By Jason Islas
Lookout Staff

July 29, 2011 - As Santa Monica increasingly asks developers to “hire local,” the City Council took a closer look at the concept Tuesday night, and how it's been used elsewhere.

“Before you is consideration of opportunities to implement a more coordinated approach to promoting key employment opportunities for Santa Monica residents,” said Director of Housing and Economic Development Andy Agle.

Agle presented the council with several options that would help to streamline efforts to help Santa Monican's have better access to jobs within the city.

Some councilmembers thought that the city should approach its next steps with caution, so as not to exclude people outside of Santa Monica.

“I think we bear a responsibility to be a regional job provider,” Mayor Richard Bloom said.

But the staff report emphasized using “first-source hiring,” which would “reserve recruitment opportunities for a specified time period solely for local residents.” This is “the cornerstone” of many other city's programs, the report says.

There is also a distinction between requiring local hiring and suggesting it.

Council Member Bob Holbrook recounted an informal conversation he had with one of the vice presidents of the Macerich corporation which owns Santa Monica Place.

Holbrook said he had asked the Macerich people if they could give Santa Monica residents a first shot at the jobs.

“They weren't going to cut people out from outside,” he said.

Holbrook said that he would like city staff to look into how successful that experiment had been.

Mayor Pro Tem Gleam Davis said that she was most impressed with the Berkeley model, which she said has little overhead.

“Berkeley requires public works projects over $100,000 and private development of more than 7,500 square feet to sign a first-source agreement and participate in a first-source hiring program,” according to city staff.

That program requires developers to “advertise locally for three days prior to advertising job opportunities to the general public.” But developers must only make “a good faith effort” and aren't required to meet a quota.

Holbrook didn't like the possibility of subjecting private development to hiring restrictions. “I don't think we should do it to private employers, private construction, if they have no other relationship to the city than just wanting to do work in the city,” Holbrook said.

But Davis disagreed, saying “I think in private development is where we're going to get the most bang for our buck.”

Even in hard economic times, Santa Monica is not lacking jobs.

Citing the staff report, Bloom pointed out that there are over 73,000 jobs with a population of 90,000 in Santa Monica, somost of the jobs in the area “by necessity are going to be filled by folks outside of the community.”

Bloom also noted that though the staff report had plenty of case studies, he wanted to know more about the outcome of these cities' programs.

“I would be very concerned about going down one of these paths without having a pretty good idea about how things are going to work out for us,” said Bloom.