Issues · Careers
Careers, not just warehouse jobs.
Moreno Valley has plenty of jobs. What it's short on is careers.
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Our new jobs are warehouse jobs. By the city's own count, Moreno Valley added more than 34,000 jobs between 2011 and 2022. More than 60 percent of them were in transportation, warehousing, and utilities.
We already have their trucks. Amazon, Skechers, Ross, Aldi, Deckers, Harbor Freight, ResMed, P&G, Walgreens, O'Reilly, Lowe's, and Serta all run major operations here. Most of it is distribution. The engineers, the managers, and the people with offices work somewhere else.
It doesn't have to be that way. Aldi put its western headquarters in Moreno Valley, and it is one of the city's largest employers. One company decided this was a place to run things from, not just ship things through.
We live next to one of the longest runways on the West Coast. March Inland Port is the civilian airport on March Air Reserve Base. It has a 13,300-foot runway, more than 350 acres of land with runway access open for development, and an aerospace manufacturer already on site. Moreno Valley holds two seats on the commission that runs it.
Most of us still leave town to work. The average Moreno Valley worker spends about 35 minutes getting to work, each way.
City Hall has a jobs plan. It doesn't have a scorecard. The city's economic development plan lists 239 initiatives and no dates.
What David will do
Go back to the companies that are already here.
Sit down with every major employer in Moreno Valley and ask one question: what would it take to bring the next level of jobs here? Regional offices. Training centers. Repair and engineering. The technicians who keep automated buildings running. We already have their trucks. Let's get their offices.
Pay for wages, not headcount.
The city already offers incentives to employers who hire locally, including discounted electric rates. David wants those tied to career-wage jobs for residents, not just the number of people on the floor.
A career wage is one that lets you afford a home, reliable transportation, and raise your family here.
Put Moreno Valley to work at March.
David will ask to serve as one of the city's representatives on the March commission, and use that seat to recruit aerospace and defense employers to land already set aside for aviation. He'll bring together local business owners and veterans to help make the case. These are skilled manufacturing and maintenance jobs, not more warehouses.
That land sits just outside city limits, right next door. Plenty of residents would gladly trade a drive to El Segundo for a commute across town.
Train residents for the jobs we recruit.
Work with Moreno Valley College, the trades, and veterans' programs so that when a skilled employer arrives, our neighbors are first in line. Use the workforce training dollars developers have already committed.
Publish a jobs report card every year.
How many career-wage jobs were added, by which employers, and how many went to people who live here.
Why David
David is a contractor. He has hired tradespeople, met payroll, and built things in this city for decades. He raised three kids in District 2, and he wants the next generation to be able to build a career here without a 35-minute drive to somebody else's city.
"We need growth that makes sense, and a council that listens to the residents, before the outsiders."