Pathways to Paychecks

Banning should not be a place you have to leave just to make a living.

In Banning, this isn't abstract. One of Riverside County's largest jail facilities sits down the street from Banning High School, where I graduated. Our kids should see clear routes into careers, stability, and public service, not dead ends.

Too often, that's not what our local economy delivers. Too many residents leave town every day for work, while too many of the jobs in Banning go to people commuting in from somewhere else. Too much of our time, wages, and opportunity leave the city instead of helping families build wealth here.

For too long, Banning has been told to celebrate job creation without asking who actually gets hired. That's backwards.

If growth is happening in Banning, local people should be first in line for the jobs, the training, and the future it creates.

Banning already has the institutions to do this: City Hall, San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital, Banning Unified, and Mt. San Jacinto College. They should be opening real local pathways into work, not standing by while opportunity passes local people by.

We need stronger standards, clearer pathways, and a city that treats local opportunity as a public responsibility, not something residents are left to figure out on their own.

As your Councilmember, I'll fight for good local jobs with a simple set of rules:

• Build the path from school to work. Expand paid internships, apprenticeships, mentorship, and school-to-career partnerships tied to real openings.

• Put local people first for local jobs. Require city-supported projects to include local hire goals, first-source hiring, paid training slots, and public accountability.

• Make community benefits enforceable. If a project brings more traffic, pollution, or strain on city services, it should come with real commitments the public can track.

• Keep more public dollars in Banning. Expand the local vendor pool, make contracting more accessible for small businesses, and speed up payment timelines.

• Make City Hall easier for small businesses. Simplify processes, publish clear timelines, and make the rules more consistent and easier to navigate.

• Turn local institutions into real job pipelines. Bring together the City, Banning Unified, Mt. San Jacinto College, the hospital, unions, and local employers to build clearer local routes into work.

Good local jobs aren't just about numbers on paper. They're about whether the people who grow up here can build a stable life here, and whether local growth actually opens doors for the people who already call Banning home.

If growth is happening in Banning, local people should be first in line for the jobs, the training, and the future it creates.