Ever since buying a Studio City coffeehouse called Jennifer’s last September, Mario and Shelly-Ann Martin have been trying to boost business through a series of comedy shows and spoken-word nights. They’ve tried open-mike nights geared at musicians, storyteller nights, and they even brought in professional comedians fresh off national circuits. The real success, though, didn’t happen until they changed the age of their performers by a decade or three. Two months ago, Jennifer’s started a children’s comedy night to fill some dead time on Friday evenings before the weekly music show. The performers range in age from 4 to 16. And Valley audiences can’t seem to get enough of them. “We were expecting mostly parents,” said Shelly-Ann Martin. “But it’s become bigger than we thought.” To the Martins’ surprise, the show, which runs every other Friday from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., has filled the coffeehouse to its capacity of 45 people, some nights standing room only. The audience is usually a mix of parents, their friends and people who just like to see kids telling jokes. And the kids do make the crowd laugh, putting on adult-like performances with a child’s take on life. “One 7-year-old girl last week went up and said, ‘I don’t understand boys. They’re different,’ said Shelly-Ann Martin. “Some of them are funnier than the professionals.” The kids’ comedy nights were the idea of Toni Attell, an acting teacher who had been putting on a similar show at a nearby coffeehouse, The Kindness of Strangers. That establishment closed earlier this year, so Attell asked Mario Martin if he’d allow the show to go on at Jennifer’s. Attell had been holding the nights at Kindness on Wednesdays but never really drew a crowd, or many kid performers. “A lot of kids couldn’t come because it was a school night,” Attell said. She brought a group of five children enrolled in her acting class to Jennifer’s for their first show in April. Soon, some friends and siblings of the core comedians decided they wanted in on the action. Now, a typical night attracts between seven and 15 budding comedians. The kids prepare their own material, though some get help from parents. Attell preps them before the show, peppering them with tips on stage presence and helping shape some of their material. The show starts out with some group improvisation, then each kid is given two to three minutes of solo time to make the audience laugh. “(Last week), an 11-year-old boy was asked to do improv as a woman with PMS,” Shelly-Ann Martin said. “Obviously, his mother goes through it, because he was perfect.” While the occasional performer suffers stage fright and refuses to go on, most, with the encouragement of Attell and the others, make it through their acts. “The moment they get up and they get claps and admiration, it makes them feel really cool,” Attell said. While they applaud the comedy night’s jolt to the kids’ self-esteem, the Martins are also happy about the way the show has jolted sales. “They’ve all done very well for our business, and it’s introduced the place to people who would never hear of it otherwise,” Mario Martin said. “People start to dribble in from the night before.” Until January, the coffeehouse, which has been at its location on Moorpark and Tujunga avenues for 15 years, was only open in the mornings and afternoons. But Mario Martin, a musician, decided he wanted Jennifer’s to be a place where entertainers could hang out and try new stuff. “We had a lot of people who said, ‘Don’t open at night, it’s a waste of time,'” Mario Martin said. He went forward anyway. So far, it has been difficult to find musicians willing to play during the Friday music nights, though between 20 and 25 would-be comedians typically show up for the Thursday comedy nights. None of the performers are paid in fact, they actually have to pay the house by buying at least two drinks if they want to perform. Both the music and comedy nights have struggled to find an audience beyond the performers. While the shows are all free for the audience, the Martins make money selling mochas, cappuccinos other coffee drinks. The nightly shows have yet to be a financial success, but Martin said they are no longer a money loser at least enough people are now buying drinks to pay the extra expense of keeping the shop open at night. With a dozen or so coffee establishments in their immediate area, from Starbucks to other mom-and-pops, the Martins’ weren’t alone in offering coffee or comedy until they struck upon the kids. “It is quite a bit different,” said Mario Martin. “Those nights are great. The kids come with their parents and sisters and friends.” And most important, they buy coffee.

The legislative outlook for California businesses at mid-session following the June 2 deadline for bills to pass their house of origin is looking much sunnier than the outlook of a year ago. Far fewer anti-business bills are on the table, and a number of pro-business bills are still alive, including several tax credit and infrastructure spending packages being pushed by business interests. It’s a stark contrast to last year, when California companies were facing dozens of bills that threatened to raise the cost of doing business, only to be saved by vetoes from Gov. Gray Davis. What’s changed, of course, is that legislators have realized that Davis intends to stick to his centrist path, which is effectively holding the more liberal, anti-business tendencies of the Democrat-controlled Legislature in check. “The governor doesn’t want a whole slew of anti-business bills; he showed this last year and again earlier this year with his veto pen,” said Tony Quinn, a Republican political analyst in Sacramento. “The legislators now understand he’s not going to sign these bills, so they are not introducing them or are stopping them on their own in committee.” As of the June 2 deadline for bills to pass their house of origin, less than a dozen major anti-business bills had made it through. What’s more, the $12.3 billion state budget surplus is making it easier for Davis and legislators to hand out goodies to businesses, like tax credits, and to push for long-delayed infrastructure projects. As a result, business lobbyists are more optimistic than they have been in years about getting tax breaks approved, including a hike in the manufacturer’s research and development tax credit. “The budget surplus is helping us a lot,” said Gavin McHugh, senior vice president of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association. Nonetheless, business lobbyists are still concerned about some of the anti-business bills that have made it through, particularly a proposed $2.7 billion hike in workers’ compensation benefits and a $700 million unemployment insurance tax increase. Coming in a year when businesses across the state have seen an average 20 percent increase in their workers’ comp insurance premiums, the 15 percent benefit increase proposed in SB 996 by Sen. Patrick Johnston, D-Stockton, could hit the bottom lines of businesses very hard. The bill, if passed, would increase the amount of money that businesses would be required to pay injured workers. Labor and trial lawyer lobbies are vigorously pushing for the bill. “It’s moved along nicely so far and we think it’s going to pass,” said Tom Rankin, president of the California Labor Federation. But Gov. Davis vetoed a similar bill last year that called for $2 billion in benefit increases. In his veto message, Davis said the amount of the benefit increase was too large. SB 996 is now in a joint Assembly-Senate conference committee, where labor, business, trial lawyer and insurance interests are trying to hammer out a compromise. Observers believe a smaller increase this year might win Davis’ approval, especially if it were to be coupled with some cost-saving reforms. Employer groups are also concerned about a bill that would expand the scope of the Family and Medical Leave Act. SB 1149, by Senate Insurance Committee chair Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, would make the existing law apply to businesses with 20 or more employees, instead of the current threshold of 50 workers. “This is a big threat hanging out there,” said Fred Main, senior vice president of the California Chamber of Commerce. “It could really hit thousands of small businesses that can’t afford to have people out on long leaves. Such decisions are best left to be handled on a case-by-case basis.” Businesses already have dodged one bullet when it comes to family leaves. Earlier this year Davis vetoed a bill by Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Santa Monica, that would have expanded the scope of the Family and Medical Leave Act to allow workers time off to care for people outside their immediate families. Tax breaks on the table On the other side of the ledger, California businesses appear likely to get two major tax credits they have long pushed for; both are included in Davis’ latest budget proposal. One is an increase in the allowance for “net operating loss carry-forwards,” in which companies can reduce their taxable income by deducting operating losses suffered in previous years. AB 1774, by Assemblyman Ted Lempert, D-Palo Alto, would increase the net operating loss carry forward from the current 50 percent to 65 percent, starting in 2004. The other tax credit measure calls for an increase in manufacturers’ research and development allowance from the current 12 percent of total R & D; costs for new products to 15 percent. “Both of these bills are very important to high-tech companies, which often have high start-up and development costs,” said McHugh of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association. “We’ve been trying for years to get them through and we think that with the budget surplus, this might just be the year.” Billions for transportation In his budget proposal, Davis set aside $5 billion in one-time funds for major transportation projects throughout the state. But some Democratic legislators have been pushing for more transportation spending. A compromise bill, SB 315, by state Sen. John Burton, D-San Francisco, is now in a joint Assembly-Senate conference committee. “We think the governor’s proposal is a very good start, and we are fully on board,” said the California Chamber’s Fred Main. “But we have a $90 billion problem that needs a more long-term solution. And that is what we’re grappling with now in conference committee.” Business interests are also pushing for a 10-bill housing package designed to ease environmental and legal restrictions on building new housing projects. Their main argument turns on the critical shortage of affordable housing in the state. A key target of these bills is the California Environmental Quality Act, which allows project opponents to sue on environmental grounds to stop or slow housing projects. However, environmental activists are putting up stiff opposition to these new measures. “We are extremely concerned about business and builders’ efforts to ‘streamline’ CEQA,” said Sandra Spelliscy, general counsel for the Planning and Conservation League, a Sacramento-based environmental lobbying group. “What these business interests really want to do is get rid of CEQA altogether, and we’re not about to let that happen.” As of the June 2 deadline, four of the 10 bills in the package had passed their respective houses and were awaiting committee hearings in the opposite chamber.

When the Democrats come to town in two months for their national convention, much of the public attention is going to be focused on Staples Center and a handful of public events in the downtown area. But the real action is going to take place at hundreds of lavish private parties all across L.A., from studio backlots to tony Westside restaurants and even private mansions. That’s where the Hollywood elite and powerful business executives will gather to rub elbows with prominent Democrats and other VIPs from around the country, to make powerful new friends, strengthen political allegiances, and lay the foundation for future deals. “This is going to be one giant schmoozefest, the biggest thing this town has seen in many years,” said Hal Dash, president of Cerrell Associates, a prominent local lobbying and campaign firm that has long had ties to political conventions. “Every national political convention has this schmooze element, but L.A. is going to be in a league by itself because of the Hollywood connection.” The convention runs from Monday, Aug. 14 through Thursday, Aug. 17, but the partying begins with a huge official media party on the preceding Saturday night, Aug. 12, at the L.A. Department of Water & Power plaza in downtown L.A. That will be followed by 30 official delegation parties at hotels around the county on Sunday the eve of the convention. Those affairs will play a large part in the way L.A.’s image is projected around the world. But it’s the private parties that are causing the biggest buzz. They include: – A fund-raising and voter canvassing bash for the Hispanic Unity Caucus at the Playboy Mansion; – A party on the Hollywood backlot of Paramount Pictures hosted by California Gov. Gray Davis, dubbed “A Taste of California;” – Another Paramount backlot party, this one hosted by Louisiana Sen. John Breaux, which will be held on a set patterned after Bourbon Street in New Orleans; – A party at the Petersen Automotive Museum hosted by Chrysler Corp.; – A Sony Corp.-sponsored luncheon at downtown’s Union Station for Democratic governors; – A giant block party on Canon Drive in Beverly Hills planned and produced by Wolfgang Puck’s Spago for Missouri Democrat Richard Gephardt, the House minority leader, and other members of the Democratic Congressional Caucus that he chairs. For the visiting Democrats, these parties will present the mother lode of fund-raising opportunities, since Los Angeles has traditionally been second in total political contributions to the Democratic Party behind New York City. And for the studio bosses, business execs and celebrities throwing or hosting the parties, it’s a chance to influence the national political power structure. Boon to L.A. economy What’s more, tens of millions of dollars will be poured into the pockets of local caterers, party planners, restaurants, valet services and other local businesses. The cost to put on one of these parties can range from $20,000 to more than $200,000, depending on the size of the event and the number of guests. “You will see a tremendous amount of money pumped into the economy from these parties, more even than for a Super Bowl, which lasts only one day,” Dash said. Indeed, fully $5 million is being spent by L.A. Convention 2000, the private-sector host committee for the convention, on special events, chiefly the official delegation parties and the huge bash being put on for the media. The media party will include high-profile entertainment and a showcase of photos of L.A. taken by children, according to L.A. Convention 2000 spokesman Ben Austin. “The media party is going to be of immense importance because the media itself is the audience,” said Michael Collins, executive vice president of the L.A. Convention & Visitors Bureau. “It will be one of the defining moments in setting up the image of L.A. that will be conveyed to the rest of the world.” But it’s the private, “invitation only” events that will be the most glamorous. During Chicago’s 1996 Democratic National Convention, there were several hundred such private parties, and just as many, if not more, are expected here. “This is where the real convention is going to be, not the staged television show at the Staples Center,” said one local political observer. “This is where the deals are going to be made and the contacts established.” One party that has already stirred up quite a bit of buzz is the Hispanic Unity Foundation soiree at the Playboy Mansion. The foundation, which is chaired by U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Garden Grove, is designed to promote voter registration in the Latino community. But the foundation’s choice of the Playboy Mansion, where centerfold bunnies often gather for parties, has already caused controversy for Sanchez, including a series of pointed attacks from the Republican National Committee. Playboy executives downplay the controversy. “We are a major supporter of Loretta Sanchez,” said Playboy Enterprises Executive Vice President Richard Rosenzweig. “She is a rising star in Congress and stands for many of the same things we do.” Clinton on guest lists Party planners around town are already swamped with requests for convention-related events. “It’s huge,” said Barbara Brass, head of Wolfgang Puck’s special events division. “Right now, we’ve got about a dozen parties (booked) in the restaurant (Spago) and about the same amount outside the restaurant (that we are planning and catering).” Meanwhile another prominent party planner, Along Came Mary, is working on setting up at least 20 convention-related parties. And Merv Griffin Productions, which has produced many Oscar night parties and celebrations, is working on several events, including the city’s official welcoming ceremony and the parties at the Paramount backlot. Planning for many of the splashiest parties is still in the works. Longtime Hollywood activists like Barbra Streisand and Rob Reiner are said to be among those who may host celebrations. (Streisand, of course, has hosted fund-raisers for President Clinton on a number of occasions.) While it’s the entertainment-related parties that promise to capture most of the headlines, other industries are going to do their share of partying as well. “I would expect a fair number of banking industry and energy industry types throwing parties here,” said Cerrell’s Dash. “And don’t forget the high-tech industry and the dot-coms who are now looking at the possibility of government regulations down the line.” The man of the hour, presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Vice President Al Gore, may make the rounds at some of the parties, although political observers say he’ll likely be tied up at his L.A. Convention headquarters much of the time, working on his acceptance speech. But President Clinton is expected to attend many of the soirees, primarily to raise funds. “This will be his swan song,” Dash pointed out.

Orange County Business Journal If the recent VentureNet 2000 investor conference in Laguna Niguel is any indication, it could be a long summer for local technology companies in search of funding. “A lot of them are trying to find money to ride out the summer,” said Mike Harris, an organizer of VentureNet, an annual forum hosted by the Southern California Software Council. “You do what you can to get by the summer and hope the IPO spigot is back on by time you need more. It’s kind of like a submarine that goes underwater as the storm passes overhead.” Organizers said the feeling among the 400 or so attendees, while short of panic, lacked the exuberance of the past few years. As investors once ravenous for the newest dot-com stock offerings suddenly lose their appetite for unproven business models, companies that had planned to raise money through IPOs are scrambling for more venture capital instead. Trouble is, many venture capitalists aren’t biting either. Many entrepreneurs at VentureNet said the funding process is taking longer than it did before, largely because investors are being choosier. Disagreement about how much young tech companies are worth is another sticking point. The first casualty may be the notion that a good idea and a little elbow grease are enough to create the next big thing on the Internet. In trying market conditions, financiers are looking more to fundamentals. “We’re seeing a lot of good companies having trouble because their management team is green,” said Christine Comaford, a partner with Artemis Ventures LLC, a Sausalito-based venture fund, who spoke at VentureNet. She and several other venture capitalists said companies that specialize in Internet infrastructure the not-so-sexy nuts and bolts hardware of the global network will continue to garner interest. So might any company that has a practical, money-generating solution for corporate inefficiencies, they said. Frank Creer, managing director of Los Angeles-based Zone Ventures, had an equally sanguine outlook. “It’s a fantastic time to invest,” he said. “Valuations are down, and people need cash.” Venture capitalists might be holding back now to see how the market plays out, he said, but they’ve got plenty of money and they have to invest it somewhere. While just months ago tech companies could take their pick of venture capital backers, the scales appear to have tipped back in investors’ favor.

Robinsons-May chairman robert m. soroka found himself THROWN UNWILLINGLY INTO POLITICS when the LAUSD threatened to seize his hEADQUARTERS One day last September, Robert M. Soroka picked up his daily newspaper and learned that the Los Angeles Unified School District had designated the North Hollywood headquarters of Robinsons-May the company Soroka heads for possible acquisition as a new school site. Desperate to find locations for about 100 new schools by June 30, or lose $1.5 billion in state funding, the school district had latched onto Robinsons-May because of its ample space and location close to communities projected to experience severe school overcrowding. The chairman of Robinsons-May, a 56-store division of May Co. headquartered on a 24-acre parcel along with one of its stores, could not have been more surprised or less equipped for the political arena into which he was thrust. His career had been devoted solely to retailing since high school, when he got his first job as a part-time television and appliances salesman in a May Co. store in Akron, Ohio. Soroka had little exposure to, or understanding of, the L.A. school district bureaucracy and the officials who run it. Nonetheless, he was determined to launch a counter-offensive in an effort to dissuade the LAUSD from taking his headquarters property. Within weeks, Soroka engaged public relations firm Marathon Communications to help get out the company’s message; real estate brokerage Charles Dunn & Co. to locate alternative sites for schools; and demographic consultants Hamilton, Rabinovitz & Alschule Inc. to analyze the projected population growth and pinpoint areas with the greatest need for new schools. By mid-November, Robinsons-May had presented its report to the school board with the findings from its effort. Since then, Soroka has waited for a determination from the LAUSD. Question: Where does the situation stand now with LAUSD? Answer: In our (most recent) communication with members of the facilities committee, they told us our location has been put on the table so they can understand it, along with alternate sites. I think they understand that the needs they have are for sites farther to the north, and that there are sites that are more economically feasible for them. (But the school board has not announced any resolution.) Q: What problems would you face if the LAUSD were to decide in favor of acquiring your property? A: This location houses 1,750 corporate associates who are instrumental in running 56 stores and responsible for $2.2 billion of merchandise a year. Some people view it only as a disruption for the (on-site) retail store, but it is really a disruption to 56 store locations. To try to identify another site where we feel we would be successful would be very difficult to accomplish. The biggest reason is, we get an average of 300 vendors that visit us every month and we can work with them on the selling floor on how to best present the merchandise. Q: What would it take to relocate? A: We have not considered relocation, and we would fight eminent domain to the limit. Q: What did you do when you first learned that the school board was considering acquiring the Robinsons-May property? A: From day one, we felt we needed to work very hard to establish a way for us to get off the district’s list. The day I read about their interest in our site, I scheduled a meeting with (LAUSD Chief Executive) Howard Miller. In that meeting Howard said, “If you find me another site, we’ll leave your property alone.” From that day forward, we have focused 100 percent of our effort on finding another site. Q: What else have you done? A: I’ve met with six of the seven school board members and presented alternate sites. I had several meetings with some of them. I invited Howard Miller and (board member) Caprice Young and took them through the alternate sites we’d developed. When the activity first started in September, I was meeting with people from the Economic Alliance (of the San Fernando Valley), the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (and others). I was trying to find the right way to help us communicate better. All the communication was initiated by us, so I used the methods available to me, which were these alliances and neighborhood groups. Q: How has this process differed from other negotiations that you typically engage in as a business executive? A: I was chairman of the California Retail Association, so I’ve had the opportunity to be very close to other retailers that operate in this region and work with a number of state representatives in order to support retail development in the state of California. (In most negotiations) I have found an open-door policy where I was invited to be part of whatever discussions they were having. (With the LAUSD) there have been no negotiations. They had basically made a decision on what they wanted to do. The process since then was how they could make that happen without discussion with us. Q: How much time have you had to spend on this issue and how has that affected you? A: When the activity started in September, I was spending an enormous amount of time on it. I would say I was spending about a third of my time. I think the thing that’s important to mention also is that, as you could probably imagine, the Christmas season is the most profitable and most valuable season for retailers and preparation for that season occurs during that September and October period. For me to have to take my time during that period was a major disruption to the business. Q: How have your employees reacted to the situation and how have you handled it? A: To me, that’s one of the most frustrating aspects of the lack of communication from the LAUSD. We get a lot of inquiries from our associates because they read in the newspaper about the desire of the LAUSD to take the site, and it’s difficult for me to get them an answer. They’ve invested a lot of time (working for the company), and they’re concerned about what would happen. Q: What have you learned from this process? A: Certainly, I’m not a politician and Robinsons-May is not a political organization, but I think the thing I’ve learned the most is the importance of developing relationships with the business community and the neighborhood in order to help me and this organization get its message out to the district officials and the public. I’ve met some really terrific people as a result of this activity, particularly the (people at) the Economic Alliance. Valley College has been very supportive because of the number of jobs that this location offers their students. Chances are (I would) never have the opportunity to meet with those people. I think I’ve gained some valuable experience as a result of this activity. It has been an eye-opener to me about the value of forming these alliances at a local level, as well as the state level.

Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. was trading at more than $100 a share in early March. Then the bottom dropped out from under tech stocks, and the Camarillo chipmaker saw the value of its shares decline 50 percent in a matter of days. Were employees worried? Not according to co-founder Ira Deyhimy. After all, sales have grown by an average of 52 percent per year for the last five years, while earnings per share have increased by an average of 88 percent annually during the same period. If history is any indication, the company’s stock should climb back out of the hole. “We’re pretty sanguine about the volatility of our stock,” said Deyhimy, who oversees strategic planning. “It’s part and parcel of our industry.” Vitesse, which is French for speed, was founded in 1984 after Deyhimy and Louis Tomasetta, the company’s chief executive, left a Rockwell International Corp. research lab in Thousand Oaks to start their own company. The duo had helped develop semiconductor chips made of gallium arsenide, but Rockwell wasn’t interesting in pursuing commercial applications. The tiny integrated circuits are touchier to work with, but they are two to four times faster than standard silicon chips. That made them ideal, it turns out, for high-speed communication and networking equipment. “In the ’80s, what drove the electronics industry was the PC. That led to thousands of startups,” said Deyhimy. “Today, communications is what’s driving the electronics industry, and I think it’s going to be driving it for the next 20 years.” Vitesse sells its products to a blue-chip roster of telecom and networking companies, including Lucent Technologies Inc., Alcatel Alsthom, Cisco Systems, LM Ericsson and IBM. Because of exploding growth in the industry, its customers can’t get enough circuits. “I think Vitesse is in a very exciting market,” said Arun Veerappen, an analyst with Robertson Stephens. “Their key markets are growing by a minimum of 30 percent to 100 percent a year. The market in more ways than one doesn’t have the suppliers it needs. What the company’s chip sets do is allow telecom or network providers to take millions of bits of data and jam pack them together for transport on fiber-optic lines. When the information gets to the other end, Vitesse’s chips help unpack the data for distribution to telephones, cell phones, cable television, and other systems. As information carriers try to pack more and more data onto finite fiber-optic systems, demand for Vitesse’s products is expected to accelerate. That rosy outlook may not be apparent from the financial results for the fiscal second quarter ended March 31. Vitesse reported a net loss of $18.6 million (12 cents a share), compared to net income of $15.5 million (9 cents) in the like year-earlier quarter. But that loss resulted from a one-time charge of $45.6 million related to its March acquisition of Orologic Inc., a company that also makes chip sets that handle data. Vitesse paid about $490 million for the company as part of a stock swap. Excluding that charge, Vitesse generated net income of $27.0 million (16 cents per share) in the period. Revenues were $189.4 million vs. $127.6 million in the year-earlier quarter. Orologic isn’t the only recent acquisition. In April, Vitesse paid $750 million to acquire Sitera Inc., which makes hardware and software to speed up network processing and traffic online. Deyhimy said the acquisitions are part of the company’s strategy to “morph” into a bigger player. Instead of being strictly a chipmaker, Vitesse is changing its focus to provide entire hardware and software solutions for moving data. “We’re growing in the communications space greater than 60 percent a year, but we can’t sustain that growth several years from now unless we move up the food chain,” said Deyhimy. Vitesse was trading at $2 a split-adjusted share in January 1995. Since the March downturn, the stock has already bounced back from a low of $50 to around $74 a share as of last week. Veerappen sees the company continuing to increase sales by 30 to 50 percent per year into the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, he likes the hands-on approach that Tomasetta takes in running the company. “Once I went to visit him, and I was taken upstairs to the portion of the office he occupies,” said Veerappen. “He emerged wearing a lab coat because he had been out on the floor running some tests.” For those and other reasons, Veerappen sees Vitesse as a “buy,” especially now that the market has taken the stock down a few pegs.

No Historic Status for Apartments The city Cultural Heritage Commission was unable to reach a conclusion on a bid to designate the Chase Knolls Apartments in Sherman Oaks as a historic cultural monument. The issue will now go before the L.A. City Council without a recommendation. The panel listened to two hours of public testimony before voting 2 to 1 to support the historic designation. Because two of the panel members were absent, the committee did not get the three votes it needed for a recommendation to the council. If the structure were deemed a monument, developer Legacy Partners would be blocked, at least temporarily, from demolishing the building and replacing it with luxury apartments. Tenants in the mostly rent-controlled complex have fought the proposal, saying the 1940s-era structure is a historically significant building. Councilman Mike Feuer sponsored the designation application and told the commission that the 260 apartments built in 1949 are part of the Garden City movement of design, which provided working-class families with affordable housing surrounding large courtyards of green lawns and trees. Redevelopment Panel Disbands Members of a Northeast Valley redevelopment advisory panel voted 12-4 to disband, saying they were hopelessly deadlocked. After the vote, a fistfight broke out at the hearing and police had to handcuff three audience speakers. No one was arrested. Critics and members of the city Project Advisory Committee said the group has been unable to make progress on redevelopment plans in the Northeast Valley for the six months it has been in existence. Some argued that the panel is powerless in the redevelopment process because Councilman Alex Padilla proposed barring the group from using eminent domain power to evict property owners in redevelopment zones. Some critics are questioning whether Padilla purposely sought to disband the panel so he could appoint a more agreeable group. With the current committee gone, Padilla has the authority to appoint replacements. The City Council must still approve the panel’s vote to disband. The Price of Secession The Los Angeles City Council approved a legal finding that new cities formed by the secession of the San Fernando Valley or Harbor areas might have to make payments to Los Angeles as the price of breaking away. The city voted 10-4 to give the City Attorney’s Office permission to submit the opinion to the Local Agency Formation Committee, the agency setting the rules for a potential city breakup. Council members who opposed the measure said it would force residents of areas seceding from Los Angeles to pay for services that they don’t receive. But members who approved the decision said it simply upholds a principle under state law that a section of a city or county cannot break off without compensating residents of what’s left behind for any losses. LAFCO will review the city’s opinion as it studies secession. The agency can put a secession proposal before voters only if it concludes that it wouldn’t harm residents in either jurisdiction. Judge Halts Newhall Ranch A Kern County judge blocked development of the giant Newhall Ranch project until developer Newhall Land and Farming Co. addresses concerns about the project having an adequate water supply. Newhall Ranch is the largest residential development ever proposed in L.A. County, with 21,615 homes planned for the Santa Clarita area along the Ventura County border. Ventura County, the Sierra Club and others have filed a number of lawsuits against L.A. County’s approval of the development, asserting that traffic and environmental impacts would be excessive, and the project’s water supply would be insufficient. The judge ruled that Newhall Land’s environmental impact report didn’t adequately address water issues and that the development could negatively impact the Santa Clara River. The judge also ruled that the EIR did not adequately address the potential traffic impacts on Ventura County roadways. Newhall Land officials said the company will take about a year to address the issues and it would push development back to 2003. Shortly after the ruling, Newhall Land officials announced they had discovered the San Fernando Valley Spineflower, thought to be extinct, and an endangered toad on the project site, which could also push back the project’s timetable.

State Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush has come under intense scrutiny over the last month, as the state Legislature investigates allegations that he used taxpayer money from an insurance-industry quake fund for his own political purposes. With talk now turning to possible impeachment, The Business Journal asks: Do you think Quackenbush should resign? Jack McGrath Owner GM Communications Absolutely yes. I’ve never seen a public official abuse his authority more than him. If he doesn’t resign, I think he should be impeached. I’ve worked in politics and I’ve never seen anything more outrageous than this guy. The sooner (he resigns), the better. David Adelstein Adel Music No, I don’t think that’s the answer. I think you have a person in place, and rather than have him resign and put someone else in who has to start new and will be at a loss over what’s going on for awhile, he should stay. The best thing to do is have Quackenbush do what we really want him to do. It seems to me the problem will be solved in the next election he likely won’t be reelected. I think he’s a knowledgeable kind of guy. What he’s done is questionable. I would like to see him go after insurance companies more. But the bottom line is, he’s not a bad guy, and for a long time before this everybody was satisfied with his job. Joe Hooven President Best Window Treatment I don’t know. There are so many people who say he’s a good guy, and he’s done some neat things. But there’s also those people who say the complete opposite. I think it’s important that all the facts be learned about this case and there be open and honest hearings about what happened. There are two sides to every story. I’d hate to see a public official be scrutinized unfairly. Martha Diaz Aszkenazy Owner Pueblo Contracting Services Inc. That’s a tough one. As a knee-jerk reaction, I’d say he should resign and save the taxpayers additional money. That’s a gut reaction, though. And unfortunately, as grievous as his actions seem to be, I don’t know the whole story. It doesn’t look good. If the allegations turn out to be true, then he should resign. Walter Prince Porter Ranch Is Developed Enough I think Quackenbush should resign as fast as he can. He’s typical of why people are mad at the system, and he got caught. Am I mad? No. I’m disgusted. I’m one of those guys still battling the insurance company. I don’t have anything personally against Quackenbush. I just think he shouldn’t have done what he did. Hank Yuloff Promotionally Minded The funny answer is, he should stay and fight it out as long as he can because it makes the Democrats look better all the time. But the truthful answer is, I think he ought to quit before he’s impeached. I’m absolutely mad about this. He ripped off the public and that’s not what public officials are supposed to do. Flip Smith Owner Flip’s Tire Center I think they should impeach him. He should resign. Everybody in the Valley got affected by the earthquake. It cost me $60,000 on my house. I had no insurance. Insurance is a tremendous burden.

The most common New Year’s Resolution that people make is to lose weight. And while not everyone sticks to their resolutions, it is certain that many thousands of diets are launched each January as a result of repenting for unwanted holiday pounds. This can be a good thing and perhaps even the start of a healthier way of living for many but only if the diets people undergo are safe. Unfortunately, sensible diet and exercise plans seem to be losing in the popularity contest against “fad diets.” It seems that just about everyone has tried or knows someone that has tried one of the various weight loss plans outlined in popular books regularly cluttering the “best-seller” lists. Many times, these diets take a black and white approach throwing aside the notion of balanced diet and urging readers to eliminate crucial elements of their diets altogether, such as carbohydrates, sugar or protein. Warnings abound that many of these diets are unwise. But many people dismiss these cautions because they know someone who’s dropped significant weight, quickly, while on a fad diet. Inter Valley Health Plan, a non-profit health maintenance organization that routinely stresses health education, offers sound advice on how to lose weight and maintain the loss. Inter Valley’s wellness experts report that weight control is a particularly difficult issue because society is set up in a way that makes it easy to gain weight. We have very efficient transport systems, such as cars and elevators, and pastimes that promote inactivity, such as computers and TV. Also, high-calorie foods are widely available, and fatty foods taste good. To do something about it, you have to go against the grain. Applying the “eat-less-exercise-more” prescription is much more complicated than it seems. That’s one of the reasons why there are so many treatments promoting easy weight loss. People want an easy fix. It’s human nature. But sadly, these “easy fixes” often cause more harm than good depriving the body of essential nutrients. One problem with fad dieting is lack of research in most of the diet books out there. Inter valley also warns consumers to be skeptical regarding the way many fad diet books make or imply promises about weight loss , that it’s easy, that you can still eat all your favorite foods and lose weight. The promise of a quick fix is a problem, as is the misinterpretation of known biochemistry and physiology. Fad diets may help bring about some weight loss, but despite what the books say, it’s usually due to eating fewer calories and not anything magical about the diet. For example, diets which limit carbohydrates on the theory that they promote insulin production, which leads to weight gain recommended about 850 calories a day. Anyone who eats 850 calories is going to lose weight whether they’re avoiding carbohydrates or not. Creating an “unbalanced” diet is the least healthy way to achieve weight loss goals. It should be mentioned that not every aspect of fad diets is bad. For instance, Sugar Busters! recommends decreasing sugar intake. Inter Valley doesn’t argue with that because many high-sugar foods are high in calories and low in nutrients. However, cutting back on sugar is only one aspect of a healthy diet. In general, with fad diets, the negatives outweigh the positives. There are two main reasons for losing weight, both of which are valid: to improve your health and for cosmetic reasons. You can lose weight on different diets, but the approach may not be healthy in the long run. Diets shouldn’t go against what we know about improving long-term health. Many fad diets advise reducing carbohydrate intake, and they include very few grains, fruits and vegetables. There’s a tremendous amount of evidence that increasing grains, fruits and vegetables is good for health and for prevention of diseases like cancer. On fad diets, even if you lose weight, you may not improve your long-term health. Often, traditional recommendations for weight management may seem old and kind of boring, but those recommendations lead to many other health benefits. A less serious problem is the lack of long-term results. Most people can’t stick with these diets, and they end up back where they started. The vast majority go off the diet and gain their weight back rapidly. Once someone loses weight by eliminating a component of a balanced diet, it is far easier to put the weight back on compared to a person who cuts calories in a healthy way retaining a balanced diet and exercising. Inter Valley recognizes that trying to lose weight is more difficult for some people than for others, and recommends different tactics for different kinds of people. Most individuals underestimate the number of calories they eat by about 20 percent , more if they’re very overweight. On the other hand, they overestimate their physical activity. It’s not intentional, it’s just that we’re not good judges. Inter Valley recommends an individualized approach. For instance, a person may have physical problems that prevent him or her from doing much activity, so we have to look more at diet. Others think they have to overdo vigorous exercise. Instead, Inter Valley encourages them to look for ways to increase their daily activity, such as parking farther away when they go to the store. Individuals are encouraged to approach weight loss in a positive manner, looking at it as an opportunity to do something that can be enjoyable. Inter Valley suggests focusing on the process instead of the end result. People want to lose weight quickly, and they focus on the number on the scale. They need to focus on making lasting lifestyle changes. The pounds will come off as a result. Whatever changes people make, they need to be comfortable enough with them to make them permanent. If they feel restricted by something, they shouldn’t do it. Support can play a key role. Group support provided by personal trainers, and programs like Weight Watchers can help. The key is changing people’s attitudes. Finally, changing food choices to include foods that not only lead to fewer calories but also are healthy and tasty is important. There’s a tremendous amount of wonderful food that can be truly enjoyable. We underestimate our ability for our tastes to change. Surely such subtle lifestyle shifts can be less world changing than engaging in fad dieting and certainly healthier!! Information for this article was provided by Inter Valley Health Plan, a federally qualified, non-profit Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) which has served Southern California for twenty years.

Only a year ago, officials at WMC Mortgage Co. had envisioned a vast network of retail outlets to handle their lending business. Today, after a revolutionary change in WMC’s business model, clicks have replaced the bricks the company once intended to build. WMC now makes all of its loans over the Internet, using a proprietary technology it developed in-house. And it deals exclusively with mortgage brokers, rather than directly with borrowers. WMC’s business-to-business program is believed to be the only one of its kind for sub-prime lenders banks that lend to people with troubled credit histories and other problems. It has helped the Woodland Hills-based company slash in half the cost of supplying loans, and provided an important competitive edge. “Last month I got a loan approval back in five minutes,” said Jeff Dahlgren, president of Transcend Financial Corp., a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based home mortgage broker that has been working with WMC since the company went online about a year ago. “Their program is the best for transmitting data back and forth.” Limitations to the Web Other lenders have turned to the Internet to supplement their business, but few have gone online to the extent of WMC. That’s mainly because government regulations limit the kinds of transactions that can be conducted over the Internet, making it impossible to complete a mortgage loan without at least some face-to-face interaction. WMC avoids those limitations by working with mortgage brokers, who, in turn, interact with the actual borrowers. “Our industry really entered some tough times back in mid ’98,” said Scott McAfee, chief executive of WMC. “We decided back then it wasn’t going to be acceptable just to survive the tough times. So we invested very heavily in developing some unique technology.” WMC and other sub-prime lenders once found ample financing on Wall Street. They bundled and sold their loans to investors who were willing to pay handsomely for the high-yield packages. (Sub-prime loans charge interest rates averaging 2 to 5 percentage points above “A” quality loans because lenders run the risk that the loans may not be repaid.) But beginning around October 1998, severe losses in global financial markets dampened Wall Street’s enthusiasm for these high-risk investments. Many stopped buying the bundled loans altogether, and those who remained cut the prices they were willing to pay, squeezing profit margins for lenders. “When sources of funding became more expensive, a lot of these guys went out of business or they had to retool,” said Michael Sanchez, portfolio manager at Hotchkis & Wiley in L.A. Initially, WMC began building a retail channel in hopes of competing with much larger players like The Money Store. The company planned to install about 80 storefronts from which it would deal directly with borrowers. But to run a retail lending operation WMC had to brand its name, and the company estimated that would cost anywhere from $17 million to $70 million in marketing expenditures. “When they (consultants) started telling me how much I would have to spend on marketing to establish a brand name, I said, ‘This doesn’t make sense,'” said McAfee. “It doesn’t work to establish a brand name for a product people only use once every seven years.” Instead, WMC invested about $20 million to develop its Internet technology, a state-of-the-art system compatible with just about any computer system a broker might use. A WMC representative installs the software and shows the mortgage broker how to use it in less than a day. The broker can then use the company’s Web site for the entire transaction, and to check the status of the loan as it goes through the pipeline for approval. “It allows you to manage the process a lot better,” said Dahlgren. “You don’t have to call someone on the phone and wait for an answer.” Since the program went online in August, WMC has signed up 4,400 brokers and processed $1.5 billion in mortgage loan transactions, McAfee said. Getting by with less The company has also slashed its workforce from 800 to 200 employees, and is now able to operate from a 40,000-square-foot facility instead of the 120,000 square feet of space it once leased. “We’re able to do the same amount of business on one-fourth the staff,” McAfee said. In March, WMC began using its Web site exclusively for loan processing. WMC does have online competitors. Full Spectrum Lending Inc., the sub-prime lending division of Countrywide Credit Industries, in May launched a Web site that lets customers research and apply for a loan online. The company expects the site to help generate traffic and save some time and money, because customers can research loan guidelines, rates and even file an application without “live help.” “A lot of research studies have shown sub-prime customers appreciate anonymity and like to find out what they can afford before speaking to people,” said Paul Abbamonto, president of Full Spectrum Lending. “At the moment, it creates some efficiencies.” But while sites like the one Full Spectrum and WMC employ can save some time and manpower, they can’t actually be used to conduct the transaction online because government regulations require “live” signatures on disclosures and other lending documents. “It’s still a very paper-intensive process, and the Internet doesn’t lend itself to that,” Abbamonto said. “Clicks and bricks seem to be the way to go.” Large companies like Full Spectrum have better access to capital and can afford to build their business base through the Internet while using traditional methods to complete the loan transactions. But for smaller operations like WMC, the name of the game is not writing more loans, it’s making more profit on the loans they do write. Under the old system, it cost WMC an average of 4 points to write a loan, or about $4,000 for a $100,000 mortgage. Through the Internet, the cost of providing the same loan drops to $2,000. At the same time, mortgage brokers are more likely to funnel business to the WMC site, provided their customers meet the company’s lending criteria, because the Web site saves them time and money. “(WMC is) most likely to get the business because I can most easily get an answer (from it),” said Dahlgren.