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.

By LINDA COBURN Contributing Reporter One way corporations show their support for diversity in their communities is to encourage employees to serve on boards and volunteer time to local organizations. But are companies doing enough? Diana Bruno, executive director of the Fair Housing Council of the San Fernando Valley, said that businesses provide a very real contribution to the Council’s mission. “Many of our board of directors are from the business community,” she said. “For example, our board president, Richard Cooper, is also the community liaison for Telesis Credit Union.” Cooper said that Telesis encourages all of their employees to be involved in the community. “I have personally always been involved with civil rights. My mom was actively involved in the 60s and 70s,” he said, which makes the mission of the agency, to eradicate housing discrimination, close to his heart. Cooper said. “The boards that I serve on have a wonderful diversity of ages and ethnicities” and represent all sizes of businesses from entrepreneurs to large corporations. Locally-based Telesis employees donate their time to organizations such as Valley Village, a community organization that provides housing and services to folks with disabilities, said Cooper. Other groups benefiting from the human resources of Telesis are the Guadalupe Community Center, Los Angeles Valley College Foundation and the College of the Canyons Foundation. Decline in support But everyone agrees community organizations are not getting the support they once did. One reason may be that the Valley is no longer home to many large corporations. The Fair Housing Council, which has been in the Valley since 1959, is lucky because many of their supporters are retirees of the large companies that used to populate the area, particularly aerospace firms like Lockheed. “We don’t have a lot of companies like that in our landscape anymore,” said Bruno. Small business owners generally don’t have the resources, financial or human, to commit to community-building organizations. That’s why, according to M.C. Townsend, executive director of the Regional Black Chamber of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley, the larger companies should support the chamber, which promotes small, minority- and woman-owned businesses. She states that it is not only their moral responsibility but it would benefit their bottom line. “We (the chamber) have close to 350 business members, and those members each know 10 other people, and those 10 know 10 more from that the glue sticks and it becomes a stronger community for all alike,” said Townsend. Some of the remaining corporate giants of the area, said Townsend, such as Time Warner Cable, Southern California Edison and State Farm, have been great partners of the chamber. “They recognize the need to infuse support into the chamber,” she said, because “It helps to build economic power in many areas.” Seeking more Dora Zavala, who chairs the Hispanic Business Committee of the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce, echoes that sentiment. “I would like to see more companies partner with the chamber,” she said. “Like providing financial resources or having more representation.” “But that’s the 80-20 rule,” Zavala said. This is the axiom which states that 80 percent of the work will be done by 20 percent of the people. Take Cooper, for example. In addition to his full-time job at Telesis and his role with the Fair Housing Council, he also gives time to the Valley College Foundation board. So, to answer the initial question, it appears that more than a few companies are making a very real contribution to promoting diversity in the community, but, as Townsend said, “In my opinion, there is still a real lack of support from big corporations (which are) not meeting their total corporate responsibility to the community.”

Metrocities Mortgage, LLC has been bought out by a private equity fund group looking to get into the mortgage industry. Sherman Oaks-based Metrocities will be part of Prospect Mortgage Co., LLC., a portfolio company owned by Sterling Capital Partners, an equity fund group based in Chicago and Baltimore. Metrocities Mortgage, however, will continue to operate under its own name. “I am excited about the potential synergies between Sterling and Metrocities,” said Metrocities founded and CEO Paul Wylie. “This recapitalization allows us to enhance all areas such as technology, marketing and loan products. It gives us new resources to continue our growth in 2007 and beyond.” Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Prospect Mortgage’s investment in Metrocities makes the firm the majority interest, Wylie said. Wylie is an equity partner in Prospect. Prospect chose Metrocities as its vehicle to enter the mortgage industry because of its highly regarded joint venture program, talented management team, and positive company culture, said Prospect Mortgage CEO Mark Filler. Sterling Capital assumed controlling interests in middle-market companies through equity investments ranging from the $15 million to over $100 million per company in the financial services, education, healthcare, business services, and technology industries. Metrocities was founded in 1989 with five employees and has grown to close on more than $5 billion in loans in 2006. Along with the Sherman Oaks headquarters, the company has offices in North Carolina, Arizona and Pleasanton, Calif. In 2006, Metrocities received its second consecutive CustomerSat ACE Award for mortgage borrower satisfaction based on 96 percent client satisfaction rating tallied from independent customer satisfaction surveys. As of December, the company was involved in 200 joint ventures with real estate, financial planning, credit union, alumni associations and builder and construction companies.

With a history that includes both a samurai and a German immigrant dry goods merchant, you could argue that Union Bank of California has diversity in its blood. And indeed, since its beginnings in the mid-1980s, the bank’s demographics have reflected those roots and then some. Today in its Southern California region, Union’s workforce is 27.1 percent Asian, 26.5 percent Hispanic, 7.9 percent African American and 0.3 percent Native American. Bank-wide, ethnic minorities make up nearly 60 percent of the workforce and 40 percent of officials and managers, and women account for 70 percent of its employees. Hispanic managers account for 17.6 percent of the bank’s managers, Asians account for 17.5 percent, African Americans account for 6.8 percent and Native Americans account for 0.5 percent. Union Bank, which boasts that it has ranked above all other banks in Fortune magazine’s annual “America’s 50 Best Companies for Diversity,” for six consecutive years, has employed a formal program to foster its diverse workforce culture since 1998. Its diversity council, which includes about a dozen Southern California region managers, works in areas including employment, training and development, minority loans and vendor programs. But Union Bank’s next initiative will have an even bigger goal, to move from diversity to inclusion, looking not just at ethnic groups, but also at creating a culture that includes all the individual variations and the social and family constellations that make up today’s society. “We’re going beyond the protected groups and making sure everyone is at the table,” said Randy Lowe, senior vice president, diversity officer and executive recruitment at Union Bank. “So it covers marital status, sexual orientation, immigrant or long term resident status, and the whole concept is that you’re looking at individuals rather than groups and insuring that every individual feels they are part of the process and feels comfortable in the culture, which I think is the issue for the 21st century.” Union Bank’s Leadership Council for Inclusion, set to have its first meeting in July, will also seek to reflect what Lowe and others say is a multicultural view that is more suited to today’s workforce. In much the same way that European immigrants eventually blended into the larger American culture, a whole range of bi-racial and multicultural citizens have become part of the American fabric. “The other half is recognizing people are individuals, and just because you are any one thing doesn’t mean all African Americans are alike or all Hispanics are alike,” Lowe said. ‘So it’s stressing the individual, which I think is really important for the future.” Bank officials note that, while affinity groups helped to increase the representation of women and minorities in corporate cultures and advocate for promotion and pay opportunities, the new focus will help bring all these individuals into the decision-making process. One of the first jobs of the new council will be to develop an accountability system that will become part of evaluations and performance standards for all managers and will play a role in determining compensation. Union Bank has also appointed a director of talent management who will focus on development and succession planning that embraces diversity. “You’ll see some pretty significant activity in that by 2008,” Lowe said.

Chatsworth-based JMR Electronics Inc. a leader in the data storage sector of the tech industry since 1982, has drastically reduced its workforce from a companywide tally of 150 employees last year to the current 52 due to the outsourcing of its manufacturing operations. Citing the increased “flexibility” offered by sending manufacturing needs elsewhere, JMR company founder and acting CEO Josef Rabinovitz appears to be guiding JMR in a new direction, adapting to the shifting industry climate. While other storage sector industry heavyweights have already made the shift to outsourcing manufacturing, JMR initially resisted. In fact it’s practically the last firm within the storage sector to do so, according to industry experts. While JMR has not entirely abandoned its domestic manufacturing, it has scaled back its Chatsworth based operations, relocating to smaller facilities to help stay competitive within the ever-changing marketplace and “move to the next level,” said Rabinovitz. According to Westlake Village-based tech industry watcher Benjamin Kuo, founder of the SoCalTECH.com Web site, it is usually more efficient for companies in that industry sector to move away from so-called vertical integration concepts where both product development and manufacturing is done by the same company. Holding twenty some patents on both technology and product design; JMR is evolving to stay competitive in a drastically changing industry landscape. In addition to more streamlined business practices, including the careful shift from that of a manufacturing-based company, to a technology based one; JMR also has hired industry veteran Stu Fisher as Senior Director of Business Development and Sales. Fisher brings experience from such companies as Intel and Wasabi Systems, and is expected to help JMR maintain and refine its long-standing competitive edge, “I am very pleased to have Stu join us at JMR,” said Rabinovitz. “We have spent the past five years developing new technology that is expected to have a dramatic impact on the way people think about and use data storage.” Sending work outside of his firm was a tough call for JMR’s leadership, in particular for Rabinovitz, but it will allow the company to focus on product development and innovation, which is considered one of its strengths. JMR was one of the first manufacturers to deliver a full family of Fibre Channel and SATA storage solutions and other industry firsts and has introduced new technology called “direct attached storage’ which is expected to become the standard for medium and even large-scale data storage.

By Linda Coburn Contributing Reporter In the last two years, Michigan-based Comerica Bank has doubled the number of banking centers it operates in California, from 41 to 75. The cultural diversity of the state could have proven to be a stumbling block but the bank chose to view it as an opportunity. Barry Holtzclaw, corporate communications officer, said that about two years ago, Comerica formed market segment initiative groups comprised of bank officers who represent specific gender, ethnic or cultural groups that are being targeted as customers. “In California we have a women’s initiative, an Hispanic initiative, an Asian- Pacific initiative and an African-American initiative,” said Holtzclaw. The groups’ influence has been felt by customers and employees alike. For example, Holtzclaw said, “These groups have been able to develop some really good advice for our marketing team,” such as which media outlets might best reach, say, Hispanic business owners in Orange County. “Sometimes targeted ethnic media falls below the radar screen of the national or regional advertising agencies,” said Holtzclaw. They are also being tapped for their knowledge about under-served areas that might be good places for new offices or banking centers. Mark Nakamaru, senior vice president and head of private banking for Southern California, said being part of the Asian-Pacific initiative committee has been a very rewarding experience. “We have representatives covering most of the major Asian nationalities: Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indian, Filipino and Vietnamese,” he said. Made up of seven Northern California and seven Southern California officers, the group has monthly, or “as-needed,” conference calls and physically meets once each quarter. One way Nakamaru measures the group’s success is lack of committee turnover. “Everyone is very proud about going back into their own communities and spreading the word about Comerica’s initiatives,” he said. Internally, the bank is committed to broadening the diversity of its workforce at all levels. Ray Boyadjian, senior vice president of middle market banking for the San Fernando Valley region, said that all managers and officers are graded on their success at creating a diverse workforce. “Part of my goal, as a manager, is to make sure that my staff is pretty well diversified. If I end up with a staff of all white, Anglo-Saxon males, I will be questioned,” he said. “It also must happen at all levels it can’t just be administrative assistants, but it needs to happen in promoting and management also.” Comerica also has cultural sensitivity training programs for employees at all levels, promotes diversity in their suppliers and donates to a widely diverse group of community development organizations. Their efforts landed them, in 2006, on the top companies for diversity lists of “Black Enterprise Magazine” and “Asian Enterprise Magazine,” and “DiversityInc” has Comerica listed as third on the list of “Top 10 Companies for Supplier Diversity” and 37th on their “Top 50 Companies for Diversity in the U.S.”

Midwestern retailer Kohl’s is eyeing a spot that would be only its second San Fernando Valley location since entering the Los Angeles market in 2003. But the retailer is running into considerable opposition from neighbors of the Granada Hills location who say that the store is too big for the neighborhood shopping center and would create too much congestion along a thoroughfare that is not well-suited to the added traffic. The locale, at Chatsworth Street and Zelzah Avenue, is a recently acquired shopping center that the owners hope to rejuvenate with a Kohl’s anchor that they say will be nicely designed to meet neighborhood specifications. Granada Village, built in the 1960s, has languished for several years since Ralphs parent Kroger Co. acquired Hughes Markets resulting in two Ralphs groceries across the street from one another. The center’s new owner, Regency Centers, purchased it about 18 months ago as part of a $3 billion portfolio, attracted by the demographics of the area and the opportunity to remodel it. Kohl’s, they say, fits well into the existing center, which already houses a TJ Maxx and a Stein Mart, chains that cater to moderate income shoppers with fashion-forward merchandise, much like Kohl’s. Retailers often choose locations adjacent to similar stores believing that the proximity increases the customer traffic for all the stores. “My job is to marry the needs of the neighbors with the interests of tenants,” said Enrique Legaspi, vice president, regional officer for Regency Centers, who said he went door to door to talk to the immediate neighbors of the center to plead his case. “So obviously we spent time looking at the options and, through interviews that I conducted with shoppers, I found out people felt there were enough grocery options in the area, but people felt there was a need for some quality tenancy uses.” But the addition of Kohl’s, which would boost the center’s size from a current 240,000 square feet to 276,000 square feet, has raised the ire of some neighbors, and after initially okaying the project, the neighborhood council has since resolved to oppose it. The debate will take further shape at an area planning meeting scheduled for June 21, but in the meantime, Kohl’s is taking heat not unlike that typically reserved for behemoths like Wal-Mart. Among the arguments brought forth by the neighborhood council is that a store like Kohl’s would prove to be too much competition for the smaller retailers that have long been the backbone of Granada Hills. “It’s competing against our small and middle-sized businesses,” said Jim Summers, president of the Granada Hills South Neighborhood Council. “Traditionally, Granada Hills is made up of small and middle businesses and has a small town feeling.” Wal-Mart, in several high profile decisions, has backed away from opening stores in some neighborhoods where it has drawn fierce opposition, often for what many in these communities charged was an inability of small retailers to compete against it. But it’s unusual for such concerns to be lobbed against department store retailers, who have traditionally coexisted peacefully with independent and smaller chain stores. In that sense, the opposition facing Kohl’s may portend a new level of confrontation by neighbors who want to keep their neighborhood centers from drawing customers from a larger region. “The biggest objection is the site has never been a regional shopping center with a department store,” said Brad Smith, Granada Hills South NC director and member of the group’s planning and land use committee. “It’s always been a neighborhood center. The concern is if a Kohl’s, which is a regional store, comes in, then it’s very much a change in the character of the center and it’s a question of what else would follow.” While the community would like to have a Kohl’s, there are other locations in the Northwest Valley that would be better suited to such a store, said Smith, noting that the Granada Village location is not adjacent to a freeway exit. “The closest freeway ramps are Reseda and Balboa on the 118 and Devonshire on the 405,” he said. “They’re neighborhood streets. One of the things that has people scratching their heads is why would Kohl’s pick this location. There are much better locations close by.” Kohl’s, meanwhile, is demurring on the whole issue, perhaps cognizant of some of the difficulties retailers like Wal-Mart have faced. Through spokesman Kelli Ramey, the retailer said that it has not “yet announced any plans” for a store in the community of Granada Hills. “We have an ongoing real estate assessment process. At any given time, we are reviewing sites in communities nationwide.” Regency does not need new entitlements to proceed with the project, but it does need several variances, which the city would have to approve. The company has asked for a modification to a rule put into place when there was a movie theater at the center that requires more parking spaces than normally needed for a retail store. It has also asked for an extension of the hours of operation in hopes of attracting a restaurant. “Nice restaurants need to operate beyond 10 p.m. or 11 p.m.,” Legaspi said. “So the application is asking that we extend the operating hours.” He is hopeful that the center will get its variances by the late summer and the newly remodeled shopping center can open in the fall of 2008.

As an international company with offices on four continents, Amgen requires all its employees to attend a diversity awareness program within their first year of employment. The biotech company has also instituted a strategy to incorporate diversity initiatives, goals and awareness events at all of its offices throughout North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. “The diversity training is about creating an inclusive environment,” said Nadia Younes, Amgen’s director of diversity and Work-Life. Because an inclusive environment, she said, is vital to a company that has a 20,000-member cross-cultural work force; 31 percent belong to ethnic minorities and 46 percent are women. Of the officers and managers at Amgen, 39 percent are women and 25 percent belong to ethnic minorities. The company’s diversity strategy also includes development of networking affinity groups and the installation of numerous initiatives for diversity training and leadership. To implement the initiatives, Amgen has developed diversity councils at some of its offices. At the company’s Thousand Oaks site, business diversity forums are held each month for employees and company leaders. Individual speakers as well as panels address topics related to workplace diversity. Topics of the forums have included minority issues in the workplace, the challenges of conducting cross-cultural clinical trials and women’s health concerns. Some of the forums are conducted in both English and Spanish and are delivered nationally via Web casting. The company also holds special events with keynote speakers for Black History Month and for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. More than 10 percent of Amgen’s work force belongs to one or more of the company’s nine diversity networking affinity groups. The groups network together, perform community outreach, focus on professional growth and act as mentors. There are more than 25 affinity group chapters, with a women’s group starting soon in Switzerland. These include gay and lesbian, middle eastern, disabled, women’s and international affinity groups. “We have a high level of activity in these groups,” said Younes. A Diversity Leadership Summit was held last year for the leaders of the affinity groups to discuss and develop their diversity and community outreach goals. As for those goals, Younes said, “We’re proud of our progress to date, but we know we have a lot more to do.”