At the press conference, Mayor D.C. Reeves discussed his phone call with ST Engineering leadership this morning.
“I’ve asked them by Sept. 1 that they provide the number of jobs that have been created specifically within Hangar 1,” he said, adding the report is part of the job creation portion of the agreement with the company.
“There have been reports filed on the overall hiring, but they have not been pertained to a specific hangar,” Mayor Reeves said. “I’ve asked for a strategic plan for growing the workforce also by Sept. 1. That is something that has been asked for in previous years. I’m not sure if it’s been provided, so we’re asking for that now.”
He said ST Engineering leadership will come to Pensacola during the first week of September and “walk through that strategic plan of how we’re going to build this workforce here and what that investment is.”
The mayor added, “Then my goal would be to turn soon after that and go to FloridaWest, CareerSource EscaRosa, PSC (Pensacola State College), and UWF (University of West Florida) and have a conversation about making sure that we’re all on the same page with clarity about how we maximize this economic development investment that our taxpayers would pay.”
He later said Escambia County School District will also be invited to the meeting. “I believe the school district is one every pertinent party at the table, and what I hope is that we’ve got clarity on all sides.”
The mayor’s goal is to have a clear picture of ST Engineering’s future staffing needs and how our community partners develop a plan to meet those needs.
“Okay, ST Engineering, you’re going to create this amount of jobs. What I don’t want ST to say is that the community has not stepped up in a clear way to provide those opportunities in any way,” Mayor Reeves said. “But then it works the other side, too. We’re going to go step up and do that, so now you (ST Engineering) are accountable for doing what you say you’re going to do. Right now, it’s just too ambiguous.”
Recent Comments