april 15-28, 2014 section a

April 15-28, 2014 lbbusinessjournal.com

HealthWiseAllergies, HayFever, AllergicRhinitis.

What DoesIt All Mean?See Page 26

The College

Of Business

Administration

At CSULB

Connecting The

Classroom To The

Business World • Pg 4

Long Beach Business Journal2599 E. 28th Street, Suite 212Signal Hill, CA 90755-2139562/988-1222 • www.lbbusinessjournal.com

PRSRT STD

U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDLong Beach, CA

PERMIT NO. 254

Problems With Long Beach Contracts: How The City Protects Taxpayer Dollars

Randy Gordon Marks 20 Years At The Helm Of

The Long Beach Area Chamber Of Commerce� By TIFFANY L. RIDER

Editor

O n Friday, April 4, RandyGordon made a phone call

to Diane Creel, the woman whohired him 20 years ago to be pres-ident of the Long Beach AreaChamber of Commerce. “Iwanted to thank her,” he said. Gordon, who has been work-

ing with chambers of commercefor more than 30 years, carries atorch for business as the presi-dent and CEO of the LongBeach Chamber, which hostsnetworking events, takes posi-tions on policy and backs pro-business candidates running forpublic office. In an interviewwith the Business Journal,Gordon said he expects to con-tinue his business advocacythrough the remaining six yearsof his contract. Then he plans toretire. Born and raised in Lubbock,

POLITICALWIRE

Garcia Squares Off With Dunn ToBe The Next Mayor Of Long Beach

� By GEORGE ECONOMIDES

Publisher’s Analysis

I n what is expected to be the most expensive race for mayor inthe city’s history, Robert Garcia, 36, and Damon Dunn, 38,

are facing off June 3 to secure a four-year term as Long Beach’stop elected official.Although relatively few votes separated the top two finishers in

the April 8 primary, Garcia, a Democrat, is already pegged as hav-ing the advantage – due primarily to a historically larger voterturnout in June because of statewide and congressional races andthe fact that Dems far outnumber Republicans in Long Beach.Garcia also has the backing of Mayor Bob Foster, whose popularityand fundraising ability proved pivotal to Garcia making the runoff.Dunn, a top student/athlete at Stanford, showed he’s as good with

numbers as he was with a football. He spent more than a year strate-gically dissecting Long Beach and targeting areas with door-to-doorvisits and on-message mailers. His moves were impressive as,according to a Business Journal review of Election Day votes, hewon two districts and finished no lower than third in the others. Butit did cost him nearly $450,000 of his own money to get this far.He’ll need to dig even deeper into his personal war chest for June.With Garcia tied directly to Foster, voters may perceive him –

despite his youth and his efforts to be his “own man” with his ownagenda and list of priorities – as part of the “old guard” or “theestablishment.” Shaking that moniker is easier said than done.Dunn represents the “outsider” who brings a completely new

direction, a new vision for the city with no strings attaching him tocurrent elected officials or to current city policies.Voters now have to decide which way to go and who to trust to

lead this city over the next four, and most likely, eight years. Moreimportantly, based on the very weak voter turnout for the primaries,the next mayor needs to be an individual who can reenergize thecitizens of Long Beach and get them back involved in contributingto the success of the city, its neighborhoods and its businesses.Both men have that potential. Who best can convey that to the vot-ers – irrespective of party affiliation – should come out on top.

April 8 Primary Results – See Page 23

(Please Continue To Page 21)

Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Randy Gordonkeeps a row of elephants lined up at the edge of his desk. “A good friend gaveme my first one about 20 years ago and I started buying them as I traveledaround the world,” Gordon, a Republican, told the Business Journal. “So far Ithink I have one from at least 10 different countries. . . . What people may notknow is elephants are extremely intelligent animals and have memories that spanmany years. They form deep family bonds and live in tight matriarchal groups.”(Photograph by the Business Journal’s Thomas McConville)

� By TIFFANY L. RIDER

Editor’s Analysis

T he Long Beach Convention& Entertainment Center’s

solar laminate system manage-ment company goes bankrupt. Theconstruction contractor for theLong Beach Airport’s new termi-nal project stops paying employ-ees. The city receives an egregiouschange order on a contract for itswebsite upgrade project. These are just some examples

of city contracts gone awry thatthe Business Journal has come

across in the past couple of years.There are likely many more wedon’t know about. So what doesthe City of Long Beach do inthese types of situations? Before more of these examples

accumulate, the Business Journalinvestigated how the city protectsitself and taxpayer dollars in con-tracted deals like those mentionedabove. We interviewed variouscity officials over the past twomonths, gathering detailed expla-nations of the processes throughwhich purchases are made. Hereis what we have learned.

Spending RulesThe city spends money in essen-

tially three ways: without an invita-tion to bid; with an invitation tobid; and through a two-step processusing a request for qualificationsand a request for proposals.A contract doesn’t always need

to be submitted for a bid, accordingto Amy Manning, the city’s

� By MICHAEL GOUGIS

Contributing Writer

B oeing plans to expand itsCommercial Airplanes

Engineering Design Center inSouthern California, adding 1,000new employees at its facilities inLong Beach and Seal Beach, com-pany officials announced April 10.The company intends to cen-

tralize the customer support forall of its commercial airplanesthat are currently in service, saidLynne Thompson, vice presidentof Customer Support,Commercial Aviation Services,Boeing Commercial Airplanes.It will do so by expanding the

responsibilities of the already-announced Commercial Airplanes

Long BeachCompetes To

Become ‘CoolestCalifornia City’

� By TIFFANY L. RIDER

Editor

B uilding on existing effortsto clean the air and con-

serve energy, the City of LongBeach is participating in astatewide challenge to encourageresidents to reduce their carbonfootprints. Participants voluntarily enroll

(Please Continue To 5)(Please Continue To Page 10)

Boeing To Add 1,000 EngineeringJobs In Long Beach, Seal Beach


1_LBBJ_Apirl 1_SectionA_LBBJ MASTER LAYOUT 4/14/14 5:17 PM Page 1

INSIDE THIS ISSUE2 Long Beach Business Journal April 15-28, 2014

3 Newswatch• Coastal Commission Strikes Down Permit For Hotel Project• Measure A Passes; Ordinance Heading To Commission• Long Beach City Hall News In Brief• Paid Sick Leave Bill Tops California Chamber’s Job Killers• Broadway Visioning Study Suggests Lane Reconfigurations

14 Going Green• LB-exchange Program Benefits Local Nonprofits• Water Conservation: When In Dought, State, City Step In

20 Entrepreneur Of The Year21 Q&A With Randy Gordon23 PoliticalWire24 Encore – People In The News26 Perspective

Realty Views Housing Tax Breaks Back On The Table By Terry RossEffective Leadership Innovation: What We Can LearnFrom The Best By Mick UklejaHealthWise Allergies, Hay Fever, Allergic Rhinitis. WhatDoes It All Mean? By Dr. Inderpal RandhawaTrade And Transportation The State’s Other PortsBy Tom O’BrienEarth Talk Earth Day 2014: Greening Our Cities

Section BReal Estate Quarterly

DIGITALedition

GET ALL THREE FOR FREE . . .

WWW.LBBUSINESSJOURNAL.COM

THREE FOR FREE . . .GET ALL

editionALDIGITTAL

THREE FOR FREE . . .

.LBBUSINESSJOURNAL.CWWW OM.LBBUSINESSJOURNAL.C

$5.00Off

$5.00Off

Your purchaseDine-in/Carry out

With purchase over $20.Not valid on delivery or

with other offers. Expires 5/15/14

562.432.2211250 W. Ocean Blvd., L.B.

562.595.6138401 W. Willow St., L.B.

310.547.06551423 S. Gaffey St., S.P.

ORDER ONLINEBUONOSPIZZA.COM

facebook.com/BuonosAuthenticPizzeriatwitter.com/BuonosPizzeria

facebook.com/BuonosAuthenticPizzeriatwitter.com/BuonosPizzeria

1_LBBJ_Apirl 1_SectionA_LBBJ MASTER LAYOUT 4/13/14 4:46 PM

NEWSWATCHApril 15-28, 2014 Long Beach Business Journal 3

Developer To Move Forward WithOriginal, Already-Approved Plan

� By TIFFANY L. RIDEREditor

As a result of a unanimous vote from theCalifornia Coastal Commission denying amodified design, Silversands PropertiesUSA is moving forward with an entitledproject design that will replace the existingBeach Plaza Hotel at 2010 E. Ocean Blvd.Just a few weeks prior to the April 11 hear-

ing on the modified project permit applica-tion, the appellant, labor group Unite HereLocal 11, discovered that Long Beach’sLocal Coastal Program (LCP) – a collectionof rules for development along the coast –explicitly protects three motels in the bluffcommunity – including Beach Plaza Hotel.This revelation was significant to the com-mission, as several members raised concernsthat approving the modified permit applica-tion for 2010 E. Ocean Blvd. would set aprecedent for future development applicantsto disregard LCPs across California.“We’re always reaching for LCPs that are

weak and now we have one that is strong onthis issue,” Commissioner Carole Groomsaid during the hearing. “I think we need tofollow this LCP and deny the permit appli-cation before us.” A motion made by Commissioner Greg

Cox to continue the item for 60 days wasdenied 8-4, with Commissioner LongBeach Vice Mayor Robert Garcia votingno. Commissioner Mark Vargas made themotion to have the coastal commissionapprove the staff recommendation to awardthe permit, but recommended a “no” vote –meaning those who voted no would also bevoting to deny the modified permit appli-cation. Garcia could not be reached forcomment at press time.Studio One Eleven, who was hired by

Silversands to design the project and applyfor the permit allowing modifications, wasmore than happy to defer the vote and sitdown with representatives of Unite HereLocal 11, and coastal staff to resolve theissues, Mike Murchison, a representative forSilversands, told the Business Journal. Heexpressed frustration over the final decision. “It was mind boggling to watch,”

Murchison said. “We’re going to do wellwith the project, but from a communitystandpoint, they’re not getting what theywant. I just think the whole thing shows alack of understanding and underapprecia-tion of a quality project that everybodycould have benefitted by.”The modified project design presented

to the coastal commission includes 72hotel rooms, 32 condo units, parking thatmeets city standards and additionalamenities like a beach level café, a street

level restaurant and bike rental facilities.If approved, Silversands would have topay the coastal commission $1.36 millionin mitigation, or in-lieu, fees. The project under entitlement, however,

has only 40 hotel rooms, with 56 adjacentresidential properties, and lacks the sus-tainably designed and community-servingamenities of the modified project design.Murchison confirmed that a date has notbeen set for breaking ground on the enti-tled project.At the meeting, Melanie Luthern,

research analyst for the appellant UniteHere Local 11, urged commissioners dur-ing her presentation to vote no despite thefact that Silversands could move forwardwith its entitlement. “Regardless of the factthat there is an entitled project and themodified project would allow for morehotel rooms, the issue is with setting prece-dent [in the local coastal program],”Luthern said in her testimony.The city’s LCP, adopted and certified in

1980, explicitly protects three motel proper-ties in the bluff community, including BeachPlaza Hotel. That language, found on page131 of the 447-page LCP, reads, “The exist-ing visitor serving facilities, especially forthe three motels, shall be preserved as theyprovide for coastal access and enjoyment bypersons of low and moderate income.”Unite Here Local 11 appealed the project

to the coastal commission in the first placebecause, they argue, the new development’shotel room rates would limit access to low-and moderate-income people. Other con-cerns include increased traffic and limitingviews of the ocean. Prior to the meeting Luthern told the

Business Journal that approving the modi-fied project dismisses the LCP and cir-cumvents due process. “The language inthe specific plan was not raised at anylevel of appeal or any public process,” she


Editor Rider LeavingThe Business JournalBusiness Journal Editor Tiffany L.

Rider is leaving for another positionoutside of Long Beach. Rider said shewas recruited for the position and hasbeen asked by her new employer not toidentify the company at this time. Shejoined the Business Journal as a staffwriter in September 2009, soon aftergraduating from California StateUniversity, Long Beach. She was laterpromoted to senior writer, assistant edi-tor and then, in mid-January of this year,to editor. Her last day with the BusinessJournal is April 25. “Tiffany has been anintegral part of the Business Journal,always willing to take on new chal-lenges,” Business Journal PublisherGeorge Economides said. “We wish herwell in this next step in her life.” �

3225 E. Pacific Coast Hwy.

Fast Delivery7 Days a Week

562.498.8788www.bigepizza.com

& counting!

Y28 2 Y

s ear rs Y

Y

Ye

e Ye

F3225 E. P

ert DelivFacific Coas3225 E. P .t Hwy y.acific Coas

www

562.498.87 DaF

y

epizza.com.bigwww

788562.498.8eek

ys a W Weeky Da ay

yk

ert DelivasF

epizza.com

788kyyk

State Coastal Commission Strikes Down PermitApplication For Modified Beach Plaza Hotel Project

Coupon

$5 off any order of $25 or more*

Join us

Easter Sunday! Open for Dine-in

at Noon. Take-out at 10 AM.

Make a reservation or place a TOGO orderat ribcompany.com

t at

t 10 AM.

pla Make a reservation or

n

ae-out

akt Noon. T aa

or Dine-in Open f for Dine-in y! Easter Sunda

Join us

Make a reservation or

*Cannot be combined with any other of

$25 o a

of 5 f$5 of

LBBJ

, coupon or discount.ferr, coupon or discount.*Cannot be combined with any other of

e* or mor ny order y

2014p /1/05Expires 0


NEWSWATCH4 Long Beach Business Journal April 15-28, 2014

explained. “[The commission] would be creating prece-dent on how these types of specific plans are interpretedin the future.”Other individuals from Long Beach who testified

prior to the commission’s vote to deny the permit,including Porter Gilberg, secretary of the AlamitosBeach Neighborhood Association, and Elizabeth Lambe,president of the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust,echoed Luthern’s concerns. “Our interest in this issue isour interest in preserving the local coastal program,”Lambe said.In the weeks leading up to the meeting, the coastal com-

mission received several letters from members of the com-munity, including Long Beach’s 2nd District

Councilmember Suja Lowenthal, requesting a no vote onthe modified project design. “At the time [the modified project permit application]

came to the council, it wasn’t clear to us that there was aconflict in the coastal plan,” Lowenthal told the BusinessJournal. “We need to update our local coastal program orhonor what’s in there. Had we been aware at the time, weprobably could have dealt with it at the council level. Idon’t know what action we could have taken, but I wouldhave preferred we were aware.” As a representative of the Long Beach City Council,

Lowenthal made the motion to approve and voted in favor ofpermitting the modifications to the Beach Plaza Hotel devel-opment project at the council level last July, though she didmake amendments to the project’s transportation elements toreduce traffic congestion. Unite Here Local 11 appealed thisvote to the coastal commission last December. �

Connecting TheClassroom To TheBusiness World

Next month, the College ofBusiness Administration will wel-come nearly 1,000 undergraduateand MBA students to our alumniranks, joining nearly 45,000 CBAalums from previous years. FromMay 20 to May 23, the universitywill graduate nearly 9,000 stu-dents that will bring alumni totalsto 290,000. All the books willhave been read, exams taken, proj-ects finished, and cases written,and we will push all these new

grads/alums out into the unforgiving reality of theircareer paths.The university’s purpose is to graduate students with

highly valued degrees, and we strive to do this in theCBA. Our dedicated faculty and students use the class-room to master the concepts and principles of the mainbusiness disciplines, from Accounting to Marketing. Inthe next articles we will highlight the College’s efforts inexpanding the scope and quality of majors offered, aswell as different opportunities for the students to testtheir knowledge in a competitive environment. Career success depends on how well concepts and

principles are applied. Recent columns in this serieshighlighted how Accounting majors complete taxreturns for low-income individuals, Finance majorsmanage real-money investment portfolios, and MBAstudents work with local businesses on sustainabilityprojects. In the coming weeks, you will read about otherways that the CBA extends the classroom in ways thatincrease the value of our degrees.The Innovation Challenge is an opportunity for under-

graduate and graduate students from across the univer-sity to make a difference in our local and global commu-nities through innovation. Student teams, often combin-ing engineering and business students, write businessplans about their original ideas and compete forresources to start their own companies. The InternationalCollegiate Business Strategy Competition is hosted bythe CBA and brings over 30 teams from universitiesacross the country and across the US borders here tocompete in a business simulation. Future articles will also highlight our focus on profes-

sional development through internships, and the devel-opment of CBA’s Operations and Supply ChainManagement program in collaboration with leaders inthe industry. You will see how prepared our students arefor the real world and how they hit the career path run-ning. Look out, real world!Note: In the last CBA column highlighting the Ukleja

Center, the Business Journal failed to include the Center’s

website. Should readers be interested in accessing more

information on the Ethical Leadership Program, visit:

www.csulb.edu/cba/ucel/educational/.

(The College of Business Administration at Cal State

Long Beach is an AACSB accredited business school that

provides undergraduates and MBAs with the knowledge

and skills necessary to be successful in their careers and

to propel the economic development of our region.) �

Beach Plaza Hotel Project(Continued From Page 3)

By Michael Solt, Dean,College of BusinessAdministration,California State

University, Long Beach


In the April 8 Primary Nominating Election, LongBeach residents voted nearly four to one in favor of themedical marijuana sales tax ballot initiative, Measure A. With a few ballots remaining to be counted yesterday

(April 14), the Long Beach City Clerk’s office reported30,477 votes in favor (73.88 percent) versus 10,774against (26.12 percent). Nearly 60 percent of the votes caston the measure were by mail.These results show that people of Long Beach want to see

medical marijuana regulated, according to Adam Hijazi,boardmember with the Long Beach Collective Association(LBCA). LBCA is the patient advocacy group that spear-headed efforts to pass Measure A and campaigned for regu-lations that would legitimize medical marijuana collectives. “The voters overwhelmingly support medical marijuana

taxation,” Hijazi told the Business Journal. “I think [thepassage of Measure A] sends a strong message to the citycouncil and city attorney’s office that, whether they’repatients or not, the people want to see regulation in placerather than have [medical marijuana] be in an undergroundeconomy. I feel there is a strong sense of there being a pub-lic safety issue when there is no regulation.”Measure A is moot, however, without an ordinance that

would officially allow medicinal cannabis dispensaries tooperate within city limits. Such an ordinance appearedbefore the Long Beach Planning Commission in Februaryand has since been revised by the city attorney’s depart-ment. The revised draft ordinance is on the agenda for theplanning commission meeting this Thursday (April 17).That ordinance would provide to 18 citywide dispen-

saries conditional use permits rather than businesslicenses, according to Deputy City Attorney KendraCarney. She told the Business Journal that the revised draftordinance also maintains that collectives should be locatedin industrial zones. “In February, the planning commission said they would

not be comfortable having [collectives] in industrial zonesonly because it would be difficult for disabled patients toget to these facilities,” Hijazi explained. “That obviously can change,” Carney said of the restric-

tion, noting that it was a topic of discussion among com-missioners in February.The revised draft ordinance does include a process for

the city to select qualified collective operators: a point sys-tem that assesses applicants on proposed collective loca-tion, security plans, criminal history of the applicant andprevious violations of the city’s municipal code. The num-ber of points a medical marijuana business applicationreceives determines the priority of that application’sapproval, as long as the total number of applicationsapproved remains at two per district, Carney said. “To be able to have a successful ordinance, we need to

have operators who are ready to abide by all laws and paytaxes,” Hijazi continued. “LBCA has been working dili-

gently with the city, individuals throughout the communityand neighborhood associations to be able to bring the bestpractices forward. We’re very hopeful that the city attor-ney’s office and the planning commission take into consid-eration having operators who are ready, willing and able toabide by the laws and make sure they are paying taxes.” �

Long Beach City HallNews In Brief

� By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER

Staff Writer

Alamitos Bay Marina Project Update – Tonight, April15, the city’s financial and parks, recreation and marinedepartments present a report to the city council identifyingnext steps to continue an Alamitos Bay Marina improve-ment project. In March, councilmembers asked city staff tocome back to the council with recommendations on how toproceed with the project because no source of funding hadbeen identified to move to the next phase. At the time, thecontractor indicated that delaying the project could result ina cost increase of up to about $2 million. At press time, JohnGross, director of financial management, told the BusinessJournal that he and city staff were still finalizing the report.However, Gross and the city’s parks, recreation and marinedepartment are presenting a subsequent item for a councilvote tonight, which would extend contractor BellinghamMarine Industries, Inc.’s. contract with the city to upgradeelectrical systems in two of the bay’s basins before any waterconstruction occurs. The cost for this work is about $1.9million, which requires an appropriation of about $1.5 mil-lion from the Marina Fund. Remaining funds are availablethrough normal marina operations in fiscal year 2014.Toyota Grand Prix Of Long Beach Extension – The

Long Beach City Council is proposing a three-year exten-sion to the current Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach agree-ment, which would continue allowing the Grand PrixAssociation to run Indy Cars at the race until 2018, accord-ing to the Grand Prix Association. After that point, the citycouncil could revisit whether or not to allow Formula Oneraces in lieu of Indy Car races. A statement from the GrandPrix Association estimated that the proposal would be pre-sented at a council meeting in the next few weeks. “We thinkthis is a wise decision by the city council,” Jim Michaelian,president of the Grand Prix Association, said in a statement.He added, “It affords the Grand Prix the opportunity to con-tinue to conduct the No. 1 street race in America whileallowing the city to explore another alternative.”Resolution To Support Nursing Contract – Tonight,

the Long Beach City Council votes to adopt a resolutionpenned by the city attorney supporting a contract for reg-istered nurses working at Community Hospital LongBeach that would be similar to nurse contracts at LongBeach Memorial Medical Center. The nurses’ bargaininggroup, the California Nurses Association, has been in

With Momentum From Measure A, Revised Medical Marijuana Ordinance Heads To Planning Commission For Possible Vote



labor negotiations with MemorialCare, thecorporate arm than owns the hospital, sinceMarch. The resolution calls for a “fair,equitable and timely contract that recog-nizes one community standard for patientsand registered nurses and commits to allvital and acute services for the surroundingcommunity.”Minimizing Phone Line Change

Impacts – Tonight, the city council votesto direct the city attorney to draft a resolu-tion asking Verizon Telecommunications toadhere to certain standards when swappingout wired phone lines with wireless lines inLong Beach. The memo, put forward by9th District Councilmember Steven Neal,notes that wireless phone lines have beenknown to fail by dropping calls and textmessages in emergencies due to systemoverloads. The document states that otherbenefits of hardwired phone lines such asfaxing capabilities and compatibility withhome security systems may not be avail-able with wireless technology. If drafted, aresolution would ask Verizon to adhere tocertain requirements when switching fromwired to wireless technology, such asensuring network reliability, investing inlocal jobs and promoting access to publicsafety, among other suggestions.$3 Million For Property Buy-Back,

Remediation – The council votes tonight toauthorize the purchase and remediation of a5.31-acre portion of a former public serviceyard for $3 million. In 2010, the cityswapped this property, part of a larger12.471-acre lot, with LCW Partners, LLCfor a portion of the Los Cerritos Wetlands.LCW then sold it to another company, AlereProperty Group, LLC, which intended todevelop the land for industrial use. However,it was recently discovered that earthquakefill beneath the 5.31-acre northern portionof the property was burned in 1933 and leadpaint debris subsequently spread beneath theproperty. The city and Alere have developeda plan to localize the contaminated soil tothe northern part of the property and for thecity to buy the land back for a total of $3million, including contingency costs.Belmont Plaza Pool Demolition – The

council votes to proceed with the design andbidding phase for the Belmont Plaza PoolDemolition Project at tonight’s meeting. Thecity’s building official has recommended thatthe seismically unsafe pool facility be demol-ished as soon as possible. The CaliforniaCoastal Commission must approve thedemolition following council approval. $1.8million from the Tidelands Operations Fundis budgeted for a demolition contract.Master Fee And Charges Schedule –

The city council adopted the city’s masterfee and charges schedule at its April 1 meet-ing. The schedule included fee adjustmentsand increases to help the city provideincreasingly in-demand services. Feecharges are applied to campaigns and elec-tions, passport services, multi-family prop-erty inspection permits, fire sprinkler retro-fitting, a tuberculosis clinic, airline fees,aircraft parking, airport terminal spacerental, the Belmont Pool, marina slip rental,excavating street and public right-of-wayareas, pipelines and utilities and other serv-ices provided by city departments.Funding For HIV/AIDS Care – The

State of California is asking that the LongBeach City Council approve additional

state funding of $2,382,301 for the city’sHIV Care Program, which provides qualityof life services to residents affected by HIV.This brings the state’s contribution to theprogram to about $3 million. Examples ofservices provided through the programinclude diagnostic testing, health educationand counseling. The city council is alsovoting tonight to accept $602,972 from theCalifornia Department of Health Servicesfor HIV testing services.Funding For Medi-Cal Services –

Tonight, the city council votes on a three-year agreement with the CaliforniaDepartment of Health Services that wouldreimburse the city up to $2.25 million forMedi-Cal services provided by the city.Through its Medi-Cal AdministrativeActivities Program, the city helps Medi-

Cal-eligible residents enroll in and navigatethe health care program.Youth/Student Work And Internship

Opportunities – The city council votestonight to receive $441,000 from theCounty of Los Angeles to operate a summeryouth work experience program for 300youth, ages 14 to 21. The program, helmedby Pacific Gateway Workforce InvestmentNetwork, provides 100 to 120 hours of paidwork experience. The city council also voteson a three-year agreement with the trusteesof California State University (CSU) to facil-itate internships for CSU Dominguez Hills(CSUDH) students at the Long Beach SeniorCenter. CSUDH is funding the program.Harbor Bonds And Short-Term Notes –

On April 1, the city council approved theissuance of harbor refunding revenue bonds

in a principal amount not to exceed $90 mil-lion and harbor revenue short-term notes ina principal amount not to exceed $350 mil-lion. The refunding bonds were approved topay back harbor revenue bonds and reducethe port’s debt, while the short-term noteswere for expenditures for the GeraldDesmond Bridge Replacement Project.Commission Appointments – City

councilmembers approved several appoint-ments recommended by Mayor Bob Fosterto city commissions at the April 1 citycouncil meeting. Appointments includedRaul Anorve and David Clement to theLong Beach Citizen Police ComplaintCommission, Robin Perry to the LongBeach Civil Service Commission, andRobert Shannon and Art Levine to theLong Beach Water Commission. �

Saluting Bob Foster

ON HIS EIGHT YEARS AS

MAYOR OF LONG BEACH

AN ALL-GLOSSY PUBLICATION DISTRIBUTED MAY 13TH, 2014

RESERVE SPACE TODAY FOR YOUR MESSAGE

CALL FOR DETAILS 562/988-1222



interim purchasing agent. “It’s dependenton the dollar value,” she told the BusinessJournal. “You have to have a contract over acertain threshold. If we’re buying one truck,that doesn’t constitute a contract; it [consti-tutes] formal agreement where we considerit competitively bid, but it doesn’t get to thecity to draw up an agreement.”Manning explained that purchase orders

of under $2,500 can be completed withouta bid, though the purchasing department isasked to exercise due diligence and retainbackup documents. Purchase ordersbetween $2,500 and $25,000 can be donewithin a department if it obtains threequotes, she said. Anything above $25,000requires an invitation to bid.

Invitation To BidAn invitation to bid is typically for pre-

determined items the city needs and hascriteria or standards that must be met. “Say we want to go out to bid for a

truck,” Manning said, explaining an invita-tion to bid scenario. The need for the truckis specific, she said, and thus requires stan-dards (such as four-wheel drive or towingcapacity). In essence, specifications are setin stone with bids, so price is important.“We do this a lot for the purchases we usegrant money for,” she said.For contracts over $100,000, the city

conducts local outreach, Manningexplained. “We send a notice out everyother week in the Business Journal becausewe try to get local businesses to bid,” she

said. “That is our fondest dream – thatwe’re able to get local businesses contracts– because it benefits everyone.” When a vendor seeks to submit a bid or

proposal, the city requires the vendor tosign up on an online bidding system calledPlanetBids. “We want everyone to partici-pate and [so we] make it fair and competi-tive,” she said of using PlanetBids. The sys-tem provides an accessible way for regis-tered users to search for invitations to bid,download documents and sign up to benotified about bids for commodities orservices they provide.According to Jason MacDonald, the new

purchasing and business licensing man-ager for the City of Long Beach, the cityhas approximately 14,700 vendors regis-tered with PlanetBids. Each vendor musthave a completed W-9 form and a businesslicense on file with the city’s departmentof financial management. Dennis Strachota, the city’s former busi-

ness relations manager, told the BusinessJournal that when bids are submitted, theyare clocked in by the city clerk’s office sothe city can ensure the bid was officiallyreceived before the due date. “That’s tomake sure we’re not giving someone unfairadvantage to prepare their response,” hesaid prior to his April 4 retirement.The city opens those bids and reviews

them within a specific timeframe. Bidsmust meet established minimum require-ments, Strachota explained, and typicallythe lowest priced bid is selected. If a LongBeach company participates in the bid, it isgiven local preference by receiving a 10

percent reduction in its bid price. For exam-ple, if a company outside Long Beach sub-mits a bid for $49,000 and a Long Beachcompany submits a bid for $50,000, theLong Beach company’s bid is considered$45,000 and wins over the other company.Once a vendor is selected, a notice of

award is posted on PlanetBids. “That’s doneat least 10 days in advance of award of thecontract by the city council,” Strachota saidof bids for projects with a price tag of$200,000 or more. Anything under $100,000can be authorized by the city manager, andthere’s some flexibility with services or prod-ucts ranging between $100,000 to $200,000. After the notice of award has been issued,

bidders have an opportunity to protest theresults of the bid within a designated time-frame – usually five days, Strachota said. Ifthe bid is not contested, or challenges aredeemed invalid, the city attorney will thendraft a contract. The winning bidder mustsign it, acknowledging that it will providethe goods or services per the minimumrequirements and bid price. The contractmay also include a time of delivery.Requesting Professional ServicesThe process isn’t as simple for some

professional services, particularly incases where the city needs work done andis unsure what’s available on the market-place. In these types of cases, the city uti-lizes a two-step process that requires arequest for qualifications (RFQ) and arequest for proposals (RFP). This process examines much more than

price – it also looks at experience, com-petence, ability to execute on the servicesunder the scope provided and more.“We’re looking for the vendor’s bestapproach to delivering the service that thecity is seeking,” Strachota explained.According to Manning, the city doesn’tperform background checks with RFQand RFP bidders, but it can request bid-ders clarify proposals through actionssuch as interviews and presentations.RFQ and RFP requests have a due date

for companies to submit qualifications orproposals. However, there isn’t a rule thatrequires the city to act on the submissionsor award a contract by a certain deadline,according to Strachota.

Protecting City AssetsWhen preparing to sign a contract, a city

risk manager is in charge of determining thelevel of insurance needed, Manning said,based on what is being purchased, how it’sbeing procured and the different kinds ofliability associated with the deal. For exam-ple, a performance bond, such as a surety,provides for a project’s completion in theevent that a contracted company dissolvesor halts operations. Insurance is required oneverything the city buys that costs morethan $25,000, regardless if the contract is aninvitation to bid or an RFQ/RFP.To provide a broader range of protec-

tions, the city attorney’s office tweaksexisting boilerplate contracts. These con-tracts have general conditions that applyfor most purchases. When drawing up newcontracts, the city attorney includes clausesthat allow termination of the deal for issueslike lack of performance, Manning said. “When you get to the point where you’re

talking about terminating an agreement forlack of performance, then you’re talkingabout debarring a company,” Manning

explained. “That is more of a legal actionwhere we won’t do business with this com-pany again. Those are serious words. Wedon’t typically go down that path.”

Putting Contracts Back On TrackRemember the three examples of city

contracts gone awry? Because of protec-tions in contracts and city staff’s due dili-gence, all three were able to move forward. Since the company, DEERS, contracted to

install and manage solar laminate on top ofthe Long Beach Convention & EntertainmentCenter defaulted on its maintenance agree-ment after putting in the power system in2006, the purchase power agreement wastaken over by a third party investment com-pany that invested in the DEERS project. According to Long Beach Asset Bureau

Manager Victor Grgas, who was involvedwith the project at the time, these changesdidn’t impair what the city bargained to get.Even though there may have been changesin ownership, the city is receiving what itwas promised, he told the Business Journal.In the case of the construction company

that halted progress on the Long BeachAirport Terminal Project in 2012, a storythe Business Journal broke, the companystopped paying its employees, so the citytook action based on its contract. A suretybond helped pay for the transition to anew construction company that finishedthe job without missing a beat.“There hasn’t been any interruption,”

Long Beach Deputy City Attorney LindaTrang told the Business Journal in July2012, noting that the city requires a suretybond on all construction projects in orderto protect itself. The bond is usually issuedin the amount of the contract, which in thiscase was $24.7 million. Back in May 2012, an RFP was issued to

upgrade the city’s website by developing anew web content management system, andsoftware company Ektron was the winningbidder. The Long Beach City Councilentered a $480,000 contract with Ektron inFebruary 2013, but by July 2013, the cityand Ektron mutually agreed to end theircontract. The city brought in a new vendor,Method Factory, shortly thereafter. According to a memo dated January 15,

2014, Method Factory submitted a changeorder of $77,000 to implement the newwebsite design. Staff deemed the demand“particularly unreasonable” and terminatedthat contract as well. Since then, the city has found a third

company to continue the contract. JustinaFrancisco, an administrative analyst withthe city’s technology services department,told the Business Journal that Thinklogic,LLC has picked up where Method Factoryleft off. “They offered a more reasonableprice for the upgrades than what they[Method Factory] were asking,” she said.MacDonald said the city is constantly

working to improve the contracting processto ensure not only the best deals for citygovernment but also for the broader busi-ness community. “The intent is to make [contracting with

the city] as transparent and participative aspossible for all businesses,” he explained.“I think certainly we have a mission in pur-chasing of getting the lowest price or thebest value, but I think there is also an equalopportunity to avail that opportunity to themost people. That is a great goal for us.” �

www.longbeach.gov/purchasing

www.longbeach.gov/pw/towing/auction.asp

HUD Section 3 ProgramThe City of Long Beach Section 3 Program provides economic and employment

opportunities to low-income residents and businesses. More information is located on the City’s Purchasing website.

Bidder RegistrationRegister with the City of Long Beach at www.longbeach.gov/purchasing to receive noti�cations of bid opportunities. Additional details on upcoming

bids and how to register can be found on the website.Small Business Enterprise Program

Take advantage of the City of Long Beach Small Business Enterprise (SBE) Program. To learn more about becoming a part of the SBE Program and

certi�cation process, visit the City’s Purchasing website.

Power Take O� Related Parts 4/16/14Freightliner, Sterling & Autocar Parts 4/16/14Yamaha Marine Outdoor Engines ITB FS-14-087 4/17/14Transmission Repair Services ITB FS-14-081 4/22/14Surveillance Cameras and Parts ITB-TS-14-086 4/22/14Welding Services ITB LB-14-068 4/24/14Rehab of Wells Commission WD-32-13 4/29/14Inmate Visitation System RFP PD14-029 4/30/14

UPCOMING BID OPPORTUNITIES

Risers and Fittings Tape Products Lumber Window Washing Chemical Toilets Concrete Saw Cutting SIP and PRI Trunking Services Design Services

City Contracts(Continued From Page 1)




Legislation that would require employersto provide at least three paid sick days peryear to employees has business groupssounding their alarms.Assembly Bill 1522, introduced by

Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), would allow employees toaccrue one hour of sick time for every 30hours worked. It would also set a minimumstandard of three days paid sick time for allfull- and part-time employees.“Most workers who enjoy earned sick

days think that it is the standard businesspractice,” Gonzalez told the BusinessJournal. “Six million workers don’t havesick time or paid time off. These are hourlyworkers. About 70-80 percent low-wageworkers don’t have this benefit.” Gonzalez argued that the bill is narrowly

tailored by limiting the number of sick daysrequired to three days per year despitesome employees being able to accrue morethan three in a year. “The time has come toset a standard,” she said.Titled “Healthy Workplaces, Healthy

Families Act of 2014,” the bill would enti-tle any citizen who worked seven or moredays in a calendar year to accrue paid sicktime off. Sick days would only be usableafter the first three months of employment.The legislation currently has about 20 sup-porters including the California SchoolEmployees Association, California NursesAssociation and United Farm Workers. The bill has several authors, including

Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal (D-Long Beach). Lowenthal canceled aninterview and her staff did not respond tofurther requests for comment beforepress time.Gonzalez noted that AB 1522 intends

to protect workers. “It incentivizesemployees to go part time if they want toand still get paid time off for sick days,”she explained. “It shouldn’t be a decisionof whether you’re going to take time offbecause you’re sick or go to work sick tomake sure you get paid and can coverrent. Think about a parent who is in thatsame situation and their child is sick.Children are being sent to school sick.Parents are five times more likely to taketheir children to a primary care physicianif they have paid sick days.”If passed, AB 1522 would also require

employers to maintain itemized recordsseparate from an employee’s paycheck toshow total hours worked, gross wagesearned, all deductions, net wages earned,paid sick leave accrued, all applicablehourly rates, the pay period, and name andlast four digits of an employee’s SocialSecurity number or tax I.D. number. In response to this legislation, the

California Chamber of Commerce(CalChamber) has added AB 1522 to its2014 Job Killer list. Jeremy Harris, senior vice president of

the Long Beach Area Chamber ofCommerce, said the local chamber isopposing this bill and has stood againstsimilar bills in the past. “Our position is

paid sick leave should be left to theemployer to decide,” Harris told theBusiness Journal. “Businesses thrive bestwhen they are left alone.”Also among the more than 60 organiza-

tions opposing AB 1522 is the CaliforniaRestaurant Association (CRA). AngiePappas, spokesperson for CRA, told theBusiness Journal that the bill would createan administrative burden and should not beapplied as blanket legislation.“For small businesses, it’s more of the

administrative burden of tracking the hoursand the record keeping involved in thatthan anything else,” Pappas explained. “It’shard to think about a one-size-fits-all

approach to something like this becauseevery industry is so different. Actually, in alot of cases, sick time would be a disincen-tive for servers who earn tips. We hear fromthem that they would rather switch a shiftand make up that money than to get theirbase wage, which is usually minimumwage, and lose money.”Small business, particularly those in the

retail and service sectors, would be nega-tively affected by mandates like thosefound in AB 1522, according to JohnKabateck, the executive director of theNational Federation of IndependentBusinesses (NFIB) California. “Mandates don’t encourage job creation

or growing a business,” Kabateck told theBusiness Journal in an e-mail. “The moremandates you place on a business, the morelikely they are to keep their staffing levelslow so that is doesn’t apply to them, orfrankly just close up shop. In a vacuum,this mandate may not be so bad, but whenadded to the multitude of other costsimposed on business owners, it adds up toan overwhelming burden.”Kabateck explained the burden in further

detail. “A small business owner’s payroll isa set percentage of their operating budget –ordering them to pay for more benefitsdoesn’t make more money appear to offset

Paid Sick Leave Bill Tops California Chamber’s Job Killer List




the requirements,” he said. “Consequently,if a business owner apportions (for exam-ple) 50 percent of their budget to payroll, itwill stay at 50 percent regardless of man-dates. They will simply have to cut hours orlay people off.”During its March 25 hearing, the

California Assembly JudiciaryCommittee heard alternatives to mandat-ing paid sick leave from CalChamberPolicy Advocate Jennifer Barrera. Sheoffered two incentivizing options togather business advocates’ support for thelegislation: one, allow employers whooffer paid sick leave an exemption fromdaily overtime requirements; or two, par-tially offset the burden of paying for sickdays by offering a tax credit to smallemployers with 50 or fewer employees.The tax credit would be based on theamount an employer paid per year for sicktime up to 125 percent of minimum wage.“We don’t disagree with the authors’

intent,” Barrera said in her testimony.“We don’t disagree with providing paidsick leave for employees. The problem isthat a lot of our employers simply can’tafford it. This bill has a uniform mandatethat requires one hour of paid sick leavefor every 30 hours worked . . . Whilesome large employers may be very wellable to absorb that cost, a lot of smalleremployers cannot.” �

The California Chamber of Commerce(CalChamber) released its annual list of“job killer” bills on April 9, calling atten-tion to the negative impact that 26 pro-posed measures would have on California’sjob climate and economic recovery if theywere to become law.“The economic recovery is still the number

one issue for Californians,” Allan Zaremberg,president and CEO of the CalChamber, saidin a statement. “These bills pose a seriousthreat to our economy and, if enacted, woulddampen job growth in the state. While it isencouraging that the list of new job killer billsis smaller than in past years, the unfortunateconsequence of any one of these bills becom-ing law would be harmful to our economy.Protection of the job climate remainsCalChamber’s top priority.” Legislation included on the “job killer”

list will change throughout the year as billsare amended or new language is introduced.The 2014 “job killer” list, as presented

by the California Chamber, follows.Costly Workplace Mandates

AB 1522 (Gonzalez; D-San Diego)Paid Sick Leave (see story starting onPage 7) – Increases employer mandates byrequiring all employers, large and small, toprovide all employees in California withpaid sick leave, and threatens employerswith statutory penalties as well as litigationfor alleged violations. AB 2604 (Brown; D-San Bernardino)

Exposes Employers to DisproportionateWorkers Compensation Penalties –

Dramatically increases penalties and costsfor delayed payments and will result in dis-proportionate penalty awards that are sig-nificantly greater than the amount of thedelayed payment.SB 935 (Leno; D-San Francisco)

Minimum Wage – Unfairly increasesemployer costs by increasing the mini-mum wage to $13 by 2017 and thenincreased thereafter according to theConsumer Price Index.

Economic Development BarriersAB 1897 (Hernández; D-West Covina)

Contractor Liability – Unfairly imposesliability on any contracting entity for thecontractor’s wage and hour violations, lackof worker’s compensation coverage, and/orfailure to remit employee contributions,despite the lack of any evidence that the con-tracting entity controlled the working condi-tions or wages of the contractor’s employees.AB 2140 (Bloom; D-Santa Monica)

Harms Economy – Eliminates jobs andchills tourism in the San Diego region byeliminating performances of Orca atSeaWorld San Diego.AB 2372 (Ammiano; D-San Francisco)

Split Roll Change of Ownership –Unfairly targets commercial property byredefining “change of ownership” so thatsuch property is more frequently reassessed,which will ultimately lead to higher prop-erty taxes that will be passed onto tenants,consumers, and potentially employees.AB 2416 (Stone; D-Scotts Valley)

Unproven Wage Liens – Creates a dan-gerous and unfair precedent in the wageand hour arena by allowing employees tofile liens on an employer’s real or personalproperty, or property where work was per-formed, based upon alleged yet unprovenwage claims.AB 2420 (Nazarian; D-Studio City)

Significantly Limits In-State EnergyDevelopment – Places California businessesat a disadvantage, increasing fuel costs,impeding job growth and suppressing prop-erty, income and excise tax revenues, byallowing local governments to impose localmoratoriums on well stimulation treatments.AB 2617 (Weber; D-San Diego)

Interference with Arbitration Agreementsand Settlement Agreements – Unfairlyprohibits the enforcement of arbitrationagreements or pre-litigation settlementagreements that require the individual towaive their right to pursue a civil action forthe alleged violation of civil rights.SB 1017 (Evans; D-Santa Rosa) Oil

and Gas Severance Tax – Unfairly targetsthe oil and gas industry with the burden ofa severance tax on the extraction of oil andgas in order to fund higher education,health and human services, as well as thestate parks and recreation.SB 1021 (Wolk; D-Davis) Split Roll –

Discriminates against commercial propertythrough split roll by allowing a school dis-trict to impose a higher parcel tax againstcommercial property as opposed to resi-dential property.SB 1132 (Mitchell; D-Los Angeles)

Significantly Limits In-State EnergyDevelopment – Imposes a statewide mora-torium on well stimulation treatments untilthe completion of a scientific study,thereby placing California businesses at a

disadvantage, increasing fuel costs, imped-ing job growth and suppressing property,income and excise tax revenues. SB 1188 (Jackson; D-Santa Barbara)

Unwarranted Expansion of ProductDefect Litigation – Significantlyincreases product defect litigation andassociated claims by allowing consumersto pursue claims after the warranty hasexpired for “material” omissions regard-ing the product that are unrelated to anyhealth and safety concerns.SB 1372 (DeSaulnier; D-Concord)

Increased Tax Rate – Threatens to signifi-cantly increase the corporate tax rate on pub-licly held corporations and financial institu-tions up to 15% according to the wages paidto employees in the United States, and threat-ens to increase that rate by 50% thereafter, ifthe corporation or institution reduces itsworkforce in the United States and simulta-neously increases its contractors. SB 1381 (Evans; D-Santa Rosa)

California-Only New LabelingRequirements and IncreasedLitigation – Increases cost of food produc-tions and increases frivolous litigation byforcing farmers and food companies toimplement costly new labeling, packaging,distribution and recordkeeping for prod-ucts sold in California and by including aprivate right of action, increases litigationon all entities in the supply chain if a prod-uct was not properly labeled.

2013 Job Killer Carry-Over Bills

Costly Workplace MandatesSB 404 (Jackson; D-Santa Barbara)

Expansion of DiscriminationLitigation – Makes it virtually impossiblefor employers to manage their employeesand exposes them to a higher risk of litiga-tion by expanding the Fair Employmentand Housing Act to include a protectedclassification for any person who is, per-ceived to be, or associated with an individ-ual who provides medical or supervisorycare to a listed family member.

Economic Development BarriersAB 52 (Gatto; D-Los Angeles) CEQA

Consultation with Tribes – Creates newopportunities for CEQA litigation byrequiring lead agencies to engage in“meaningful consultation” with NativeAmerican tribes regarding land use proj-ects that could have an adverse impact on atribal cultural resource.AB 1330 (J. Pérez; D-Los Angeles)

New Double Penalties – Discouragesinvestment and expansion in some disad-vantaged regions of the state by doublingmost fines and penalties issued by the AirResources Board (ARB), Department ofToxic Substances Control (DTSC) and AirQuality Management Districts (AQMD's)on facilities located there.ACA 3 (Campos; D-San Jose) Lowers

Vote Requirement for Tax Increases –Adds complexity and uncertainty to the cur-rent tax structure and pressure to increasetaxes on commercial, industrial and residen-tial property owners by giving local govern-ments new authority to enact special taxes,including parcel taxes, by lowering the votethreshold from two-thirds to 55 percent.SB 686 (Jackson; D-Santa Barbara)

Safety Recalls – Exposes car dealers to

Paid Sick Leave

Legislation

(Continued From Page 7)

California Chamber Of Commerce Issues 2014 ‘Job Killer’ List



significant liability and precludes themfrom renting, leasing, loaning, or selling acar despite the lack of actual knowledgethat the car was subject to a recall, thatmay or may not pose any imminent harmto the consumer or renter.SB 691 (Hancock; D-Berkeley)

Dramatically Increases PollutionPenalties – Dramatically increases existingstrict-liability penalties for nuisance-based,non-vehicular air-quality violations withoutadequately defining what types and levelsof pollution would trigger those penalties.SCA 4 (Liu; D- La Cañada Flintridge)

Lowers Vote Requirement for TaxIncreases – Adds complexity and uncer-tainty to the current tax structure and pres-sure to increase taxes on commercial,industrial and residential property ownersby giving local governments new authorityto enact special taxes, including parceltaxes, by lowering the vote threshold fromtwo-thirds to fifty-five percent.SCA 7 (Wolk; D-Davis) Lowers Vote

Requirement for Tax Increases – Addscomplexity and uncertainty to the current taxstructure and pressure to increase taxes oncommercial, industrial and residential prop-erty owners by giving local governmentsnew authority to enact special taxes, includ-ing parcel taxes, by lowering the vote thresh-old from two-thirds to fifty-five percent.SCA 8 (Corbett; D-San Leandro)

Lowers Vote Requirement for TaxIncreases – Adds complexity and uncer-tainty to the current tax structure and pres-sure to increase taxes on commercial,industrial and residential property ownersby giving local governments new authorityto enact special taxes, including parceltaxes, by lowering the vote threshold fromtwo-thirds to fifty-five percent.SCA 9 (Corbett; D-San Leandro)

Lowers Vote Requirement for TaxIncreases – Adds complexity and uncer-tainty to the current tax structure and pres-sure to increase taxes on commercial,industrial and residential property ownersby giving local governments new authorityto enact special taxes, including parceltaxes, by lowering the vote threshold fromtwo-thirds to fifty-five percent.SCA 11 (Hancock; D-Oakland)

Lowers Vote Requirement for TaxIncreases – Adds complexity and uncer-tainty to the current tax structure and pres-sure to increase taxes on commercial,industrial and residential property ownersby giving local governments new authorityto enact special taxes, including parceltaxes, by lowering the vote threshold fromtwo-thirds to fifty-five percent. �

State’s UnfundedHealth Care LiabilityAbove $150 Billion

An assessment of both 690 retiree healthcare benefits tied to state and local govern-ments and California’s public education insti-tutions revealed that the total unfunded liabil-ity for post-employment health benefits is$157.7 billion, according to a report releasedby California Common Sense (CACS).The report, “Surveying California’s

Unfunded Retiree Healthcare Obligations,”assessed State of California retiree healthcare benefits as well as those for individu-als working in 53 counties, 352 cities, the

state trial court system, 282 school districtsand the University of California highereducation system. The report revealed thatLos Angeles residents have an unfundedliability per capita of $5,088; that’s onlysecond to San Francisco, where the percapita unfunded liability is $7,058. More retired Baby Boomers, who live

longer and incur increased health costs, con-tribute to this unfunded liability, catching upto the nearly $300 billion in public pensiondebt. The burden of this growing liability hasforced municipalities to constrain budgets,which, in some cases, has led to bankruptcy.The City of Stockton, for example, filed forbankruptcy in June 2012 and subsequentlyeliminated its retiree health care benefits toclose an unfunded liability of $540 million.“While unfunded pension liabilities have

garnered substantial media and public atten-tion in recent years, retiree healthcare hasquietly consumed growing shares of ourlocal, state and school budgets,” AdamTatum, research director of CaliforniaCommon Sense, said in a statement. “Thescary part is that though California govern-ments have guaranteed retirees these bene-fits for life, they have set aside absolutely noassets to meet those huge future obligations,leaving those benefits unsecured and riskingtheir own financial sustainability,” he added.The report revealed other key findings,

including the following: • The State of California, its counties,

cities, school districts, trial courts and theUniversity of California system together havea total $157.7 billion in unfunded health careliabilities. Yet, the government has set aside

only $7.3 billion to offset the liability, leaving$150.4 billion entirely unfunded.• The state, city and county unfunded health

care liabilities amount to an average of $3,338per city resident; those associated with schooldistricts amount to $3,918 per student.• The UC system currently has a $13 bil-

lion unfunded health care liability, whichamounts to $54,398 per student. In recentyears, it has declined from $16 billion($68,898 per student).• The Los Angeles Unified School District

and the Fresno Unified School District hadthe largest unfunded OPEB liabilities perstudent: $17,016 and $13,313, respectively.• 73% of the surveyed systems set aside

no assets to cover future retiree health-care costs. �

– Editor Tiffany L. Rider

We believe in being fully engaged with our business customers and taking the time to understand their needs—it’s a partnership

based on trust, integrity and personal involvement.

businessmadepersonal

International City Bank | 249 E. Ocean Blvd. Long Beach, CA 90802 | 562. 436. 9800 | www.icb.biz MEMBER FDIC



Engineering Design Center in SouthernCalifornia. In May of last year, the companyreleased plans to establish the SouthernCalifornia center as one of three in thenation, with the others located inWashington state and South Carolina.Last year, the company said the Southern

California facility would service Boeing’sout-of-production commercial airplanes.The latest announcement means that inaddition to that function, service for anentire series of additional Boeing aircraftwill shift from Washington to SouthernCalifornia during the next two years.Southern California’s large pool of avail-

able aerospace engineering talent was a keyfactor in the company’s decision to expandthe customer service function in the region,company officials explained. “Theannouncement today places [customer sup-port for] in-production airplanes there [inSouthern California] as well,” said DougAlder, a spokesman for Boeing CommercialAirplanes. “[It is] basically all current air-planes flying with the exception of the 787,which will remain in Puget Sound since it isclosely linked to the program.”Right now, the Southern California

Engineering Design Center employs about1,800 people at the Boeing sites in LongBeach and Seal Beach. The 1,000 additionalpositions are all for customer support, Aldersaid. There are no firm plans yet for how thenew positions will be allocated betweenLong Beach and Seal Beach, Alder said.

The new positions are open to currentemployees who are based in Washington,and employees who are working on the soon-to-be-closed C-17 project are also “welcometo apply for the new positions,” Alder says.Engineers at the design centers work on

updates for existing aircraft and certifyingthe air-worthiness of changes and upgrades.Currently, employees at the SouthernCalifornia center perform that role for thecompany’s 707, 717, 727, 757, DC-8, DC-9, DC-10, MD-11 and MD-80/-90 models. The Southern California center will take

on the responsibility of customer supportfor the Next-Generation 737, 747, 767 and777 models, as well as commercial productsupport for the KC-46 Tanker and P-8.The transition of the activities from

Washington to Southern California isexpected to be completed by the end of2015, Alder said. �

L.A. CommissionSuggests CombiningSan Pedro Bay Ports� By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER

Staff Writer

The Los Angeles 2020 Commission ledby Mickey Kantor, former United StatesSecretary of Commerce, released a reportthis month suggesting that the Ports ofLos Angeles and Long Beach be com-bined for economic benefit. “Los Angeles and Long Beach should

parlay their individual successes into acombined port to enhance their overallcompetitive position,” the report stated.Combining the ports could help bring backthe nearly five-percentage point decreasein the share of U.S. goods handled by theL.A. region, the report reasoned. The document also pointed out that

while both the Ports of Los Angeles andLong Beach often release statementsabout gaining new customers, those cus-tomers are usually switching between theports and therefore are not bringing newjobs to the region. “We should be compet-ing with ports in other regions, not witheach other,” the report stated. The authors of the report suggested that

the ports enter into a joint powers agree-ment (JPA), which would be “a true 50-50collaboration.” A board comprised ofequal representation from the cities ofLos Angeles and Long Beach would over-see the JPA.The suggestion drew wide-spread

media coverage, including commentsfrom Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster andLong Beach Harbor CommissionPresident Doug Drummond that a mergeris not in the best interests of the city.The Los Angeles 2020 Commission

was established in 2013 at the suggestionof Los Angeles City Council PresidentHerb Wesson for the purpose of studyingand reporting on fiscal stability and jobgrowth in Los Angeles, according to thecommission’s website. The independent,private commission includes Los Angelescommunity leaders such as formerCalifornia Gov. Gray Davis and BrianD’Arcy, business manager for theInternational Brotherhood of ElectricalWorkers Local.

Caruso Ford/LincolnExpands Operations,

Drops Mazda FranchiseAfter 28 years in business – previously

operating as Pacific Ford and Long BeachLincoln Mercury – Caruso Ford/Lincolnexpanded its Ford, Lincoln and pre-owned car presence effective yesterday,April 14. The Ford and Lincoln brandsofficially merge on May 2.Caruso eliminated its Mazda franchise

as part of the expansion, creating space at3500 Cherry Ave. to combine sales andservice for the Ford and Lincoln brands.The service facility has a business centerand dining room for customers whosecars are in service. A pre-owned vehicle

super store, truck repair center and bodyshop remain at 3600 Cherry Ave.Henry Caruso, the dealership’s owner

since 1985, said in a statement that thechanges respond to a high demand forFord and Lincoln products and qualitypre-owned cars. Brian Asciak, generalsales manager for Caruso, said in a state-ment that the move is “a win-win for thecustomer.” �


Hooman Toyota PlansMove To Site Of FormerCadillac Dealership

The Hooman Toyota dealership, locatedat 4401 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., is soonmoving to a new location. HoomanNissani, owner and general manager ofHooman Toyota of Long Beach, was notavailable for comment; however, staff con-firmed the move is happening in the com-ing weeks.Just on the outskirts of Signal Hill, the

new location at 3399 E. Willow St. wasonce home to Boulevard Cadillac.Boulevard moved its Cadillac franchise toSignal Hill in 2012, leaving the spaceunoccupied for nearly two years. Prior toBoulevard’s occupancy, the propertyhoused Coast Cadillac. Development plans at the current traffic

circle site are under review. Long BeachDevelopment Services (LBDS) is in theprocess of looking over an initial proposalfor a Chick-fil-A restaurant and a WellsFargo bank branch adjacent to the newCVS Pharmacy, according to LBDSspokesperson Jacqueline Medina.


Covered California’s FirstOpen Enrollment AttractsMore Than Three Million Although today (April 15) marks the

last day for individuals to complete healthinsurance applications, CoveredCalifornia has already met and exceededits enrollment projections of 487,000-969,000 by April 2014. Between October1, 2013, and March 31, 2014, more thanthree million Californians signed up forhealth plans. “Covered California is very pleased

with these numbers,” Anne Gonzales,spokesperson for Covered California, toldthe Business Journal. “Even accountingfor some non-payments, we believe theenrollment figures will be well above ourhighest projections of 696,000 enrolleesin the first open enrollment.” The healthinsurance exchange has yet to compiledata on how citizens enrolled, whetheronline, over the phone, through agents orwith counselors. “We hope to have thosenumbers at some point in the future, as thedust settles on this enrollment period, andwe have time to reflect and prepare for thenext open enrollment,” Gonzales said.According to Gonzales, Covered

California insurers are reporting thatabout 85 percent of enrollees have madetheir first premium payment, making themeligible for coverage starting May 1. �


C-17 Program To End EarlierThan Previously AnnouncedProduction of the C-17 Globemaster III

aircraft at The Boeing Co.’s Long Beachassembly facility is ending earlier thanoriginally planned, Boeing announcedlast week. Completion of C-17 produc-tion in Long Beach is now scheduled formid-2015, three months earlier than thecompany had previously estimated. Theearlier termination is the result of threeaircraft orders being cancelled. Morethan 2,000 workers are employed throughthe C-17 program in Long Beach.

– Staff Writer Samantha Mehlinger


Engineering Jobs




Staff Writer

Now that the Broadway Visioning Study,which sought input for improvements to theBroadway corridor from residents and busi-ness owners, is complete, the next step is totake the suggestions and designs developedin the study to city staff and discuss com-missioning a traffic study, according to 2ndDistrict Councilmember Suja Lowenthal.

The city hired Roger ShermanArchitecture and Urban Design (RSAUD)to conduct the visioning study and createplans to improve the corridor based oninput garnered at three community meet-ings last fall and January of this year.Lowenthal said the meetings were iterative,meaning that RSAUD Principal RogerSherman built his designs partially uponsuggestions received at each meeting andincorporated the results in presentations atsubsequent meetings.

“We asked the community what wecould do and what it would like to seedone, and then I provided some seedmoney to make sure that we can at leaststart some of those projects,” Lowenthalsaid, referring to $100,000 from the 2ndDistrict budget dedicated to improvementsalong Broadway.

At the three community meetings, com-munity members raised two principal issuesabout changes to the Broadway corridor,including parking level maintenance and

calming traffic to increase safety along thestreet, Sherman told the Business Journal.

Sherman suggested that both concernscould be alleviated by reducing four lanesof two-way traffic down to two lanes – oneeach way – with a third lane for turning.Doing so creates additional space, forwhich Sherman made two suggestions.

“The first is to widen the sidewalk in veryspecific areas to create what are called bulb-outs, which are generally located where

there are commercial clusters,” he said. Thisadded sidewalk space could be used to cre-ate extra outdoor seating at restaurants orareas for pedestrians to sit near businessclusters along Broadway, he explained.

Lane reduction could also create addi-tional space to convert parallel parking intodiagonal parking, thereby preserving anyparking spaces lost by bulb-outs and possi-bly even adding more spaces, Sherman said.

The basic concept behind Sherman’s

designs was to keep Broadway community-oriented. “The revitalization and the re-envisioning of Broadway is not predicatedon making it a regional destination likeBelmont Shore,” Sherman said. “It is aboutrevitalizing Broadway as a community-ori-ented center for the benefit of the peoplewho live within a five minute’s walk andobviously also for the businesses.”

He explained that Broadway is a series ofsmaller commercial clusters rather than a

Broadway Visioning Study Suggests Lane Reconfigurations, Traffic Study Needed

This rendering by Roger Sherman Architecture and Urban Design illustrates a proposal to slow traffic along the Broadway corridor by reducing fourlanes of traffic to three lanes where the street already transitions from four to two lanes at the Temple Avenue intersection. Turn lanes would be addedto either side of the intersection, and additional space created by losing lanes may be used to create sidewalk bulb-outs or diagonal parking.(Rendering provided by Roger Sherman Architecture and Urban Design)

1_LBBJ_Apirl 1_SectionA_LBBJ MASTER LAYOUT 4/14/14 10:39 AM


boulevard that is meant to be walked downits whole length. This is reflected in the OnBroadway Business Association’s market-ing of the Broadway corridor, which identi-fies six distinct “villages” along the street.Although Sherman said community meet-

ing attendees were receptive to his designs,some concern arose that implementation“would create a surcharge of traffic ontoadjacent streets, particularly 3rd [Street] andOcean [Boulevard].” For this reason, he andLowenthal agreed to conduct a traffic studyto determine possible impacts. “That traffic study has not yet been com-

missioned but we are very near to doingthat,” Sherman said. Currently, he and histeam are writing a scope of work to send to

potential bidders for the study. “In theinterest of time the city has some trafficengineers that are already on what is calleda ‘bench,’ which is like a preapprovedshortlist of consultants” who may be askedto bid on the project, he said.In the meantime, Sherman said he hopes

a pilot project to help determine the feasi-bility of his three-lane plan for the corridorcould be implemented along Broadwaybetween Temple Avenue and Redondo,where the street currently transitions fromtwo lanes to four lanes. A communitymember suggested the idea, he said, andexplained that it was “interesting andsmart” because that part of the streetalready transitions in lane size, so it would

be a good place for the community to tryout the new three-lane idea.“I think what we need to do is really

come back and have a conversation withour traffic engineers to see what the firstthings are that we should do that wouldhave the greatest impact,” Lowenthal saidof taking steps to actualize Sherman’sdesigns. Sherman admitted he is unsurehow much his proposals would cost, butsaid the plans could be revised to reducespending if any project proved too costly. As for that $100,000 worth of seed

money, Lowenthal said more discussions areneeded to determine how it should be used.She said, “What I would like to do is makesure it has the biggest bang for the buck.” �

Aquarium Wins Two Retail Design Awards

The Aquarium of the Pacific’s newlydesigned Pacific Collection store has beenawarded a 2014 Association for RetailEnvironments (A.R.E.) design award in thecategory of sustainability and an award forthe design of its kelp wall/facade. ThePacific Collection gift store spans more than5,000 square feet and features a glass facadewith a large-scale underwater image of a kel-forest off the coast of California’s ChannelIslands. The Aquarium commissioned under-water photographer Jim Hellemn to createthe kelp forest image. A.R.E. is a 700-memberinternational nonprofit trade association. �


GOING GREEN14 Long Beach Business Journal April 15-28, 2014


Staff Writer

The benefits of the LB-exchange, a pro-gram overseen by the Long BeachEnvironmental Services Bureau, aretwofold: it provides a direct donation linkbetween businesses and Long Beach non-profit organizations; and it reduces wasteby providing a vehicle for businesses todonate materials for reuse.The free program, which has been in

place for two years, was the brainchild ofLong Beach Nonprofit PartnershipExecutive Director Judy Ross, according toJim Kuhl, manager of the environmentalservices bureau. About two years ago, when Ross had the

idea for the program, she was receivingcalls from businesses looking to donatematerials to nonprofits but had no way tofacilitate those donations, Kuhl recalled.Ross took her idea to 2nd DistrictCouncilmember Suja Lowenthal, andtogether they pitched the idea of LB-exchange to the Long Beach City Council. In March 2012, the city launched the

program, which is completely run on thewebsite www.lb-exchange.org. Long Beach-based nonprofit organiza-

tions and schools may register there foritems they need, while any business mayregister on the website to post items fordonation. When a business makes a post,an e-mail blast is sent out to all nonprofit

organizations that registered for the dona-tion type. “The nonprofit contacts thedonor and makes arrangements for the col-lection if they want [the items],” Kuhlexplained.The city facilitates this exchange by pro-

viding the website platform. City staff doesnot warehouse, keep track of or help

arrange exchanges in any other way exceptto verify that items posted to the websiteare “appropriate” – for instance, staffensures no toxic products are being posted– Kuhl said. Other than that, and a consult-ant who manages the website, the programis “simple” and requires minimal manage-ment on the city’s behalf.

Only businesses, not individuals, mayregister to donate through the websitebecause companies can provide materialsnot readily available to nonprofit organiza-tions through individual donations or thriftstores such as The Salvation Army andGoodwill. “We’re not targeting consumers to

jump into this program. We’re reallylooking at the business community,”Kuhl said. This is because businesses areable to provide items that nonprofitsneed to run their organizations, Kuhlsaid. “It’s the office furniture, the deskchairs or whatever they need to operate,”he said, adding that these are the mosttypically donated items. Some high-demand items that nonprofits

seem to be registering for are iPads and petfood, of which Kuhl said the program coulduse more donations. There doesn’t seem tobe a peak time for donations, althoughactivity on the website does slow down inthe summer months, Kuhl observed. One of the principal goals behind LB-

exchange is to reduce waste through reuseof goods. “The whole idea really is to keepthe material from ending up in the landfillor for disposal,” Kuhl explained. “Reuse isreally the high on the hierarchy of wastereduction.”So far, about 25 businesses and 75 local

nonprofits have registered for the program.Feedback has “been very positive on bothends,” Kuhl said. �

LB-exchange Program Benefits Local Nonprofits, Reduces Waste

By providing an outlet for businesses to donate unwanted materials to local nonprofit organizations,the Long Beach Environmental Services Bureau’s LB-exchange program aims to reduce waste by pre-venting materials from ending up in landfills or junkyards, such as the one pictured. (Photograph byMark Buckawicki provided through Wiki Commons)


GOING GREENApril 15-28, 2014 Long Beach Business Journal 15

in the competition, which is managed bythe California Air Resources Board (ARB),and then tabulate their household green-house gas emissions between now andAugust 31. The city with both the most par-ticipants and the highest reduction ingreenhouse gas emissions is to be recog-nized as the “Coolest California City” at anOctober awards ceremony. The annual CoolCalifornia City

Challenge kicked off last year and enrollednearly 3,000 volunteers from eight differ-ent cities, according to the ARB. The pro-gram is designed to integrate with cities’existing sustainability initiatives and car-bon reduction goals. In Long Beach, thosegoals include reducing community elec-tricity use by 15 percent and natural gas useby 10 percent by the year 2020. The Long Beach Sustainable City

Commission voted to participate in the com-petition at its March 27 meeting, according toTiffany Chen, sustainability analyst with theLong Beach Office of Sustainability. “Thecity became aware of the challenge whenCoolCalifornia released the results of lastyear’s winning cities,” she said. “Long Beachwas encouraged to participate in the secondround of the competition, and we thought itwould be a fun way to get our residents think-ing about their carbon footprints.”The competition offers the city a method

to track carbon consumption on a citywide

scale, Chen explained. “It’s important thatwe get participants to sign up for the chal-lenge by visiting SustainableLB.com andclicking on the ‘cool cities challenge’ but-ton,” she said. “The strategy is to not onlyget as many residents [as possible] to signup, but [for them] to input their electricity,natural gas, and transportation use and con-tinue tracking until August 31. Our office

will be out in the city at different events,neighborhood groups and districts in thenext couple of months to get the word outon how Long Beach can be a ‘Cool City.’”In addition to Long Beach, this year’s

competing cities include Arcata,Burlingame, Chula Vista, Claremont,Corona, Mission Viejo, Lynwood, RanchoCucamonga and Riverside.

Cities receive prize money based onthe number of volunteer signups as wellas the total number of points earned.An initial $50,000 is being given tocities based on the percentage of house-holds signed up by May 30. Formore information or to sign up, visitSustainableLB.com or e-mail [email protected]. �

California’s

‘Coolest’ City(Continued From Page 1)

Solar Panels At Cabrillo High School To Save Long Beach School District $2 Million

New solar panels installed atop Cabrillo High School carports are expected to save the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) approx-imately $2 million in utility costs over the next 25 years. The 805-kilowatt system includes 2,500 solar panels that can avert an estimated28 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year for the next 25 years – the equivalent of taking about 2,500 cars off the road orplanting more than 1.2 million trees. “More school districts are using sunshine to reduce utility costs and increase their use of clean energy,”LBUSD Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser said in a statement. “Our school district is already a leader in energy efficiency. All of ourschools have earned Energy Star Certification from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency. This solar proj-ect builds up on our efforts to be good stewards of both the environment and taxpayer dollars.” This is the third solar panel project for thedistrict; the others are at Millikan High School and the new McBride High School. (Photograph courtesy of LBUSD)


GOING GREEN16 Long Beach Business Journal April 15-28, 2014


The last time the Long Beach WaterDepartment put into action restrictions forwater usage, citizens stepped up and reducedconsumption. Now, in the wake of astatewide drought, city officials are confi-dent residents and businesses can do it again.A state of emergency proclamation of a

statewide water shortage from Gov. JerryBrown issued in January is reminiscent ofthe one made by then-governor ArnoldSchwarzenegger in February 2009, whichcame after three consecutive dry years inCalifornia. The response to the 2009 proclamation

included a water conservation plan to reduceusage by 20 percent by 2020 as well as then-unprecedented constraints on the state waterproject (SWP) and federal central valleyproject (CVP). SWP is a series of complexdelivery systems that other agencies tap intoto provide water for 25 million Californiansand 750,000 acres of farmland, while CVPregulates and stores municipal water formost of California’s Central Valley.Now, in another arid situation,

California’s water agencies are beingwrung dry. 2013 marked the state’s driestyear on record, when precipitation inCalifornia totaled only seven inches.According to Doug Carlson, public infor-mation officer for the CaliforniaDepartment of Water Resources, that’s five

inches less than the next driest year onrecord – 1898. Snowpack, which constitutes about a

third of California’s water supply, is at lev-

els far below normal. The most recentsnowpack measurements, taken April 1,reveal that, while the water equivalent ofthe snowpack has gone up seven inches

since January, the new reading of 9.2inches is just 32 percent of what a normalreading is for April. Since the beginning of this month,

California has had about three snowstorms,and the state needs an annual average ofeight to 10 storms to provide enough snow-pack for the spring melt. The final snow-pack survey of the year happens May 1.These conditions have required SWP to

cut allocation to its 28 contractors to zero.“Only relatively small amounts of watercontinue to flow down the state’s system ofaqueducts for health and safety purposes,”Carlson said. Among SWP’s contractors isthe Metropolitan Water District of SouthernCalifornia (MWD), which provides half ofthe water for use by the 19 million people inLos Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside,San Bernardino and Ventura counties. According to MWD spokesperson Bob

Muir, this is the first time ever that MWDhas received nothing from SWP with noforecasted increase anytime soon. “Typicallywe get a third of our supply from NorthernCalifornia via the state water project,” Muirsaid. The fact that the agency isn’t gettinganything this year so far “points to theextraordinary challenges we face in 2014.”With that in mind, MWD plans to maximizedeliveries from the Colorado River and tapinto reserves to get through the year. Nomandatory restrictions from MWD on waterusage have taken effect at this time.“We are not in a water crisis,” Kevin

Wattier, director of the Long Beach WaterDepartment, told the Business Journal.“But we know that if we don’t act now, itwill be too late.”When the governor first declared a state

of emergency in January, Wattier said thedepartment was still unconvinced that thewater shortage was a statewide issue. “It’s ahuge issue in Sacramento because it was sovisual, with what was going on at LakeFolsom, which is almost 20 miles east of

Water Conservation: When In Drought, California And Long Beach Must Step It Up

Homeowners at Spinnaker Bay voted to move forward on a project that would tear out nearly all of the community’s water hungry grass and replace it witha drought tolerant landscape. Pictured, from left, are: Harry Saltzgaver, president of the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners; Michael Dene, chairof the Spinnaker Bay Homeowners Association (HOA) Board; Lea Gerber, chair of the Spinnaker Bay HOA Landscaping Committee; and Kevin Wattier, gen-eral manager of the Long Beach Water Department. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Thomas McConville)



the state capitol,” he said of the lake, notingit’s water capacity had decreased to a visi-bly alarming level. “It became the posterchild for California. But we still were, andeverybody in Southern California at thatpoint [was], still hopeful that things wouldget better as time went on.”But the storms needed to replenish the

water supply didn’t come. In late February,the Long Beach Board of WaterCommissioners declared the first stage ofthe city’s water shortage conservation plan.In this initial stage various water use prohi-bitions took effect, including limits onwatering lawns to three days per week, irri-gating landscapes with potable water sprin-klers for no more than 10 minutes a dayand restricting restaurants from servingwater unless patronsask for it. Additional stages

have progressivelystricter rules on waterusage, includingreducing watering totwo days per week andprohibiting fillingswimming pools. “We’ve never done

that,” Wattier said.“We didn’t do that inthe 2007-2009 short-age. And we’re veryoptimistic that we’llget the response like we did last time so wewon’t need to go into those further stages.”During the last water shortage, it took

two years of hard work to bring down waterdemand by 17 percent, Wattier said. “Weknow this takes time,” he explained. “Weknow you can’t just flip the switch and havepeople reduce their water consumption by15 to 20 percent like the governor has calledfor.” Implementing the water restrictions inFebruary was a proactive step to prepare foranother potentially dry winter. If that poten-tial is realized, Southern California is goingto have a very serious problem a year fromnow, Wattier said.To get Long Beach residents to cut water

usage, the water department is deployingnew marketing strategies as well as empha-sizing existing programs that call out waterwasters and make landscapes drought tol-erant. “In addition to a direct mail pieceand new bill stuffers, we’ll have a full-onpublic education campaign starting thismonth with billboards you’ll start seeingaround town, bus tails, bus stops,” Wattiersaid. “This is a statewide crisis and every-body needs to step it up.”The department’s lawn-to-garden pro-

gram, which had its four-year anniversaryon April 7, has helped transform turf lawnsinto drought-tolerant landscapes at 1,200single-family homes in Long Beach. The

water department’s rebate program pro-vides $3 per square foot of converted land-scape up to a cap. As the program contin-ues to grow, Wattier said it’s getting interestfrom larger projects. In June, the SpinnakerBay Homeowners Association (HOA) iskicking off the first phase of a multi-phaseproject that utilizes the program.Lea Gerber, chair of the homeowners

association (HOA) at Spinnaker Bay, isworking directly with the Long Beach WaterDepartment on the project to remove nearly200,000 square feet of existing turf andreplace it with drought-tolerant landscapingand irrigation systems that conserve water. The project is part of an effort to not only

save money for the 241 homes in SpinnakerBay, but to also beautify the properties.

According to Gerber,representatives fromthe water departmentattended homeownersmeetings to discuss thewater shortage andexplain how the projectwould help support thestatewide mandate ofreducing water usageby 20 percent by 2020. “We took it to the

board, which was totallysupportive,” Gerber toldthe Business Journal.Michael Dene, owner of

Long Beach restaurants including Michael’sPizzeria, Michaels on Naples and Chianina,is the board chair for the Spinnaker BayHOA. “I’m a restaurant owner, so I know what

water costs,” Dene told the BusinessJournal. “It’s very expensive. Wherever wecan conserve water, that’s what we’re tryingto accomplish.” He said the project atSpinnaker Bay would serve as an exampleof what can be done to both conserve waterand beautify a residential community. The board issued a request for proposals

and selected Jon David CicchettiLandscape Architects for the project.Cicchetti, who is also a part-time lecturerat California State University, Long Beach(CSULB), said sustainability has alwaysbeen a part of his company’s mission. Henoted that he has two other drought-toler-ant landscaping projects in the works – oneat Gold Star Manor and another at theCSULB Student Union.“One thing that can be done is, if you

understand plants, after a while, once theyestablish, they become more tolerant ofreduced water,” Cicchetti explained. “Youcan have some shrubs that are moderateuse, over time, with the right wateringprocess and establishing them correctly.”The next step to get the project approved,

Gerber said, is for the HOA to submit an

The Long Beach Water Department began a new campaign this month alerting residents of thestatewide drought and advising them to stop wasting water. This image will appear on billboards, busesand elsewhere throughout the city. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Thomas McConville)


“It should be as unacceptable

to waste water in California

as it is to light up a cigarette

in a crowded elevator.

The State of California should

help educate us to that fact.”

Kevin Wattier, General ManagerLong Beach Water Department



application to the MWD in the comingmonths with images of what the projectwould do. Once the HOA receives MWDapproval, it can proceed with the plan.“Eliminating or greatly reducing the

amount of water devoted to landscaping isthe best way for individuals to reduce theiruse,” Carlson, of the state department ofwater resources, emphasized. “Businessesmay have other strategies particular to theirindividual circumstances, but the potentialto save water by eliminating landscapedemands applies to them, as well.”Cicchetti noted that the Spinnaker Bay

HOA Board is well aware of the statewidegoal to reduce water usage by 20 percentby 2020, and that it is ready to meet thatgoal. “They are making a hard go at it,” hesaid. That’s the attitude Long Beach resi-dents and people across the state need tohave about the water shortage, Wattier said.That’s why Wattier has been working

directly with the governor’s office toadvocate for the state to take action onwater wasters the way it did with cigarettesmokers. “We should make it sociallyunacceptable,” he said. “It should be asunacceptable to waste water in Californiaas it is to light up a cigarette in a crowdedelevator. The State of California shouldhelp educate us to that fact.”“This is all about human behavior

change,” Wattier continued. “This is allabout citizens realizing that they need to domore with less. We no longer live in a worldwhere we can flush huge amounts of waterdown the drain every day. If there’s onething that you will be hearing from the LongBeach Water Department and from the gov-ernor of California going forward, is that allCalifornians need to knock this off.” �

Going GreenNews In Brief

First Annual Green PrizeFestival Celebrates Earth Day Leadership Long Beach and Green

Education, Inc. kick off the first annualGreen Prize Festival in Long Beach onApril 26. The one-day event highlights urban

farmers, green technology, sustainablefood, local entertainment and environmen-tal causes. Attendees may participate in

workshops, observe live demonstrationsand hear guest speakers in between brows-ing green vendors, food trucks and a beergarden. The free event is from 11 a.m. to 6p.m. at Bixby Park, 130 Cherry Ave., andoffers complimentary bike valet parking. “In an effort to highlight and promote

local achievements in sustainability and tocreate a more environmentally focused city,not only on Earth Day but everyday, we areproud to introduce the ‘Green Prize’ annualaward program,” the festival’s founder,Stella Ursua of Green Education, said in apress announcement. “This prestigiousaward will honor those illustrating excel-

lence in sustainability within the City ofLong Beach, whether it be an individual,school, neighborhood, restaurant, non-profit, business or government body.” For more information on the festival,

visit www.greenprizefestivalcom.

Port Funds Solar EnergySystem For Long Beach

Rescue MissionThe Port of Long Beach recently

awarded a $176,045 grant to the LongBeach Rescue Mission as part of its com-munity mitigation grants program to fundthe installation of solar photovoltaic panelsto generate electricity at the nonprofit’s1335 Pacific Ave. facility.The port’s community mitigation grants

program provides funding to nonprofit pro-grams that lessen the impacts of port-relatedair pollution. Since 2009, the port hasawarded more than $17 million to reducegreenhouse gas emissions. For the LongBeach Rescue Mission, which provides food,shelter and services to the homeless, thisgrant means a reduction in electricity costs. Based on estimates calculated by the

California Energy Commission, the solarpanel system has the capability of produc-ing 153 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy perday. At 25 cents per kWh, that equates to$38.25 per day – an amount that can feedmore than 30 people in a day or nearly10,000 people in a year.“The savings from the solar system will

go directly to our programs,” RobertProbst, director of the Rescue Mission,said in a statement. “We are thankful tothe City of Long Beach, harbor commis-sioners and the Port of Long Beach forthis great solar project.”In addition to approving this grant, the

Long Beach Board of HarborCommissioners awarded $500,000 to St.Mary Medical Center for retrofitting itsboilers and another $300,000 to theArchdiocese of Los Angeles for St. AnthonyHigh School to construct a solar power gen-eration system on top of campus buildings.More information about the community

mitigation grants is available atwww.polb.com/grants.

California Climate CreditCuts Electricity Bills ForMillions Of Households

Millions of California households arereceiving an average credit of $35 on theirApril electricity bills to incentivize invest-ments in energy efficient home upgrades.The credits are funded through a state pro-gram aimed to deter climate change byreducing greenhouse gas emissions.“The Climate Credit is made to house-

holds and small businesses to promote acleaner, more energy efficient California,giving millions of Californians a stake in thefight for clean air and a healthy environ-ment,” CPUC President Michael R. Peeveysaid in a statement. “By investing theirClimate Credit in simple items to improveenergy efficiency – like LED lights or smartthermostats – consumers and businesses cansave energy, reduce costs, and join with theState of California to fight climate change.”For more information about the credit,

visit www.EnergyUpgradeCA.org/cli-matecredit. �

Water Conservation


Public Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Installed In Downtown Long BeachAt the request of the 133 Promenade Walk Homeowners Association (HOA) Board, six new electricvehicle charging stations were recently installed in the Downtown Long Beach residential building’sparking structure, which is open to the public. This helpful addition for electric vehicle owners allowsusers to plug in for a nominal fee of $0.31 per hour. Vehicle owners may pay for use at the Chargepointstation, which accepts Chargepoint cards or major credit cards built with a wireless chip. Learn moreat www.chargepoint.com. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Thomas McConville)

Drought Threatens Public Health, AgricultureAccording to Doug Carlson, public information officer for the

California Department of Water Resources, drought vastlyimpacts public health and agriculture. The greatest threat to public health during a drought is fire, he

explained. So far this year, California has seen a rise in the num-ber of fires across the state. Since this past winter wasCalifornia’s warmest on record, based on data from the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the threat continues. Based on climate change reports, the variations our state and

region are experiencing are likely permanent and could have seri-ous implications for our water supply, Carlson explained. “Withnormal sources of water (the state water project and central valleyproject) declining, greater reliance is being placed on groundwa-ter, and wells that service municipalities, farms and individualsare drying up,” he said. The economics of California’s agriculture industry is directly

connected to the water supply. Tens of thousands of Californiaresidents rely on the agriculture industry for jobs. Without cropsto harvest and sell, there’s no work or money to pay for that labor.

Food prices may alsoincrease.“New wells that must be

drilled to far lower depthscan be exceptionallyexpensive, so the eco-nomic impact is being feltacross the state by ownersof those new wells,”Carlson continued. “Withover-drafting of ground-water comes subsidenceof the land. Some portionsof the Central Valley aresubsiding up to a foot ormore a year, and once lay-ers of sediment and rockare compressed duringsubsidence, they losemuch of their water-absorbing characteristics,and the changes becomepermanent.” �

Long Beach lies in the Western RegionalClimate Center’s South Coast Climate Region,which saw 5.3 inches of precipitation in2013, making it among the nine regions toexperience a record dry year. The last timethe South Coast experienced such low precip-itation levels was in 1947 with only 5.5inches on record. (Image courtesy of theCalifornia Department of Water Resources)


ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR20 Long Beach Business Journal April 15-28, 2014

City National Bank Entrepreneur Of The Year Luncheon

From left, Kevin Peterson, P2S Engineering; Joseph Prevratil, Archstone Foundation; John Hancock, BANCAP Investment Group; Nick Worthington, general manager ofWorthington Ford (accepting the Entrepreneur of the Year award for his late grandfather, Cal Worthington); Jim Gray, Ensemble Real Estate; Greg Bombard, Catalina Express;and Howard Davis, Universal Care.

Jim Haney of event sponsor CityNational Bank, with Nick Worthingtonof Worthington Ford, holding theEntrepreneur of the Year award.

The Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt (HCVT) Corporate Citizen of theYear award went to Valero Energy Corporation. Pictured center isBlake Christian of HCVT, flanked by Valero Energy executives, MarkPhair, left, and Stephen Faichney.

The Kingdom Partner Solutions, LLC Community Spirit award was presented to Ron and NancyPiazza. Pictured from left are: Randy Gordon, president and CEO of the Long Beach AreaChamber of Commerce; the Piazzas; Jim Eaton, founder and CEO of Kingdom Partner; andLaDonna DiCamillo of BNSF and chair of the Long Beach Chamber.

The Shaun Lumachi Rising Star award was presented by EloyOakley, superintendent/president of the Long Beach CommunityCollege District, to Dayna Mance, center, owner of Prism Boutique.At right is Dezire Lumachi.

Cal WorthingtonRecognized As 2014

Entrepreneur Of The YearThe late Cal Worthington was recognized by

the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerceon April 3 as the recipient of the 2014 CityNational Bank Entrepreneur of the Year award.Cal’s grandson, Nick Worthington, acceptedthe award, presented by Jim Haney, senior vicepresident and regional manager, commercialbanking services, for City National Bank. TheChamber launched the award ceremony, heldthis year at the Hyatt Regency, in 1998. Othershonored at the event included:• Dayna Mance, owner of Prism Boutique,

who received the Shaun Lumachi Rising Staraward, presented by Eloy Oakley, superin-tendent/president of the Long BeachCommunity College District.• Ron and Nancy Piazza, owners of 10

McDonald’s restaurants, received theKingdom Partner Solutions, LLC,Community Spirit award, presented by JimEaton, founder and CEO of Kingdom PartnerSolutions.• Valero Energy Corporation received the

Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt (HCVT)Corporate Citizen of the Year award, acceptedby Stephen Faichney, Valero’s director of gov-ernment and public affairs, and presented byBlake Christian, tax partner with HCVT.

Photographs by the Business Journal’sThomas McConville


THE LONG BEACH CHAMBER’S RANDY GORDONApril 15-28, 2014 Long Beach Business Journal 21

Texas, Gordon moved with his parents toCalifornia after graduating high school in1967. He lived in Norwalk where he earneda decade of experience in retail. He trainedin Montgomery Ward’s management pro-gram and at age 23 became the youngestoperations manager for the company’sWestern Region. While with Montgomery Ward in Covina,

Gordon served on the local chamber board.He later worked with a hearing aid businessin West Covina. He had been working therefor years when Jim Johns of GTE (Verizon)told him during a Rotary meeting that thepresident of the Covina Chamber had justretired. Johns suggested Gordon apply forthe job, and Gordon did and got it. After about a dozen years at Covina,

Gordon was looking to advance his careerand applied to the position of president andCEO of the Glendale Chamber. Creel, whowas then CEO of Long Beach-based EarthTech, convinced Gordon to visit LongBeach and was soon offered the chamber’stop job. Now, two decades later, Gordonshared with the Business Journal that he ispleased with the accomplishments he’smade in maintaining the financial stabilityof the organization and building a strongteam of employees. Gordon is currentlygrooming his potential replacement, JeremyHarris, and said that he has been helpingother chambers across the country adapt tothe changing business and political climate.

LBBJ: What do you consider your topaccomplishments in your 20 years at theLong Beach Chamber?Gordon: First of all, you can’t be a great

chamber unless you are financially strong.The bottom line is we have been in theblack for 20 consecutive years. And thatfinancial strength comes from two areas.We are really good at special events. Wethink we do special events better than any-body in town. We know how to put butts inthe seats and we know how to raise a lot ofmoney. Special events raises about half ofour $1.6 million budget. The special events revenue has done two

things: it has allowed us to keep our dueslow compared to chambers our size; and ithas given us the financial strength to hiregood employees who have been with us fora long time. Judy Nelson, for example, hasbeen with us 28 years. It’s all about finan-cial strength. If you don’t have the finan-cial strength, you can’t be a good chamber. One more element to that is our

Chairman’s Circle program, which has sev-eral levels [of financial involvement]. Istarted this about 15 years ago. Circle pro-gram members make a commitment for theyear; they write one check. When RandyGordon is calling them, he’s not askingabout money. That’s been precut for the year.To give you an example, we have [CSUChancellor] Dr. White’s event coming up.Before we even got him to say yes, we had200 people that had committed to an advo-cacy luncheon or a California VisionaryNational Leaders Luncheon [part of theyear’s commitment]. They didn’t know whowas going to speak or where it was going tobe held, but they knew that we deliver one ortwo of those a year. So the Chairman’sCircle allows us to build the events. I thinkfinancial strength is my number-one accom-plishment in the years I’ve been here.

The other accomplishment that I’m proudof is that I have built a good staff eventhough I’ve lost some good staff memberswho left me for better things. For example,Ryan Alsop, who now is the number-twoguy below the COO of the county, was mygovernment affairs guy. He was with mefour or five years. Janet Nguyen, who is asupervisor for Orange County and is run-ning for state senate, was my VP of govern-ment affairs. I’ve had so many, like [the late]Shaun Lumachi. Now we’ve hired Jeremy[Harris] as my senior vice president. Myassistant Samantha has been with me fiveyears, and I’ve got a great controller inAjmaa [Purevee], who has been with me forfour years. So even though I’ve had someturnover, my turnover has not been the typi-cal turnover at most chambers of commerce.LBBJ: How do chambers today compare

to when you first entered chamber work?Gordon: I do a lot of facilitating of

retreats for chambers throughout theUnited States. I have a PowerPoint presen-tation called “This Is Not Your Father’sChamber of Commerce.” One change is less staff. I have a much

smaller staff than I used to. Our staff has todo a lot more because we can’t afford thekinds of staffs that we used to have. . . .Also, when I got in the business 32 yearsago in Covina, the word retention didn’texist in our vocabulary. Everybodyrenewed because it was a civic-pride-thingto do, or it was a family business where thefather or grandfather was part of the cham-ber. Today, members want a return on theirinvestment. It’s WIIFM – what’s in it forme. They’re giving you $510 and you needto show return on that investment prettyquickly. . . . So the biggest challenge withchambers today is: how do we show valueto members who have no time to partici-pate. I believe electronically, throughemails, our chamber express twice a monthnewsletter, we have to show value for peo-ple who will probably never go to anythingthat we do. We’re lucky if we get 50 percentof our members to go to one event. We have started a Young Professionals

group that Jeremy Harris has kicked off.This is about young professionals whowant to get involved in the community.They may be potential boardmembers. LBBJ: Does the board establish goals for

the year, or is that the role of the board chair?Gordon: The goals are established at the

board planning conference. We tweak themeach year; we don’t start over. For manyyears, we’ve had four core strategies, witha vice chair overseeing each one:• Membership Services – providing

value to our membership and benefits likebig discounts on Office Depot, networkingopportunities, etc. • Economic Development. Part of that is

our Entrepreneur of the Year, CorporateCitizen of the Year, Shaun Lumachi RisingStar Award and more. The economic devel-opment plan has been finished. It’s avail-able on our website in rough draft form.[Former chamber chair] Jerry Millerworked for over a year and a half on it. It’sa big accomplishment. • Community Development, or what we

give back to the community, whether I giveback as an emcee or auctioneer, or myemployees are involved, it’s our way of sup-porting nonprofits. We’re co-hosting with

the Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership therelease of a new economic impact report onthe third sector. I’m always involved onboard of directors or in leadership roles.We give back a lot to the community in thatregard. When I’m on a board or I’m help-ing as an emcee or I’m auctioneering help-ing raise money for Special Olympics orRonald McDonald House, it shows a softerside of Randy Gordon and the chamber.Some people only see us on that hard side,on the politics side. • Public Policy. We are famous for our

public policy efforts. It’s very important tous. Our government affairs committee once ayear adopts a platform. Not a single bill goesfrom our government affairs committee to

the board. The board empowers them tomake those decisions. In today’s chamberworld, you don’t always have the time to takeit to the board. If our board met yesterday, wecan’t wait a month to take it to the board.Keep in mind that the comfort level is therebecause about half of our government affairscommittee members are also boardmembers.We have a board retreat coming up May

15-16. Our board turns over July 1.Incoming Chair Diana Hendel is runningthat planning conference. Every chair has atheme. Diana Hendel’s theme is “HealthyJobs, Healthy Community.” Quite frankly,because our four core strategies have beenso successful, very few chairs come in and




THE LONG BEACH CHAMBER’S RANDY GORDON22 Long Beach Business Journal April 15-28, 2014

make a lot of changes. It’s really tweaking.LBBJ: Are you happy with where the

Long Beach Chamber is today?Gordon: Sure. There’s a Japanese word

called kaizen, which means a never-endingimprovement. I used to say this in gradeschool – good, better, best, never let it restuntil the good is better than the best. Butyou can always improve. Our chamber is agood chamber today. I’m very proud ofwhere we are today. It’s a much betterchamber than it was 20 years ago. And yet,we can get better. Right now I’m in between vice presi-

dents of membership, so when I hire the newvice president of membership, that personreally needs to increase attendance at theluncheons, mixers and so on. I’ve been with-out a vice president of membership for acouple of months. That’s a key position toget back for the small business owners tohave more networking opportunities. So I’mhappy with where the chamber is today. Ismy job done? No. I have six more years. Myjob is not done. I want to continue to makethe chamber financially sound. It looks likewe are on track to be in the black again thisyear. We’ve had some rough spots. Politicscost us a lot of money last year – well over$100,000. Yet, despite the fact that we lostall that funding – i.e. $30,000 from the port,$25,000 from the airport, the list can go on– the bottom line is we still made our budgetand we still made a small profit. LBBJ: And the loss of the State of the

City a couple of years ago. That hurt too.Gordon:Yes, but we made that up with

State of the County. And, also, keep inmind that with last year’s State of theCounty we donated $50,000 because thesupervisor asked us to. We went from$15,000 to $50,000 in donation and westill made budget.LBBJ: Do you feel the Long Beach

Chamber is paying enough attention toissues affecting small business?Gordon: Nobody cares about small busi-

nesses more than we do. I’ve been in thechamber business for 32 years. Small busi-ness owners have always complained thatthe chamber doesn’t do enough for them. Idon’t think that will ever change. I thinkwhat happens with small businesses is thattheir investment is so low and their expecta-tions are so high that they almost never getmet. What happens is they join the chamberand they just feel somehow someway thechamber is going to help bring business intotheir door; that the chamber is going to referbusiness to them. We do refer a little bit, butthey can’t count on that. Then, all of a sud-den, 10 months later, they’re getting a mem-bership renewal invoice. They see it and say,“Wait a minute. The chamber hasn’t sentme a referral. I haven’t been to a singlechamber event.” It’s a two-way street. If wecannot get them to an event, it’s very hard toshow value. Once again, how do we showvalue to the members that don’t have timeto participate? Electronically is the way ofthe future. The bottom line is, we take posi-tions on small business issues and bills allthe time. We’ve had many years of a suc-cessful breakfast that we just eliminated[and hope to get back]. We have GoodAfternoon Long Beach. We have lots ofopportunities for small businesses to partic-ipate. We give discounts on many things,

whether it is a dine-out program at restau-rants or up to 60 percent off at OfficeDepot. We have the Green BusinessCouncil with a lot of small business ownerson that committee. We have a Women’sBusiness Council. Almost all of those[members] are small business owners. Andwe have an IBA (International BusinessAssociation) with some small businesses.So we try to provide opportunities for smallbusiness to get involved. The problem ismost small businesses don’t have time toget involved. LBBJ: Does the chamber have a rela-

tionship with the Small BusinessDevelopment Center?Gordon:Absolutely. We’ve worked with

them. We’ve run articles on them in ournewsletter. In fact, they’re the ones that didthe Shaun Lumachi Rising Star Award. Werefer to them. We’ve sent several smallbusiness people through the GoldmanSachs 10,000 Small Businesses program.LBBJ:Many have told us that they think

the Long Beach Chamber is too political.How do you respond to that?Gordon: Here’s how we respond – if not

us who? If not now, when? Who better tofind pro-business candidates? If we don’tfind, recruit and help get elected pro-busi-ness candidates, nobody else is going to doit. Rotary isn’t going to do it. Long BeachCity College isn’t going to do it. How do wefind pro-business moderate candidates? I’mnot talking about R’s and D’s. There are twomyths going on in this town. One is that thechamber never wins an election. The fact iswe have won twice as many that we haveendorsed as we’ve lost. I can prove it. I havea track record of it. Number two, the cham-ber only supports Republicans. False. Weendorse twice as many Democrats as

Republicans. Now, there is a reason for that.Not enough Republicans run. Suzie Price isa perfect example of this. Suzie Price was aRepublican for many years. She’s been aDemocrat for several years now, maybe adozen. When we backed her, people wentcrazy saying, “The 3rd District has alwaysbeen Republican, it’s been a Republican for-ever. We need a Republican in the 3rdDistrict to take over for Gary DeLong.” Wedon’t care if it’s Republican or Democrat.We want a moderate pro-business person,whether they’re Republican or Democrat. Every major chamber in California

endorses candidates. If you take the top 10cities, every one of those chambers isendorsing. There are probably over 100chambers in this state that endorse candi-dates. Some of them don’t have a PAC [polit-ical action committee] because a 501c6 canendorse a candidate legally. If you want togive them money, then you have to have aPAC and the money has to go through thePAC. But it’s important that we do this.If Damon Dunn gets elected mayor, we

would have had a lot to do with that. Wediscovered him. We recruited him. Weendorsed him early. We took tremendousamount of crap from people, but lookwhere he is today. He’s this much away[holding his thumb and finger close totogether] from winning. He’s still got aroad ahead, but I believe he can win. Now,if he wins, he will be a very pro-businessmayor. That’s what we need. And we needpro-business councilmembers. We don’tneed councilmembers that have sold theirsoul lock, stock and barrel to the unions.That’s what we’ve had. So who is going to put these pro-busi-

ness people in office if we don’t? We’re notgoing to give up. People say, “You can’t

beat the Lowenthals.” We just did. “Youcan’t beat the unions.” We can. I have neverin my life been more passionate aboutsomething because it’s the right thing at theright place at the right time. We’ve beendoing this for 18 years. The first candidatewe endorsed was Clive Graham in the 1999special election for the 2nd District. Whatwe did then was we endorsed only. Then westarted the PAC a couple of years later.LBBJ: Is there anything else you would

like to add? Gordon: Well, yes. You haven’t asked

about my family.LBBJ: Tell us about your family.Gordon: Well I’ve been with Nancy

Becker for 15 years now. I met Nancy at aan International Business Association func-tion. We were both married 27 years to dif-ferent people. I had been separated for threemonths when I met her. The good Lord justbrought us together. She was the very firstdate I had after 27 years of being married. LBBJ:Where did you go?Gordon: Long Beach State Men’s

Basketball game. I called Bill Shumard, theathletic director. I said, “Bill, believe it ornot, I got my first date in 27 years. I want toimpress her. Can I have some floor seats?”That was December 29, 1999. We haveseven grandkids between us. They areseven, six, five, four, three and two yearsold. Biologically, five are mine and one isNancy’s. I love being a grandpa. Let me tellyou something, it doesn’t matter how badthings are during the week. I could have areally bad week politically. When I’m withmy grandkids on the weekend, the world isright again. Because when you’re with themfor such a short period of time, you knowit’s a quality time. You squeeze it in and for-get about the rest of life. It balances me. �

In the office of Randy Gordon, president and CEO of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, a wall is covered in award plaques and framedarticles about the work he and his staff have done over the years. Tucked in the back of the Long Beach Chamber offices is Gordon’s sports memora-bilia room, which also includes equipment, photographs and awards from various schools including California State University, Long Beach.(Photograph by the Business Journal’s Thomas McConville)



POLITICALWIRE – APRIL 8 PRIMARY ELECTION RESULTSApril 15-28, 2014 Long Beach Business Journal 23

Voters Stay Home, ButThose Who Did VoteWent With Younger

CandidatesGarcia Wins Six Of Nine Districts

According To LBBJ Tabulation

� By GEORGE ECONOMIDES

Publisher

As the Business Journal went to press,there were about 2,500 ballots from the 241precincts to be counted in order to close thebooks on the April 8 Long Beach primary.Those ballots are unlikely to change theresults of the election.As of Friday, April 11, the Long Beach

City Clerk’s office determined that 47,380of the city’s 285,029 registered voters, or16.62%, had voted in the primary. Of those,44,626 (15.66%) cast a vote for mayor. Ifthat number holds or moves only slightlyafter all the ballots are tabulated, it wouldrepresent the lowest percentage turnoutsince at least the 1990 mayoral race.Citywide elections for mayor were first

held in 1988 when 5th District CouncilmanErnie Kell beat 3rd District CouncilwomanJan Hall for a two-year term. Thereafter,winners served four-year terms. TheBusiness Journal was unable to determinethe voter turnout for the 1988 mayoral race,but it did locate the voter turnout numbersfor all mayoral races since 1990 (refer toaccompanying chart.) Voters who weighed in on the April 8 pri-

mary election leaned toward the youngercandidates in a big way.The top two finishers in the mayoral

race – Robert Garcia and Damon Dunn –are 36 and 38, respectively. The next threecandidates are in their mid 60s or older.In the 3rd District City Council race,

winner Suzie Price is 41. The second- andthird place finishers are 67 and 59 years ofage.The 5th District runoff features Stacy

Mungo, 33, and Carl Kemp, 41. The candi-date finishing third is 55 years old.Rex Richardson, winner in the 9th

District city council race, is 30 years old.The person he beat is 48. Richardson is theyoungest person ever to be elected to theLong Beach City Council.Who Won Which City Council DistrictOn April 11, the city clerk’s office issued

a breakdown of the vote by precinct forthose votes tabulated election night,including vote by mail ballots and the votescast at polling locations. Using that infor-mation only, the Business Journal was ableto determine how the top five mayoral can-didates performed in each of the nine citycouncil districts. Here are our results:• Robert Garcia won the 1st City

Council District, as expected, with about44.0% of the votes cast for mayor. BonnieLowenthal finished second with 22.7%,followed by Damon Dunn at 16.1%, GerrieSchipske at 6.7% and Doug Otto at 5.5%.The remaining five candidates accountedfor 5.0%. (Percentages based on just under2,000 votes cast for mayor in the district.)• Garcia also won the 2nd District,

receiving 39.4% of the votes cast for

mayor. Lowenthal was next at 24.1%, fol-lowed by Dunn at 13.0%, Schipske at10.9% and Otto at 8.9%. The remainingfive candidates accounted for 3.7%.(Percentages based on just over 3,300 votescast for mayor in the district.) • Dunn won the 3nd District, in what

was a very tight race for the top three,receiving 25.1% of the votes cast formayor. Otto was next at 22.9%, followed byGarcia at 21.3%, Lowenthal at 18.2% andSchipske at 10.1%. The remaining fivecandidates accounted for 2.3%.(Percentages based on nearly 8,650 votescast for mayor in the district.)• Garcia also won the 4th District, as

the candidates were again bunchedtogether. Garcia received 25.4%, Dunn22.4%, Lowenthal 20.5%, Schipske 13.8%and Otto 13.1%. The remaining five candi-dates accounted for 4.8%. (Percentagesbased on just under 3,400 votes cast formayor in the district.)• As expected, Schipske carried her

home district, the 5th, by a wide margin.She grabbed 33.3% of the vote for mayor.Dunn finished second with 20.9%, fol-lowed by Lowenthal at 14.7%, Garcia14.4% and Otto 13.5%. The remaining fivecandidates accounted for 3.2%.(Percentages based on just under 8,700votes cast for mayor in the district.)• Garcia picked up another district

win in the 6th, grabbing 33.1% of the vote.Dunn was second with 26.0%, followed byLowenthal at 24.4%, Schipske at 7.0% andOtto at 5.1%. The remaining five candi-dates accounted for 4.4%. (Percentagesbased on under 1,600 votes cast for mayorin the district.)• Garcia continued his winning ways in

the 7th District with 28.5% of the votescast for mayor. Lowenthal was next at24.2%, followed by Dunn at 22.7%,Schipske at 10.9% and Otto with 10.0%.The remaining five candidates accountedfor 3.7%. (Percentages based on just under4,900 votes cast for mayor in the district.)• Garcia won his sixth council district

by coming out on top in the 8th with28.3% of the votes cast for mayor. Dunnwas next at 23.9%, followed by Lowenthalat 20.0%, Otto at 12.7% and Schipske at10.1%. The remaining five candidatesaccounted for 5.0%. (Percentages based onjust under 3,450 votes cast for mayor in thedistrict.)• Dunn won his second council district,

taking the 9thwith 30.0% of the votes castfor mayor. Garcia was second at 28.1%,followed by Lowenthal at 20.3%, Otto at8.6% and Schipske at 7.6%. The remainingfive candidates accounted for 5.4%.(Percentages based on just under 2,300votes cast for mayor in the district.)

City Attorney’s RaceCharles Parkin and James Johnson face

off in June to be the next city attorney.Parkin received 45.1% of the vote versusJohnson’s 37.8%. Third-place finisherMatthew Pappas gave a strong showingwith 17.2%. Pappas, who has sued the citynumerous times over marijuana-relatedissues, has endorsed Johnson.

Other Citywide RacesCity Auditor Laura Doud ran unopposed.

City Prosecutor Doug Haubert wasreelected easily, grabbing 74% of the voteover Rosemary Chavez.

City Council Races1st District – Lena Gonzalez (46%) and

Misi Tagaloa (30.2%) are facing off inJune. Ricardo Linarez received 15.6% ofthe vote and Pilar Pinel ended with 8.1%.The council seat has been occupied the pastsix year by Garcia, for whom Gonzalezserved as chief of staff.

3rd District – Suzie Price (55.2%) wonan impressive victory and avoided a runoff.Jack Rosenberg was next at 13.3%, fol-lowed by Jim Lewis, 11.5%, Stephen Bello,10.4% and Martha Flores Gibson, 9.7%).Price will be sworn in in mid-July, replac-ing, termed-out Councilmember GaryDeLong.

5th District – Stacy Mungo (37.6%) andCarl Kemp (31.7%) head to a June show-down to replace termed-outCouncilmember Schipske, who hasendorsed Kemp. Joe Luyben finished astrong third with 23.3% of the vote, withThomas Sutfin last with 7.3%. Luyben hasendorsed Mungo.

7th District – As of press time, RobertoUranga (50.4%) held a slim majority of thevotes cast in the Westside district, withJoan Greenwood a distant second (24.9%).Of the 1,650 or so votes to be tabulated, noone knows how many are from 7th Districtvoters. It is doubtful Uranga falls below 50percent, resulting in a runoff withGreenwood. Teer Strickland finished third(18.1%) and Lee Chauser was last (6.6%).

9th District – There was little chanceRex Richardson would not succeed hisboss, Councilman Steven Neal, for thecouncil seat. Richardson did not disap-point, picking up nearly 73% of the voteagainst his lone opponent Ben Daugherty.Richardson will be sworn in with Price inmid-July.

Long Beach Community CollegeBoard Of Trustee Races

Area 1 – Incumbent Jeff Kellogg foughtoff a strong showing by MarshallBlesofsky to hold onto his seat. Kellogg,who is the current president of the board,received 55.45% of the vote.

Area 3 – Sunny Zia easily won the openseat, taking 60.36% of the vote over chal-lenger Stella Ursua. Zia is an employeewith the Long Beach Harbor Department.

Area 5 – Virginia Baxter, a long-timemember of the Long Beach City CollegeFoundation staff, won by a comfortablemargin over teacher Greg Slaughter. Baxterreceived 55.67% of the vote.Uranga is a current college trustee. If he

is able to avoid a runoff for the 7th CouncilDistrict seat and be sworn in as a coun-cilmember in mid-July, the current board-members will either make an appointmentor call for a special election. It is uncertainwhich method will be used.Long Beach Unified School District

Board Of Education RacesDistrict 1 – One of the closest races on

April 8 was between Megan Kerr andUduak-Joe Ntuk for the open board seat.Kerr squeezed by with 51% of the vote, orby about 150 votes.

District 3 – Incumbent John McGinnisreceived a scare from challenger JuanBenitez, winning by fewer than 200 votes.McGinnis received 51.93% of the votescast.

District 5 – Incumbent Diana Craigheadwas not challenged.

Measure A – General TaxOn Medical Marijuana Sales

The measure passed easily with 73.88%of the vote. See story on Page 4. �

Looking Back On Voter Turnout For Mayoral RacesThe first citywide election for mayor of Long Beach occurred in 1988. 5th District CouncilmemberErnie Kell beat 3rd District Councilmember Jan Hall. It was for a two-year term and thereafter four-year terms. The asterisk (*) represents a write-in candidate.

Votes Cast PercentYear Candidates For Mayor Turnout1990 Primary Ernie Kell, Tom Clark 41,882 25.0%

Ski Demski, Dan Rosenberg1990 General Ernie Kell, Tom Clark 67,498 38.9%

1994 Primary Beverly O’Neill, Ray Grabinski,Jeff Kellogg, Frank Colonna, Ernie KellDon Westerland, Ski Demski + 6 others 49,932 27.9%

1994 General Beverly O’Neill, Ray Grabinski 62,494 34.4%

1998 Primary Beverly O’Neill, G. Juan JohnsonKarl Tiedermann, Ski Demski, Lee Davis 35,609 19.5%

2002 Primary Beverly O’Neill*, Dan Baker, Norm Ryan 38,974 18.5%

2002 General Beverly O’Neill*, Dan Baker, Norm Ryan* 41,303 22.2%

2006 Primary Bob Foster, Frank Colonna, Doug Drummond + 2 others 45,001 23.5%

2006 General Bob Foster, Frank Colonna 56,585 28.8%

2010 Primary Bob Foster, Stevie Merino 38,021 17.83%

2014 Primary Robert Garcia, Damon Dunn, Doug Otto,Bonnie Lowenthal, Gerrie Schipske + 5 others 44,626** 15.66%**

*Write-in candidate **About 1,650 votes remain to be counted citywide for all races.Source: Long Beach Business Journal, Long Beach City Clerk

1_LBBJ_Apirl 1_SectionA_LBBJ MASTER LAYOUT 4/14/14 10:40 AM

ENCORE – PEOPLE IN THE NEWS24 Long Beach Business Journal April 15-28, 2014

Art Levine And Bob ShannonAppointed To WaterBoard – The LongBeach City Councilrecently approvedMayor Bob Foster’srecommendation toappoint Art Levine andBob Shannon to thefive-member LongBeach Board of WaterC o m m i s s i o n e r s .Levine is host of thelong-running “StraightTalk” television showand active in volunteerwork for numerouslocal groups andorganizations. He is aformer law professor atCalifornia State

University, Long Beach where he coordi-nates the annual Distinguished SpeakerSeries that benefits student scholarships.Shannon retired last year as city attorneyfor the City of Long Beach. He worked forthe city for 39 years, 15 as the city’s topelected legal advisor. He was recently rec-ognized as “Lawyer of the Year” by theLong Beach Bar Association.CSUDH Professor Erbe Awarded

Fulbright Distinguished Chair – NancyErbe, professor ofnegotiation, conflictresolution and peace-building at CaliforniaState University,Dominguez Hills, anda resident of BixbyKnolls, was recentlyawarded the 2014-15Fulbright-PUC (Pontificia UniversidadeCatólica) Rio de Janeiro DistinguishedChair in American Studies. She was one of38 distinguished chairs and the only oneawarded in American Studies for Brazilthis year. Erbe has published several arti-cles and books on peacebuilding. She willbe designing and teaching courses in inter-national mediation and international con-flict resolution to graduate students atPUC-Rio’s International Mediation Center.Erbe joined CSUDH in 2004.Cordero To Receive Stanley T. Olafson

Award – The LosAngeles Chamber ofCommerce is present-ing the Stanley T.Olafson Award toMario Cordero, chair-man of the U.S. FederalMaritime Commissionand a former chair ofthe Long Beach Board of HarborCommissioners. The award, established in1933, is presented “to an outstanding mem-ber of the world trade community inSouthern California” and “recognizes thosewho have contributed to the advancement ofworld trade and international relations aboveand beyond job requirements.” Cordero isbeing honored May 2 at the 88th annualWorld Trade Week Kickoff Breakfast.CSULB Faculty Member Honored –A

“Lifetime Achievement Award” has beenpresented to MaridithJanssen, past chair ofthe California StateUniversity, LongBeach Recreation andLeisure StudiesDepartment. Theaward comes from theCalifornia Parks andRecreation Society’s Recreation TherapySection. A CSULB faculty member for 15years, Janssen recently moved to the CSUChancellor’s Office to oversee the SallyCasanova Scholarship Program.New Officers Installed For

Community Hospital Foundation – TheCommunity Hospital Long BeachFoundation (CHLB) announced the 2014-15 officers for two of its fundraisinggroups. In its 58th year, the CHLBAuxiliary installed Twyla Karcut as presi-dent; Barbara Ponegalek as treasurer;Elizabeth Appleyard as secretary; andDiane Owen as gift shop coordinator. Thehospital’s Las Damas de la Plaza, estab-

Press-TelegramOffices ReturnTo Pine Avenue Earlier this month the officesof the Press-Telegramreturned to Pine Avenue,near the newspaper’s formerheadquarters. The newoffices at 727 Pine Ave.house editorial, advertisingand a few other staff mem-bers. An open house is set forthis Thursday, April 17, from5-7 p.m. Pictured, left to rightare: Eric Bradley, city hallreporter; Joe Segura,reporter; Rich Archbold, pub-lic editor; Gregory Yee,reporter; Richard Guzman,reporter/writer; AndrewEdwards, reporter; BerniceRomo, office manager; TimGrobaty, columnist; andLaura Greanias, assistant cityeditor. To reach the news-room, call 562/499-1337;for display advertising,562/499-1378; and classi-fied advertising, 562/499-1473. (Photograph by theBusiness Journal’s ThomasMcConville)

Creative Production’s Deborah Golian Castro Named Women’s Council’s Entrepreneur Of The Year

The inaugural Women of Excellenceawards presented April 3 by the Women’sBusiness Council honored Deborah GolianCastro, founder, owner and CEO ofCreative Productions, as “Entrepreneur ofthe Year.” Other awards went to ChristineWalker-Bowman, first vice president ofFarmers & Merchants Bank, as “ExemplaryBusiness Woman of the Year,” and LibbyHuff, a business and economics teacher atLong Beach Poly High School, as “WomanEducator of the Year.” “It’s an honor andprivilege to be recognized by my peersand those in the community, many of whomare entrepreneurs and pioneers in theirrespective fields,” Castro said in a state-ment. A strategic marketing agencylocated in Long Beach, CreativeProductions has earned more than 250awards since its inception.

Beach Cleanup By LBS Financial Credit Union EmployeesMore than 40 employees, family members and friends associated with LBS Financial Credit Union gathered recently to clean up a portion of the Long Beachcoastline. For the past several years, LBS Financial employees cleaned up the beach area from 14th Place to 19th Place as part of the City of Long Beach“Adopt-a-Beach” program. A statement from the credit union said its employees are committed to cleaning up the beach a minimum of three times a year.LBS Financial was founded in 1935 as the Long Beach School District Employees Federal Credit Union. It currently serves 110,000 members through sixbranch office locations. (Photograph provided by LBS Financial)

Art Levine

Bob Shannon


ENCORE – PEOPLE IN THE NEWSApril 15-28, 2014 Long Beach Business Journal 25

lished in 1984, installed Beverly Cook aspresident; Carolyn Powers, vice president;Pat Mohler, corresponding secretary; PatRamsburg; treasurer; Marilyn Landsdale,parliamentarian; Ann Sines, hospitalitychair; Yolanda Benavidez, nominatingchair; Fran Byland and Sheila Cantrell,event coordinators; and Christy Roeher,historian/media/photographer. For moreinformation about the foundation, visit:www.chlbfoundation.org.New Officers For Long Beach Police

Foundation – Bruce DD MacRae, vicepresident of state government affairs forUPS, is the president-elect of the LongBeach Police Foundation Board ofDirectors. Other new officers are TheresaBrunella as vice president; GretchenHouser as secretary; Lacy Marlette astreasurer; and John G. Dixon and HelenNajar as members at large. The LongBeach Police Foundation is the only chari-table organization that provides private,direct funding for the Long Beach PoliceDepartment. For more information, visit:www.lbpolicefoundation.org.New Superintendent And Building

Official For Long Beach – David Khorramwas recently appointed superintendent andbuilding official for the City of Long Beach.He reports to Amy Bodek, director of theLong Beach Development ServicesDepartment. He most recently served as thechief building official for the City of Orange.Khorram is responsible for managing all dvi-sion-related functions, including administra-tion of the public counter, inspection serv-ices, engineering and facilitating plan check,as well as providing service to local owners,community groups and designers.New Officers, Boardmembers For

Executives Association Of Long Beach –Kellie Sherrill, owner of Knightling WebDesign, has been elected vice president ofthe Executives Association of Long Beach.She is in line to succeed the current presi-dent, Kelly Williams, the owner of KellyWilliams Insurance. Other boardmembersand officers are: Machelle Thompson ofKeen Home Care, serving as the group’ssecretary/treasurer; John Berg of TranscomTelecommunications; Koly Pabst of Pabst,Kinney & Associates; Scott Williams,attorney at law; Rusty Deeble of DigitalInstallers; and Craig Kotani of Sawin &Kotani, CPAs, and immediate past presi-dent of the board.Alumni Council Names CSU Trustees

Appointee – The California StateUniversity (CSU) Alumni Council has

appointed LouMonville to the CSUBoard of Trustees asthe alumni trustee.Monville, an alumnusof California StateUniversity, SanBernardino, beginsserving a two-year

term in May. “The CSU and Cal State SanBernardino have left indelible marks on myentire life,” Monville said in a statement.“To represent the nearly three million peo-ple who are proud alumni of the CSU asthe alumni trustee is a truly special honor.This is another way for me to give back tothe university that makes such an impact onCalifornia.” The CSU Board of Trustees isresponsible for the governance of the 23-

campus system. Under present law thereare 25 Trustees (24 voting, one non-vot-ing). Five trustees are ex officio members:the governor, lieutenant governor, speakerof the assembly, state superintendent ofpublic instruction and the chancellor. Thealumni trustee is the only rrustee appointedto the board without review by the gover-nor or legislature.Library Foundation Director Wins

Award For Novel –Nancy Young, directorof development for theLong Beach PublicLibrary Foundation,was honored recentlyat The Great NorthwestBook Festival 2014 inPortland, Oregon. She

won an honorable mention for her book,Strum, which, according to Inkwater Press,“crosses two centuries and four continentsin search of truth, love and a family legacy.”The American Library Association says ofStrum, “Young’s debut novel delights thereadr in a mesmerizing story you can’t stopreading.” And Publisher’s Weekly Reviewwrites, “Young’s intense focus on the naturalworld offers images of glistening beauty.”Young may be found at www.inkwater-books.com/strum and www.nmcyoung.com.Local CPA Christian A Judge For “2014

Car Of The Year” – Blake Christian, a LongBeach-based CPA with Holthouse Carlin &Van Tright, is one of a select group of driversfrom throughout the country who werepicked to judge a series of luxury cars for theRobb Report’s (Robbreport.com) 21st annual

“Car of the Year” issue. Christian drove 14world-class cars at Meadowood Resort inNapa, ranging from American Muscle cars(Viper GTS and Chevy Corvette) toEuropean exotics (Ferrari F12, LamborghiniAventador and Audi R8). Christian and theother 50 or so drivers judged the cars basedon criteria ranging from acceleration, brak-ing, cornering, comfort and style. �


PERSPECTIVE26 Long Beach Business Journal April 15-28, 2014

About one out of three people have allergiesin the U.S., including children, but many

people are underdiagnosed or undiagnosed.Only about 10 to 20 percent of the populationknows that they have allergies, with the major-ity being unaware of what they’re allergic to. Allergies occur when your immune system

mistakenly identifies a harmless airborne sub-stance as harmful. Your immune system thenproduces antibodies to this harmless substance.The next time you come in contact with it, theseantibodies recognize it and signal your immunesystem to release chemicals, like histamine, intoyour bloodstream. These immune system chem-

icals cause a reaction that leads to the symptoms of hay fever.Hay fever, also referred to as allergic rhinitis, is caused by an allergic

response to outdoor or indoor allergens, like pollen, dust mites or petdander. Hay fever causes cold-like symptoms, such as a runny nose, itchyeyes, congestion, sneezing and sinus pressure. But unlike a cold, hayfever isn’t caused by a virus. It’s often hard to distinguish the difference between allergies and the

common cold. Allergies are characterized by histamine. Histamine isreleased in and around the nose and is associated with itch. Whensomeone has itchy eyes, nose and throat, plus sneezing that lasts forthree to five days it’s most likely allergies. With a cold you’ll typicallyexperience congestion, mucus, and coughing and much less sneezing. There are common allergy triggers that can cause a reaction year-

round, but many people also suffer from seasonal triggers. In spring,tree pollen is a common trigger. Grass pollen triggers allergies startingin early summer; rag weed pollen triggers allergies starting in Augustand molds affect allergies more during winter. Because California has very mild seasons, you may see a swing in all of

those triggers depending on the humidity, significant weather changes orlong periods of drought. Many of the common seasonal allergy triggersdon’t apply in Southern California. A common misperception is that if someone takes an over-the-counter

antihistamine and feels better, they must have allergies. Antihistaminesare a good drying agent, which is why most over-the-counter cold reme-dies have antihistamines in it, but because someone responds to an anti-histamine doesn’t mean they have allergies. For this reason, it’s important to have an allergist determine what

you’re allergic to. There are two types of tests used to determine allergies.During a skin test, small amounts of material that can trigger allergies arepricked into the skin. If allergic, the patient will develop a raised bump.A blood test can measure the immune system’s response to a specific

allergen. A blood sample is sent to a laboratory, where it can be testedfor evidence of sensitivity to possible allergens.After you’ve been tested, the next step is determining what type of

treatments will work best for you. Your allergist may recommend tips toreduce common triggers, like dust and pet dander in your home. Over-the-counter medications, like antihistamines and deconges-

tions, can help reduce allergy symptoms like a stuffy, runny or itchynose and sneezing. Inhaled nasal steroids, which reduce symptomscaused by inflammation, also can be prescribed by your allergist. Another option prescribed and administered by allergists is subcuta-

neous immunotherapy, also known as allergy shots, which are typicallygiven once a week. This type of treatment not only reduces allergysymptoms but boosts tolerance to the allergen over time. Similar to allergy shots is sublingual immunotherapy. It’s made of the

same allergen extract given through the shot, but is administered orallythrough drops. The patient never needs to leave their home, making itmore convenient and increasing medication compliance, especially inchildren who are often less comfortable with weekly shots. This treat-ment changes the way the immune system reacts to airborne triggers. The best candidate for immunotherapies are patients with seasonal

allergies or those who are particularly allergic to airborne allergens likeweeds, grass, molds and pollen. However, this treatment is not limitedto patients with severe allergies; it also has shown to work for patientswith mild to moderate allergies. Allergies can be overwhelming for many people, but they don’t need

to be. With the proper testing, preventative care and treatment, peoplewith allergies can live happy healthy lives. (Dr. Inderpal Randhawa is board-certified in adult medicine and

pediatrics with certifications in clinical immunology, allergy and pul-monary medicine. He is the medical director of the Food AllergyCenter at Miller Children’s, which is the first specialized pediatricfood allergy center in Southern California.)

When the 20 best companies forthe year were identified, which

ones soared above the rest and why?What are these organization’s best lead-ership practices, and what can we learnfrom them?One thing is for sure, all great compa-

nies put a premium on innovation. Andthe insight that sparks innovation seemsto occur randomly to the averageobserver. Even the icon we use for inno-vation is a light bulb. It’s a picture imply-ing that ideas come from sudden flashesof inspiration. Now I’m not denyingthese “flash” experiences. I’ve had oneor two in my lifetime. Some were frominspiration and some were from diges-tion! But the best companies have a sys-tem to develop a steady stream of ideas.It might surprise you that leadership

style and organizational culture candemote or promote innovation. Ratherthan giving bullet points of how toincrease your odds at innovation, whatare the actual business practices thatsupport meaningful innovation anddrive market leadership? It’s culturecreation that drives and supports theflourishing of new ideas.What are the practices followed by

the best companies? According to theHay Group, any organization can followtheir lead and make innovation easier.Use the following ideas as a discus-

sion starter with your team.With the accelerating pace of change,

the best companies were flexible,responsive organizations. The evalua-

tions were based on agility and the abil-ity to make strategic and operationaldecisions quickly. Context was alsoimportant. Employees spent much timediscussing customer’s future needs.A diversity of thinking was essential

to broadening perspectives. Theyengaged the next generation who loveto bring their ideas to work. This is inlockstep with our findings in ourresearch on Millennials².The top companies create room for

ideas and look for them throughouttheir organizations. Cultural, ethnic andnational diversity were highly valued(another value that drives Millennials²).They worked hard to connect peoplewith projects that were personallymeaningful to them (a definiteMillennial intrinsic value). They alsoencouraged employees to learn in areasoutside their personal expertise.Collaboration was a high value. It’s

the process that brings the raw ideas ofinnovation together. This is also a highvalue for Millennials. Their tendency isto participate even if uninvited.Here’s the bottom Line. Leadership

is what drives innovation. The organiza-tional structure is important and canhelp or hinder the process. But leader-ship is the most essential ingredient increating a culture of innovation. Structure is like the banks of the river

directing how the water can flow. Butculture is like the current in the river. Itmoves people and processes in a certaindirection. If culture is not intentional, itwill happen by default. This is whyleadership is important. Leadership cre-ates a culture where innovation is whatwe do, and not simply a miraculousthing that appears exceptionally – everyonce in a while.Innovation requires intentionality. It

is a long-term commitment to a disci-plined approach. Is your organization

creating a climate where innovation isthe expected norm?Only the leaders that (a) insist

employees have a voice in their work,(b) back it up with the provision ofresources, then (c), support them intheir efforts to succeed, will create cul-tures that champion innovation.Below is a summary of what the Best

Companies do:94% are prepared to run unprofitable

projects to try new things.100% let all employees behave like

leaders, as opposed to 54% of their peers.100% manage a pipeline of qualified

leadership candidates.90% let employees bypass the chain

of command with an excellent idea.95% see problems as opportunities.100% take action when a leader is

not collaborating. It’s mandatory!95% reward leaders based on their

ability to build excellent peer rela-tionships.95% of leaders take time to actively

develop others. Only 48% of leaders inpeer organizations do this.95% of leaders at the best companies

are culturally savvy and are able to beeffective with diverse teams.The Hay Group’s study on why these

companies are the best highlights theimportance of engaging this emerginggeneration – the Millennials. This iswhat drives them. And it seems that thisis also what makes an organization soarabove their competitors.¹The Hay Group; Summary Of The Best

Companies for Leadership Study.²Managing The Millennials: Discover The

Core Competencies For Managing Today’sWorkforce: Chip Espinoza, Mick Ukleja;Wiley and Sons

(Mick Ukleja is the author of severalbooks, a coach, keynote speaker andpresident of LeadershipTraq, a leader-ship consulting firm. Check his weeklyblog at www.leadershiptraq.com.)

� EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIPBy Mick Ukleja

Innovation: What We Can Learn From The Best

Allergies, HayFever, AllergicRhinitis. What

Does It All Mean?

EARTHTALK®

This coming April 22 will mark the44th annual celebration of Earth

Day, and the focus this year will begreen cities. “As the world’s populationmigrates to cities, and as the bleak real-ity of climate change becomes increas-ingly clear, the need to create sustain-able communities is more importantthan ever,” reports Earth Day Network,the Seattle-based non-profit that helpscoordinate Earth Day celebrations andserves as a clearinghouse for relatedinformation and resources. The grouphopes to galvanize the support of morethan a billion people across 192 coun-tries this Earth Day for increasing thesustainability and reducing the carbonfootprints of urban areas everywhere.By focusing on buildings, energy and

transportation issues in cities this year,Earth Day Network hopes to raiseawareness about the importance ofmaking improvements in efficiency,investments in renewable technologyand regulation reform in the urbanareas where half the world’s populationlives today. By 2050, three quarters ofus will live in cities, making it more

important than ever to adapt and adoptpolicies that take into account how tosupport larger numbers of people withless environmental impact.Earth Day Network has already

mobilized a network of partners on theground in strategically placed cities andtowns around the world to organizegrassroots efforts to improve localcodes, ordinances and policies that willhelp cities become models for sustain-ability, but participation of the widerpublic is crucial to making the GreenCities campaign a success. The GreenCities section of Earth Day Network’swebsite features a series of in-depthtool kits designed to educate the publicabout key elements of the campaignand serves as the locus of organizingaround Earth Day 2014. By makingsuch resources freely available, EarthDay Network hopes to spur individualsto take civic action by signing petitions,sending letters to policymakers andorganizing more events.Some of the ways to get involved and

raise awareness in your local commu-nity about Earth Day itself and the needto green our cities include: hosting atalk for co-workers or community mem-bers on the topic of local sustainability

initiatives; starting a farmers’ market;organizing a day of tree planting, parkor beach clean-up, or an eco-fair; andleading a recycling drive to collect asmuch metal, plastic and glass as possi-ble. Schools can register with Earth DayNetwork and get access to many stu-dent-friendly resources, including aninteractive Ecological Footprint Quizand environmentally-themed lessonplans tailored to the needs of differentgrade levels from kindergarten throughhigh school. College students can workwith dining services to start a compost-ing program or switch over to reusableplates and flatware or start a competi-tion between classes or residence hallsto reduce waste and electricity use.Earth Day Network’s website,

www.earthday.org., provides a compre-hensive database of Earth Day eventsaround the world and is updated daily.Keep in mind that every day is EarthDay and the planet – and generations tocome – will benefit from every positiveaction you take.(EarthTalk® is written and edited by

Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is aregistered trademark of E – TheEnvironmental Magazine, www.emagazine.com.)

Earth Day 2014: Greening Our Cities

� HEALTHWISE

By InderpalRandhawa, M.D.


PERSPECTIVEApril 15-28, 2014 Long Beach Business Journal 27

PUBLISHERGeorge EconomidesVICE PRESIDENT

SALES & MARKETING

Martha RangelSALES & MARKETING ASSISTANT

Heather DannGRAPHICS/PRE-PRESS

Luke DuBoisDISTRIBUTION

Conrad Riley

EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT

EDITOR

Tiffany RiderSTAFF WRITER

Samantha MehlingerCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Michael GougisPHOTOJOURNALIST

Thomas McConvilleCOPY EDITOR

Lindsay Christopher

The Long Beach Business Journal is a

publication of South Coast

Publishing, Inc., incorporated in the

State of California in July 1985. It is

published every other Tuesday

(except between Christmas and mid-

January) – 25 copies annually. The

Business Journal premiered March

1987 as the Long Beach Airport

Business Journal. Reproduction in

whole or in part without written

permission is strictly prohibited

unless otherwise stated. Opinions

expressed by perspective writers

and guest columnists are their views

and not necessarily those of the

Business Journal. Press releases

should be sent to the address shown

below. South Coast Publishing also

produces Destinations and the

Employee Times magazines.

Office

South Coast Publishing, Inc.

2599 E. 28th Street, Suite 212

Signal Hill, CA 90755

Ph: 562/988-1222 • Fx: 562/988-1239

www:LBBusinessJournal.com

Advertising and Editorial Deadlines

Wednesday prior to publication date.

Note: Press releases should be faxed

or mailed. No follow up calls, please.

For a copy of the 2014 advertising

and editorial calendar, please fax

request to 562/988-1239.

Include your name, company and

address and a copy will be sent to

you. Distribution: Minimum 25,000.

Regular Office HoursMonday-Friday 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Business Journal SubscriptionsStandard Bulk Rate: $28.00

1st Class: $70.00(25 issues – 1 year)

To the surprise of many, a numberof tax breaks that had been

enacted over the past few years –mostly during the mortgage andhousing crisis – that were scheduledto lapse without Congressionalaction, were never revived near year’send as anticipated and even now –with a full quarter of 2014 alreadygone – have still not been restored.It is difficult to fathom why legisla-

tors would not extend these breaks,since they are crucial to the rebound inhousing and real estate in general. It isnot like the economy has fullyrebounded from the Great Recession –but the powers that be in Washingtonappear to be in no hurry to finalizeanything.One of the key benefits that expired

at the end of 2013 is the MortgageForgiveness Debt Relief Act thatenabled many homeowners to be ableto get out from under a mortgage theycould no longer afford and either get aloan modification or get a short sale

where the property is sold for lessthan the note owing on the real estatewith the lender forgiving part of thedebt. Anytime there is a write-down ina mortgage, the borrower is liable forthat amount forgiven and the InternalRevenue Service considers it the sameas ordinary income. It is estimatedthat 100,000 borrowers benefitedfrom this in 2011 alone.For California residents paying

state income taxes, these benefits arestill in force – but for federal taxationpurposes, the law has lapsed andunless lawmakers take action, transac-tions taking place this year will besubject to taxes. Other tax breaks bun-dled with this include write-offs forenergy saving property improvementsand private mortgage insurance.The private mortgage insurance

deduction can be taken for policiesissued by private insurers as well asinsurance provided by the U.S.Federal Housing Administration, theU.S. Department of Veterans Affairsand the U.S. Department ofAgriculture’s Rural Housing Service.Many homeowners itemize deduc-

tions because the ir mortgage interestand property tax payments exceed thestandard deduction amount theycould claim. Before 2007 and untilthe end of 2013, this insurance couldbe used as a tax deduction. Withoutsome legislative action, this will not

apply for 2014 tax returns or movingforward.New Senate Finance Committee

Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Oregon)hopes to strike a deal with his fellowsenators to renew some 55 tax creditsand deductions that expired at the endof last year, and he doesn’t want tohave to extend them again.The Oregon Democrat, who took

the helm of the influential committeein February, said renewing the so-called tax extenders is one of his toppriorities. He said businesses andfamilies need “certainty” on the taxbreaks, which affect everything fromresearch and development, renew-able fuels and employment opportu-nities for veterans. “This means jobs and much needed

certainty for families and businessesalike,” Senator Wyden said. “But letme be clear – I’m determined that thisis the last time we do extenders andwould like to leverage this last exten-sion to reform the broken tax code.”According to the Congressional

Budget Office, the government standsto lose $54.2 billion in tax revenue ifthese benefits are extended again for2014. But the cost of extending all taxprovisions that are set to expirebetween 2013 and 2023 would bepricier and cost the federal govern-ment $938.3 billion.Senate Majority Leader Harry

Reid introduced a bill in Decemberthat would have extended the provi-sions for a year, but it didn’t make itto a vote. It appears that, withWyden taking over as chair of thispowerful committee, there might besome significant movement thisspring in bringing extensions to passfor all of these credits and taxdeductions, although in House,Ways and Means CommitteeChairman Dave Camp (R-Michigan)has pushed for the tax breaks to bemade part of a larger push to over-haul the tax code and possibly elim-inating or seriously altering themortgage interest deduction, whichhas been a mainstay of housing andreal estate for decades.Waiting to handle all of this at

once and trying to take from theAmerican homeowner while givingsomething back is not the way tomove the fragile economy forward.Quick passage of the extensions thatlapsed in December is necessary –and as soon as possible – while alsolooking at ways to help the consumerand not tax them harder is the key toa recovery.(Terry Ross, the broker-owner of

TR Properties, will answer any ques-tions about today’s real estate mar-ket. E-mail questions to Realty Viewsat [email protected] or call949/457-4922.)

� REALTY VIEWS

By Terry Ross

Housing Tax Breaks Back On The Table

Vol. XXVII No. 7April 15-28, 2014

The State’s Other Ports

C altrans is currently developing aCalifornia Freight Mobility Plan,

a blueprint for goods movement thataddresses all modes of transport acrossthe entire state. As a planning docu-ment it is designed to “promote eco-nomic growth, encourage job creation,and increase mobility, while enhancingpublic safety and security and address-ing the environmental challenges ofmoving goods via the State’s highways,railways, airports, and seaports.”Those seaports include not only

the big three – LA, Long Beach andOakland – but others in Californiathat provide valuable trade relatedservices to the state and nationaleconomy. These smaller niche portsoften specialize in specific goodsmovement operations like agricul-tural products, automobiles, machin-ery, bulk materials and other prod-ucts that do not fit within the con-tainerization model we are used tohere in Southern California. Of theeleven California ports that operatepublicly, eight are consideredsmaller ports with a niche focus.These include the ports of Hueneme,Humboldt Bay, Redwood City,Richmond, West Sacramento, SanDiego, San Francisco and Stockton. With specialization of port activi-

ties comes a substantial level of risk.Detrimental economic implications

are magnified at niche ports becauseof their lack of a diverse client base.When the industry that is being servedsuffers a decline in business, demandfor port services declines, causing areduction in the need for labor andcreating financial stress for the port aswell as the local community. This wasthe case with the slowdown in vehiclepurchases that occurred in 2008 and2009. It dramatically slowed growthrates at the Port of Hueneme inVentura County. Hueneme lost $1million in revenue in 2009 after realiz-ing profits of $1.3 million the yearbefore. On the other hand, commodi-ties often flow through niche portsbecause of dedicated infrastructure.As a result, efforts to protect the liveli-hood of the industry will also main-tain the port’s viability.Niche ports face other pressures

which force them to employ innova-tive business models and constantlyalter their practices. These pressuresinclude competing land uses likeresidential housing and commercialfacilities. The ports of RedwoodCity and San Diego have faceddevelopment pressures in recentyears. In San Diego, the TenthAvenue Marine Terminal was thefocus of multi-use developmentplans that included a new stadium,an arena, and a bay front park. Another challenge for smaller ports

is one that they share with all otherports: the need for new infrastructureinvestment to remain competitive.Access to rail is a main concern. Bulkmaterials are often transported viatrain; therefore niche ports (or anyport with a dedicated focus on bulk

materials movement) generally needreliable heavy rail access to compete. There is also a need for equipment

to handle the ever changing nature ofgoods movement. Bulk commoditiesare increasingly being moved in con-tainers. This presents an opportunityfor smaller ports to compete withlarger ports in an area that the latterhave always controlled- containerhandling. But it also demands a newway of doing business, updatingloading techniques and equipmentand a re-working of concepts relatedto weight distribution. Containerizedbulk products often work best incontainers that are stored vertically,avoiding leakage at door seams.Of course, niche ports must also

be concerned that containerizationof commodities could create newcompetition for them. Containerscan be offloaded at ports that do nothave specific bulk commodity facil-ities, and this is often the nicheport’s competitive advantage.As a result, the decisions made in

one port about investment, infrastruc-ture development and client base willhave impacts that extend far beyond thelocal community. It is why a statewideplan that addresses California FreightMobility should be of interest to allstakeholders. This includes the peopleinvolved in moving freight and as wellas the people who live in the communi-ties where freight moves. The rightinvestments will not only ensure theflow of goods, they will also mitigatethe negative impacts of freight activityand create jobs.The Draft California Freight

Mobility Plan can be found athttp://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tpp/offices/ogm/cfmp.html. Port communi-ties, both large and small, have aninterest in what it says.(Dr. Thomas O’Brien is the Interim

Executive Director of the Center forInternational Trade andTransportation at CSULB and anassociate director for the METRANSTransportation Center, a partnershipof USC and CSULB.)

� TRADE AND

TRANSPORTATIONBy Tom O’Brien

DIGITALedition

GET ALL THREE FOR FREE . . .

WWW.LBBUSINESSJOURNAL.COM

THREE FOR FREE . . .GET ALL

editionALDIGITTAL

THREE FOR FREE . . .

.LBBUSINESSJOURNAL.CWWW OM.LBBUSINESSJOURNAL.C


april 15-28, 2014 section a

Documents

mayor of long beach

long beach contracts

long beachstop

postagepaidlong beach

business advocacythrough

robert garcia

probusiness candidates

dunn tobe