Entertainment Burbank-based, SoapNet has appointed Sherri York vice president, marketing and Mary Ellen DiPrisco was named executive director, original programming. York will establish and implement marketing strategy for the network. She will be responsible for on-air promotion and trade and consumer off-channel marketing activities. Most recently, York was the national director of marketing communications for MTV Networks. Previously, she was a marketing consultant for Frank Magid Associates Inc. DiPrisco will be responsible for identifying, developing and overseeing production of original programming to support the network’s branding efforts. Prior to joining SoapNet, she served as producer on “Beyond with James Van Praagh” for Tribune Entertainment. She also developed and produced celebrity attorney Howard Weitzman’s pilot, “Twisted Justice,” for MGM-TV. Brad Ball has been named executive vice president, domestic corporate marketing for Warner Bros. He will oversee new brands and franchises along with existing ones for all Warner divisions. Ball joined Warner Bros. in 1998 as president of domestic marketing. Previously, he served as senior vice president, marketing for McDonald’s for three years. Prior to that, he was a partner in Davis, Ball & Colombatto. Education Iraj Borbor was named chair of the California Engineering Liaison (ELC), an agency that works to improve engineering education programs in California. His responsibilities will include working with industry leaders to ensure that students obtain the skills and knowledge relevant to the workplace. Borbor is currently the dean of DeVry/West Hills. Technology Chatsworth-based, Capstone Turbine Corp., makers of microturbine power systems, has retained Norman Chambers for its newly-created chief operating officer position. Chambers will be responsible for sales and marketing and other internal operations. Chambers previously served as president and ceo of the former Petrocosm Corp. Before that he held various executive positions at Halliburton Co. Osama Bahgat has been elected vice president of engineering for Fiberspace, Inc. He has more than 26 years of telecommunications experience from several leading industry companies, including Alcatel and Nortel Networks. Prior to joining Fiberspace, Bahgat worked at CopperCom, where he successfully led the voiceover broadband product development team and delivered releases of the gateway product. In addition, he led the development of Lite Span broadband DSL hardware products at Alcatel. Syed Husain has been appointed chief operating officer and Rick Poole was named chief financial officer for NetSol International Inc. Prior to joining NetSol, Husain was a program director at General Electric Information Systems’ global financial risk management group. Prior to General Electric, he worked for Andersen Consulting. Prior to joining NetSol, Poole was at Stonefield Josephson Inc., where he served as a senior manager in the firm’s audit and attest services division, serving information technology, manufacturing and professional services clients. Poole is a licensed CPA and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Calabasas-based Universal Domains Inc. has appointed Karim Rahemtulla chief operating officer, Peter B. Wiggans vice president, business development and Victoria Chen corporate secretary. The appointments will follow the completion of the acquisition of VCL Communications Corp. by Universal Domains. Before joining VCL, Rahemtulla was vice president, business development for a Streaming Media Network where he developed products and services for the investor relations and public company markets. Wiggans had been involved in international sales, marketing and operations for over twenty years. Prior to VCL, he served as director of sales for Group Telecom. Chen’s responsibilities will include administration, securities, compliance and registration, research and fundraising.

Now is not the time to play politics when it comes to airport safety. But that’s what’s happening locally in Los Angeles and nationally. While politicians are suddenly airport safety experts and clamor to express this newfound knowledge before the media, the voices of the real experts are not heard. Let’s hope that politicians realize that their “crash course” in airport safety does not give them the ability to develop a viable national safety program that will coax Americans to feel safe to fly again. Who are the experts? Law enforcement professionals whose sole goals and expertise are to provide national security. We need to give them carte blanche to provide us with the best airport security in the world without worrying about cost or whether citizens are inconvenienced by the new security measures. Politicians, while full of safety-conscious rhetoric early after the attacks, have already begun to lose focus. Locally, some politicians have shifted their efforts to reopening the parking structures at LAX that were closed by the Federal Aviation Administration, regardless of whether this move will compromise security. Nationally, politicians are back to the silly old game of politics as usual, two parties fighting about which road they will take to get to the same place secured airports, rebuilding confidence in a desperate industry and saving lives. Politicians’ actions are often dictated by what will get them re-elected. Now is not the time to have this cloudy judgment decide airport safety. We need what works no more, no less. We need federal funding and our federal elected officials to do their jobs and to quickly bring a national plan to fruition. We cannot rely on an aviation industry that is dying a fast death, thanks in part to the inaction of our government, nor the airports with their dramatically reduced income, nor cities that can barely make their own budgets or keep their streets safe. We need a national plan with common procedures for every airport. LAX or any other airport can have the most masterful, well-designed plan for security and safety, but if the airport from which a plane has departed doesn’t, it could be all for naught. Any variance to the approved federal security procedures would be only granted to tighten, not loosen, security. For years, airport security experts have been warning the public and those we’ve elected to address the problems of almost non-existent levels of protection in our airports and on our airplanes. The only questions about terrorist attacks were when, where and how. With the risk of attacks so real prior to Sept. 11, why did we think that only El Al, the Israeli airline, required separate exits and entrances to its cockpits, or that it was the only airline that needed well-trained security officials interviewing each passenger, or that it needed to maintain a link to law enforcement to identify each passenger that flies their skies (the same in which we fly)? While there is no excuse for the horrific attack on society as we know it by demented, sick and mindless murderers, when do we begin to accept some of the responsibility for not having been wise enough or visionary enough to take the steps necessary to prevent these kinds of strikes? The country needs the best and the brightest security specialists to give the flying public what it needs peace of mind every time we board a plane. This is not the time for politicians, who know next to nothing about security, to provide the solutions. This is a time for the real professionals, with years of education and training in the field, to do the job. While it is too late for the victims of the Sept. 11 tragedy, let’s not waste their deaths by going back to business as usual. Let’s get serious about airport safety and not just sound serious in front of the television cameras. It’s time to put egos aside and work together for a unified plan of security throughout the U.S. We cannot fail our citizens again. Lee Kanon Alpert, a partner with the Encino law firm of Alpert & Barr, APLC, has represented clients in and related to the aviation industry, served as chair of the Van Nuys Airport Advisory Council for three years and most recently was a commissioner on the Los Angeles World Airports Board of Airport Commissioners from 2000-2001. He can be reached at [email protected].

Do more with less. This will be the new mantra for the production, distribution and services sectors of the entertainment industry, whose businesses collectively represent $1 out of every $4 on the public payroll across the Valley. Why? Start with the bottom falling out of the dot-com market in 2000, packing a one-two punch for stocks. Toss in an actor’s strike that never came but left companies with a stockpile of product and ensuing inertia in the production arena. Then came Sept. 11, and with it, fears of flying, fears of spending, fear in general. “It’s been a bumpy two years for the industry, no question,” said Dan Blake, the new Director of the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at Cal State Northridge. And things were looking so good. According to the center’s recently released “Report of Findings on the San Fernando Valley Economy,” employment in the entertainment industry in the Valley tripled between the last recession in 1992 and last year, rising from 35,000 to 105,000 and generating a payroll of about $6 billion. The report, released in October, also shows that Valley-based entertainment companies’ share of employment in Los Angeles County increased from just below 38 percent in 1991 to 58 percent by 2000. “It’s a hidden industry, and if you want to think of how big it is in the Valley, it’s just about the same size as the retail trade industry,” said Blake. The Valley’s share of the state’s entertainment employment also increased from 27 percent in 1991 to 41 percent in 2000, a clear indication that, hidden or not, it has become a key piece of the Valley’s economic pie. But even before Sept. 11, the industry began making adjustments to accommodate a slowing economy, and those changes are reflected in the number of new jobs it put on the market last year. Only 1,600 private sector entertainment workers were added to the payroll in 2000, representing only a 1.5 percent increase over 1999, and total payroll figures fell by one third of one percent, according to the CSUN report. “Many of these businesses that make up the industry are faced with the challenge of cutting costs, doing more with fewer resources,” said Blake. “And they were faced with all of these things long before Sept. 11 came around.” “After two years of dreadful business in Los Angeles in many regards, there’s nothing left for many of us to fall back on,” said Rufus Burnham, owner of The Camera House in North Hollywood, a camera rental company that works primarily with the commercial industry. “There definitely needs to be a tightening of the belts, but we’ve been making extraordinary deals for a while now and everybody has to adjust and accept the adjustments that everyone else is making.” Runaway production costs were already starting to take a toll on entertainment service companies in the Valley and elsewhere, and they continue to pose a threat. But the current upheaval in the airline industry has forced many film, TV and commercial production companies to stick closer to home, at least for the time being. Steve Caplan is senior vice president, external affairs for the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP). He said one of the biggest factors driving up production costs is location fees. “There have historically been significant fees charged in locations for private homes and businesses,” said Caplan. Now, we understand this is part of the cost of doing business, but in order to keep the business here it has to be competitive at every level.”

Summary Business: Videogame software maker Headquarters: Calabasas CEO: Vincent Bitetti Market Cap: $22 million Dividend Yield: N/A* Total Liabilities: $6.8 million P/E: N/A Long-Term Debt: $5.3 million * TDK Mediactive does not pay dividends When TDK Mediactive Inc. opened its doors in 1986, it focused on developing PC gaming software. But as that market declined and console games grew in the late 1990s, the company changed its focus and began making games for Sony Corp.’s Play Station, Nintendo and others. That decision turned out to be the right one for the Calabasas-based company. With the technological advancements in videogame hardware, the industry has grown considerably and TDK is riding that wave. In the company’s second quarter ended Sept. 30, TDK’s sales nearly tripled to $4.6 million from $1.2 million for the comparable period last year. But keeping up with the industry has proven somewhat more difficult. Costs associated with development and a changing lineup of games led to a net loss of $94,918 for the period, compared to a net profit of $153,669 for the comparable quarter in 2000. Martin G. Paravato, TDK’s CFO, said the company’s marketing costs more than doubled over the second quarter of last year. “It takes more money to develop and market these games,” Paravato said. After trading in the $.25 range, TDK’s stock, traded on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board, began pushing upward in April to the $1.00 range. On Friday the stock closed at $1.04. Analyst Michael Gardner of Wedbush Morgan Securities, said TDK’s big third quarter performance was due in large part to the popularity of its “Shrek” videogame. The company had shipped more than 200,000 units to retailers during the quarter. “They seemed to hit it big with ‘Shrek’ which just sold like gangbusters,” Gardner said. “That really gave them momentum that is still continuing.” The game along with another game, issued in August, called “Lady Sia,” gave the company strong sales heading into the fall, Gardner said. TDK operated as Sound Source Interactive until the fall of last year when TDK USA Corp. purchased a controlling interest in the company and changed its name, at the same time diversifying its product lines and expanding its marketing capabilities. Gardner said the company had been hurt by its focus on PC-based games instead of the more popular console-based systems like Game Boy or Nintendo. “They decided to get away from the PC business and go more toward the platforms like Game Boy, but that means increased costs to develop games for those consoles,” he said. Since then, TDK Mediactive has added licensing agreements with many of the industry’s major players. “Although our sales improved substantially over the prior year and prior quarter, the results were somewhat impacted by slower than anticipated Game Boy Advance hardware at retail,” said company CEO Vincent Bitetti, referring to the slow sales following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. “Sept. 11 hurt the company, there’s no question, but they still did great business after that.” Gardner said that the company’s tie-in with the DreamWorks SKG animated blockbuster was key to its success. “It was a popular movie, so there was interest in the game before anyone saw it, but it’s great game,” he said. Paravato said the company was also able to capitalize on the game “Casper the Friendly Ghost” for Play Station 2 and others which were based on other characters the company has licensed. “It’s hard to say how we’ll do in the next quarter, but we’re going to have a better Christmas than we did last year. We’re already seeing a strong trend,” he said. Shawn Milne, an analyst with SoundView Technologies Inc., predicted brisk holiday sales for the industry that could match last year’s holiday numbers of roughly $6 billion. With new game platforms hitting the shelves this month, including Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox and Nintendo Co.’s GameCube, Gardner said TDK’s games figure to be big sellers. “We’ve seen the Xbox version of ‘Shrek’ and it looks great. The graphics, the look and feel of the game is superior to the Game Boy version,” Gardner said. TDK Mediactive has also acquired licensing rights to DC Comics’ Aquaman, Casper the Friendly Ghost and others, which will be featured in games set for release next year. “They have a knack for being able to get decent properties and for being able to come up with some pretty good games,” Gardner said.

Since the September 11 attack, a lot of people have been talking about a return to family activities and things that remind them of simpler times. The San Fernando Valley Business Journal asks: How have you changed your daily routine or activities? Cindy Goodfellow Manager Aeroplex/Aerolease Group In honor of patriotism, we are holding rental rates steady. Normally, it would be increased. This is helping our clients stay in business and they would appreciate the help. We have the biggest American flag we could get and it waves proudly in front of our office building as well as flag stickers displayed on our client’s doors. Michael Mizrahi Regional Public Affairs Manager The Gas Company Chatsworth We are keeping extra food and water and other basics on hand. In addition, my wife and I and my kids initiated a plan to communicate with each other if a major emergency occurs during the day when we scattered around the city in different locations. Finally, I’m watching more CNN and I have discovered that I am hooked on The O’Reilly Factor on Fox Cable. Greg Lippe Managing Partner Lever, Lippe, Hellie & Russell, LLP Woodland Hills From a business standpoint, there hasn’t been any change in daily routine or activities. From a personal standpoint, the only change has been a decrease in elective air travel. Notwithstanding the lack of substantial change in physical activities, I am more alert and aware of my surroundings and more cautious of strangers and solicitations. Butch Barkstelle President System Integration Architects Van Nuys We haven’t changed our activities at all. Although we are very aware of the human and economic costs of September 11, we decided we aren’t going to let terrorism dictate how we live our lives. Karenjo Goodwin CEO/Owner Exact Staff, Inc. Woodland Hills Since the attack, I found myself spending more time with families and friends. We would send letters instead of emails. In addition, I found myself exercising more often. This is a helpful method to relieve stress, especially since the attack. We are also emphasizing open communication with our employees and getting their feedback. We want our staff to feel comfortable and enjoy their work environment. Overall, enjoying and living life is the best change to go by. Nicole Mihalka Sales Associate DAUM Commercial Real Estate Services Woodland Hills Since my family is scattered across the country (and the world), I have definitely made more of a concerted effort to stay in touch with them. Either once a week by phone, or at least by email. The September 11th attacks and their impact have certainly highlighted the importance of being close to family members, even if separated by much geographic distance.

Systech Solutions Inc. Core Business: Software development and information technology services. Revenue in 1993: $200,000 Revenue in 2000: $13 million Employees in 1993: 2 Employees in 2001: 140 Goal: To develop and implement business software solutions for its customers. Driving Force: A rapidly growing, technologically diverse business environment. Systech Solutions co-founders Arun Gollapudi and Srinivasan Ramaswamy built their information services company on the notion that it’s not how much you know it’s how you use it A few days after Arun Gollapudi was laid off from his engineering job at IBM Corp., he realized he didn’t want to work for somebody else again. Puttering around his garage, Gollapudi called his good friend Srinivasan Ramaswamy, about joining forces in a new venture. “It sounded crazy, but I listened,” said Ramaswamy, also a veteran of IBM earlier in his career, who himself was looking for a new challenge, away from his information technology job at a West Los Angeles firm. The two men, both born in India, soon established Systech Solutions Inc., a company whose business model was simply to fix companies’ computer problems. By working out of Gollapudi’s garage and getting clients wherever they could find them, the company got off to a slow start. Today, just eight years later, the longtime friends are overseeing a $13 million business with 140 employees all over the country. Speaking at the company’s Glendale headquarters in a 22-story office tower along Brand Boulevard, Gollapudi said he sees the company’s growth continuing in the years ahead. “We stopped thinking about how much it’s going to grow because we’re surprised each time,” said Gollapudi, the company’s CEO. It was just two years ago that the company quadrupled its revenue from $2 million to $8 million, only to see it hit $13 million last year. The company’s success hasn’t gone unnoticed. Systech was named to Inc. Magazine’s list of fastest growing companies for 2000 and 1999. And it landed in the No. 1 spot on the Business Journal’s list of fastest growing companies in the San Fernando Valley. To be eligible for the list, companies must be privately held and have had at least $200,000 in sales revenues in 1996 as well as a strong record of growth. “We were really happy about that honor, but we were also happy that we’ve been able to grow so much in such a short period of time,” Gollapudi said. The company now counts as clients such firms as American Express Co., Earthlink Inc., Nike Inc., Nissan North America Inc., Vivendi Universal S.A., Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and others. Systech’s growth led to the establishment of nine sales offices around the country, including offices opened so far this year in Portland, San Francisco, San Diego and India. The company’s core business, however, isn’t just fixing computer glitches or installing hardware or software. Systech works with companies to help them use their computer systems to solve strategic problems, Gollapudi said. “When Calvin Klein came to us, they had a very specific problem that we knew we could solve,” he said. The New York-based apparel maker wanted to study past fashion trends in order to better forecast future trends and determine sales projections for the company. The company needed to analyze past data as well as patterns in the company’s production cycle, Gollapudi recalled. Systech’s technicians then developed an application that allowed the company to regularly update a database of past trends and related information along with other data gathering to help with decision-making. Today, Gallapudi said Calvin Klein’s production, planning and distribution departments have access to the historical data and use it to make future projections about the industry. Connie Tisdale, director of special projects for Authentic Fitness Corp. in the city of Commerce, said her company has improved its overall performance due to Systech’s warehouse data tracking system. “We now have visibility at multiple levels into product sales, profitability margins and inventory for allocation,” she said. “It also enables us to have time sliced forecasts and track actual sales against them.” Authentic Fitness manufactures and distributes Speedo swimwear in North America. Rebecca Wong, project leader at Los Angeles-based Guess? Inc.’s data warehouse department, said Systech’s budgeting software has made her division’s job easier as well. “It used to take the whole morning and a huge stack of paper just to turn out a sales report,” she said. Gollapudi, who still does a lot of the marketing himself and meets personally with many clients, attributes the company’s success to its passion for the work. “You have to feel challenged and excited about work and our customers see that,” he said. Gollapudi’s partner and COO Srinivasan Ramaswamy said that the company’s 24-hour support hotline and its rapid response has been a key to much of its success. “People know that they can count on us,” he said.

Burbank city officials say Ford Motor Co. is considering two proposals for its 8.14-acre swath of land: one from a competing auto dealer, the other from developers for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., who are considering bringing the discount store and Sam’s Club warehouse operation to the site. The prime piece of property, formerly home to Zero Corp., sits adjacent to the Golden State (5) freeway off-ramp on Front Street. Ford had hoped to lure Burt Boeckmann, owner of Galpin Ford, the largest Ford franchise in the country, to the site when it purchased the property for $12 million roughly three years ago. Anxious to get their first big auto dealership in town, Burbank officials offered Boeckmann $12 million in tax and construction subsidies along with the city’s own 3.8 acre parcel nearby to help close the deal. But Boeckmann backed out of the plan about a year ago leaving Ford with an empty lot the company has said costs roughly $35,000 a month to maintain. Boeckmann also put Ford in a bind with other interested Ford franchisees in the area, namely Bob Bruncati, owner of Sunrise Ford in North Hollywood. According to Bruncati and Ovrom, Ford’s initial agreement with Boeckmann essentially bars the company from ever selling to another Ford franchisee. Ford and Boeckmann have declined to say whether such a deal exists, and Ford has steadfastly refused to meet with competitors. Until now. Ovrom said Ford officials visited him recently, and they admitted to having their hands tied because of the Boeckmann agreement. They said they have no intention of ever selling the land to another Ford dealer, but are now willing to consider offers from non-Ford dealers. The Ford Motor Co. representative “sat here and said ‘I’m here for one purpose, and that’s to tell you that there will never be a Ford dealer in Burbank,”‘ said Ovrom. Regarding the Boeckmann deal, Ovrom said “I recognize that he’s the largest Ford dealer in the world, but I’m amazed that he has that kind of clout.” As a result of Ford’s decision to consider proposals from competitors, Gene Vaughn, owner of Guy Schmidt Automotive Group in Glendale and Burbank’s only auto dealer, and Fred Bell, owner of Fred Bell Chevrolet, have revived their plans to purchase the property and build a joint dealership. But included in their proposal is a request for a 50 percent rebate on the sales tax over a ten year period, which makes the proposal an expensive and politically charged one for Burbank. A recent law bars cities from luring auto dealers in with subsidies and prohibits the siphoning of auto business from one city to another. In addition, Burbank and Glendale are on- and off-again adversaries in the battle to get a new terminal built at Burbank Airport, and two competing dealerships could hurt relations between the two cities. “The downside is (Vaughn and Bell) want a big subsidy and that’s hard to reconcile, and I’m not sure it’s in our interest to steal business from a city that we need to keep as an ally,” said Ovrom. Michael Hastings, of Los Angeles-based Direct Point Advisors representing Bell and Vaughn, said their proposal would skirt the law, legally, because Bell is already in Burbank and the proposal calls for a satellite office for Schmidt, not a competing dealership. “Right now we are in very positive conversations with General Motors and the city and very positive conversations with Ford,” said Hastings. William McNair, vice president, western division for Ford, said Ford hasn’t seen any proposals in writing from Wal-Mart or Vaughn and Bell but the company was willing to sit down with either of the two. “We want to sell the land,” McNair said. Ford is asking $15.5 million for the property, or about $40 a square foot, well over the roughly $15 per square foot automotive retailers usually pay, and the reason why Vaughn and Bell are asking for subsidies. Bruncati declined to comment on the two proposals or say whether he was still pursuing a dealership in Burbank. Meanwhile, Century City based Rothbart Development has also submitted plans for a joint project for the property featuring a Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club. Ovrom said Rothbart is proposing a two-story project a departure from the company’s normal design structure, but one Ovrom said the developer is willing to make because the 12-acre site is much smaller than the parcels the company customarily builds on. “That’s way out of their cookie-cutter plans for one large floor,” said Ovrom. Representatives from Rothbart did not return several calls for comment. The upside to the Wal-Mart project, said Ovrom, is the high revenue potential and the fact that Rothbart isn’t asking for financial subsidies. But the downside there is the potential for taking away business from other retailers, namely the newly opened Costco store at the Empire Center on Victory Boulevard. “We don’t want to cannibalize new business in town,” said Ovrom. Ovrom added, however, that economists for Wal-Mart have shown him evidence that instead of stripping revenue from Costco, research shows the competition would boost sales revenues for both retailers. “Typically what happens is competition breeds more business,” said Ovrom. “And we would become an absolute retail power center in the Valley.” Ovrom said the Wal-Mart project would generate roughly $200 million in revenue, compared to about $150 million a year for the auto dealer. The two proposals will be presented to the Burbank City Council for consideration by the end of the month, Ovrom said. If the council wants to push for a Wal-Mart, they would also have to agree to change the zoning on the property from automotive to retail.

Sen. Richard Alarc & #243;n, who represents the 20th District, has submitted a draft proposal for legislation that, if made into law, would supercede the proposed plan for how the government of a new Valley city would be structured. Although the plan, Alarc & #243;n said, is getting positive feedback from various sectors of the Valley business community, there are some who say it calls for far too many layers of government for what would become the sixth largest city in the country. Under current state law a new Valley city government would have 15 city council members and a separately elected mayor,a model that closely resembles that of Los Angeles now. All of the positions would be paid and full time. Alarc & #243;n’s plan, however, calls for the creation of nine district city council positions and six citywide council positions in order to, as he put it, entice a broader sampling of candidates to run for office. Under the Alarc & #243;n proposal, the mayor and a vice mayor would be chosen from the two top-vote getters in the citywide council race. Those positions would be full-time as would the citywide council seats. The district council members would be part timers. “I think this is the kind of system that would help build city leadership,” said Alarc & #243;n, who added that he is neither for or against a breakup of the city. “I want to ensure that there’s a good blend of people who represent various interests in terms of job categories.” Alarc & #243;n is also proposing that the mayor be given title of council president so that he or she would have voting powers and would also be forced to operate in full disclosure of the rest of the council. “To do that really promotes openness,” said Alarc & #243;n. “The mayor would have to say what his (or her) position is from the get go and make decisions and opinions in the public light.” Finally, Alarc & #243;n said the citywide seats, which would have broader authority over district seats, would also provide a haven for sitting council representatives, such as Alex Padilla and Richard Zine, who would likely lose their seats if the voters approve a secession initiative next November. In order to sit on the council representatives must be residents of Los Angeles. The district seats, said Alarc & #243;n, would also provide an alternative to those executives who want to hold public office but don’t want to give up their full time jobs to do so. “Under the current system, you can’t sit on the city council in L.A. and keep your job,” said Alarc & #243;n. “So we often lose a lot of good people or fail to attract quality candidates.” Council President Alex Padilla, who opposes a breakup but supports a secession initiative, has repeatedly said he would not run for a Valley council seat. Padilla was out of town and unavailable for comment. David Gershwin, his communications deputy, said his boss would not be interested in Alarc & #243;n’s new plan either. “He’s already said he would never run for a Valley office because it would run contrary to everything he has said he would do to keep Los Angeles whole,” said Gershwin. Gershwin added that Alarc & #243;n’s model is based on smaller incorporated cities, such as Calabasas and Malibu, and that the structure is too weak to support a government for a city as large as the Valley would be. “It’s a bad idea, especially when you consider the workload the Valley officers would have in front of them,” Gershwin said. Councilman Dennis Zine, who is serving his first term, agreed. He said neighborhood councils are supposed to be the answer to district representation, and that creating district seats on top of citywide seats only sets up extra layers of bureaucracy.” But when pressed on the issue, Zine said he’d run for a Valley seat if he lost his current one and the climate was right. “I do not intend to be a lifelong politician,” said Zine, who represents the Valley’s third district. “But if the constituents agreed that I had the qualifications and brought to the table the kinds of ideas that would be best for the Valley, then yes I’d run.” But Alarc & #243;n said the idea is for district representatives to work closely with neighborhood councils, not strip them of their voice on community issues. “I’m anticipating that a new Valley city would maintain its neighborhood councils,” said Alarc & #243;n. “And they would work with district and citywide council members. But if we don’t have a secession, then neighborhood councils would be there because they are supposed to fill that void between government and the concerns of the citizens.” Harvey Englander, a political consultant and senior vice president and general manager of the MWW Group, called Alarc & #243;n’s plan a “hair-brained” scheme that would never pass muster with the voters. He said the new Valley city would have to have a government based on averages for the 10 largest cities across the country, which is about 15-17 council members and a mayor. Anything less than that, he said, would undermine the whole idea of better representation. “The 15-council member plan makes a lot of sense, but they all have to be equal and representative of their individual districts,” said Englander. “This at-large, part time, full time system is nothing but a way to create more gridlock,” said Englander. Former State Assemblyman Richard Katz agreed, adding that there needs to be a larger, more level playing field. “The six citywide positions would obviously wind up in the hands of politicians with access to large sums of money and this plan would change the nature of the kind of representation that groups for secession are pushing for,” said Katz. Under the current council system for all of Los Angeles including the Valley, each of the 14 council members represent roughly 300,000 constituents. Under secessionists’ plan, each of the 15 council members would represent approximately 100,000 constituents. Katz also said he thought the plan would backfire, creating a class system among political leaders and putting the part-time council members under the boot heels of the full timers,which many Valley sessesionists say is how residents here are now treated by Los Angeles. Alarc & #243;n said he agreed that there are elements of his proposal that need to be fine tuned. But he added that he thinks it makes more sense than simply transferring a much-criticized governmental system in Los Angeles over to the new Valley city. “One of the reasons I’m proposing this is I’m trying to reduce the contention during the campaign races and guarantee that the top six people who run for offices will have the full time jobs,” said Alarc & #243;n. “It’s a proposal that certainly needs to be tightened up but I’m very interested in crafting something that makes better sense than what is now on the table.” Alarc & #243;n said the State Legislative Council wouldn’t likely have time to draft a measure until after Jan 1. Unless Alarc & #243;n could get an emergency bill pushed through, any measure passed in 2002 wouldn’t become law until 2003, long after the planned vote on secession. “Getting an emergency bill through is very difficult to accomplish, but not impossible,” said Katz. Richard Close, chairman of Valley VOTE, the group leading the cause for Valley cityhood, said his organization hadn’t heard of the proposal and had no formal position on it. On a personal note, however, Close said it sounded like a plan that needed revision but attempts to address some important concerns. “One of those concerns is finding a position for some of the existing council members from Los Angeles who represent the San Fernando Valley,” said Close. “Others realize that this is a gigantic task of being one of the first council members and would like to spend full time on it, and need to be paid accordingly. So it’s an intriguing method that would deal with enough of these issues.” Katz disagreed, saying he didn’t believe in setting up governments based on the needs of particular individuals. Close also downplayed criticism that Alarc & #243;n’s plan would undermine the role of neighborhood councils, even though there is still not one neighborhood council up and running in the Valley, and the indication is that it could be five-to-10 years before they are fully implemented. “Neighborhood councils are different,” said Close. “They are based on neighborhoods, and there’s probably 200 or 300 neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley. So they are very different processes: one is a city legislature, the other is a neighborhood group. And I think that even (Mayor James) Hahn would agree, you need a combination of both neighborhood councils and local elected representatives.”

One small maker in Burbank is trying to make sure it doesn’t get left behind as the videogame category begins to heat up. Tremor Entertainment Inc. is getting ready to complete a deal to take the company public in a move the company hopes will help it to compete in the expanding business. Tremor, which has a deal with Microsoft Corp. to develop an action fantasy game for its upcoming Ubox console, will merge with a shell corporation with no active business, New Systems Inc. New Systems, which has been engaged solely in the search for a business since its inception more than 10 years ago, reported assets of $23,506 as of June 30, 2001. It trades on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board, currently at under $1 per share. Under the deal, whose terms were not disclosed, the company will be renamed Tremor. Steven Oshinsky, chairman, president and CEO of Tremor, said the acquisition is part of an overall strategy to take advantage of the growth opportunities in the videogame market. “Tremor is now tracking its second year of more than 100 percent growth,” Oshinsky said. Last year, the company posted $502,000 in sales compared to $1.3 million projected for this year, Oshinsky added. Hardware makers, which began a major push in upgraded videogame equipment last year, are continuing to introduce new, digital products expected to expand the category and, with it, the market for software. In addition to the introduction of PlayStation2 by Sony Corp. last year and the upcoming Microsoft entry, Nintendo is entering the digital game category with its launch of Gamecube this month. By becoming public, Tremor hopes to gain access to capital markets that will allow the company to capitalize on these opportunities and duplicate the successes of companies such as Electronic Arts and THQ Inc., the company said. The upcoming Xbox game, scheduled for release next fall, will be one of a group Microsoft is planning to promote with a $500 million advertising budget over an 18-month period, according to Tremor. The deal has been approved by shareholders and is expected to be completed by December. Detecting Gold Billy Carmen knew he had the right idea when his new metal detector began selling in small hardware stores. Carmen, CEO of Van Nuys-based Wizard Industries Inc., has turned his once bulky metal detector into a state-of-the art device that can be used by carpenters to find a nail embedded in a piece of wood, to children who want to conduct their own metal-detecting experiment. “I’m not planning on competing with the big companies, but we do plan to be successful,” said Carmen, who has so far sold more than 200,000 metal detectors after one year in business. Carmen’s big seller is the Security Wizard, a baton-like metal detector used by security officers at airports. But security isn’t the only reason to own a metal detector, Carmen said. So far, Carmen has created a small, paint brush-size metal detector that can find studs on a drywall and another similar unit that can detect buckshot in game. Carmen said he expects the company to gross $1.3 million this year, with sales for next year projected to double. Carmen, a former web site designer, said he invested $75,000 to start the firm back in January. Moneyopolis Co-opted Parents looking for an online math and money game were in for a rude awakening last month when Van Nuys-based Internet company turned a former financial Web site for children into a porn Web site. DSLExtreme Inc. of Van Nuys acquired the Moneyopolis.org Web site after the registration for the site previously owned by the New York-based accounting firm Ernst & Young expired last month. DSLExtreme officials would not comment. Kenneth Kerrigan, a spokesman for Ernst & Young said there’s little the company can do now after the registration for the site lapsed. Kerrigan said Verisign Inc., which handled the registration for the site, sent letters of the expiration to an employee who had left the company, thus allowing the registration to lapse, Kerrigan said. “There was a lot of confusion and we just didn’t know what was happening,” he said. Ernst & Young’s corporate Web site directed parents to the Moneyopolis site until last month when customers notified them that the site was now a porn Web site. Semiconductors Get Smaller Westlake Village-based Diodes Inc. will begin distributing its smallest components yet, with its new SOT-523 line of semiconductor and related components. The new line of so-called “subminiature devices,” which are really small, are meant to meet the increasingly compact requirements of battery-operated PDAs, notebooks and cell phones. The new devices are scheduled for launch by year’s end. Mark King, vice president of sales and marketing, said the new products are 40 percent smaller than predecessors. “With the ever increasing focus on miniaturization in the hand-held market, space and power constraints are becoming more critical,” he said. The company plans to issue additional subminiature products, including diode and transistor arrays in a multi-pin package. Software Would Eliminate Live Operators Chatsworth-based US Dataworks Inc., a unit of SonicPort Inc., says it has completed testing on new voice-recognition unit that could eliminate the need for live operators at calling centers. John Cooper, SonicPort’s president and CEO, said the unit will allow small and large businesses the opportunity to operate call centers that would remain open and process product orders 24 hours a day. “(By) eliminating just one $9 per hour employee from each of three daily eight hour shits could mean a savings in excess of $100,000 a year,” Cooper said. As part of the testing, American Billing and Collections Inc. successfully processed 3,000 transactions valued at $100,000. Cooper said the software application allows it to recognize individual voices and allow for the processing of orders. Panavision Demos Equipment It was demo days at Panavision Inc.’s Woodland Hills headquarters last week as company officials showed cinematographers their latest in cameras and related equipment, including the Motorized Slider, a device that allows the mounting of a camera just two inches from the surface. The device, the company says, is particularly good for moving shots such as those from cars or dollies mounted on tracks. Staff reporter Carlos Martinez can be reached at (818) 676-1750 ext. 17 or by e-mail at [email protected]

A new industrial park is set to open in the San Fernando Valley. Development Partners LLC expects to complete construction next month on a $15 million business park in Chatsworth. The Winnetka Business Center at Winnetka and Corisco Avenues, totals 175,000 square feet and includes five buildings. The center, on about eight or nine acres of land, was formerly the site of a Sears distribution center. Development Partners acquired the property from Sears and began construction about four months ago. The buildings range from 17,000 square feet to 51,830 square feet. Two of the largest buildings sit side by side and can be combined for a single buyer, said Craig Weisman, a broker with TOLD Partners, who along with Michael Sheptenko and Brennan Maley, is marketing the property. Each of the free-standing buildings features high clearance for loading and the complex is secured by an electronic gateway. Sale prices for the buildings range from $88 to $99 per square foot, depending on the size. Lease prices range from $.69 to $.77 per square foot, triple net, Weisman said. Although office vacancy rates around the San Fernando Valley have been inching upward as the economy has slowed, vacancy rates for industrial properties have remained around the 4 percent level. But Weisman said that even in this sector, brokers have seen a bit of a slowdown. One building is currently in escrow, Weisman added, to an aerospace company. Shamrock Crosses Borders Shamrock Capital Advisors in Burbank has extended its Genesis LA Real Estate Fund to projects throughout Los Angeles County. The fund, which has been in existence for about one year, provides gap financing to development projects located in low to moderate income neighborhoods. The fund finances projects ranging from $2 million to $10 million. According to the financiers, an affiliate of Shamrock Holdings of California Inc., which is the investment arm of the Roy E. Disney family, the company had to turn away good opportunities in its first year of operation because they were projects located outside the borders of the city. Extending its reach would allow the company to finance projects in incorporated cities such as San Fernando which were excluded before. Sylmar Deal L.A. Records Management Inc., which provides document, file and box storage and retrieval services for businesses, has leased a 108,288-square-foot industrial property in Sylmar in a move to expand its space. The company will occupy a facility at 15624 Roxford St. in Gateway Industrial Park, which has just been completed. The 10-year deal is valued at more than $8 million. L.A. Records plans to sublet its current facility, a 50,000-square-foot space in sun Valley. Chuck Carmichael, a broker with NAI Capital Commercial, represented the tenant, and will also market the company’s sublet. Barbara Emmons of CB Richard Ellis and Chris Sullivan of Daum Commercial Real Estate Services represented the landlord, World Oil Corp. Quest Stops in Northridge Quest Diagnostics has signed a lease for 36,346 square feet of space at Harman International Business Campus in Northridge. The three year transaction is valued at $2.8 million. Quest, a provider of diagnostic testing and information based in Teterboro, N.J., will use the space to expand its Van Nuys testing facility, one of 30 laboratories the company operates in the country. Ron Wade, Mark Leonard and Matt Heyn at Cushman & Wakefield, represented the landlord, Northridge Business Center LLC. The tenant was represented The by Jerry Porter of CRESA Partners. Santa Clarita Land Sale Public Storage Inc. has acquired a 12.6 acre of land at Via Princessa and Highway 14 in Santa Clarita. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Public Storage plans to build a storage facility on the property. Peter Lund, Scott Crane, Kevin Kennedy and Ken Kennedy at NAI Capital Commercial represented the landlord, American Realty Trust. Public Storage was represented by Darryl Finesilver of Century 21 Palmeri. Burbank Lease Bexel Corp. , a television production rental company, has leased 42,000 square feet of space at 801 South Main St. in Burbank. The five-year lease is valued at $4.2 million. Bryan Lewitt of CRESA Partners represented the tenant. The landlord, Burbank Production Plaza Ltd. represented itself. Universal City Lease Gener8xion Entertainment leased 18,000 square feet of office space at 3400 W. Cahuenga Blvd. in Universal City. The five-year deal is valued at $2.25 million. Paul Stockwell and Will Adams at Julien J. Studley Inc. represented the landlord, Cahuenga Investors, LLC. Brad Wilson with Grubb & Ellis represented the tenant. Housing Shortage California building industry executives placed the blame for the housing shortage on state and government and regulatory agencies during an economic summit of homebuilders held at Walt Disney Studios earlier this month. The California Building Industry Association was one of several groups from labor, business and the political arena invited to the entertainment giant’s offices to discuss ways to jump start the state’s economy. Mick Pattinson, president of the CBIA, told the group that in 2000 California homebuilding fell 40 percent short of the state’s needs. “Much of our state’s housing woes are the direct result of failed regulatory and legislative policies that can and must be corrected,” Pattinson said, “from excessive litigation that has stifled condominium production, to fiscal constraints that force cities and counties to favor retail developments over housing.” Senior reporter Shelly Garcia can be reached at (818) 676-1750, ext. 14 or by e-mail at [email protected].