Gov. Sandoval Making Strides On Top Priority Of Job Creation For Nevadans

CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval said today he is making big strides in his top priority of improving the Nevada economy and growing jobs.
Sandoval said he has been making calls to businesses interested in relocating to the state and is getting ready to launch a newly revised economic development board to help the state turn the economic corner.
In an interview on the Nevada NewsMakers television program, Sandoval said a key element of implementing his jobs strategy is a study now under way by the Brookings Institution and the Stanford Research Institute, now known as SRI International, which will look at which economic development sectors the state should focus its efforts on.

Gov. Brian Sandoval. / Nevada News Bureau file photo.

The study, expected to be completed in late October, will review the different economic sectors the state is now involved in and identify “clusters” Nevada should turn its attention to in its diversification efforts, Sandoval said.
The state can’t take a “shotgun” approach to economic development, but instead must be more focused on those areas that can produce the desired result of economic diversification and job production, he said.
“Once we know what we can be the best at we can focus our economic developments in that regard,” Sandoval said.
Sandoval said he will also serve as chairman of the newly constituted Board of Economic Development, created as a result of the passage of Assembly Bill 449, which saw broad bipartisan support in the 2011 Legislature. The nine voting members of the board will include six private sector representatives. Sandoval said he will soon be announcing his three appointments to the panel.
The bill implementing the economic development reorganization, which was one of Sandoval’s priorities in his State of the State address, was sponsored by Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, and numerous other Democrat and Republican lawmakers.
The board will include three legislatively appointed private sector representatives, as well as Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki and Secretary of State Ross Miller or their designees. The board will also send the names of three finalists to Sandoval to pick a new executive director of the Office of Economic Development, who will serve as part of Sandoval’s cabinet.
Steve Redlinger, spokesman for Oceguera, said the lawmaker expects to make his appointment to the board within seven to 10 days.
“John sees the board as getting some great people serving the state who can get our economic engines revving,” he said. “His expectations and hopes are high. We face serious challenges.”
Nevada leads the nation in unemployment.
Sandoval said he does not believe politics will override the mission of the new panel.
“I think you are going to see, to answer your question, an unprecedented effort in terms of education, in job training, and the effort we make to recruit new business to the state of Nevada,” Sandoval said.
Sandoval said he has made numerous calls to businesses considering Nevada for expansion or relocation, and he cited one case where it has helped pay off. The expansion of Philadelphia-based Urban Outfitters to Washoe County with the construction of a distribution center providing 650 new jobs, was one of those calls, he said.
“I hope that I helped push it over the finish line, but it is a team effort and I would never take credit for that because there are so many people out there in the field every day,” Sandoval said.
Sandoval said the message he takes to company CEOs is that Nevada is a business friendly state, and that there will be “service after the sale” meaning access to state elected and regulatory officials.
That message has really resonated with the business community, he said.