Question: We want to hire some students to help out around the office this summer. Are there any limitations we should keep in mind? Answer: Yes. Although there are some exceptions for certain specific fields, generally speaking, the California Labor Code prohibits employers from employing a minor, age 15 years or younger, from working more than eight hours in any 24-hour day, or more than 40 hours in any work week, or before 7:00 a.m. or after 7:00 p.m.. The exception is during the summer months (defined as June 1 through Labor Day) when minors are permitted to work until 9:00 p.m. Minors ages 16-17 may not be employed more than eight hours in any 24-hour day, or more than 48 hours in any work, or before 5:00 a.m., or after 10:00 p.m. on any day preceding a school day though they can work until 12:30 a.m. on any day preceding a non-school day. If you consider retaining one or more minor employees beyond Labor Day, you should know that while school is in session, a minor, 14 or 15 years of age, cannot work more than three hours in any school day, nor more than 18 hours in any work week, nor during school hours. The only exception is for minors enrolled in, and employed pursuant to, a school-supervised and school-administered work program, in which case other rules apply. Subject to limited exceptions, no employer may employ a minor age 16-17 more than four hours in any school day. Q: We employ dozens of outside sales representatives, each of whom drive their own cars to and from sales appointments daily. If one were to cause an accident, what liability, if any, would my company have? A: If your employee is found to be the legal cause of an accident, he or she is primarily liable for any damage caused by his or her negligence. However, assuming the negligence arose during the course and scope of his/her employment, your company may also bear responsibility, especially if the employee does not have the means to satisfy the victims (e.g., either no liability insurance or inadequate liability insurance coverage). You can take several proactive steps to guard against this undesirable outcome. First, review your Company’s Commercial Automobile policy to ensure that coverage extends to damage caused by an insured operating a car that is neither owned, leased or borrowed by your Company. Some policies do, and others do not. If your current policy doesn’t cover this situation, contact your broker and inquire about a Non-Owned & Hired Automobile Liability Insurance Policy (this is your first and best line of defense). Second, ensure that your outside sales people (or any employees who need to drive from time-to-time during the course and scope of their employment, excluding commuting to and from work) have adequate liability insurance and, preferably, an umbrella policy as well. Document their coverage and follow-up to ensure that new evidence of coverage is produced for succeeding policy periods. Third, contact the Department of Motor Vehicles at www.dmv.ca.gov and enroll in the Employer Pull Notice Program (“Pull” for short). Open an account and enroll your employees who drive on business. Once enrolled, you’ll be notified if certain activities occur, such as accidents, convictions and license suspensions. This allows you to accurately monitor your employees’ driving records and to identify potential problems at an early stage. There is a fee for participation in the program, but it is well worth the added piece of mind. Q: My partners and I may not all be on the same page with respect to whether we should elect for our corporation to be a “Sub-chapter S” corporation or a traditional “C” corporation. What percentage do we need in order to make an S election? A: Electing “S status” requires the written consent of all shareholders, which shall include spouses who have a community property interest in the corporation’s shares. However, once an election is made, a vote/consent of more than 50 percent of a corporation’s stock, which includes non-voting stock, is required to revoke it. This column contains general information and under no circumstances constitutes legal advice. This information is not provided in the context of an attorney-client relationship and nothing herein creates an attorney-client relationship. Readers should not act upon this general information without first seeking professional advice. Ira Rosenblatt is a business and corporate lawyer and a co-founder and Director of Stone, Rosenblatt & Cha, a business law firm in Warner Center. Rosenblatt has earned Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating (“AV”) for legal ability and ethics and is listed in the Martindale-Hubbell’s National Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. He can be reached at [email protected] .

The value of a workplace diversity program may be best shown by the decisions made during economic downturns. Do the programs stay, continuing their goal of making the working environment reflective of society at large and promoting awareness of different cultures and lifestyles? Or do they get cut and possibly send a negative message to the employees and the non-business world that the company no longer considers diversity to be important. The larger a corporation, the more extras they may add to their diversity programs mandatory training, feedback surveys, cultural events, and employee network or support groups; programs that cost in the millions. All are important yet at the same time not necessarily untouchable when a budget crunch occurs. The Associated Press, for instance, announced in February the cancellation for 2007 its program designed to increase the diversity among news photographers due to budgetary reasons. During flush times, there are more options and funding available for the voluntary programs a company puts in place, said Rhoma Young, a human resources consultant based in Northern California. It’s when a company begins to cut back that employees become fearful and territorial about their jobs that they are not as open to different cultures, Young said. The industry that a company is in determines whether cuts are made in diversity during tough economic times. If the company is one that works with the public and needs a mixture of races and ethnicities to market a product or deal directly with customers it will be less likely to make those cuts than, say, a manufacturer, Young said. “A bank as long as they have live tellers will need a diverse workforce,” Young said. Hospitals and other healthcare providers in general are not as affected by bad economic times as some industries and so would not be as likely to cut back on diversity programs because of their close contact with the public. “We would respond and adjust staff based on patient care needs instead,” said Sherman Oaks Hospital Human Resources Director Kim Carney. The hospital staff undergoes periodic in-service training on dealing effectively with those from different cultures, Carney said, adding that the ethnic groups it treats the most are Hispanics, Pacific Islanders and Asians. While bilingual skills are helpful with Hispanic and Tagalog speaking patients, the hospital in general has an English-only policy, Carney said. “The patients tend to be more comfortable with that,” Carney said. The reasons for starting diversity programs has less to do with the economy than with responding to an event or a trend the corporate culture sees or because the legal or human resources department wants to have one, said David Gray, director of workforce and family program at non profit policy institute and think tank New America Foundation. “Once they start they are harder to remove because it might signal a step back to certain employees,” Gray said. “People are reluctant to add them for that reason.” Diversity programs can best be protected when they are tied in with a firm’s business objectives. When a company has such programs because they think it is the right thing to do or to build awareness and understanding both valid reasons they may be more susceptible to the budget cut ax because they are not necessary, said Peter Bye, president of the MDB Group, Inc. in New Jersey. But if a company’s diversity and inclusion strategy is about what it needs to reach business goals that is something that management can be convinced should stay, Bye said. “It will be much less likely to be something that will be cut because they realize this is about how the people work together to achieve the objectives,” Bye said. Southern California with its wide mix of races and ethnicities is unique in the opportunity presented to employers to create diverse workplaces. According to state statistics, the population of Los Angeles County was estimated to hit 10.2 million in 2006. Of that number, more than 7 million are Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders, African American or Native American. About 150,000 were estimated to be multi-racial. Seeing those numbers makes it understandable why Sherman Oaks-based author and urban historian Joel Kotkin said that in Los Angeles diversity programs are a “hangover from a different era.” When he gets from talking with employers is they are struggling to find the best people possible to fill positions, Kotkin said, adding that what the business world needs to do is upgrade the skills of those entering the workforce regardless of their ethnicity. The businessman who won’t hire a talented minority won’t be in business for very long, Kotkin said. “When a vast majority of the young workforce is minority and you don’t have minorities and limiting your pool of people, you are hurting yourself,” Kotkin said.

This regular feature focuses on philanthropic activities in Valley-area companies and businesspeople. The American Cancer Society raised approximately $250,000 during its Valley Relay for Life June 2 at Birmingham High School. During the 24-hour event, teams from San Fernando Valley area businesses, cancer survivors and other individuals took turns walking and running around the high school’s track to raise money for the cancer society. Relays are held regularly throughout the Valley. Area businesses and organizations that took part in the event included the North Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce, the San Fernando Valley Jaycees, Kaiser Permanente, the Matador Community Credit Union, Ben and Jerry’s in Sherman Oaks, Kaiser Federal Bank, Walgreens stores throughout the Valley, 30 Starbucks locations, Curves for Women, Northridge Hospital and Gap. Baja Fresh and Los Toros Mexican Restaurant in Chatsworth donated food. The funds will go toward research, patient services, programs, education and advocacy, said event chairwoman Heidi Mankoff. The Cancer Society is still accepting contributions, she said. After all the contributions and donations are collected, “our overall contributions is going to be $260,000 to $275,000,” she said. Platinum sponsors for the event were Fashion Square Car Wash, Charity Alliance Realty, Northridge Hospital and the office of District 12 Councilman Greig Smith. Coldwell Banker Donates The Coldwell Banker Foundation recently donated $1,000 to the Van Nuys-based Mary Magdalene Project. The Mary Magdalene Project helps female prostitutes turn their lives around by providing therapy, medical attention and educational development. “Giving back to the local community by helping women turn their lives around through educational intervention is a proud part of what Coldwell Banker stands for,” said Jamie Duran, branch manager of the Studio City office of Coldwell Banker Previews International. Local Students Get Scholarships Two Conejo Valley students were among the recipients of the fifth National Federation of Independent Business Young Entrepreneur Foundation awards, a scholarship program for future small business owners. The local California winners were Westlake High School senior Whitney Blaine, who is also a Westlake Village resident, and Westlake High senior Tiffany Russell, a resident of Thousand Oaks. This year, 423 scholarships were awarded thanks to contributions from Visa, USA; The Wells Fargo Foundation; and Salesgenie.com, among others. The students each receive $1,000 scholarships toward tuition for college, university or trade school attendance. Students were required to write an essay describing their entrepreneurial endeavors and future goals. In addition standardized test scores, GPA and class rank were considered in selecting the winners. Glendale Galleria Joins With Habitat The Glendale Galleria has formed a partnership with the San Gabriel Valley chapter of Habitat for Humanity to help raise awareness and resources for the charitable organization. The Glendale Galleria will be encouraging employees and customers to help build homes and to participate in fundraising events and other public awareness initiatives. Glendale Galleria will kick off its partnership with SGV Habitat for Humanity at a “Family Portraits” event beginning June 15. The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on June 15; from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on June 16 and from noon to 6 p.m. on June 17. It will take place on the lower level in the JC Penney court. The goal of the event is to raise awareness and funds for the next 11 affordable houses that will be built by the chapter. A tiny wood house replica, meant to illustrate the 23.7 percent of total Glendale households that live in overcrowded conditions, will be on display. Visitors will also have the opportunity to write personal messages to the families and make donations to Habitat for Humanity. Movers Aid Domestic Violence Victims Meathead Movers in Camarillo and Santa Barbara is providing free moving services to victims of domestic violence. The service is being provided in conjunction with Domestic Violence Solutions of Santa Barbara County, Interface of Ventura County and The Coalition to End Family Violence in Ventura County. It will expand the moving company’s efforts to support local residents affected by violence. Meathead Movers provides the equipment, including boxes, and services to women who need to leave their homes to flee domestic violence. According to the Department of Justice, domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women, injuring more women than muggings, stranger rape and car accidents combined. Since the moving company began the program, it has donated more than $50,000 in free services and has successfully aided in the relocation of dozens of women.

Health Net To Expand Medicare Areas Health Net, Inc. will be expanding its Medicare Advantage service areas in 2008, subject to approval by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. For the third consecutive year, Health Net will undertake a major outreach effort to help people who qualify for Medicare better understand how to manage their health care needs, company officials said. Medicare Advantage is the program for Medicare managed care that includes HMOs, PPOs and private fee-for-service products. “We are excited about the opportunity to expand our service areas in 2008,” said Mark El-Tawil, Health Net’s chief senior products officer. “As part of that expansion and in our current markets, we are committed to helping people who qualify for Medicare find the product that best meets their health care coverage needs. Ultimately, we want to make our product choices easy to understand and to help consumers make confident health care coverage decisions during the next Medicare enrollment period.” “We will use our innovative Medicare stores as well as community seminars, direct mail and our Medicare hotlines to provide information on our service areas, product choices, benefits, enrollment times and much more,” he said. The program covers out-of-pocket costs for Medicare-covered services and provides additional benefits that are not covered under the traditional Medicare program. In an analysis done by CMS, people enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans last year saved an average of $82 per month compared to traditional Medicare beneficiaries. At the end of the first quarter of 2007, Health Net had approximately 233,000 members enrolled in Medicare Advantage Plans and 341,000 members in Medicare Part D programs. Enrollment for 2008 begins Nov. 15, 2007. Santa Clarita Planning Recognized The city of Santa Clarita received two honors from the Los Angeles section of the American Planning Association and will be recognized at a ceremony at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Cathedral Plaza on June 12. The city’s Downtown Newhall Specific Plan won first place in this year’s Los Angeles area APA awards, and the Sign Compliance Program received a merit award. The Downtown Newhall Specific Plan was awarded a first-place Planning Excellence Award for best practice. Because the Downtown Newhall Specific Plan took first place, the city will now be competing at the state level. The plan is a form-based code that is designed to invigorate downtown Newhall. It calls for mixed-use development that allows commercial and residential developments to co-exist on the same parcel of land. The city’s Sign Compliance Program received a merit award for planning excellence in implementation for a large jurisdiction in the final phase of the sign compliance program. The program was started to improve the appearance of the community and reduce competitive streetscape signage clutter along the city’s roadway corridors. Sale of OCP Shares Closes Oplink Communications, Inc. closed on its purchase of a majority share of fiber optic components manufacturer Optical Communications Products, Inc. The Furukawa Electric Co. sold its 58 percent share in Woodland Hills-based OCP for $1.50 per share payable in cash and Oplink stock. Oplink is expected to purchase the remaining shares of OCP at $1.65 per share and close that deal within the third quarter of 2007. With Oplink holding a majority share of OCP, the future of the Valley company is up in the air. Following the April announcement of a deal between Oplink and Furukawa, the OCP board adopted a “poison pill” provision to delay the buyout. Oplink in turn filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of that provision. But in late May, Furukawa added members to the OCP board that guaranteed the sale of OCP to Oplink would go through.

North Hollywood It’s not Hollywood and Vine, Sunset Strip or Wilshire Boulevard, but the team working on a large art installation at Lankershim and Chandler boulevards in NoHo is hoping to make the intersection just as notable. The artwork, part of a citywide requirement that large developments include public art, is an electronic showcase measuring 240 feet in length and six feet in height, that will project memorable movie quotes along with abstract light patterns. The light patterns will be triggered by the movement of traffic as cars pass by the installation. “Our desire was to make a kind of landmark so it becomes a place of significance and not just another corner in the Valley,” said Cameron McNall, an architect and artist, who created and constructed the piece with partner Damon Seeley. The piece, which is yet to be named, is part of the NoHo Commons development, a mixed-use project developed by J.H. Snyder Co. that includes loft residences along with some combination living/working loft spaces, restaurants and stores. The team, whose company is Electroland, decided to feature movie quotes because of the area’s association with Hollywood. Some of the quotes currently slated to appear on the piece are “Go ahead, make my day,” from “Dirty Harry;” “I’m walking here! I’m walking here!” from “Midnight Cowboy;” “I’ll be back,” from “The Terminator,” and “Open the pod bay doors, Hal,” from “2001: A Space Odyssey.” “After many different investigations, we decided that featuring famous lines from movies might be most appropriate given the association with Hollywood,” McNall said. McNall, who holds a masters in architecture degree from Havard University’s graduate school of design and is an adjunct associate professor at UCLA’s department of design and media arts, and Seeley, whose design and artwork focuses on the intersection of technology and culture, work exclusively with electronic creations. Among their completed projects is an interactive entryway to the Met Lofts residential complex in downtown L.A., where footsteps trigger lights on a grid of LED panels on the exterior of the building. Their NoHo project, which is still being refined, will ultimately include hundreds, if not thousands of sayings controlled remotely by computer with light patterns that will change and fluctuate as the traffic patterns change. But the artists say that they expect the placement of the sayings, suspended off the ground, to alter their meaning as well. “Repeating a word 10 times makes it seem stranger and stranger when you repeat it. We’re taking these different phrases, many of which are iconic, but re-contextualizing them in this situation,” McNall said. SAN FERNANDO VALLEY Burbank Television: AT & T; debuted in May its new U-verse Internet-protocol television service for the Southern California region. U-Verse TV boasts more than 25 high-def channels, the ability to record up to four programs at once using a DVR receiver, a growing Video-On-Demand library, and a web and mobile remote access to the DVR. The service is available in parts of Burbank, Glendale and Santa Clarita. AT & T; will increase availability throughout the area on an ongoing basis. Encino Scholarships: The Encino-Tarzana Hospital Charitable Foundation distributed scholarships to 59 nursing students at a special luncheon late last month. The students attend California State University, Northridge; Pierce College; Valley College; and other local institutions. Each of the honorees was given a scholarship for $1,200. The scholarships were accompanied by resolution commendations from Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine and 41st District Assemblywoman Julia Brownley. In addition to the nurses, nine Regional Occupational Program students and teen hospital volunteers from North Hollywood and Taft high schools received $1,200 scholarships to help them reach their goals of becoming health care professionals. This year, to help reduce the community’s nursing shortage, the Encino-Tarzana Hospital Charitable Foundation raised the most money for scholarships in its 16-year history, enabling it to award 68 scholarships. Northridge Nursing: The California Board of Registered Nursing has given initial approval for California State University, Northridge’s College of Health and Human Development to begin offering an accelerated bachelor’s degree in nursing this month. The program, which compresses 56 semester units of classes and clinical work into a 15-month program, targets people who already have a bachelor’s degree in a non-nursing field and want to pursue a nursing career. Every summer and fall, 18 students will be admitted to the four-semester program for classroom work and clinical rotations. The first group will start the program in June. Starting in 2008, two groups of 18 students will be admitted each year. At the end of the 15-month period, students will be eligible to receive a Bachelor of Science Degree in nursing and to take the registered nurse licensing exam and apply for a Public Health Nurse Certificate. Pacoima Schools: Jas S. Dhillon, the owner of a 7-Eleven store in Pacoima, has been elected the 2007-2008 board chair of Discovery Charter Preparatory School. The school is the only public high school within a five-mile radius, and its contract is due to be renewed by the Los Angeles Unified School District on June 12. Grant: Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarc & #243;n, former State Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez and a representative of the Barona Band of Mission Indians presented a $5,000 check to Sara Coughlin Elementary School at a student assembly late last month. The check was donated by the Barona Band of Mission Indians for the school to purchase a software program designed to help students who are transitioning from English-As-A-Second-Language classes to mainstream English classes. The Barona Band of Mission Indians chose one school in each Assembly District to receive the Barona Education Grants. Montanez helped Sara Coughlin Elementary acquire the grant. Panorama City Award: The Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley honored Kaiser Permanente with a Business Education Partnership Award late last month. The recognition was given in honor of Kaiser’s efforts to encourage youth to pursue medical careers, especially through its High School Summer Youth Employment Program. The program gives underserved high school students exposure to medical careers through paid summer work experience, educational workshops, presentations and mentoring. CONEJO VALLEY Finalists: Loi Nguyen, founder and vice president of technology for Inphi Corp., an electronic components manufacturer, was among the finalists for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Also named as a finalist is Philip Asherian, CEO of ESI Enterprises in Woodland Hills, a firm providing consulting, information technology outsourcing and network design, installation and support. The finalists were chosen from over 100 nominations received by an independent judging panel composed of area business, academic and civic leaders. The winners will be announced June 26. SANTA CLARITA VALLEY Santa Clarita Biking: Dozens of workers in Santa Clarita biked to work on May 17 during the city’s 4th Annual Bike to Work Day Challenge. The event coincided with a weeklong state awareness campaign calling for residents to cut down on pollution by biking to work. Santa Clarita businesses vie to get the most number of employees to bike to work during the competition. Small, medium and large businesses who won in their respective categories received free frozen yogurt from Golden Spoon-Valencia. The city teamed up with Metro, L.A. County Bicycle Coalition and Newhall Bicycle to host public pit stops for cyclists to catch their breath during their commutes. “By riding your bike to work, residents are helping to reduce traffic and pollution, improving your health by increasing cardiovascular activity and saving money on gas,” said Santa Clarita Mayor Marsha McLean. Tour: Santa Clarita Mayor Marsha McLean will be hosting a free 20th anniversary bus tour of Santa Clarita for residents and guests from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on June 19 and from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on June 20. The tour will include a visit to the Transit Maintenance Facility, the 20-acre Santa Clarita Sports Complex and many of the city’s parks. For more information or to reserve a seat, call (661) 255-4939. VIA: The Valencia Industrial Association has nominated nine Santa Clarita businesses for its annual VIA awards, which will be presented at 6:30 p.m. on June 22 at Mann Biomedical Park, 25129 Rye Canyon Loop, in Valencia. The awards are given in three categories: Rising Star, VIA Volunteer of the Year and VIA Business of the Year. The nominees in the Rising Star category are Newleaf Training & Development, the Santa Clarita Valley Jaycees and The Loose Goose. Nominees in the Volunteer of the Year category are Bob Comer of Bob Comer Print Sales, Randy Moberg of LBW Insurance & Financial Services and Peter Goossens of The Loose Goose. The nominees in the Business of the Year category are Auton Motorized Systems, College of the Canyons and LBW Insurance & Financial Services. Proceeds from the event will support the organization’s advocacy efforts on behalf of its members, particularly in the areas of education, transportation and legislation. The theme for the bash is “Shaken Not Stirred” and will feature dinner, dancing, live entertainment and a silent auction. ANTELOPE VALLEY Lancaster Information: The City of Lancaster won two top honors for public information from the California Association of Public Information Officials. Lancaster Communications Manager Anne Aldrich was presented with the honors to the city for its monthly newsletter and for its new website, cityoflancaster.org. The Outlook, published quarterly and distributed to all Lancaster residents, keeps the public informed about city news. In 2007, the publication was expanded with a smaller Outlook Lite newsletter sent to residents in the months the Outlook is not published. The new city website was launched in October.

More than half of the workforce at Kaiser Permanente, which is the largest nonprofit health care organization in the country, is made up of ethnic minorities, as is half of its board of directors. Nearly 70 percent of Kaiser’s managers are women. The company, which ranked 27th in “DiversityInc.’s” Top 50 Companies in 2007, has certified nearly 3,000 of its employees with bilingual skills. The company also runs a myriad of programs to serve its large population of patients who are members of ethnic minorities. According to Dr. Christian Gastelum, an internist at Kaiser Permanente in Panorama City and chair of its Diversity Committee, those programs include providing physicians with culturally competent handbooks to educate them about cultural norms and about illnesses that are more prevalent in certain ethnicities. The Diversity Committee, Gastelum said, was formed to ensure Kaiser provides culturally competent care to its patients, which includes posting bilingual signs and making sure patients have access to interpretative and translation services. Kaiser is implementing a service in which interpreters will be available to join patients during their appointments to better communicate with physicians. “It’s something I don’t think anyone else offers,” Gastelum said. The large health care organization also established centers of excellence in culturally competent care, which are health care facilities that develop and utilize culturally-influenced clinical practices. The organization also prints a myriad of cross-cultural publications. “Everything soon will be put in all the threshold languages at all the medical centers,” Gastelum said. Kaiser has also established a Latino Center of Excellence in Colorado. According to Virginia H. Baca, communications manager for the Panorama City Medical Center Area of Kaiser Permanente, the center focuses on health issues that are of primary concern to Latinos, such as diabetes, and offers health education classes in Spanish. Kaiser’s Diversity Committee, along with its health education program, helped create KP Kids to teach children of all ethnicities good eating habits. The bilingual program “has been so successful that other medical centers are adopting it in their facilities,” Baca said. Gastelum, who teaches a diabetes health education class in Spanish, said that Kaiser is also adopting a database of all its patients’ ethnic and religious backgrounds to better serve them. When he is asked why Kaiser provides multilingual services to its patients, Gastelum responds, “Members who speak Spanish expect the same services as our members who speak English. They’re our patients. They’re our members. You can’t turn them away. You want to take care of them the best you can.”

In the training room at Delta Tau Data Systems, Inc. are glass cases containing many examples of the motion control systems made by the company. Opening one of the cases, Dominic Dimitri, head of sales and marketing and son of the company’s founder, removes an approximately 16-inch by 8-inch components board called the MC-2, a one-axis controller that was the first the company made. “I am quite certain this was built in our home, in the kitchen,” Dimitri said, holding the device in his hands. In the 30 years the Valley-based company has been in business, that first controller has been replaced multiple times by units of increasing sophistication, complexity and power. The most current Delta Tau motion controller the PMAC is 4 inches square and capable of controlling up to 32 motors and amplifiers. The device is the brains behind any automated process. While the biggest volume of the company’s business comes from the semiconductor industry, Delta Tau motion control systems are also found on Hollywood film sets, used to detect flaws in military jets and were responsible for grinding the lenses on the Hubble space telescope. Everyday items like car tires, razor blades, contact lenses and even the cardboard holders on Starbucks coffee cups were created with Delta Tau motion controllers. “Their products are so flexible and dynamic they can be used in anything,” said Stewart Prince, a professor in mechanical engineering at California State University, Northridge. Delta Tau now seeks to transition into a service company; integrating the hardware with the software and peripheral equipment into a complete package that will meet the needs of the client. It’s a move to a business model other motion control companies are adopting. While larger firms bring all the pieces under one roof through acquisitions, Delta Tau looks internally to expand its product line. “It’s a different way of doing business,” Dimitri said. “Instead of just selling a motion controller, we’re going to sell a solution.” Having started in the Dimitri family home in Northridge, Delta Tau now occupies a 120,000-square foot research and manufacturing facility in Chatsworth. The making, testing and shipping of circuit boards takes up much of the first floor; engineering and training take place on the second. The Chatsworth headquarters is supplemented by three U.S. sales offices and four overseas offices. Family patriarch Dimitri Dimitri started the company in 1976, providing consulting and freelance engineering services. Five years later, Delta Tau (the fourth and nineteenth letters of the Greek alphabet) became product-oriented when the elder Dimitri assembled the first motion controller. The company quickly outgrew the garage at the family home and moved to a new location with 3,000 square feet of space on Lassen Street in Chatsworth across the street from where the company is located today. The decision three years ago to bring manufacturing in-house was a turning point for the company, requiring a large investment in equipment and a rise in operational expenses. It took a full year to get up to 80 percent of the production demand. On the manufacturing floor are two lines that produce the motion control circuit boards and a third line for prototypes or limited-run boards. The lines are primarily automated although there are still some tasks better suited for human hands, such as checking and testing the boards to make sure there are no flaws. “It is a nice return on the investment at this point,” Dimitri said. “We are starting to reap some benefits.” Delta Tau positioned itself from the beginning at the top end of the industry with very precise, super-fast controllers based on an efficient code. Creating the controllers, Dimitri said, is all just number crunching and mathematics; calculations of velocities and trajectories. The credit goes to the elder Dimitri and the staff of engineers, some of whom have been with the company for more than 25 years. “Without them we wouldn’t be who we are,” Dimitri said. The company has a reputation as being on the cutting edge of motion control technology. Most of its profits are funneled back into research and development. Because Delta Tau remains an independent company, it can more easily redirect its R & D; and product development to meet constantly changing marketplace demands whereas larger companies can’t do that because of corporate red tape and hierarchy, said Dennis Erickson, with Axis New England, a distributor of Delta Tau’s products. “That is a benefit for them,” Erickson said. Delta Tau has the added strength of a network of distributors which have technical people on staff who can apply the motion controllers for their clients, Erickson added. While the semiconductor industry provides a large client base, the company also supplies controllers to manufacturers of liquid crystal display screens used in consumer electronic products like televisions and cell phones. As customers dwindled in the aerospace and machine tooling industries, other sectors began using motion-controlled automated processes, such as the medical field with the manufacture of angioplasty stents and the use of robotic arms in surgery. Automation, Dimitri said, will be the way for the U.S. to compete with developing countries that are luring away business with their cheap labor. With automated equipment, a company can run around the clock and produce cheaper and higher quality products. “That is how the U.S. will rebound and stay afloat,” Dimitri said. With the next-generation controller going to market at the end of the year, Delta Tau expects a growth spurt in its business. Increased revenues aren’t all that interests the company. Delta Tau involves itself with educating the next generation of engineers and scientists by donating equipment to colleges and universities around the world. At CSUN, the company helped furnish the new mechatronics lab in the college of engineering and computer science. Students familiar with Delta Tau’s products make themselves valuable to the company as a potential employee or as an employee at a firm using its controllers, said Prince, adding he knows of at least 10 former students now working at Delta Tau. SPOTLIGHT: Delta Tau Data Systems, Inc: Chatsworth Year Founded: 1981 Revenues in 2004: $28 million Revenues in 2006: $35 million Employees in 2004: 130 Employees in 2007: 170 Goal: To open locations in the Conejo Valley, Burbank/Glendale area and Downtown Los Angeles.

MyNextDeal.com, a commercial real estate search engine in Thousand Oaks, has partnered with Catylist Inc. to provide access to Catylist’s database of commercial real estate listings. Catylist, based in Chicago, provides a local marketing platform to commercial real estate brokers. With the partnership, MyNextDeal will aggregate all the commercial properties listed on Catylist by its members, and visitors to the MyNextDeal website will be redirected back to the Catylist platform for detailed information on the listing.

On May 14, 2007, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed his May Revision (to the FY07-08 Budget) to the state legislature. The governor understands very well the challenges of maintaining a strong economy for California and that to do so means we must retain and attract business to our state. He also understands that California is one of the most expensive states in which to do business and we must do our best to keep from increasing the costs of doing business. To increase taxes at this time, when a significant number of businesses are already outsourcing their operations to other states and countries, would be potentially devastating for our economy. To allow the structural deficit to push double digits again would be disastrous to our overall credit rating, thus further increasing the cost of borrowing. The revision does not raise taxes and it reduces the structural deficit to approximately $1.4 billion, an amazing accomplishment considering that when he first took office the projected structural deficit for the FY07-08 period was $16.5 billion. There are those who will criticize the governor’s methods of reducing the deficit and avoiding new taxes but the fact remains the plan does it without raising taxes or making significant program cuts and still fully funds Proposition 98 and K-12 education with $68.6 billion; continues to provide significant funding for health and human resources, law enforcement, public safety, transportation, prison reform, higher education, undergraduate nursing scholarships and air quality; fully funds Medi-Cal and “Healthy Families,” and sets aside $1.6 billion to pre-pay the economic recovery bonds in addition to paying the required $1.5 billion payment that would normally be due. Perhaps the most publicized complaint about the budget is that it appears, to some, to reduce certain transportation funding. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority officials claim that they will be impacted with $230 million in cuts next year and transit advocates say the governor’s budget cuts about $1.3 billion from public transportation statewide. The administration contends that the budget does not cut public transportation at all and the state finance department said the public transit budget will actually increase by approximately $1.2 billion next year. Hearing these statements one can’t help but wonder who is correct. It seems that who is correct is a matter of interpretation. The funds that are in question are known as “Gas Tax Spillover” funds. The Transportation Act of 1971 created a statewide funding program for local public transportation services and facilities. One feature of this act involved the lowering of the state’s sales tax rate by one-quarter of a percent and extended the sales tax to gasoline, which had not been previously subject to sales tax. This action was intended to be revenue neutral, but the cct provided that any excess revenues to the state from this change would be transferred to the public transportation account. The Board of Equalization and the Department of Finance are charged each year with determining the spillover: the difference between (a) a 5 percent state sales tax applied to all taxable goods except gasoline, and (b) a four-and-three-quarter percent state sales tax applied to all taxable goods including gasoline. Basically, the spillover results when gasoline prices increase at a faster rate than all other taxable items. With the unprecedented spike in gasoline prices we have been experiencing, there are significant amounts of revenue in the spillover. Neither the traffic congestion relief program nor Proposition 42 has any impact on the spillover. The FY07-08 budget revision proposes to give public transportation some additional responsibilities to be paid for by the spillover revenues. It proposes to redirect spillover revenues, estimated at over $1.1 billion as follows: – $627 million to Home-to-School Transportation (currently a responsibility of Proposition 98 funds). – $340 million to Transportation General Obligation Bond debt service (to help reduce the state’s structural deficit). – $144 million to Developmental Services Regional Center Transportation Does the redirection of these “spillover” revenues constitute cuts in public transportation? I think not! I have chosen the following “Job Killer” bill to profile this month: – SB 464: This bill authored by Senator Sheila Kuehl, forces property owners to stay in business regardless of economic circumstances. Existing law generally prohibits public entities from adopting a statute, ordinance or regulation to compel the owner of residential real property to offer, or to continue to offer, residential property for rent or lease. This bill applies those preemption provisions only to owners of residential property who have owned the property for at least three years and who acquired ownership after March 27, 2007. This bill could discourage construction and investment in rental housing which would result in the loss of jobs. Status: Passed Senate Judiciary Committee, April 9, 2007. Currently in Senate Appropriations Committee. Gregory N. Lippe, CPA, is managing partner of the Woodland Hills-based CPA firm of Lippe, Hellie, Hoffer & Allison, LLP and vice-chair of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA).

Nearly 60 percent of the employees in Providence Health and Services’ San Fernando Valley service area, which is comprised of three medical centers, including Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank and Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, are ethnic minorities. The health system runs 28 hospitals in five states. Fifty-six percent of the employees at Providence St. Joseph belong to ethnic minorities, one-quarter of which are Latino and nearly one-quarter of which are Asian and Pacific Islander. Providence Holy Cross’ workforce is even more diverse, with 62 percent of its workforce made up of minority employees, 34 percent of which are Latino and 23 percent of which are Asian and Pacific Islander. The health care provider also actively recruits nurses in the Philippines to help lessen the impact of the nationwide nursing shortage, according to Providence Health and Services spokesman Dan Boyle. “We have employees from all nations,” he said. According to Ron Sorensen, director of the Center for Community Health Improvement at Providence Health and Services, the organization’s commitment to diversity includes its Latino Health Promoter Program, in which nine educators go into the community and bring services directly to Latinos who are underserved and lack transportation. “What we try to do when we can is bring the service to them,” he said. “In the Latino community, there is a major issue regarding access to health,” said Boyle. The educators hold classes on various health topics and encourage Latinos to obtain health insurance. They also conduct health screenings at churches after Mass celebrations. In addition, about 30 volunteer health promoters work in partnership with local churches to organize health fairs and screening events. Two new health promoter groups are currently being trained in the San Fernando Valley. “Currently, the main focus is on the Latino community,” Sorensen said regarding diversity programs. A large focus of the hospitals is reaching out to the elderly Latino community in particular. Familias Ayudando Familias (Families Helping Families) offers free services to this population. Spanish-speaking counselors are trained to provide home assistance, peer counseling and help with depression to elderly Latinos. The program also includes free transportation for elderly Latinos who need rides to doctor’s appointments. “There’s a lot of need there,” Sorensen said. “It’s meeting a huge need in the community. As we started this program, we realized there was really nothing like this serving Latino seniors. It’s been a really well-received program.” To make their hospital leaders aware of diversity issues, Sorensen said, managers and other leaders take an annual trip to Tijuana to help build homes for the poor. “It makes them aware of some diversity issues that happen across the border,” he said. Sorensen said that the hospital never asks its clients or community members it serves whether they in the country legally or not. As a hospital, especially as a Catholic hospital, the institution has a moral responsibility to care for all people, regardless of ethnicity or nationality, he said. In addition, refusing to serve undocumented workers who are ill can mean the spread of disease and more costly health care for taxpayers later, he said. Although a main focus is on the Latino community, the health care provider also has an extensive outreach program to Samoans in Torrance and the predominant ethnic groups in the various communities it serves. The Armenian Bone Marrow Registry also recently named Administrator Patrick Petrie Man of the Year for his commitment to helping raise awareness about the need to donate bone marrow in the Armenian community. To educate their employees about diversity in the workplace and to honor their employees’ diverse backgrounds, the hospitals hold Filipino, African-American and Armenian days, complete with ethnic foods. In addition, employees are trained about diversity issues. “It’s part of our mission and core values respect,” Boyle said.