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Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network program specialist Sal Barajas discusses ways of navigating the network’s site for career advancement and job search guides.

By Stephanie Raygoza
Editorial Intern

More than 25 Long Beach residents and job seekers showed up Tuesday for an informational workshop on how to use technology to find employment. The Office of Seventh District Councilmember James Johnson and the Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network presented the workshop in conjunction with the Brett Harte Library in West Long Beach.
The network’s program specialist, Sal Barajas, and job development team member Josh Butler conducted the two-hour workshop. Field deputy Mary Sramek from the councilmember’s office provided opening remarks on behalf of Johnson.
“The councilmember was really concerned about making sure we reached out to people in West Long Beach and made sure we gave them an effective means of really being eligible for not only jobs that are computer- and technology-related, but also being eligible for jobs where maybe you’re more experienced with working with your hands instead of computers,” Sramek said.
Barajas and Butler presented residents with an overview of what the hirelb.com website offers in addition to helping register job seekers. Registered applicants can get special advanced notice of network-sponsored hiring events catering to their career interests and designed to connect with employers currently hiring.
“What we want to do is make sure that you’re comfortable with using our website to put in your résumé and that you do it in several different ways that help all your skills,” said Kathy Parsons, business solutions officer for the network.
The network’s team also administered handouts for creating stronger résumés and building confidence skills during interviews. The company works with several employers that include the auto industry, construction companies, nonprofits and small employers with staffs of less than 20.
“One of our main goals is to really help the job seekers enter employment,” Barajas said. “We want to provide you with that guidance to make sure you know your skills and know what kind of jobs you can get with your skills.”
The network also provides extended services at its Career Transition Center located at 3447 Atlantic Ave. Visitors can get help writing résumés, figuring out alternative skills to broaden employment opportunities and enrolling in academic courses if needed.
Assistance such as referrals to housing resources, child care, transportation services based on individuals’ needs and scholarship opportunities are also available.
“We’re going to assist with different resources on how to obtain a general education degree, computer-related and apprenticeship programs,” Barajas said.
The nonprofit organization is dedicated to delivering critical workforce development and business programs to diverse communities. The network also provides its services for the cities of Signal Hill, Torrance and Lomita.
The registration process for hirelb.com and services at the center are completely free. Visitors stopping by the center are encouraged to register through the website first before getting paired up with a network specialist for job guidance.
“If you want to crack into a different industry, you can learn how with the website,” Butler said. “We want to get you all hooked up online so we can do your online job search.”

Youth who participated in the Summer Youth Employment Training Program pick up their paychecks at Veterans Park last week.

More than 335 employers have benefited from 209,000 hours of subsidized work through the efforts of 1,045 youth, thanks to the Pacific Workforce Investment Network’s Summer Youth Employment Training Program. As of August 27, more than $674,000 in payroll had been earned by the youth, and saved or used to support the local economy. About 1,000 of those young workers retrieved their checks last Friday afternoon at Veterans Park. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding, provided by the LA County Department of Social Services, was used to pay wages and workers compensation for the youth.

By Steven Piper
Editorial Intern

The end of August concluded the California legislature’s law-making season, and a bill (AB1955) that would have stringently regulated elected officials’ income levels died while in the Senate– only weeks after Los Angeles Times reporters exposed the criminally large salaries that certain employees in the City of Bell had been earning.
As developments in Sacramento continue to reveal how oversight of small charter cities will be handled, the City of Signal Hill has continued to maintain fiscal transparency.
City Manager Ken Farfsing, as previously reported by the Signal Tribune, has released the salaries of Signal Hill’s highest paid employees, in addition to the wages of all the city council members.
How to most accurately communicate the council’s wages, according to Farfsing, is not a simple task. At the request of numerous news outlets and governmental agencies, he has decided to use the medical wage figure to portray the City Council’s annual compensation.
“There is a difference between base salaries and additional compensation the employees may receive,” the city manager said. “We want to get the full description of what employees make.”
By disclosing Medicare wages, additional sources of compensation, such as car allowances and taxable health benefits, are included in the total– factors that are omitted in gross or base wages.
“The Medicare wage includes taxable benefits and could be cash or the value of benefits like a city vehicle,” Farfsing said. Every year, councilmembers automatically receive an annual $2,400 car allowance, which is added into the Medicare wage.
Complications arise, however, when the officials decide how they will use their cafeteria allowance, an amount that ranges between $800 and $900 to pay for vision, dental, and other health insurance needs.
In Councilmember Larry Forester’s case, certain health needs were not met by the offered plan, so the annual cafeteria allowance was split into two even pieces– one half going to the City and the other to a deferred compensation fund. The deferred compensation from the cafeteria, however, is a taxable benefit that adds about $5,000 to the medicare wage.
Councilmember Ellen Ward’s Medicare wage is boosted thousands of dollars because California does not recognize same-sex marriage. By using their own salary to purchase health coverage for their companion, the councilmember must list the partner’s health insurance as a taxable benefit and under the Medicare wage– even though the money used to pay for that insurance is coming from the original gross wage.
“I thought it was important to show that it works different with domestic partners,” Farfsing said. “That’s the difficulty of dealing with these Medicare wages.”
Discussion about total compensation and whether or not it should include CalPERS retirement medical moneys will also be an integral factor in reflecting how much a city official actually makes, according to Farfsing.
In the wake of the City of Bell scandal and their excessive retirement compensation, agencies and cities in the same retirement pool, Compton being one example, are going to have to figure out how to pay for the Bell officials’ high retirement benefits.
However, a piece of legislation that did pass before the legislature’s August 31 deadline was AB1987, which would put an end to the public employee practice of pension spiking– the accumulation of vacation and sick time until the end of their occupation so their retirement benefit is boosted, sometimes by tens of thousands of dollars.
The last day for Governor Schwarzenegger to sign or veto any bills passed by the legislature before the deadline is Sept. 30.

Marshalls, one of the nation’s largest off-price retailers, will open a new store in the Bixby Knolls Shopping Center, 4450 Atlantic Ave., on Thursday, Aug. 5. The 21,286-square-foot store, which will feature a contemporary design and a single-line checkout for fast service, is expected to add approximately 60 full- and part-time jobs to the area.
“This project began as an idea nearly six years ago. Now, we will open a successful national ‘destination retail’ experience here in Bixby Knolls,” said 8th District Councilmember Rae Gabelich. “I am confident that the community, Marshalls and GASKA (the property-management company that owns the shopping center) will realize the success of our efforts.”
The new location will include a Shoe MegaShop that features designer and brand-name shoes for the whole family. “Our exciting new Marshalls Shoe MegaShop offers thousands of designer shoes with new styles arriving several times each week,” said Marshalls spokesperson Laura McDowell. “Just pick out your favorite style, and look for your size in the boxes under the display.”
In addition, Marshalls’s new high-energy in-store boutique, The CUBE, has a color scheme, music and lighting unique from the rest of the store. The boutique-inspired department is designed to allow young women to shop for fashion-forward designer clothes and accessories more easily. Rather than being organized by size, apparel in The CUBE is organized by style, with coordinating accessories nearby, so shoppers can create a head-to-toe outfit more easily.
Grand-opening hours will be 10am to 8pm. Regular store hours will be 9:30am to 9:30pm Mondays through Saturdays, and 11am to 8pm on Sundays.

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