeves: Right. Rick Outzen: Already. So ⁓ in Mobile, of course Mobile Alabama also and Baby Net. what your takeaways? What do you want to see come out of this meeting? D.C. Reeves: Yeah. I mean, you know from Rick, you've known me long enough, you know, I come from, you know, certainly one influence of working with Quint is we don't try to solve everything. You're not gonna for ninety minutes and and and try to have this shallow layer of a million different ideas. That's not my focus. What are those two or three things that when we walk out of that room, we can say collectively, whether and we can do subcommittees, we could take all of those colleges, technical schools, universities. ⁓ high schools and they can meet again about one or two different tactics. So that really want to let the room dictate that. These are experts that certainly know this field better than I do. But I will say one thing that really piques my interest is do we get away from the nine and 12 month programs? And there is great best practices around this country and and and I think we can really lead the charge in the state of Florida of getting these trainings to weeks instead of nine or twelve months where they can get on the job. That's number one. Number two is what all the research we've done is we've seen a lot of success when the STs and Bird ons and American Magic and and heck, maybe Eastern Shipbuilding or or Austel, when they get together and say this is a culture of abundance, not a culture of scarcity, how do we invest our resources collectively to train as many people as possible? That is where good things happen. Not these silos of ST doing their thing and bird on doing their thing. ⁓ we we've seen great success in our research where we find those best practices you've got to get the private side on the same team, one, and you've got to make the barrier of entry, not would you like to take a year off from your job or work in two jobs ⁓ to try to support your family? Would you like to take a year off to learn how to weld or or to do one of these key these key occupations that that's needed and do you want to take a year to learn how to do it. just isn't really effective. So I'm hoping for synergy on the local technical side of things to be able to create more efficient programs. And then I'm hoping on the private side that we are urgent our urgency and collaboration with our private partners helps them make sure that they're investing the the resources they need to make sure that Pensacolians get these jobs. So so as the one of lower level experts in the room of this Rick Outzen: Mm. D.C. Reeves: Of this great collection of people that do this for a living. I'm I'm open minded to any of those, but I just off the cuff, those are really the two focuses I Rick Outzen: Yeah, and I I would think too the another layer is who's gonna be responsible for what? Because you're the mayor, like you said, of of a community of fifty thousand or so people. You have, you know, the resources are here, the need is here, you know, you've got a other a lot of other duties, a lot of other things on your plate. How can you who can take charge of what component and and how you can you know, the city can still be involved, but you can't carry the burden of this. D.C. Reeves: That's right. Right, right. And and you know, the first step is let's use the the ability of this office to convene, which we were really excited for that. But again, from my br background previous to this job is we don't meet just to meet or to take a photo and say, Man, that was great. we you know we we've got to find one or two things. And and and this, you know, ⁓ what I've been trying to convey to our citizens is you know, there's a when these things come up and these big job creators come up, the question is well man, what Can I can Pensacolians get those jobs? How do we know those aren't going to be for out-of-town people? I'm really trying to pivot that conversation to really help our citizens understand that is the least of our problem. availability of these jobs for Pensacolians is the least of our issue. It's making sure if people are coming in from out of town, that isn't because these jobs aren't available to Pensacolians. It's because the workforce isn't built for it. So it where I do believe it's our obligation. ⁓ at the city, at the county, at the r in the as a region, our universities and state colleges, it's absolutely our obligation to build the best, cleanest, clearest pathway for Pensacolias to get these jobs. If they choose if if they choose to do that, great. If they don't and they want to go somewhere else, that's okay. But but let's use the power can to convene and get these fifty plus people in the same room. So we're at least on the same sheet of music. and then what I hope is you're right, Rick, it's not gonna be our job to take this from concept or idea to execution. But I do think we play an integral role in breaking down the silos of of institutions, to break down the silos of private companies. I do think that is where our role is most important ⁓ is to hey, let us set the vision and the need for our community and then be to be part of that solution moving forward. And lastly, I would say we're even having conversations in here, you know, do we need to have a dedicated person in this building on this floor because of how enormous this is I don't mean that they'd be running it, but just someone waking up every day, like we had the grants office that was successful, like economic development. This is such a big project and so important for our future in the next five to 10 years. Do we need someone waking up every day working with Bird on ST in this workforce space? that hasn't been decided yet, but those are at least early conversations we're having. Rick Outzen: Well and and we know that was critical when we had sort of the meltdown at S T a few years ago when we found out that that we we didn't the workers weren't up weren't out of our community. ⁓ not necessarily a bad thing, but it was it was something that was kind of a shock for a lot of us. I think, yeah, that that component will be interesting to see, particularly as we go through di tight budget times, you know, to try to figure out how to how that manpower works mayor. Thank you so much for coming on. I know you got a busy day. So do I. D.C. Reeves: Yeah. Yeah, that's all right. Hey, thank you so much. I appreciate you shedding light on this. And you know, that that's just again, trying to bring opportunity and and job opportunity for our our citizens. So I appreciate you spreading the word and we're looking forward to tomorrow. All right, thanks. Rick Outzen: Alright, take care.