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Revitalized LeadershipProgram Launches for 2018After overseeingour successful Leadership Salinas Valleyprogram for 34 years,the Board of Directors of the SalinasValley ChamberFoundation decided to revisit theprogram. Was it still relevant to participants? What could be done to enhanceits effectiveness? Might we partner withothers to strengthen its impact?We planned a hiatus from the programin 2017 and we are proud to sharewith you that, as we launch a revitalizedleadership program for 2018, we haveanswered many of these questions.A Partnership FormsIn 2016, the Salinas ChamberFoundation Board and Chamber CEObegan discussions with LeadershipMonterey Peninsula about how wemight join forces. Instead of operatingtwo separate programs, we decided itmade sense to work together on oneregional leadership program. Whobetter to break down the lettucecurtain than current and future leaders?“Leadership Monterey County”was germinating.The Monterey County BusinessCouncil expressed interest in playing akey role and joined our efforts. TheMonterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce also participated in early discussions. While they are not formally afounder of the new Leadership Monterey County, they are in support of theconcept and we hope to enjoy greaterengagement from them in the future.How is this Program Improved?Previously, our program focusedmore on helping participants build thepersonal skills they needed to become aleader. This was done through a seriesof twenty weekly 3-hour classes, whichis ideal for a skills-focused program.After much discussion of curriculum and desired outcomes, we decidedto adopt Leadership Monterey Peninsula’s model of building leaders by gettingthem out intothe community –enabling them tomeet regional decision-makers andget hands-on experience visiting placesof interest. We envision the newprogram taking our students out intothe fields, into the jails and courts,before panels of distinguished guestswho will talk to them in depth aboutchallenges and solutions. Taking placeon the fourth Friday of the month, thenew program will have the entire dayto delve into topics.Who Should Participate?The program is designed forthose interested in helping determinethe future of our area. That may includesupervisors and managers at yourcompany.Individuals benefit from the program in a number of ways including:increased leadership abilities, a comprehensive understanding of importantcommunity issues and organizations, achance to meet the “mover and shakers’in the community, building a diversenetwork of informed colleagues,strengthening professional skills andexpanding contacts.Leaders are trained and developedin a program that includes threewcomponents:Education – Seminars on topicalleadership and management issues.Experience – Hands on learningin a variety of community-basedvenues.Exposure – Interactive panels withleaders from business, government,non-profits and education.Class size will be 20 to 30 participants.Tuition is 2,000 and theapplication deadline is January 22.For more information, please visitwww.LeadershipMC.org or contactKimbley Craig, Executive Director forthe Monterey County Business Council,Kimbley@mcbc.biz or 831-216-3020.The Premier Course for Emerging LocalLeaders in the CommunityNow AcceptiNg ApplicAtioNs!Participants gain the knowledge and direction they needto achieve greater self and community awareness througha combination of academic training, community exposure,and small group interaction.Classes are held on the fourth Friday of the month,February through November. Topics for each classinclude: Hospitality Agriculture Healthcare Defense/Security Government/Law Nonprofit Art/Culture/History Education EnvironmentTuition: 2000Apply online: www.leadershipmc.orgApplication deadline: January 22, 2018, 5:00 pmQuestions? Email: LMC@mcbc.bizNOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 - SALINAS VALLEY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BUSINESS JOURNAL5

Marketing 101Maya CinemasUpgradestips & advice on digital marketingby Phil Fisk, PresidentCoastline Marketing GroupDo You Hate Yelp?When reading your online reviews makes you wantto yelp, it is time to take action. One of the things weconstantly hear from our clients is how much they hateYelp, and we completely get it. With Yelp, you have no control over whatpeople post about your company, and it’s always possible that a bad or falsereview could turn potential customers away. Yet, what we have found is thatyou do have some control over how you let websites such as Yelp affect yourcompany’s online reputation when you decide to embrace their platform.By choosing to be proactive, you can turn even the most negative reviewinto an effective marketing opportunity.Spend a few minutes thinking about what a few positive reviews or ahigher Yelp rating could do to improve your bottom line. For the majorityof business owners, all of those little stars add up to dollar signs whenyou embrace the opportunity to turn social media into another way thatyou connect with your target audience. Instead of ignoring your onlinereputation, try thinking about those five little stars as being new membersof your sales team. When one of your customers posts a positive review,you can bet that they are a likely candidate for repeat business who choseyour company based upon its reputation.So, what do you do to make Yelp work for you? The first step is toembrace the possibilities. Stop worrying about negative reviews, and turnthem around by responding with the same level of professionalism andcustomer care that has made your business successful. Thanking pastcustomers and highlighting your company’s dedication to qualityare not just good business practices, they are little gestures that getyour business noticed. So, put those little stars to work for you andwatch as your company’s online reputation makes you shine brighterthan the competition.Maya Cinemas is completing a 4 million dollar makeover for the MayaSalinas 14 Cinemas and MPX Theatre at 153 Main Street. The makeover wasdone in every auditorium at the theatre and features extreme-deluxe electronicrecliner seating in every auditorium, as well as all new wall covering,flooring, digital lighting, andsafety features.All theatres are outfittedwith deluxe recliners, whichare considered tops in thebusiness. Four of the fourteentheatres will also feature deluxerockers along with the recliners.Maya tested hundreds ofseat types before settling on thePalliser Deluxe and customershave given rave reviews to theseating at the theatre and on Facebook and Yelp.Maya also has two auditoriums featuring top-of-the-line Dolby AtmosSound Systems. Beginning after the 1st of the New Year, Maya will also featureReserved Seating in all auditoriums.In OurExperience,The Path to Mental HealthLife AlwaysFinds A Way.Be part of the solution.MCHOME IS THE ONLY program inMonterey County that moves homelessadults with mental illness off thestreets and into housing, permanently.This year, You CAN make a BIG (831) GOODWILL649-4522- CONTINUED ON PAGE 136 SALINAS VALLEY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BUSINESS JOURNAL - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017

HIGH SCHOOL - CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1BENEFITS - CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1accountability. The school district droppedits Chamber membership. Some schoolboard members warned the Chamber tomind its own business. They apparentlywant businesses to serve as a supplier oftax revenue and not as a critic of anticompetitive contract procurement.The district board was back in thenews two years later, to the surprise of theChamber and almost everyone else in theregion. At a meeting on October 24, 2017,the new superintendent revealed that thenew high school under construction hadfallen behind schedule and probably wouldnot open for the 2018-2019 school year.Board members started thinking of people,businesses, and organizations to blame.In a recording of the school boardmeeting that was obtained by theChamber, school board member KathrynRamirez repeatedly and absurdly claimedthat the county’s business elite hadconspired at “little parties” on Highway68 to make the project fail. Some boardmembers insisted that the union ProjectLabor Agreement didn’t have anything todo with the failure and would never besuspended or repealed. Board memberPhillip Tabera recommended that they nottalk aboutwhat was happening if a Board memberwere asked by someone on the streetabout the high school.To be generous, perhaps Tabera wassimply warning about making statements“on the street” that could be used againstthe school district in court. To be lessgenerous, it sounds like he was encouragingfellow Board members to try to keepsecret the failure of their oversight of theconstruction of the new high school. Itis notable that the public did not findout about the debacle until KSBW Newsobtained an audio recording of the meetingdiscussion and got the scoop on the story.Not surprisingly, the failure became a majorlocal news story.When did the school board plan toofficially inform parents, teachers, andtaxpayers about the problem with thehigh school? Why weren’t board memberspaying attention to construction progressover thepast year? These are questions thatremain unanswered.On November 1, the board helda special closed session meeting (notopen to the public) to discuss thepotential for litigation. On November 3,Superintendent Dan Burns held a pressconference to explain what the district,under his leadership, was doing to tryto get the project back on track. Schoolboard members did not speak at this pressconference. The superintendent againreported on these efforts at the board’semployee benefits and pensions for the City has been skyrocketing.Once upon a time, a government job paid less than a similar private sector job.But those jobs were filled by employees who preferred the stability and perhapsthe ability to work for the good of the community. Somewhere along the way,things changed. Public-sector jobs reached pay parity with the private-sector(we will do the research and share data in a future article), however, the benefitsand pensions received by public-sector employers became much more generous(and costly) than those received by the vast majority of private-sector employees.Let’s look at some numbers, including hard data from the City of Salinas.November 14 meeting.The superintendent, who essentiallyinherited this problem, has been meetingwith influential community leaders(including the Chamber), developing acommunity advisory committee, and hiringa respected construction scheduling firm ata reasonable price. He has the potential tobe the hero of the city if he can coordinateeveryone and implement a strategy thatgets the project back on schedule.Meanwhile, board members have beencriticizing news coverage of the failure. Atthe November 14 board meeting, boardmember Kathryn Ramirez flung severalinsults at prominent local news mediafigure Joseph W. Heston, President andGeneral Manager of KSBW 9 NBC. Shecalled Heston “uncultured, boorish, andoafish.” Board member Phillip Taberaagreed with the insults. (This would seemto violate the anti-bullying policies of theschool district.)Mr. Heston has offered this response:“We here at KSBW have to focus on thenews. And our station Editorials focus onwhat we feel needs community attention.I’m surprised with all the important issueswhich need tending to by the Salinas UnionHigh School District Board, that they havethe time and inclination to resort to pettyname-calling and juvenile personal attack.Perhaps paying attention to the business ofeducation, providing better oversight andleadership, would set a better example tothe students in their schools.”Besides making sure their unioncampaign backers are absolved of anyblame (the Project Labor Agreementremains in effect), some board memberswant the people to know that it’s not theirjob to build a school. Only one boardmember seems to be focused on fiscalresponsibility and the potential cost impact.If ordinary citizens heard the audiorecordings of the October 24 and November14 meetings, they would be appalled attheir elected school board members, whodisplay a disappointing lack of leadership.If you would like to hear them, contactthe Chamber and we will share thoserecordings with you.On a positive note, the Chamber isproviding and will continue to provideadvice and encouragement to thesuperintendent as he develops a strategyand endures the public relations nightmare.We want to see the project turn around andsucceed, just like everyone else in town.But we also want the public to know thatmost of the school board evaded leadershipresponsibilities at a time when their courageand leadership was desperately needed.Whereas the Chamber (which is typical of most small private businesses)pays an extra 38% for employee benefits and insurance costs, the City’s rateis more than double that: 83% for Non-Sworn employees and 116% for PoliceOfficers and 139% for Firefighters. In essence, a single police officer, whosemaximum base pay is 107k, ends up costing nearly a quarter of a million dollars.And this doesn’t even include overtime, which is high for the City (in excessof 5M annually).The Salinas Valley Chamber has been at the forefront of talking to City leaders,in public and in private, about this problem and what to do about it. In April of2017, we put a disturbing graphic on the cover of the Business Journal whichshowed the ever-expanding deficits the City of Salinas expects in its GeneralFund Forecast.Since then, a number of other local media have picked up on the story.We’re appreciative of that. The more light that is given to the challenge, the morepressure there will be for to us work together to find a solution. You can expectyour Salinas Valley Chamber to continue using our resources to shine our light.Follow uson SocialMediaSalinas Valley Chamber of Commerce@SalinasChamberSalinas Valley Chamber of CommerceNOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 - SALINAS VALLEY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BUSINESS JOURNAL7

California EmploymentReport for October 2017The Center for Jobs and the Economy has released our initialanalysis of the October Employment Report released by theCalifornia Employment Development Department.For additional information and data about theCalifornia economy visit www.centerforjobs.org.Unemployment Rate Improves4.9% Unemployment RateEDD reports California's unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted)in October dropped to 4.9%.Total employment was up 97,000 from September, while totalunemployment was down 35,000. The labor force grew 62,000,producing an uptick in the rate to 62.4%.The US unemployment rate improved from 4.2% to 4.1%.National employment was down 484,000, unemployment downby 281,000, and the labor force contracted by 765,000, producing aparticipation rate drop to 62.7%.Property TaxPostponementCalifornia’s Property Tax Postponement Program allows homeowners whoare seniors, are blind, or have a disability to defer current-year property taxes ontheir principal residence if they meet certain criteria, including 40 percent equityin the home and an annual householdincome of 35,500 or less. Applicationsfor the 2017-2018 property tax filingyear are now available and may besubmitted between October 1, 2017and February 10, 2018. Funding forproperty tax postponement programis limited, and applications will beprocessed in the order they are receivedbeginning October 1. Participants mustreapply each year and demonstratethey continue to meet eligibilityrequirements. The application andmore information regarding the program are available on the State Controller’swebsite at www.sco.ca.gov/ardtax prop tax postponement.html. If you havequestions regarding this program, you may contact the State Controller’s officeat (800) 952-5661 or postponement@sco.ca.gov.Nonfarm Jobs Up31.7k Job GainsNonfarm wage and salary jobs grew 31,700 (seasonally adjusted)in October. September’s gains were revised to 50,300 from thepreviously reported 52,200.Counties with Double-DigitUnemployment1 Counties with Unemployment Above 10%Only one county, Imperial, had an unemployment rate at 10%or higher. The number with unemployment rates at or below 5%dipped to 29.MSAs Continue to Have WorstUnemployment in US6 MSAs in Lowest National Unemployment RatesSix California Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) were in theworst 10 unemployment rates nationally in September. Ten were inthe worst 20.8 SALINAS VALLEY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BUSINESS JOURNAL - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017Yesterday, Today and TomorrowA Tradition of Excellence Since 1928Agriculture LawBusiness & TaxationConstructionCreditor’s RightsEstate PlanningLabor & EmploymentLitigationPersonal InjuryPublic AgenciesReal Estate & Land Use333 Salinas StreetSalinas, CA 93901831.424.1414470 Camino El EsteroMonterey, CA 93940831.373.3622nheh.com

Casa BorondaBreaks GroundNunes Company BreaksGround on Salinas FarmLabor Housing ComplexAfter years of planning, shovelshave gone into the ground on a four-acreparcel in Salinas, known as the Borondaneighborhood, for the second farmworker housing complex in the region.Avila Construction of Monterey, CA,hosted a groundbreaking ceremonyrecently to honor the Hibino, Nunes,and Rodriguez families. These familiesrecognize the need for beautiful, safe,and affordable housing for their company’s farm labor force. This projectreceived overwhelming support fromcity and county leaders, as well asaffordable housing advocates in theregion. Casa Boronda will not onlyserve as a model for the future ofCalifornia agriculture, but also forthe nation’s agriculture industry.Casa Boronda, when completed,will be available for seasonal agriculturalemployees. This gated community willinclude six, two-story apartment buildings (75 units total) with up to eightresidents and two full bathrooms per uniton a site that also includes two recreationrooms, a manager’s unit, laundry facilities, basketball and volleyball court,and a sports and recreation field.Advanced Solutions from your locallyowned business neighbors.The three families involved in thisproject shared a vision to do somethinginnovative for their labor force thatwould not only help them recruit andretain employees, while providing anaffordable and safe housing environment,but would also serve as a model for socialresponsibility in the agriculture industry.“This is a win-win situation for ouremployees, our company and our customers,” said Tom Nunes Jr. “It is not onlythe right time for such a large undertaking, it is simply the right thing to do.”Henry Hibino, partner in the project,grower and former mayor of Salinas,said, “Three very diverse families fromvery different backgrounds, comingtogether to accomplish a project like thisis indeed rare in the agriculture industry.While we come from different cultures,we share the same core values of dignityand rewarding hard work.”The first phase of the project isscheduled to be completed by April 2018with the first occupants moving in on oraround May 1, 2018.The Nunes Company has been aleader and innovator in the fresh produceindustry for generations. The companyfarms more than 22,000 crop acres inCalifornia, Arizona, Nevada, and Mexicounder the Foxy brand.Interactive TouchDisplay Simply toucha TRUTOUCH displayand experience an incredible presentationplatform.From large copiers tosmall laser printers!Document Solutions withleading edge technology foryour growing office needs. Air Print Wireless Scan SolutionsPhone 831-759-8760startdbs.com540 Work St. Suite E, Salinas, CA 93901Call us to schedule a no obligation presentationin your office or our showroom.Mark Rodriquez addresses the crowd at groundbreaking ceremonyNOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 - SALINAS VALLEY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BUSINESS JOURNAL9

What’s Newfor 2018?by Sharilyn Payne,Fenton & KellerEvery year, California employers face the challenge of complyingwith new laws, and this year is no exc

Thom Taft, Finance Manager Paul Farmer, CEO & Chief Member Advocate 2017 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Chair of the Board, Frank Geisler (Geisler3) Past Chair, Kevin Saunders (CSU Monterey Bay) Vice Chair - GRC, Kevin Dayton (Labor Issues Solutions) Vice Chair - Events, Mark Boos (Girl Scouts of California's Central Coast) Jeff Lamb (Farm Fresh Deli & Café)