Eclectic Multimedia Core Business: Creative multimedia services Revenue in 1999: $100,000 Revenue in 2001: $325,000 Employees in 1999: 3 Employees in 2001: 5 Goal: To move from business-to-business communications to a full-service advertising agency Driving Force: The desire, not to be artists, but to help clients make a profit The founder of eclectic multimedia has learned that profitable clients are more important than having the opportunity to express himself artistically When Josh Barinstein talks about the beginnings of his creative services agency, he sounds like many entrepreneurs describing their first years in business, even down to the devotion he and his partner shared as they sorted through all the start-up challenges of getting Eclectic Multimedia off the ground. “My partner and I made some drastic changes in our lives,” Barinstein said of the Newbury Park company that now enhances or converts textbooks to interactive and multimedia formats for some clients, and designs advertising campaigns for others. Of course, those years during which Eclectic Multimedia was in development were even more complex than for some start-ups because, as Barinstein finally admits nearly a third of the way through an interview with a reporter, his partner is also his wife, Cecelia. In fact, the company was founded five years ago in the kitchen of their Westlake Village apartment after Josh Barinstein left his job as a software engineer with Tekelec. “She and I just decided it was time to go out on our own,” he said. They didn’t bother with venture capital funding. “We didn’t know to ask,” Barinstein. “We borrowed from our parents, we sold what stock we had. We just dove into the deep end.” And they landed one of their very first major clients over coffee in that first apartment because of a blurb in a local newspaper noting their Web site had won a design competition. But even if Eclectic Multimedia appears at first glance to have the trappings of a classic mom-and-pop operation, it is far removed from the simple environment usually associated with family-owned businesses. Barinstein still calls the company the “seeds of an ad agency” but, at this point, a large part of their work involves turning traditional books and, most often, textbooks being printed by publishers like Prentice-Hall into multimedia and/or interactive experiences for readers: Director-based CDs, Web CDs, Web sites, even PowerPoint-based CDs. Not exactly the country store. At this point Eclectic Multimedia has at least 12 major clients, among them Prentice-Hall, Maps.com, Spirent Communications, UCLA and Baker & Taylor. Publishers come to us and say, ‘We’ve got a textbook and nothing about it is interactive,”‘ Barinstein said. “So, they say, ‘Build for us an interface, build a CD title for us.'” Often that means creating a multimedia CD-ROM to accompany the book. But it can also mean developing a Web site, or a hybrid out of all three. “We take the text and build a design,” Barinstein said. And for other clients, Eclectic Multimedia develops what might be considered a conventional print advertising campaign, complete with trade ads, catalogues, brochures and business cards. Nevertheless, the two started out, as Barinstein puts it, with no clients, no marketing plan and as noted earlier no money. About the third month they were in business, they got around to building a simple two-page Web site for themselves. It ended up winning an Adobe Dream Team competition. The prize included a certificate, an expense-paid airplane trip to pick that certificate up and some software a lot given Eclectic’s modest beginnings. It also offered an opportunity to send out a press release patting themselves on the back. At least one person saw the one-paragraph blurb that wound up in the Ventura County Star. “This gentleman read it and said, ‘You sound pretty good,'” Barinstein said. “So, he visited us at our apartment and said, ‘I’d like you to do some interactive maps for me.’ “I thought, ‘Wow, what’s that?'” But interactive mapmaking turned out to be Eclectic Multimedia’s first real business success. Jerry Westby, that first client who at the time had his own multimedia development business and is now with Sage Publications Inc. of Thousand Oaks, said, “It turned into a trust and convenience factor.” Westby and Barinstein eventually created a number of interactive maps for Maps.com in Santa Barbara and, Westby said, “We went on to develop CD-ROMs for Prentice-Hall.” Now, Barinstein said, he expects as much revenue from Prentice-Hall in 2002 as he anticipates from all of his clients in 2001, an estimated $325,000. Which is a long way from the $5,000 he and his wife managed to make in that first quarter they were in business back at the end of 1996. And they’ve learned something about running a business. “Early on we thought we’d be artists,” Barinstein said. “But we’re not Picassos. We’re producing visual communicative pieces that are selling. “It was a transformation for us to realize that we’re not here for our art, but to help our clients make money.”

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and the beginning of bombing assaults on Afghanistan, businesses have struggled to return to “business as usual,” mindful of the altered circumstances. So, the San Fernando Valley Business Journal asks: Has the atmosphere in your workplace returned to normal? Alan E. Kassan Executive Vice President/General Manager Beitler Commercial Realty Services Sherman Oaks Normal is a relative term. Life will be forever different after the Sept. 11 attacks. The ongoing retaliatory effort and the possibility of more terrorist strikes in U.S. cities are worrisome, and foremost on everyone’s mind. This makes normalcy difficult. For the most part, though, we are all trying to carry on with business as usual, and I think we are doing a pretty good job at that. Business is a little slower, but still moving forward at a good pace. Rick Voorhis President Van Nuys Flight Center Van Nuys Our business was greatly impacted by the FAA regulations since the attack. Due to the limitations from FAA, our airplane sales and maintenance services have decreased tremendously. In all facets of the business, the corporate jet companies have the advantage in this current situation. Fred Gaines Managing Partner Gaines & Stacey Woodland Hills Our practice is still very busy, but I wouldn’t say that things are “back to normal.” Clearly, some priorities have changed and our clients are taking longer-term views of potential investments and transactions. Overall, real estate as an investment will likely benefit as people withdraw somewhat from the stock market and other consumer-driven investments. Dave Burtch Vice President AmeriTel Inc. Northridge We are working very hard to focus on business as normal. Much of our business has a longer-term process so we have remained very busy with projects that started before the tragedy and sales are continuing to be steady. We are finding some people who are delaying decisions more because of the threat of recession, but very few. AmeriTel is hanging in there. William Sparks General Manager Beverly Garland’s Holiday Inn North Hollywood It has been my experience that hotels, as an industry and individually, have been very flexible in responding to situations from single functions to national trends. Business as usual, for us, typically consists of creative responses to sudden, new facts. I feel that we are continuing in this stream, and doing well in this regard.

Those for and against secession, on this and that side of the hill, finally have something to agree on: The latest proposal for splitting up the city of Los Angeles is ridiculous. Released the Friday before last (always a good day of the week to get something out to the public you’re hoping neither reporters nor news consumers will pay much attention to), a LAFCO consultant’s most recent proposal would have a new Valley city that consists of a new name, a city council, a dozen and a half employees and that’s it. Nothing else would change. The complaints people have about being ignored by L.A. City Hall would still go to the same place. The only difference is that there would be one more step, an impotent Valley city hall, between the complainer and the person or agency who could do anything about it. Have the decades of resentment, the cries of taxation without service and the machinations of wannabe politicians looking for elected seats to fill come to this: a mayor and city council with a city that has no assets, kings without a kingdom? Just in case you’ve been distracted by a worldwide war against terrorism, let me get you caught up: In response to what it claims was a half-baked plan for secession by Valley VOTE, consultants hired by LAFCO came up with their own proposal for a new Valley city that calls for elected officials with an existing revenue stream to control, every single municipal service being delivered as now by the city of Los Angeles (only Valley citizens would be customers instead of taxpayers), every asset except streets remaining in the hands of L.A. and a vague sense that after a “transition” period things could change. In their defense, LAFCO’s consultants who prepared the report insist their plan is at least a start, a village of a million and a half people can’t become a city overnight and, besides, that new city council will have authority to make land use decisions. Let’s go ahead and assess that great value right away and get it over with. This is the San Fernando Valley that has been trying to find a quick, easy way to get buses from the east to the west side for decades now. Then, at the proverbial last minute, the process was almost stopped because a neighborhood group for what to them were legitimate religious reasons would not have been able to walk across the bus route on the Sabbath. This is the same Valley that is quickly running out of housing and yet has a political establishment that has managed to stall development of Ahmanson Ranch in nearby Ventura County, most recently with the help of Councilman Dennis Zine who was able to get the L.A. City Council to refuse to extend Victory Boulevard. In other words, the authority to make land use decisions is useless if you live in a community that’s paralyzed by indecision. Back to the latest LAFCO proposal: The problems seem obvious. First, the average Valley citizen’s complaint is that services are not delivered in proportion to the tax money that goes to the city of L.A. We want quicker response times from the police and fire departments, we want fewer street repairs during rush hours, we want the potholes in front of our houses fixed immediately, we want quieter garbage trucks in the early morning hours, and we want it all cheaper. What would change if the same government bureaucracy is delivering the same services as now? If those seven elected officials who more or less represent the Valley on the L.A. City Council can’t get us quality services at a reasonable price now, how will 15 who have absolutely no influence at all at L.A. City Hall do any better? Second, about this “transition” period that will take place over three years but the details will be worked out later: Why later? Is that the way you do business? If you’re working on a deal with another company, do you say, “Here, just take my money now and we’ll decide in three years what you owe me in return”? It is true that time is running short if a secession question is going to appear on the November 2002 ballot, but that’s not a very good reason for giving up, perhaps forever, on what you want. It may be true that Valley VOTE could have done a better job of detailing a plan for the city it wants, but that’s no reason to deny ordinary citizens interested in secession what they thought they were going to get. And, finally, what about all those assets everybody who lives in the Valley whether they’re for or against a breakup thought belonged to them? And that they thought they were buying equity in for all these years like everybody else in L.A.? The Van Nuys Airport? Police and fire stations? Parks and ball fields? Water treatment plants? None of those things belong to citizens of the Valley? If the answer is that all of this is more of what will be worked out during a “transition,” I would be careful. If, for instance, I was a mayor or city councilman in a suddenly shrunken L.A., what would my constituents expect when bargaining with a Valley full of people who can’t vote for me? By the end of last week, it appeared that the number of people willing to support this plan had dwindled to maybe two: Consultant Keith Curry, the poor guy who got paid to write it, and County Supervisor and LAFCO Commissioner Zev Yaroslavsky whose best defense seems to be, “Not every decision should be made ahead of time.” LAFCO Executive Director Larry Calemine is characteristically sphinx-like about the whole thing and several LAFCO commissioners are wondering themselves who gave Curry his marching orders. So, what was the point? A plan for secession that would never fly? A proposal that nobody would ever vote for? Michael Hart is editor of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].

Fueled by the scarce supply of new, smaller facilities and record low interest rates, buyers are grabbing up the few such industrial properties available at lightening speed. Three cases in point in Pacoima: a trio of buildings totaling a combined 87,250 square feet have all sold within months of completion. Leonetti Sunray, a studio lighting company, acquired a 28,250-square-foot facility at 10601 Glenoaks Blvd. for $2.3 million. GER Enterprises, a firm that assembles racecars, acquired a 25,000-square-foot property at 10639 Glenoaks Blvd. for $2.1 million. And another lighting firm, TMB, acquired a 34,000-square-foot building at 10643 Glenoaks Blvd. for $2.55 million. Chase Partners, developers and sellers of the 10601 and 10639 Glenoaks properties, acquired the parcels in 1999 and completed the buildings within the past month, said Brent Weirick, vice president with Colliers Seeley International, which represented buyer and seller in both the deals and also represented Chase in the land sale. The developer of the third property, DKT Partners, acquired the parcel around the same time. “These are smaller, niche sites and the San Fernando Valley is made up of smaller manufacturing and entertainment companies, and that’s why we’ve had success where other projects have been a bit slower to sell,” Weirick said. In the Northeast Valley, vacancy rates for industrial buildings under 50,000 square feet are running at about 1 percent, Weirick added. Leonetti, which is moving from space the company had leased in Sun Valley, is representative of user-buyers that are now entering the real estate market to take advantage of extremely low interest rates. Weirick said interest rates on SBA real estate loans are now running at about 6.5 percent for an adjustable loan with a 10-percent down payment. A year ago, these loans were being offered for about a percentage point more. “The interest rates were a huge catalyst,” Weirick said. “The SBA is driving the small business real estate market.” GER is relocating from Van Nuys where the company occupied about half the space it has just bought. TMB, which had been based in Burbank, initially hoped to remain in that city, close to its entertainment industry clients. But the company chose to move to Pacoima because comparable buildings, with high clearance loading docks and other upgraded features, in Burbank were far more expensive. Weirick also represented DKT in that deal. TMB was represented by Bill Birtell of Beitler Commercial. Troubled Third Quarter Office vacancies in the San Fernando Valley shot way up in the third quarter, exceeding 16 percent for direct and sublet vacancies combined, according to figures just released by Cushman & Wakefield. Although direct vacancy rates held up somewhat better, the levels nonetheless exceeded those at the close of the previous two quarters. The figures are not likely to come as a surprise to brokers, who have seen office leasing activity, light since the beginning of the year, come to a near standstill in recent months. But in the third quarter, even submarkets that had maintained their strength through most of the year showed signs of weakening. In Warner Center, one of the San Fernando Valley’s strongest submarkets, vacancy rates increased to 13.6 percent overall, compared with 9.3 percent in the second quarter of the year, the Cushman & Wakefield report revealed. Sherman Oaks vacancy levels soared to 15.7 percent overall, from 11.8 percent in the previous quarter. And levels in Encino rose to 10.6 percent, from 8 percent in the second quarter. All three submarkets experienced negative net absorption rates (indicating there were more tenants vacating space than leasing it). Warner Center saw absorption rates of negative 35,812 square feet; Sherman Oaks had a negative rate of 43,413 square feet; and Encino had a negative absorption of 25,911 square feet, according to the Cushman & Wakefield data. Calabasas was one of the few areas where vacancies declined over the previous quarter. Overall vacancy levels in the submarket, 10.4 percent, reflected a positive net absorption of 4,135 square feet. In the second quarter of the year, Calabasas’s vacancy rate was 12.3 percent overall. Cascades Deal Cascades Business Park has leased one of the three buildings recently completed in the complex. Brooks Automation, a supplier to the semiconductor industry, has signed a 10-year lease for a 65,804-square-foot building in the Sylmar industrial complex. The deal is valued at $4.5 million. The building is the smallest of three developed in the current phase of the project by Prudential Real Estate Investors and The Hewson Co. Also just completed is a 106,594-square-foot building and one of 200,632 square feet. Greg Geraci and David Harding at CB Richard Ellis represented the tenant. Geraci, along with Barbara Emmons, Greg Barsamian and Scott Wilcott, also of CBRE, represented the landlord. Sun Valley Sale The principal of Entertainment Lighting Services has acquired an industrial building for the company, which services the entertainment industry. The 69,582-square-foot facility sits on three acres at 11440 Sheldon St. in Sun Valley. The purchase price, including an adjoining parking area, was $4.1 million. Bob Hoyer of Delphi Business Properties represented the buyer, John Chuck. The sellers, the estate of Rose Dorfman, Nansee Lanning and Barry Dorfman, were represented by Delphi’s Ross Thomas and Nigel Stout of Grubb & Ellis. Thomas also represented the sellers of the adjacent parcel, George and Nansee Lanning. Senior reporter Shelly Garcia can be reached at (818) 676-1750, ext. 14 or by e-mail at [email protected].

The phones are ringing. Fax machines are humming. It’s back to business as usual. Ask anyone. “I think after the first three, four or five days and the president’s speech saying get back to your lives, everyone has done that,” said Doug Sink, chief financial officer at Remo Inc. So bills are being paid, orders are flowing in and services are resuming. Just as always. Ask anyone, the folks hanging flags over doorways, the ones canceling travel plans and those logging onto CNN.com every few hours. “Obviously, we’re updating our disaster plan, but in terms of day to day, we’re functioning very well,” said Mel Kohn, managing partner at accounting firm Kirsch, Kohn & Bridge. Psychologists call it denial. The hideousness of Sept. 11 turned the world upside down. The first war in the first year of the new millenium has begun. No one can shake that off, they say. “I think what you’re hearing is mass denial,” said Steven Berglas, a psychologist and researcher at UCLA’s Anderson School for Management and the author of “Reclaiming the Fire: How Successful People Overcome Burnout.” “It’s a primitive defense against fearing that you’ll be overwhelmed.” But in a Valley itself once removed from a city, which, in turn, is 3,000 miles and three time zones from New York and the Pentagon, what else is there to do but get back to work? “I think deep inside this does bother everybody more deeply,” said Brian Poliquin, president of Poliquin Kellogg Design Group, a Woodland Hills architectural firm. “Work is a good thing to grab onto when something bugs you.” Everyone is back at work at Syncor International Corp., a provider of diagnostic and therapeutic imaging services based in Woodland Hills. But like most companies, the talk at the water cooler is no longer about the latest hot TV show. It’s about the war. A flag flies over the company’s Woodland Hills entrance. Managers have been urged to watch for signs of stress. “Do I know what’s going on in people’s heads?” asked Sheila Coop, vice president of human resources and communications. “No, but things are kind of calm. Everyone showed up this morning (following the first air strikes). We chatted a bit, and then went on with our business The last thing you want is for this to paralyze us. That’s the only true objective of terror.” Such thoughts are echoed by many executives. “For me personally, and for a lot of the people that work with us, it’s nice to have something to do to keep your mind off things,” said Daniela Meltzer, vice president, chief operating officer at CopterVision in Van Nuys. But try as they might to ignore it, things are different, some obvious, some insidious. “I think people are determined to get back to business, but I don’t think business is back to normal,” said Carlos E. Garcia, president of Garcia Research Associates Inc., a Burbank-based market research firm. CopterVision was anxiously awaiting the release of “Collateral Damage” to promote its newly developed camera system, Rollvision, which was used on the action film. But because of its subject matter, the film’s release has been postponed indefinitely. “There are shots there that you can’t get any other way, and that would have brought a lot of interest for us,” said Meltzer. Several companies have suspended all but the most critical travel, at least for the time being. A few are considering long-term changes, including the purchase of videoconferencing equipment. Little things too are askew. Like a Hitchcock movie, they hover furtively over the daily routine. Like the other day when phone service went dead throughout Newbury Park and workers’ first thoughts turned to terrorism. “You make associations,” said Josh Barinstein, president and creative director at Eclectic Multimedia, one of the companies affected. “Anything that means some kind of disruption, you think, how is it related?” Or a recent order received at Art Lewin & Co., a Woodland Hills firm that makes custom clothing, mostly for business executives. Lewin has a client, an attorney, who twice a year orders a single suit, the same order he has placed for years, until a few weeks ago. “This time he did one suit and a sport coat,” said Art Lewin. “He’s never done that in the six years I’ve known him.” Even temperaments seem different in the wake of Sept. 11. Take the phone conversation Garcia had recently. Like many small businesses, Garcia depends on receivables to keep cash flow moving, and the pace of bill-paying has slowed considerably in the wake of the attacks, in turn affecting the company’s own payables. When a supplier called to ask about a payment he was owed, the tone of the call, and his own response, caught Garcia by surprise. “I just said, ‘OK, I understand. We’re sitting around waiting for our clients to pay too,'” Garcia recalled. But instead of growing insistent, the supplier assured him that he’d continue to ship to the company anyway. “They just fell over themselves saying, we’re all in the same boat together. I don’t think I would have gotten that response before,” Garcia said. “Clients who would call and be all business are now asking, ‘How are you?’ I think people are more considerate, more aware that we do share this place together.” Academics, as well as those who deal with interpersonal relations within organizations, say such responses are normal. It’s the situation that isn’t. “We’re not in a normal, mundane everyday life right now,” said Jill Stein, a sociologist at UCLA. “We’ve had a kind of traumatic experience that has heightened a lot of feelings. They could be negative or positive.” Indeed, given the events of the past month and those to come, some argue that putting nose to the grindstone might be the best defense against those feelings.

Rexhall Cuts Work Force in Half Motor-home maker Rexhall Industries Inc. of Lancaster has laid off 200 employees in response to a slumping economy that has worsened following terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. The cuts total more than 50 percent of the company’s payroll. William J. Rex, the company’s chief executive officer, is also taking a 20-percent pay cut and the salaries of other officers were cut 10 percent. For the second quarter ended June 30, Rexhall reported net income of $132,000, or 4 cents a share, on revenues of $17.97 million compared with net income of $360,000, or 11 cents a share, on $14.9 million on revenue in the same period a year ago. DataDirect Gets $9.9 Million in Funding DataDirect Networks of Chatsworth has obtained $9.9 million in first round funding from ClearLight Partners LLC, Digital Coast Ventures and PART’COM. DataDirect Networks, which develops data storage technology for storage area networks, has been self-funded during its first 13 years of business. With a growing revenue stream from its Silicon Storage Appliance, the company decided to take in additional equity capital for further expansion of the sales team, marketing initiatives and customer service support. Homestore.com Expects Pro Forma Loss Homestore.com Inc., which offers online real estate listings, announced it expects to post a pro forma loss in the third quarter as revenue will come in below estimates. The Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have compounded an already deteriorating advertising market, and caused a loss of business due to the cancellation of sales visits to professional customers, the company said. Homestore.com said it now expects a pro forma loss, excluding nonrecurring items, of 1 cent to 6 cents on revenue of about $114 million to $118 million. On Sept. 6, the company reaffirmed guidance calling for a pro forma profit of 16 cents a share on revenue of $134 million. GenesisIntermedia Chief Exec Resigns GenesisIntermedia Inc. chief executive Ramy El-Batrawi has resigned since the announcement of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Nasdaq into trading of the telemarketing company’s shares by Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and others. The Van Nuys-based company also has fired 60 employees, or 15 percent of its 397 workers, since August. Nasdaq is probing trading in the company’s shares by Khashoggi’s Ultimate Holdings, an investment company based in Bermuda, and the SEC has launched a formal investigation. Ultimate controls 75 percent of GenesisIntermedia. Stephen A. Weber, a director, was named interim chief executive. Ground Broken on Library Expansion Construction has begun on the expansion of the West Valley Regional Branch Library. The branch at 19036 Vanowen St. will grow from 12,500 to 14,000 square feet and be outfitted with new computer technology. The branch will be closed for about a year during construction. To mitigate the effect of the construction on service, hours have been increased at branches in Studio City and Panorama City. ROAR Passes in Burbank Burbank voters have approved a measure to limit noise and growth at Burbank Airport, in the city’s first all mail-in election. With 19,092 voters casting ballots, Measure A passed with 58.3 percent of the total votes. Measure A would reduce jet noise, air pollution and traffic congestion by imposing an overnight curfew and capping the number of flights in and out of Burbank. The Burbank City Council may not approve construction or financing of “any new, rebuilt, relocated or expanded airport facility, under any conditions or due to any circumstances” unless a series of conditions are met. In addition to flight caps and a curfew, the conditions include a limit on the number of passengers annually, a new environmental impact report and an airport master plan.

It was not turning out to be a very good week for secessionists. The hired guns who’ve been working with our friends at the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) and Valley VOTE organizers spent four days doing damage control last week following the Oct. 5 release of the highly anticipated Draft Fiscal Analysis. The report, by nearly all accounts, appeared at first glance to blow a hole through secessionists’ plans for declaring genuine independence from Los Angeles. Oh, it supported the notion of a fiscally viable new Valley city all right, but a city that would likely continue to contract for nearly every asset it now has a stake in, with the exception of its city streets potholes and all. Every media outlet in Los Angeles that cares enough about secession to report on it all but rang the death knell for the cause in their subsequent coverage. City officials called the report confusing and said it did not offer enough information to warrant asking voters to take it seriously. Even secessionists called it disappointing and said revisions would have to follow. And then last Thursday, the whole darn cityhood thing went public. The very first official public hearing on secession was not a packed house. There were, by my count, about 240 people in the room at the meeting’s peak, including aides to Mayor James Hahn and Council President Alex Padilla, who were also in attendance briefly and we’ll return to them in a moment. And with the exception of a few “boos” for a certain anti-secessionist city councilwoman/LAFCO board member (you connect the dots), it was a relatively subdued bunch. They came to Los Angeles Valley College’s Monarch Hall for the first of six planned public meetings on the report with LAFCO board members at the helm. This was the first opportunity for the people who live in the Valley to express in three minutes or less their views on secession, the latest report and what should come next. And it was a beautiful opportunity for those city officials opposed to a breakup to hear first hand what residents here really think about the idea and what they would like to see offered as an alternative. But, unfortunately, civic protocol enticed LAFCO Executive Director Larry J. Calemine to take anti-secessionists Hahn and Padilla out of order and give them the first two spots at the podium, where both rattled off speeches about “taking the lazy way out” and destroying hopes and dreams. So, by about 8 p.m., when the first of 29 public speakers got their chance to unload, as far as I could see through my pizza high at the end of a long day, neither Padilla nor Hahn were anywhere to be found. Some would argue the two have busy schedules and perhaps anticipated only hearing more of the same: a breakup would give us more local control; better access to our city leaders; quicker response times from our city’s ambulance, police and fire units; and, yes, even better public swimming pools, which Padilla made reference to as a way of calling up memories of his childhood days in Pacoima. What they missed, however, was a very public display of tangible evidence that, despite its seemingly tame outreach efforts and reputation for being nothing more than a group of kooks with little political power, Valley VOTE is just getting started. Only one of the 9,000 members of the Service Employees Union Local 347 filled out a speaker card Thursday, which was surprising because, not only did the union provide the pizza and bottled water, they have been, to date, some of the most outspoken opponents of a Valley split. Outside, on a break, I met Sam Stevens, a Valley resident who has just launched “One Los Angeles,” an anti-secession group that she said will work to sway voters to join the “No” camp. Welcome to the Valley, Sam. “We always just kind of figured that this whole secession thing was nothing to really pay attention to,” said Stevens. “Now, we think it looks like the time has come.” In short, the bad week may have allowed Valley VOTE and pro-secessionists to turn a corner. Someone besides Jeff Brain and Richard Close, the group’s two key leaders, got a chance to voice their views in an open forum. And, had Hahn and Padilla stuck around, they would have heard something else too: An eloquently delivered three-minute speech that blew Padilla’s own remarks about his district not being in favor of secession and the issue not being a huge community concern right out of the water. Jose “Roy” Garcia is a resident of Padilla’s own northeast Valley district. “We want to hear more about this,” said Garcia, who said he would favor a breakup. “But nobody from the city has ever come to my door to explain it and the people need to be thinking about this. But if they don’t know about me, how are they going to know about the rest of us in Pacoima, Van Nuys, and Sylmar?” Good point Mr. Garcia. So is his final comment: “Don’t forget my name. It’s Jose “Roy” Garcia.” Staff reporter Jacqueline Fox can be reached at [email protected].

Accounting Eugene M. Brown was named an honorary member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The honorary member certificate is given to CPAs who have been members of the AICPA for 40 years. Brown is a partner in Good Swartz Brown & Berns LLP. Government Jeff Rubin was named Calabasas community services director. Rubin has been with the city of Calabasas since 1995, serving as a recreation specialist. Previously, he worked for the Los Angeles City Recreation and Parks Department for 12 years. Entertainment Heidi Geier has been named senior vice president of sales for Universal Studios Hollywood. Geier will be responsible for developing international and domestic sales strategies and will lead all telemarketing and online sales strategies. Previously, she served in key travel industry posts including Las Vegas-based Mirage Resorts and Merv Griffin’s Resort Hotel & Givenchy Spa in Palm Springs. Studio City-based Media Distributors has promoted Michael Butler to vice president, sales. He will oversee all of the sales efforts in the areas of film, videotape, audiotape and data media. Before joining Media Distributors, Butler was western regional sales manager for the Los Angeles-based VTP Inc. He has also been sales manager for SteadiSystems, based in Hollywood. Health Care Adam Singer was appointed chairman of the board for IPC-The Hospitalist Company effective immediately. Singer also will continue to serve as the company’s CEO. In addition, chief operating officer Jeff Taylor has assumed the position of president/COO and has been appointed to the IPC board of directors. Previously, Taylor served as executive vice president of Atlanta-based Mariner Post-Acute Network. Teresa Jones, D.O. was named regional medical director of IPC-The Hospitalist Company. In her new role, Jones will work closely with 100 IPC physicians practicing in Phoenix, Tucson, Denver and Houston. She will mentor new physicians and develop and support strategies that enhance clinical performance. She is currently overseeing staff at five Arizona hospitals including Arrowhead Community Hospital and Medical Center, Chandler Regional Hospital, Desert Samaritan Medical Center, Mesa Lutheran Hospital and Valley Lutheran Hospital. Louanne Kennedy, vice president and provost at Cal State Northridge, and Keith Weaver, chief of staff at the California State Analysis Division, have accepted nomination to the Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center Board of Governors. Insurance Eric Saudi was promoted to vice president for 21st Century Insurance. A 23-year veteran of the company, Saudi will assume the role of customer process leader with responsibility for the customer service call center’s staff of 700. Since joining 21st Century, Saudi has held increasingly responsible positions in claims management, managing a staff of over 900 people. Technology Thousand Oaks-based Rockwell Scientific Company LLC has appointed five individuals to serve on its board of directors. They are Don H. Davis, chairman and CEO of Rockwell Automation; Clay M. Jones, president and CEO of Rockwell Collins; Derek T. Cheung, Rockwell Scientific’s president and CEO; Paul J. Hoeper, former assistant secretary of the Army in charge of acquisition, logistics and technology; and Milton Chang, managing director of Incubic LLC. Scott Esterson was named professional audio sales manager for DTS, an entertainment technology company. In his new role, he will oversee sales of DTS hardware encoders and decoders as well as licensing of DTS technology to manufacturers of audio equipment. Esterson joins DTS from Tascom Inc., where he worked on post-production sales. Previously, he held a number of sales positions with a variety of professional audio companies including New West Audio, Lexicon Inc., Marshank Sales and Westlake Audio.

Just two weeks after the attacks on America, I boarded a plane from Los Angeles to the Bay Area for a quick business trip. The flight was blessedly uneventful. The added security checks weren’t a hardship. What made me nervous, however, was the somber mood and the uncomfortable quiet. In the waiting area, there was almost a respectful hush. Conversations were several decibels lower and cell phone users spoke in virtual whispers. The atmosphere was one of mild anxiety. Passengers deplaning the flight I was about to board seemed to lack enthusiasm for pursuing whatever lay ahead of them that day. I experienced more of the same while waiting for my return flight later that afternoon. I quickly began to consider these observations in terms of what I know best the business of marketing. Please don’t consider me cold for thinking about business so soon after the recent horrors. The events of Sept. 11 disturbed me deeply, and will probably do so for the rest of my life. But I believe that not getting back to business is tantamount to awarding the terrorists a victory. As President Calvin Coolidge said in 1925, “The business of America is business.” I have decided to support our country by doing whatever is required to get business and the economy back on track. And the best way for a marketer to accomplish this is to focus on building clients’ businesses during this sudden quiet time in the marketing continuum. Of course, the numbing effect of the attacks was compounded by the already faltering economy and the plummeting stock market. Americans have never been through this shock before. (Only Pearl Harbor comes close.) There’s no case study to guide us, no proven set of rules to show that sooner or later consumers are going to start consuming again. It’s up to marketing, advertising and communications professionals to use fresh thinking to overcome this unique challenge. Consumer confidence is in the toilet, but let’s not flush it away. That means we can’t simply hold on and pray for this thing to pass. Doing nothing will surely result in a rapid erosion of market share. However, doing business as usual is, in my opinion, a bit arrogant. Things may not be “as usual” for a long time to come. Americans are waiting for the other shoe to drop. What they need now is hope for the future and supportive marketing messages. Corporate flag-waving is OK as far as it goes, but reminding people about the tragedy will likely get them out of a buying mood. Additionally, patriotism and brand building are not necessarily compatible when it comes to motivating consumers. So what’s it going to take to get the marketing machinery moving? People want to feel good again! Indicating how your products and services will help them feel good is the most important concept to communicate. Brands that demonstrate that they understand the new feelings and attitudes of traumatized consumers, without reminding them of their fears, will build strong relationships with them. But wary consumers are not likely to buy unless they believe they have permission to buy. This could be the major stumbling block on the path to creating a decision to buy now. A purchase won’t result if fear and guilt aren’t overcome. Appealing to a sense of community, family and friends, coupled with an underlying promise of well-being, will go a long way toward encouraging consumers to visit a particular store or invite a given product into their homes. They’ve got to be made to feel comfortable, secure and free to buy. All of us in the marketing and communications industry have an opportunity to contribute to getting consumers onto the comeback trail. Those who do it with sensitivity and understanding will undoubtedly succeed for their clients and for the country. Those who don’t grasp the nuances of the changed consumer climate will miss the opportunity to help the economy recover its equilibrium and head in a positive direction once again. We must stop talking about how bad things are. This is simply a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s time to move forward and start making some noise on the Western front of marketing. Donald L. Potter is president and CEO of Potter, Katz, Postal and Ferguson Inc. of North Hollywood.

Neither Burbank Airport nor city officials are ready to make predictions on how deeply the Federal Aviation Administration intends to get involved in local land-use issues as part of a sweeping campaign to bolster security at the nation’s airports in light of the Sept. 11 attacks. But both sides say any hope of reviving stalled plans for terminal expansion has dimmed for the time being, with the city anticipating expanded federal involvement and the airport resigned to a fiscal and political “time-out.” Consider these developments since the attacks: – Some form of federalization of all airport security personnel is being considered. – Teetering on the edge of financial disaster, airlines are lobbying for a $15 billion government bailout. – Calls for Burbank and other regional airports to absorb Los Angeles International Airport’s overflow have accelerated as LAX tables its own expansion plans. – Burbank has shelved new terminal plans and postponed planned meetings of a newly formed tri-city coalition. – Burbank voters approved an initiative that strips the city of much of its bargaining power in future airport expansion plans. – And finally, Burbank’s newest airport commissioner has resigned, saying all plans for expansion might as well be scuttled and begun again from scratch. These developments threaten to cancel out years of negotiations, lobbying and costly litigation between the city of Burbank and the airport over a replacement terminal. Measure A, known as the ROAR Initiative (Restore Our Airport Rights), approved Oct. 9, requires that future airport expansion plans be approved by a two-thirds majority of Burbank voters and calls for caps on the number of flights, night-time curfews and limits on passengers. Critics say, if challenged, the measure could spur expanded FAA involvement in issues it has heretofore left to local municipalities, like possibly mandated terminal renovations in order to improve security and safety. “This is a time of great uncertainty,” said Burbank City Manager Robert “Bud” Ovrom. “Although I don’t think Burbank is high on the list of priorities for the federal government, I do think we have to be realistic about the distinct possibility. We’ve spent $10 million in the last five years on court victories, and we’ve won the court cases and put ourselves in strong negotiations with the FAA, but the ROAR vote could wipe all that out in one election. It’s going to show the federal government that the local government can’t work it out on their own.” ROAR initiative co-author Howard Rothenbach called Ovrom’s comments “pure political rhetoric.” He and airport officials agree the FAA is so heavily involved in security issues at the moment, it has little interest in Burbank’s terminal war. Burbank Airport Executive Director Dios Marrero said the airport has had no indication from the FAA that it intends to broaden the scope of its authority. “The notion of a federally mandated terminal project is not an approach that would be given federal priority when the industry is already verging on bankruptcy,” said Marrero. “In fact, I think the dynamics would go in the opposite direction.” But U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff, a Democrat whose 27th District includes Burbank, said the FAA certainly has the power to mandate construction of a new terminal if it is needed for security measures whether they are related to terrorist attacks or not. Schiff also downplayed any impact the ROAR vote might have on federal legislation dealing with regional airports and said he agreed that it was probably wise for the airport to hold off on terminal plans until the economy and the airline industry are on solid ground again. “I think it’s wise to take a step back from the acrimonious dispute involving the new terminal and give the country and the officials involved in that dispute some time to assess the future of the industry and what the FAA’s plans are for implementing further security measures,” Schiff said. Since the attacks, the Burbank Airport Authority has tabled planned talks with members of the Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena city councils, originally scheduled this summer to create more of an open dialogue. “You have to ask yourself, OK, what is the big hurry for this meeting?” said Victor Gill, airport spokesman. The impending demise of United Airline’s shuttle service at a number of airports the airline’s attempt to compete with Southwest Airline’s quick in-and-out service and pressure on regional airports to absorb traffic LAX was planning to take on in the next few years,also threaten to change the landscape of airport operations. As a result, it may be too soon to say whether the Burbank Airport’s 14 gates are too much, or not enough. “For now, the FAA’s focus is security, security, security,” said Gill. “And we just don’t know what future security measures are going to mean in terms of changes in airport operations.” Finally, Burbank Airport Commissioner Dave Newsham resigned last week saying he believed funding would be “difficult if not impossible to obtain” for a new terminal, adding that, in light of the attacks and new security measures, all future airport designs will need to be reevaluated. An agreement on the proposed new terminal was tabled earlier this year when the city demanded the airport update its environmental impact study. The airport later said it would seek to build on a smaller site, but is now holding off on those plans due to uncertainties in the marketplace. It also has sold 22 acres of B-6 property for $16.9 million to a Boston developer for non-airport-related industrial use.