County Backs Plan to Help High-Tech Firms Adapt

Ventura County officials Tuesday hailed a long-range plan developed to help local aerospace, electronic and other high-tech companies wean themselves from defense contracts and adapt to the commercial marketplace.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously expressed support for the new defense-conversion strategy, designed to assist defense contractors in a countywide transition to a peacetime economy.

Using a $118,000 grant from the county, San Francisco-based DRI/McGraw-Hill put together a plan that outlines a variety of techniques for helping local defense industries convert their facilities to meet future needs.

The 96-page blueprint--called the Ventura Defense Partnership--also outlines ways to educate and retrain defense industry workers so that they can transfer their skills to other jobs.

“You should take great pride in Ventura’s leadership,� DRI/McGraw Hill consultant Jim Gollub told supervisors Tuesday. “Ventura is becoming a region that is discovering itself and doing the right things.�

The push for a defense-conversion plan sprang from last year’s efforts to save local bases from being targeted by the nation’s base-closure commission.

Historically, defense contracts and military bases have pumped more than $1 billion a year into Ventura County’s economy and account for about 15% of local jobs.

But with recent cutbacks in military spending, county officials and others quickly realized that a strategy was needed to aid the transition from defense work to new commercial endeavors.

“I think it’s really exciting,� Supervisor Frank Schillo said of the defense-conversion plan. “I think it bodes well for our future.�

Added Supervisor Maggie Kildee: “I really think the board members should take some pride. I think we are seeing the fruits of our wrestling and struggling in a number of efforts to make sure Ventura County is enhanced and continues to be enhanced.�

In endorsing the Ventura Defense Partnership, officials ordered county staff members to hunt for state and federal money to help bolster the defense-conversion effort.

And other supporters said they would be going throughout the county to raise money to help the plan get moving.

“This defense strategy is a road map,� said Bill Simmons, chairman of the Ventura Defense Partnership. “It’s up to us as a region to decide which roads to travel.�