Steady growth in the warehouse industry in San Joaquin County has proved to be a mixed blessing, two San Joaquin County supervisors told a forum Thursday night at Delta College.
On one hand, warehouses provide jobs. On the other, the jobs often don’t pay enough to provide for a family, Supervisors Mario Gardea and Sonny Dhaliwal said in an appearance sponsored by the San Joaquin County Civic Alliance.
The two are the newest members of the county Board of Supervisors, sworn in earlier this year. Gardea is a retired Stockton firefighter, and Dhaliwal was the six-term mayor of Lathrop.
The forum touched on a wide variety of subjects, including politics, crime and affordable housing. But it was the local economy and development that took early center stage under questioning by Stocktonia editor Scott Linesburgh; Beatrice Rosas of Delta’s Politics and Law Club; and Matthew Derrick, associate dean at the Stockton campus of CSU Stanislaus.
“We’ve got to have a balance,” Gardea said. “We need warehouses. (But) do we need as many as we have?”
The county has become a magnet for warehouse developers because land is so much cheaper than in the Bay Area. Amazon said in February it was hoping to fill 1,000 jobs at its Stockton warehouses this year. Home Depot entered into a 20-year agreement with Stockton in March that included a new e-commerce center expected to create up to 100 jobs.
“We need to plan for the future, and (the) future is not warehouses,” Gardea said.
Warehouses have long been controversial. In addition to complaints of low wages for employees, the warehouse sector has been blamed for traffic jams and diesel exhaust pollution.
Dhaliwal said San Joaquin County needs to diversify its job base. To broaden the economy, it needs to promote its strong diverse workforce. And when word gets out about the opportunities here, businesses respond. He pointed to a massive battery plant that Tesla built in Lathrop as an example of economic success. The complex now includes nine buildings.
Yet luring highly skilled workers and professionals to the county can be a challenge. There are fine colleges here, but some students go elsewhere and never return, Gardea said. He said Sutter Health has told him it has had a hard time luring doctors to the county.
And if San Joaquin County is going to widen its job base, it’s also going to need safe communities, Gardea said. Crime rates have been falling in Stockton, but he said one can never say it’s good enough. The key to cutting crime is to make sure that kids have options that keep them out of trouble.
Dhaliwal agreed, saying, “We need our youngsters to be safe and create opportunities for them.”
The event was the last of a two-part series hosted by the county’s Civic Alliance and featuring newly elected officials answering questions from moderators and local residents.
On Sept. 4, Stockton Vice Mayor and District 6 Councilmember Jason Lee and District 4 Councilmember Mario Enríquez addressed pointed criticisms of city leadership, calling for higher standards in the selection of a new city manager and shedding light on troubling budget practices and staffing shortfalls.