VENTURA : Report Analyzes City’s Fiscal Future

A city-hired consultant mapped out Ventura’s evolving economy at a Monday study session for council members, emphasizing that city leaders must understand the city’s own economic structure before trying to compete for new industries.

“It’s simply no longer ‘Put an ad in the Wall Street Journal and hope somebody is going to call.’ That’s not going to cut it in the competitive market there is now,”said James King, a Sacramento-based consultant.

King told the council that retailers account for 41% of the city’s businesses, while the burgeoning service sector comprises 22%.

Service jobs--which include work in engineering, health care, management consulting and legal affairs--are the kind of high paying jobs the city wants to attract, King said.

He also noted that manufacturing, which accounts for 8% of the city businesses, is declining as an industry, just as it is around the state and the nation.

King will next prepare a report outlining the growing industries best suited to be recruited by the city. That report will be ready in November.

“You need active, creative businesses,” King said. “You can’t make that happen, but you can facilitate it.”

Council members said they appreciated King’ swift work and looked forward to the next installment.

For the initial report, King and another consultant looked at the list of companies that have renewed their business licenses with the city for 1995. The renewals were due by July, city staff said. The consultants also looked at sales tax receipts for Ventura industries in 1993 and in 1988.