Part 2 of the series will cover the hearing’s first of three panels. On the agenda, the first panel was titled “Overview of the California Enterprise Zone Program” and the presenters were:

• Lynn Jacobs, Director, Department of Housing and Community Development
• Craig Johnson, President, California Association of Enterprise Zones
• Jean Ross, Executive Director, California Budget Project

This next clip includes the presentation by Director Jacobs:

JEDE Committee Hearing 8-18-09 Clip 2 from Max Shenker on Vimeo.

This clip includes the presentation by Craig Johnson:

JEDE Committee Hearing 8-18-09 Clip 3 from Max Shenker on Vimeo.

And this clip includes the presentation by Jean Ross:

JEDE Committee Hearing 8-18-09 Clip 4 from Max Shenker on Vimeo.

This final clip for the first panel is about 23 minutes and includes questions from the Committee and discussion of the panel:

JEDE Committee Hearing 8-18-09 Clip 5 from Max Shenker on Vimeo.

The most memorable exchange from this discussion was Chairman Perez’s question (about 13:57 into the video) to the panel, “On a scale of 1 to 10, if you had to make a decision today, how effective are Enterprise Zones in your opinion?” Jean Ross rated the program a 0. Director Jacobs and Craig Johnson both rated it a 9. Craig Johnson also took the opportunity to make a strong point for understanding the impact of the program at the individual worker and business owner level and not to base judgment strictly on data.

The next panel: “Business Activity within G-TEDAs.”