Aug 16, 2022
How To Tackle Workforce Inequity With Kome Ajise, Executive Director At Southern California Association of Governments Episode 76
00:00:00 Kome
But the issue, I think, that
compels maybe an even more in-depth conversation is to what extent
is that equitable? Do we all have access to being able to work at
home? And so, the digital divide, I think, is the bigger issue here
in the conversation about the future of the
workplace.
00:00:22 Christina
The workforce landscape is
rapidly changing and educators and their institutions need to keep
up. Preparing students before they enter the workforce to make our
communities and businesses stronger is at the core of getting an
education.
00:00:35 Christina
But we need to understand how to
change and adjust so that we can begin to project where things are
headed before we even get there. So, how do we begin to predict the
future?
00:00:47 Salvatrice
Hi, I'm Salvatrice Cummo, Vice
President of Economic and Workforce Development at Pasadena City
College, and host of this podcast.
00:00:55 Christina
And I'm Christina Barsi,
producer and co-host of this podcast.
00:00:59 Salvatrice
And we are starting the
conversation about the future of work. We'll explore topics like
how education can partner with industry, how to be more equitable,
and how to attain one of our highest goals; more internships, and
PCC students in the workforce.
00:01:13 Salvatrice
We at Pasadena City College want
to lead the charge in closing the gap between what our students are
learning and what the demands of the workforce will be once they
enter. This is a conversation that impacts all of us. You, the
employers, the policymakers, the educational institutions, and the
community as a whole.
00:01:33 Christina
We believe change happens when
we work together, and it all starts with having a conversation. I'm
Christina Barsi.
00:01:41 Salvatrice
And I'm Salvatrice Cummo, and
this is the Future of Work.
00:01:44 Salvatrice
Hi everyone, and welcome back to
the Future of Work Podcast, I am your host Salvatrice Cummo. Today,
we'll be talking about the Southern California Association of
Governments and what they are doing to encourage a more sustainable
Southern California. We will also talk about SCAG's partnership and
how we as a community college can get involved.
00:02:05 Salvatrice
With that, we want to welcome
Executive Director of the Southern California Association of
Governments, Kome Ajise. Mr. Ajise brings over three decades of
experience in regional planning and transportation. He has served
in his Executive Director role since 2019, and we are lucky to have
him here with us today. Kome, welcome.
00:02:26 Kome
Thank you, Salvatrice. Glad to
be here. Thanks for having us.
00:02:29 Salvatrice
Thank you. Let's dive right on
in if that's okay with you.
00:02:32 Kome
Sure.
00:02:32 Salvatrice
Excellent. For our listeners,
can you please share with us what led you in this path of work in
regional planning and transportation, and why it's something that
you continue to work in?
00:02:45 Kome
Well, thank you. Great question.
You never know what you're going to end up doing in life as a
career, but you have aspirations. I growing up always wanted to be
an architect because I have this sense of just being enamored with
spatial references and how the spaces around us are formed and
conceived.
00:03:02 Kome
Didn't quite have enough chops
to get into architectural schools, so I became a planner. I think
it's the way the story would go. And I'd worked in planning for the
last couple of decades, mostly on the transportation side, always
wanted to be a city and regional planner because that's what I have
a graduate degree in.
00:03:19 Kome
And the opportunity at SCAG came
along in 2017 to be back to planning. And so, it was really
welcomed, grace that I had to be able to come back to planning,
especially in the largest metropolitan region in the entire
country. So, it's been almost like a gift to be back where I really
wanted to be as a professional.
00:03:40 Kome
And at the regional planning
level, we are a little bit removed from local planning. At the same
time, we have strong interaction with local planning to conceive of
the vision for a region. So, that continues to sustain my drive and
my passion for wanting to again, see about how our environment is
formed and shaped and conceived of.
00:04:03 Salvatrice
That's great. Thank you so much
for sharing that. And in this work, in this role since 2019, have
there been opportunities where SCAG is partnering with employers or
community colleges in workforce initiatives, programming, really
anything of those matters?
00:04:19 Kome
Yeah, we don't directly engage
in workforce training other than our employees, and we again,
strive to be an employer of choice. And so, we focus on that for
our employees. However, we are engaged in a program that's funded
by the state. There's a 3.5 million inclusive economic recovery
strategy program that we came up with coming out of the recession,
and we're fortunate to get a grant from the state of
California.
00:04:45 Kome
And so, we're using that to
engage our economic partners and our local agencies. And
indirectly, there will be some workforce training element in that
strategy, in the spending of the 3.5 million over
time.
00:05:00 Kome
Now, through our diversity,
equity, and inclusion efforts, we also make sure that we are living
up to the tenants of the policy that adapted on equity. And so, we
try to bring in a diverse group of employees, and especially,
interns with respect to colleges. We have a very inclusive
internship program that affords students around our region to be
able to spend time working with us.
00:05:28 Kome
We also participate in
fellowships like the CivicSpark's Fellowship, where we bring in
both current students and recent graduates back to spend a year or
two with us, gaining that initial experience before they then find
their way in the profession. Those two initiatives; the internship
program and the fellowships have been very, very productive, both
ways.
00:05:49 Kome
For us, tremendous amount of
work was done, but we also feel like the participants have gained a
lot, and all of them have gone on to gainful endeavors beyond SCAG.
Many of them stay with us where we have openings. So, to answer
your question, that's the extent to which I think we would see
ourselves in workforce training.
00:06:09 Salvatrice
That's a lot. It may sound
simple, just one or two things as the internships and the
fellowship, but the mobility that SCAG is offering those
participants in those two capacities is forever within their career
journey. It's not wasted. You've created some significant impact
for those individuals that are able to participate with SCAG within
these two vehicles. So, thank you. Thank you for doing
that.
00:06:33 Kome
Yeah, it's just a matter of when
people go to seek employment, the employers are always looking for
experience. And if they never get a chance to work, how would they
get the experience? So, the internship and fellowship programs, I
think they're rich for that. And when somebody's a fellow with us
for two years, postgraduate, that's a strong experience to take
anywhere.
00:06:54 Kome
And we just had three fellows
leave us this last month. And two of them have gone onto really
significant employment in planning. And I think one's probably
pursuing further education, getting their graduate degree. We feel
very blessed to have had them on because they did work for us that
continues to be sustained to help us get what we need to get done,
done.
00:07:15 Salvatrice
Thank you so much. Are you
finding that maybe perhaps the fellows, are you finding that
they're helping raise awareness around trends, around policy trends
within planning, development? Or is that something separate one of
your team members is doing on really seeking the trends around
policy design as it relates to planning and
development?
00:07:38 Kome
Oh, absolutely. They are
assigned real work - real and current work. In fact, I think the
three fellows that I just referenced, work on an emerging area of
housing, accessory dwelling units, ADUs. These are relatively new
in concept. This used to be the granny flats that you would have in
the back of houses, and they have now been formalized as a matter
of policy in the state.
00:08:02 Kome
And so, the question is how do
they fit in the strategy for increasing housing supply in our
region, and they did some really good work, groundbreaking work for
us in identifying the barriers and constraints, and the
opportunities for ADUs, accessory dwelling units in our region. So,
they've left us with that gift. So, they spend a good amount of
their time on it.
00:08:24 Kome
And that's really one of the ...
employers should take note of that. That's one of the benefits of
having these young, bright minds be given meaty tasks, focus on it,
get you a well-done product and they leave you with work. That may
be your full staff just wouldn't have time for because there's all
the other stuff that's going on in the agency. So, that was a real
benefit and a good example, and we had them present it to our board
last week and it was well-received.
00:08:53 Salvatrice
Fantastic.
00:08:54 Kome
And it was gratifying to see
them accomplish what they did.
00:08:57 Salvatrice
And that's really speaking to
Southern California's sustainability, and to have them really
develop this product that you can then implement, expand, amplify,
all those good things. To your point, you're right. Most
organizations don't have the bandwidth to do everything else that
is needed outside of the daily functions of that
organization.
00:09:18 Salvatrice
And I wonder just kind of like
along that same thread, is there room or space for community
colleges to partner with SCAG, or if you're seeing other entities
partnering with community colleges that can support the
intentionality of making Southern California more
sustainable?
00:09:39 Kome
Oh, absolutely. I'm a fan of
interns coming into an organization. And I say that selfishly,
because I started working as an intern with the Department of
Transportation, Caltrans many, many years ago, and that led to a
full-time job with Caltrans. And I spent most of my career working
at Caltrans.
00:09:58 Kome
So, coming in as an intern, one,
it's really helping the prospective employee at the time as an
intern, understand what that agency is; if it's a good fit for them
or otherwise, they get some experience to go somewhere else that's
a good fit. So, at SCAG, we are available - not just we would be -
we're available to work with colleges.
00:10:18 Kome
One of the things to note in our
region is we're rich with higher education population. And there's
just a really deep talent pool in our region. So, we always look to
bring those talents to our organization, to the extent that they're
interested in the mission of SCAG.
00:10:35 Salvatrice
Fantastic. And just to switch
gears a little bit - related kind of unrelated, SCAG; what could we
look forward to in the near future? Are there any new projects that
you and your team are working on that you'd like to bring to light
or share with us today?
00:10:50 Kome
There are a lot of things going
on. We have a very dynamic region. Our region is the 16th largest
economy in the world, if it were a country by itself. So, if you
stop to think about 193 or so countries in the world, if you take
their economies, we would fit right there in the top 20, just for
the sixth county area. So, it's a very vibrant economic region,
probably the most vibrant in the country.
00:11:12 Kome
So, we have this need to
continue to maintain that vitality economically. But on top of
that, under the adage of walking and chewing gum at the same time,
while we are so focused on the vitality, we must also not forget
what makes this region attractive to people. It's the environment.
And so, preserving that environment, it's not an either-or, it's
and, it's both.
00:11:35 Kome
So, our work is really vitally
engaged in making those connections between assuring that we
maintain our economic vitality, but also, maintain our
environmental consciousness while at the same time, making sure it
works for everybody. So, that equity overlay that we've been
talking about over the last couple of years, more so, becomes very
important.
00:11:55 Kome
So, to your question about what
are the things we're working on, there are just a number of things.
One is having come out of the racial reckoning that we had over the
last couple of years and strongly making a statement by a board on
equity, we're guided very, very much so on ensuring that there's an
equity lens across the programs that we operate. And so, that's one
major initiative where we're always focused on making sure that
what we're doing affects everybody equally and also, bring
capacities and opportunities to everybody
equally.
00:12:27 Kome
So, on that note, one major
initiative we just launched in February is the regional data
platform. One of the assets we have at SCAG, at the Southern
California Association of Governments (we always call ourselves
SCAG) is the Regional Data Platform, the RDP. What that is, is we
are a repository of a lot of data. So, it takes this data that is
about each one of our member agencies, the cities, the 191 cities,
and six counties that make up SCAG.
00:12:54 Kome
Each one of them have
characteristics and data that we have, and being able to have that
data available to each city at a very sophisticated two-level using
geographic information systems, the GIS system, such that any one
city can participate at the world-class level in terms of planning.
So, I say that, and it doesn't sound like much, but when you stop
to think about the fact that out of 191 cities, about, I'd say,
almost 70% of them are a hundred thousand population or
less.
00:13:24 Kome
So, they're not necessarily the
big cities, that's 70% of them. So, majority of our cities have a
population of a hundred thousand or less, and clearly, about 20% or
so of them are even smaller than that, maybe 20,000
population.
00:13:34 Kome
So, these are not communities
that have a lot of resources available to them to be able to play
at the sophisticated level of regional planning and even local
planning with the tools that the RDP brings to them. So, being able
to launch the RDP was a very major initiative for
us.
00:13:51 Kome
And so, it allows each one of
our cities to have access, and that goes to equity when all cities
have access to the same tools, to be able to do the same level of
GIS work, to be able to have data-driven decision-making available
to their policymakers because the RDP affords them that, but also,
the RDP affords us to engage our communities.
00:14:14 Kome
So, it gives them the capacity
to do civic engagement through this same tool where everybody's
online now, but you need that capacity to be able to engage folks
online. So, through the RDP, we have that. And then also, finally,
have the planners in each one of these cities have access to
capacities that are only available to maybe the richest of
communities.
00:14:33 Kome
So, that's a major initiative
that we just launched and it's getting recognized. In fact, we were
given an award on Monday by Esri, the International User
Conference, which was attended by 14,000 people. The award was
Making a Difference Award and we were really proud to have been
there to accept that with our board president, Jan Harnik from Palm
Desert. That's one big initiative that I could put out to respond
to your question.
00:14:59 Salvatrice
Thank you very much. Is there
any dialogue or conversation within planning and development - and
this may not be appropriate for SCAG or something that SCAG has a
pulse on, but I feel like all the cities right now are preparing
for the Olympics in 2028, everyone's getting like really excited
about it. What role does SCAG play in that? Is there anything
happening within the respect of preparations for that? Is that an
appropriate question or ask?
00:15:25 Kome
It is. We stand ready to be part
of a more in-depth discussion about how we plan for the Olympics.
We've had some conversations with principals in it. Obviously,
we're not going to be at the center of it, but I think we have
capacities and a role to bring to the conversation, given that we
cover the region.
00:15:42 Kome
And the Olympics is not going to
be centered in one city. It's going to be across the region, if not
different parts of the state for that matter in terms of events.
And how do you get to and from those events, is a major mobility
issue that I think is right in our wheelhouse.
00:15:57 Kome
We all notice to participate. I
think there are some discussions going on that we have been part
of, but we're not going to drive it at this point, is what I'm
saying. So, yeah, we're relevant to the conversation and we
continue to be available to be part of the conversation, but I
think it's ramping up now. You'll probably see more of our role in
it over time.
00:16:17 Salvatrice
Thank you for sharing that. I
imagine that there's going to be some projects and momentum and
activities coming out of SCAG in preparations for just given just
the natural/the genetic makeup of SCAG and it's purpose and
intention within our area.
00:16:31 Kome
Yeah. We're excited about just
the notion of the Olympics coming in the first
place.
00:16:35 Salvatrice
That's right. It is
exciting.
00:16:36 Kome
We're going to bring our
capacities to the table to make sure it's
successful.
00:16:39 Salvatrice
That's right. That's right. This
is the Future Work Podcast and if there is one thing you want our
listener to understand about this topic and how it impacts their
future, what might that be?
00:16:55 Kome
The one thing, that's where it
makes the question really hard. Because it's not one
thing.
00:17:00 Salvatrice
Well, you could sprinkle in some
bonuses.
00:17:03 Kome
I think one of the things to
note, and this is not going to be breaking news for anybody, is
that more of us are working from home. Before COVID, we had
anticipated that the population, the workforce that would work from
home would be in sub 10%, essentially, and maybe might grow to
about 12%.
00:17:25 Kome
We're noting that that's
obviously changed. We were a hundred percent working from home for
those who were office-bound before COVID. There's still a lot of
employment that is in-person. Obviously, if you work in a hospital,
if you work in the shipyards or factory, it's in-person. So, when
you break the employment categories down, I think there is about
45% or so positions that have the potential to work from
home.
00:17:50 Kome
So, when you then break that
down, I think we had assumed that there will be a hundred percent
of those people would work from home, but more and more - I'm in
the office and we're getting back in the office. I think that
number is probably in the sub 20%.
00:18:04 Kome
So, we'll see that. But the
issue, I think, that compels maybe an even more in-depth
conversation is to what extent is that equitable? Do we all have
access to being able to work at home? And so, the digital divide, I
think, is the bigger issue here in the conversation about the
future of the workplace.
00:18:23 Kome
We have a saying here at SCAG,
and I picked this up from my team who had been working on this
concept of work at SCAG, where we're operating a hybrid work
environment. Now, it was a very thoughtful process by our staff to
do that. And we say work is not where we go, but what we do. And
when you start to think of work in terms of what you do, not where
you go, then the concept of the future of work begins to be so wide
open because then work can be done from
anywhere.
00:18:53 Kome
And the question is what
facilitates that and obviously, access to high-speed internet is
key to that. And then question, is how many people do have access
to high-speed internet? So, we begin to think about how do we close
that digital divide so that more people have the opportunity to
make the choice of where they want to work.
00:19:11 Kome
And so, it then implicates this
whole conversation that we've been having about the great
resignation that we're seeing. I think over time, it's evolving
from where it's more of a contemplation where people are now
rethinking what exactly they want to do.
00:19:27 Kome
And that features into what
employers offer what they want to do. And so, there's that mobility
in the economy as a result that's creating a lot of shift to where
people that really want to work from home for various many reasons
are looking for those opportunities and not being
static.
00:19:43 Kome
So, in terms of the future of
work, I think the digital divide is a key player in there. And
obviously, mobility is important because that's one of our key
areas of interest. How we move becomes very important as well. Many
of our young folks are not necessarily bound by the automobile. We
live in a region where we are noted for our highways, but by all
means, we know the future of work requires us to be a little bit
more diversified in how we move.
00:20:13 Kome
So, the notion of mobility as a
service, being able to not necessarily own a car, but if you need a
car, you have access to it. But having a choice to be able to take
transit or scooter, or one of the small micro-mobility options
available to you, that choice also begins to affect the concept of
work into the future.
00:20:32 Kome
So, when you look at our
regional planning, we're focused on exactly that; creating choice
for folks in terms of how they move. You could have a car, but you
don't have to drive your car all the time, especially if you have a
choice to take the train. The Metrolink system is one of the gems
of our region. It's a commuter rail system.
00:20:52 Kome
Before COVID, it was doing
really well. Because of COVID, mostly commuters, the ridership
dropped, but what's really key to what Metrolink offers is, most
people that took Metrolink actually have cars, but it was the
choice that was afforded them allowed them to take it to
work.
00:21:10 Kome
And so, Metrolink is beginning
to adjust to making that same choice available to non-com commuters
such that we have that choice across the hours of the day as
opposed to just in the morning commute and the evening
commute.
00:21:22 Kome
So, those are the things that
are implicit to the future of work is what kind of mobility of
choices we have, and what kind of access do we have to work in
terms of high-speed internet.
00:21:34 Salvatrice
Mobility and access. I mean,
that in itself is one hour-long topic. It's complex to say the
least, not unreasonable, and not unachievable. It is achievable. It
just takes system alignment.
00:21:49 Kome
It takes intentionality. It
takes really good study and bringing good data and good information
to bear on decision making such that we make the right
choices.
00:22:00 Salvatrice
Thank you very, very much. This
has been just a lovely conversation. I know that you're incredibly
busy. I follow the work of SCAG, so I know exactly what's going on,
but thank you so-so much for offering your time and your talent and
your domain expertise with us. And if there's a way that our
listener would like to connect, what is the best way to connect
with you?
00:22:22 Kome
I think the best place is to go
to our website; scag.ca.gov. There's a wealth of information on
there. And of course, you'll find my contact on there as well. I
can be reached easily through the website.
00:22:34 Salvatrice
Fantastic. We'll be sure to put
that in the show notes. Thank you very much, Kome, and you have a
wonderful day.
00:22:40 Kome
Absolutely. Thank you,
Salvatrice. You have a wonderful day too.
00:22:43 Salvatrice
Thank you.
00:22:43 Salvatrice
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00:22:54 Salvatrice
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