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May 26-June 8, 2015
www.lbbusinessjournal.com
July 1 Mandate: Employers Required To Provide Paid Sick Leave New State Law Includes Part-Time Workers And Others; Businesses Must Maintain Records ■ By SEAN BELK Staff Writer y this summer, most emB ployers in California will be required to start offering at least three days of paid sick leave to their employees who work 30 days or more in a year under a new state law. The legislation, known as Assembly Bill 1522 or the Healthy Workplace Healthy Family Act of 2014, officially became law on January 1, 2015, but the main provision that mandates all private and public employers re-
gardless of size provide paid sick leave to their workers goes into effect on July 1. The law extends paid sick leave to all qualifying employees, including temporary, on-call and part-time workers who often don’t receive the same benefits as full-time or salaried employees. Out-of-state workers are also covered under the law if they work 30 days or more within a year in California.
The only employees exempt from the legislation are those covered by a union contract with collective bargaining agreements, state providers of in-home supportive services and certain air carrier employees. California is the second state in the nation to pass a paid sick leave policy after Connecticut approved a similar law in 2011. Gov. Jerry Brown, who signed off on the bill last year, has said
that the new mandate would ensure sick leave is provided to 6.5 million California workers, about 40 percent of the state’s workforce, who currently don’t receive sick leave benefits. “Whether you’re a dishwasher in San Diego or a store clerk in Oakland, this bill frees you of having to choose between your family’s health and your job,” Brown said in a statement. “Make no mistake, California is putting its workers first.”
■ By GEORGE ECONOMIDES Publisher’s Perspective he recent unanimous vote T by the Long Beach City Council to implement a project
the title to reflect the full level of care that the hospital provides, she said, adding that the hospital offers a wide spectrum of specialty care services for both children and pregnant women under one roof. “Pediatric medicine starts before the baby’s born,” Joshi said. “So we thought, since we offer this entire spectrum and continuum of care from the moment the
labor agreement (PLA) and the council’s delay in moving forward on examining the possibility of a U.S. Customs facility at the Long Beach Airport, are two of many issues deserving not only input from the business community, but direct, hands-on involvement. The city budget, city salaries and pensions, the proposed new civic center, fees for permits and licenses, the process for issuing city contracts, the use of former redevelopment land, infrastructure needs, prioritizing spending of Tidelands projects, economic development efforts, etc., are a few other items on which the business community should be weighing in. According to city officials – city staff and those elected – the business community has a seat at the table if it wants it, but that seat is not being occupied and
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Dr. Divya Joshi, chief medical officer for Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach, visits with Adam Gojit, 7, and Ashley Cordova, 9, at the hospital. See story below. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)
SPECIAL REPORT – HEALTHCARE hree apartment projects proposed for Downtown Long Beach were all approved unanimously by the Long Beach Planning Commission on May 21. Together, the real estate developments create 424 new multi-family units in the downtown area. Two of the projects – a 113-unit, five-story apartment building at 207 Seaside Way and a 95-unit, eight-story apartment building at 442 W. Ocean Blvd. – are by Ensemble Investments, a Long Beach-based real estate development firm. Tyson Sayles, Ensemble Investment’s executive in charge of residential developments, recently told the Business Journal that the two developments are designed to
T
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The Business Seat At The Table Needs To Be Occupied
Commission Green Lights More Apartment Projects For Downtown ■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer
Shannon Jenkins, an employment attorney with Tredway Lumsdaine & Doyle (TLD) LLC, which has offices in Long Beach, Downey, Irvine and Beverly Hills, said in an interview with the Business Journal that employers who already provide sick pay might still have to modify their policies based on new requirements of the law. Many employers, whether they
Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Advancing In Pediatrics With Telemedicine, Mental Health Focus ■ By SEAN BELK Staff Writer
Fitness Trends And Your Health See Story Page 6
new era in pediatric care is A being ushered in at Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach that focuses more on mental health, and strives to provide patients with a more convenient experience by consolidating services and harnessing new technology. Dr. Divya Joshi, chief medical officer for the hospital, said in an interview with the Business Journal that the hospital, which operates as a branch of the MemorialCare Health System, re-
Long Beach Business Journal 2599 E. 28th Street, Suite 212 Signal Hill, CA 90755-2139 562/988-1222 • www.lbbusinessjournal.com
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE
Recent Advancements In Cancer Treatments And Research See Story Page 8
mains one of eight children’s hospitals in California and is currently the largest in the state with a total of 373 beds. The hospital changed its name last year by adding “Women’s” to
FOCUS ON LAW
Keeping Up With Employment Law – How Having An Attorney Can Save Your Business Money ■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer
PAID Los Angeles, CA PERMIT NO. 447
hen it comes to protectW ing your business from employment-related lawsuits, local attorneys agree that there are four main things every business owner needs to do: stay abreast of changing employment laws; keep thorough documentation and files for all employees; ensure employees are regularly trained about is-
sues such as harassment; and retain a business law firm to advise in labor matters. According to attorneys from the Long Beach offices of Clinton & Clinton Attorneys At Law, Marron Lawyers, and Tredway Lumsdaine & Doyle, the top reasons employees file lawsuits against businesses Law Grads Faced With Tough Job Market See Story Page 24
are for claims of wage and hourrelated issues, misclassification of employee status, harassment or retaliation, and discrimination. When asked to identify the common thread among businesses that have had employment-related lawsuits filed against them, Paul Marron, principal and founder of Marron Lawyers, told the Business Journal, “To be frank, the common thread is that it will happen.” (Please Continue To Page 22)
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2 Long Beach Business Journal
Inside This Issue 4 5 6
Inside City Hall
• Hula Hoops, Martinis And Freeways By Former Councilmember Gerrie Schipske
Helping Long Beach Businesses Grow
12
Special Report: Healthcare Industry
• Fitness Trends And Your Health • Advancements In Cancer Treatment, Research • Advancing Pediatrics, continued from Page 1
Newswatch
• Finalized Longshore Workers’ Contract Approved • Harbor Truck Group Launches New Chassis Pool • City Council Allows Yellow Cab To Rebrand Itself • Councilman Dee Andrews To Seek A Third Term • Beach Streets Event For Cyclists, Pedestrians June 6 • Long Beach Announces Innovation Team Members
May 26-June 8, 2015
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Real Estate Luncheon
• Two-Page Photo Spread
New Sick Leave Law Focus On Law
• Employment Law, continued from Page 1 • Law Grads Faced With Tough Job Market
In The News Perspective Art Matters
Presented By The Arts Council For Long Beach
The Nonprofit Page
Presented By The Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership
Free: Long Beach Business Journal Digital Edition, Monday Morning Coffee, NewsFlash Sign up at: www.lbbusinessjournal.com • Follow us on Twitter: @LBBizJourn
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2015
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4 Long Beach Business Journal
INSIDE CITY HALL
Hula Hoops, Martinis And Freeways... ■ By GERRIE SCHIPSKE Contributing Writer California is credited with bringing the world such innovations as hula hoops, martinis and freeways. But it also brought the creation of the “special district” – one of the least known or understood units of local government that is rapidly growing here as well in other states. A special district is “a separate local government that delivers a limited number of public services to a geographically limited area.” Most significantly, like other local governments, a special district has the power to tax for those services. There are over 3,200 of these hidden governments in California. We usually only learn about them when we get our property tax bill which enumerates who is taking our money or when someone starts talking about setting one up. And some are talking in Long Beach about setting up a Fire Protection Special District. “Fire Protection Special Districts” aren’t new. Most of the approximately 372 “Fire Protection Special Districts” are located in rural areas of the state. The districts belong to a strong lobby group: Fire Districts Association of California (FDAC) www.fdac.org ).
These districts are governed by elected boards of directors, who are responsible for overseeing the fire districts, selecting fire chiefs, establishing service levels and approving expenditures. Their revenues are derived from property tax payments and payments under contract with cities based on assessed property valuation throughout the district. Some argue that putting Long Beach fire and emergency medical services into a special district would make certain that revenues raised would only go to pay for the fire department. Currently, all revenues taken in by the city are put into the general fund and then appropriated by the city manager, mayor and city council to numerous departments. Over the past years, the mayor and councilmembers adopted “proportional share” cuts among the departments. Since fire and police account for more than 70 percent of the budget, each department received severe cuts to equipment and service levels. To date, neither equipment nor service levels have been fully restored.
May 26-June 8, 2015 It would take the vote of residents to set up a Fire Protection Special District and the power to tax residents would have to be approved separately by a two-thirds vote. District boardmembers would need to be elected (or the city council could serve as the board). In another scenario, some think we should explore contracting out for fire services with the already established Consolidated Fire Protection District of Los Angeles County (Fire District). This would require residents to approve annexation to the fire district which would in turn then bill the city for fire suppression, hazardous materials response, fire prevention, emergency medical services, and support functions such as dispatching, training, equipment maintenance, supplies and procurement. Not all current firefighters and management level staff would be kept in Long Beach. Local control would be lost. Several questions need to be answered on either proposal: How much money would be actually saved in turning over the fire department to a fire district? (No one has produced the figures yet.) How much will the city continue to be obligated to pay for CALPERS pensions already granted or vested? Would the district own or lease current fire department stations and equipment? Seriously, do we really want one more layer of government and one more taxing authority in our lives or do we want city management to step up and do whatever it takes to keep our 112-year-old fire department ? Next column: Do water utility customers deserve a refund? (Gerrie Schipske is a native of Long Beach, an attorney, registered nurse practitioner and full time instructor at CSULB Department of Health Care Administration. She was elected to both the Long Beach Community College Board of Trustees and the Long Beach City Council. She is the author of several books on Long Beach history and her blog, www.longbeachinside.blogspot.com.) ■
May 2
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May 26-June 8, 2015
Long Beach Business Journal 5
Helping Long Beach Businesses Grow
Insight Examination Services
With the assistance of the Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network, Insight Examination Services, which opened at Douglas Park in 2011, was able to hire and train several new employees. Pictured are three of those employees, Neeti Rajput and Khushali Shaha, at left, and Mario Galabov, at right. They are shown with owners Sunil and Anju Garg. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)
■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer Due to the complex nature of its work, Insight Examination Services, a Long Beachbased financial services business, had trouble hiring and retaining employees even during the height of the recession. After being introduced to the Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network, the company’s co-owner, Anju Garg, said the organization not only helped with hiring skilled employees, but also enabled the company to train new employees at a reduced cost. Insight Examination Services, which opened in Douglas Park in 2011, provides field examination services to the banking industry. The company’s field examiners visit loan applicants – typically those seeking loans of $1 million or greater – and ensure that the applicants are creditworthy according to compliance guidelines from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The company also provides accounting services. “It’s a niche business requiring extensive knowledge in accounting,” Garg told the Business Journal. “One of the biggest challenges we have had in our field is to hire, train and retain people,” she said. Training a field examiner takes about one year, Garg said. Oftentimes, after investing time and financial resources in training new employees, many of them would quit to work at large banks. “We have a challenge of hiring and investing heavily in our employees and then losing them anyway,” Garg said. Garg learned about Pacific Gateway in December of 2013 through a presentation in a course she was taking as part of the Goldmann Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program at Long Beach City College. Pacific Gateway is an organization administered by the City of Long Beach that provides workforce development services to businesses and individuals in Long Beach, Signal Hill, Torrance and Lomita. At the time, Garg was hoping to hire four to five people with either undergraduate or graduate degrees in accounting. She had tried multiple online job posting services with little success. Pacific Gateway staff posted Garg’s job listings on its online database, expanding the pool of applicants applying to the position. “They posted it and we got a lot of responses and interviewed people,” Garg said. As Garg received more applications and conducted more interviews, Pacific Gateway staff assisted her by conducting skills assessments of applicants, she said. Ultimately, Garg hired four Long Beach residents, each who had been unemployed for a year or two. With Pacific Gateway’s assistance, Garg was able to get a tax credit through the state’s Enterprise Zone program for hiring local residents. The Enterprise Zone program ended in 2014. Pacific Gateway enrolled Insight Examination Services in its On The Job Training Program, which provides a percentage of the wages of workers being trained on the job. Because the company’s primary challenge had been spending resources on training employees and then losing those employees, this program “helped a lot,” Garg said. “They allowed us to spend less of our resources . . . so that really was a big deal for us.” “It was really wonderful to know that there is somebody out there helping small businesses,” Garg said of Pacific Gateway. “It is very good that we have this partnership and that there are some resources available.” ■
Presented monthly by the Long Beach Business Journal and the Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network www.pacific-gateway.org
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6 Long Beach Business Journal
SPECIAL REPORT – HEALTHCARE
Fitness Trends And Your Health ■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer When summer rolls around, magazine racks are full of publications boasting that they hold the latest fitness secret to a beach-ready body. And in 2015, there is no shortage of fitness trends out there to try, from traditional exercises like Pilates to newer regimens like CrossFit and barre classes. But which is truly the best for your health? According to fitness and medical professionals, a combination of aerobic (cardio) exercise and strength training, plus a healthy diet, is the key to getting – and staying – healthy and in shape. “Exercise is extremely important for health,” Dr. Brandon Villarreal, an expert in obesity medicine and an anesthesiologist who practices at Lakewood Regional Medical Center, told the Business Journal. Villarreal is the co-founder of the Los Angeles-based Sand Cosmetic Institute, which offers custom weight management services and cosmetic procedures. As long as both aerobic and resistance (strength training) exercises are part of a person’s workout regimen, “It doesn’t matter what kind of exercise you do,” Villarreal said. “There is not one better than the other.” “I don’t believe that any one exercise is good for everything,” John Garey, owner of Long Beach-based John Garey Fitness & Pilates, told the Business Journal. “That’s why we offer so many different classes at our facility.” Garey’s business offers about 160 classes per week in different kinds of exercise techniques, such as Pilates, barre (workouts using ballet bars), trampoline, spin (a high-intensity cycling class) and rowing. In some cases, Garey even offers combination classes to ensure multiple parts of the body are targeted in a workout. For example, he is now offering combination spin and rowing classes. Spin classes primarily work out the lower body, and provide an intense cardio workout, while rowing classes work the upper body, he explained. Villarreal said that spin classes shouldn’t be undertaken without cycling experience. “I would recommend working up to it over about six months,” he said. Otherwise, injuries such as swollen knees or even a torn meniscus (tissue near the knee) could occur, he noted. But when approached correctly, “Spinning can be very nice as an exercise,” he said. Garey’s business also offers multiple types of barre classes for the same reason. “Some classes really emphasize the cardio aspect, and some emphasize the strength aspect – and not just the lower body,” he said. While Garey said multiple forms of exercise should be employed to work the entire body, he recommended that everyone incorporate some Pilates into their workout routines. “The whole idea behind Pilates is to train the core muscles and to make sure the muscles are working correctly,” Garey said. “A lot of times people are ready to go
Most instruction that takes place at Groundwork Fitness, a gym in Downtown Long Beach, occurs in group classes centered on the concept of what owner Gio Ferraro calls “shiftwork.” During a class, such as the one Ferraro (center) is instructing above and below, participants perform multiple kinds of exercises to work out their full bodies. Groundwork Fitness is located at 333 Pine Ave. (Photographs by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)
back into fitness and they will jump into these really high intensity programs and they will end up with really sore muscles or sore backs,” Garey said. “For those people, we encourage them to jump into a Pilates class so they can make sure that their core muscles are strong enough and that they are actually firing when they are supposed to be firing.” Villarreal also emphasized the importance of building core strength before starting a new workout routine. “The bottom line is core strength,” he said, explaining that he teaches patients how to do sit-ups and squats for that purpose. Giovanna Ferraro, owner of Groundwork Fitness in Downtown Long Beach, believes a full-body workout is key in exercise. Her circuit-training based workouts, which she has dubbed “shiftwork,” use the body’s own strength to perform movements rather than relying on machinery. “Basically, you are going from lifting weights to jumping jacks . . . to a punching bag, to getting on a stability ball and working your core,” she said. “You are going to burn 30 percent more calories doing something like this than just sitting there going from one machine to another. It is very effective.” Similarly, CrossFit, a fitness regimen that has been growing in popularity since it was launched in the early 2000s, is cir-
cuit-based and is designed to work out the whole body with cardio and strength training. CrossFit is known for being high-intensity, and incorporates more extreme techniques like Olympic weightlifting. Chad Cross, owner of CrossFit Long Beach, said CrossFit workouts also stray away from using machinery. “We do different things like Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics and other types of weightlifting,” Cross said. “And then we also do cardio-type stuff, like running, biking and swimming.” CrossFit workouts typically take place in group classes and vary from day to day, he noted. Exercise should be catered to an individual’s needs, Villarreal said. For example, if he were developing a weight loss program for a relatively healthy 25-year-old patient, he would approach the situation differently than if he were working with a 65-year old patient with little muscle mass. Although exercise regimens should be individualized, there are some basics Villarreal recommends adhering to. Perhaps the most important of these is to gradually increase the intensity of an exercise routine over time. “I see a lot of trainers who will take folks who have never exercised their entire lives and start [them] using very heavy weights,” Villarreal observed. “And what happens is they are not
May 26-June 8, 2015 going to build any muscle mass, but they are just going to get ligament disease and joint disease,” he said, explaining that starting an exercise routine at a level that is too intense strains the body rather than helping it. The same principle ought to be applied to aerobic exercise. Villarreal said he starts off his patients with aerobic exercise by having them walk on the treadmill for about 30 minutes a day, gradually building up the pace as they get in better shape. “What I tell my clients who want to lose weight is, all you need to do is walk continuously for about 30 minutes for the first couple of weeks, and then after that work up to about an hour every day of your life,” he said. At Ferraro’s gym, “You all start off as beginners, no matter who comes through my doors – whether you have never been to a gym in your life or you have been in a gym setting for 20 years. It doesn’t matter,” she emphasized. As clients make progress, they are moved into intermediate and advanced levels. “It is a safe way to progress people so that we keep our clients as injury-free as possible,” she said. Cross said that CrossFit Long Beach instructors scale workouts to an individual’s ability level. “We have people in their early 20s and we have people in their late 70s doing this. We just scale it back; they lift less weight and do less complicated movements and less dangerous stuff,” he said. “But mentally, it’s not for everybody, necessarily. You have to be looking to push yourself.” Villarreal cautioned against CrossFit. “CrossFit, I think, is very dangerous for people. It doesn’t matter what age you’re at,” he said. “I have a 22-year-old daughter who does CrossFit . . . I have seen her program. What she is exposing herself to is joint disease later in life, because when you keep doing a lot of repetitive motion . . . let’s say for 30 to 45 minutes, that’s too much stress on the joints.” Cross, however, said that a key component of CrossFit is varying routines so the body isn’t doing the same exercise over and over again. “You want to keep your body doing different things. If it gets used to something, it gets efficient at it, and it stops responding to it,” he explained. “We do not have a set routine that we do on a regular basis. We change the stimulus almost every day.” All those interviewed by the Business Journal agreed that, without proper nutrition, working out wouldn’t net much in the way of results. “When you think about exercise and you think about the fact that people are malnourished because of our standard American diet, they are not going to get the benefit of an exercise program without proper nutrition,” Villarreal said. For that reason, a key aspect of Groundwork Fitness’s program is a component called Nutrition 101. John Garey Fitness & Pilates offers healthy cooking classes, and CrossFit Long Beach offers a variety of nutritional resources online at www.crossfitlb.com/nutrition. “Our society is based on the latest fads,” Villarreal reflected. “But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what someone is doing as long as it is a program that is specific for that particular individual. That’s the key.” ■
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8 Long Beach Business Journal
SPECIAL REPORT – HEALTHCARE
May 26-June 8, 2015
Recent Advancements In Cancer Treatments And Research ■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer The word “cure” gets bandied about quite a bit in the media, particularly when speculating when someone will discover a cure for cancer. But talk to oncologists and medical researchers and they’ll tell you that there are endless ongoing studies examining new ways to treat and prevent cancer – partially because not every cancer is alike, just as all patients are unique. For that reason, medical experts interviewed by the Business Journal agree that, in general, cancer treatments in the future will be more targeted and customized.
New Treatments “In the future, treatments for cancer will become more targeted,” Dr. Carey Cullinane, medical director of Cancer Risk and Prevention Program at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center’s Todd Cancer Institute, told the Business Journal. “As we grow in understanding the human genome, and in turn the genomic changes which occur in cancers, we will be able to target genomic weaknesses in cancers,” she said. Targeted treatment therapies are already in use for some cancers. In a targeted therapy treatment, physicians take a sample of a patient’s cancer cells and examine it to identify mutated genes that may have caused the cancer, according to
Dr. Nilesh Vora, who practices hematology and oncology at local hospitals including St. Mary Medical Center and Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. He is also a partner at Coast Hematology-Oncology Associates. After identifying that gene, doctors then determine if a medicine is available to target it. “By targeting it, you basically attack it and you kill the driver for that tumor. As a result, lots of cancer cells will die,” he explained. “That has changed the way we do lung cancer therapy,” Vora said, noting that there are also “all kinds of targeted therapies for leukemia now.” He added, “In a lot of cases we don’t even do chemotherapy upfront. We do targeted therapy.”
Cullinane said targeted therapies that “more precisely attack tumor cells” are some of the most promising recently approved cancer treatments. “These treatments are already making changes in how we treat ovarian cancer, melanoma and lymphoma and, as our knowledge grows, will be used in other cancers as well,” she said. According to Vora, another advancement in cancer care made in recent years has been in the use of immunotherapy in fighting cancer. In immunotherapy, a patient’s own immune system – specifically a type of white blood cell known as a T-cell – is essentially given a boost and used to attack cancer. The problem is that some cancer cells are able to send a signal to a receptor (called PD-1) on T-cells, which causes them to stop attacking the cancer. A class of relatively new drugs called PD-1 inhibitors switches off this mechanism, allowing the body’s T-cells to continue fighting the cancer. Immunotherapy has already made a positive impact in treating melanoma and may soon play a role in lung cancer treatments, Vora noted. One new immunotherapy treatment, Provenge, “removes white cells from a patient and sensitizes the white cells to look for prostate cancer proteins,” he said. When the white cells are placed back into the patient, “it has been shown to improve survival in prostate cancer,” he noted. In addition to these advancements, longused cancer treatments such as radiation, chemotherapy and surgery are becoming more precise. “In contrast to what happened 20 years ago, [when] we did more radical surgeries and we did chemotherapy that was cytotoxic and made people very ill,” these procedures have improved, Cullinane noted. “Our surgical procedures are much more limited in most cases. Radiation is targeted . . . And chemotherapy is becoming more targeted so that we are not [harming] healthy cells; we are really just targeting cancer cells,” she said. Vora said that surgeries have become less invasive due to laparoscopic techniques and the use of robots in operations.
Ongoing Research With the aid of modern science, antibiotics and viruses may also be used to treat and prevent cancer in the near future. A study recently published in the medical journal “Oncotarget” found that certain types of antibiotics are capable of killing off cancer stem cells in multiple kinds of tumors. The study was led by Michael Lisanti, a cancer researcher at Manchester University, whose daughter Camilla gave him the idea to investigate antibiotics as a means of treating cancer. She is listed as a co-author on the study. Camilla’s suggestion led Lisanti to investigate how the ability of certain kinds of antibiotics to inhibit the reproduction of cell mitochondria might impact cancer stem cells. Mitochondria are subcellular structures that generate energy and also play a role in cell growth and death, among other processes. Cancer stem cells rely heavily upon mitochondria to replicate, according to the study. The study found that “four to five different classes of FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] approved drugs can be used to eradicate cancer stem cells, in 12 different cancer cell lines, across 8 different
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May 26-June 8, 2015 tumor types.” The effective antibiotics used were all commonly prescribed medicines including azithromycin and doxycycline, among others. The effectively treated tumor types were from cancers of the breast, ovaries, prostate, lungs, pancreas, brain (specifically glioblastoma) and skin (specifically melanoma). Two types of breast cancers were included in the study. Multiple ongoing studies are investigating the use of some of these antibiotics in cancer patients – for example, there is a study examining how doxycycline may impact breast cancer patients. Lisanti and his colleagues suggested the findings of their study warrant further clinical trials. Another study recently published in Oncotarget may also result in advancements in cancer treatment. The study, published by Dr. Paul B. Fisher, director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute of Molecular Medicine, along with several colleagues, devised a new method of viral gene therapy in the treatment of cancer. Viral gene therapy is the practice of engineering viruses to deliver treatments to cancer cells. In previous research, Fisher had discovered a gene known as mda-7/IL-24, which is able to selectively kill cancer cells without harming the body’s healthy tissues. “Another advantage of this agent is that, when it interacts on the surface of cells through receptors, it stimulates its own production by those cells,” Fisher told the Business Journal in a phone interview. In other words, the gene is able to spread. In his recent study, Fisher and his team engineered conditionally replicating viruses to contain mda-7/IL-24 and deliver
Long Beach Business Journal 9 it to cancer cells. A conditionally replicating virus (CRV), unlike a non-replicating virus, is able to make copies of itself once it enters a cancer cell, Fisher explained. Cancer cells, however, contain a protein that protects them from therapeutic treatments, so killing them off isn’t as simple as exposing them to a drug. To increase the treatment’s likelihood of success, the CRV was also engineered to contain an experimental drug that inhibits cancer cells’ defense against treatments. Fisher and his team also had to solve the problem of how to ensure the modified CRV actually got to the prostate cancer cells they were targeting. While the concept of viral gene therapy has been around for a long time, Fisher told the Business Journal that actually delivering viruses to cancer cells has been a barrier to efficient treatment. When a virus is injected into the body, it may either become trapped in the liver as the body tries to rid itself of it, or it may be eradicated by the body’s immune system, he explained. To address that problem, he and his colleagues developed a technique to protect the engineered viruses until they get to the cancer cells. The process, called ultrasound micro bubble destruction, involves encasing the viruses in a gas bubble. “This bubble is coated with a complement which actually prevents the immune system from seeing any virus on the surface and destroying it,” Fisher said. “So it is basically a stealth missile floating through your body.” Ultrasound equipment breaks the bubbles – so, by placing an ultrasound device over the location of a cancer, the bubbles burst
right on target, enabling more efficient delivery of the modified virus. The technique effectively eradicated the targeted prostate cancer cells. Fisher said he wants to take the method into clinical trials, although he emphasized that the FDA may require him to take additional steps first. “It’s a long path,” he said. “One of the first tests is going to be in patients that have malignant glioma, which is a very advanced brain cancer that is invariably lethal.” As more advancements have been made in treating and diagnosing cancer, survival rates have improved. “We are much better at treating cancer now,” Cullinane said. “The five year relative survival rate for all cancers diagnosed in 2004 through 2010 was 68 percent, up from 49 percent in 1975 through 1977. This reflects both improved treatment as well as early diagnosis of some cancers,” she explained. Cullinane reflected, “I think we are a way off from finding a ‘cure’ for all cancers – but we are much better at curing early disease and making advanced stage cancer a chronic disease – more and more people are living with cancer instead of dying from it.” ■
According to Dr. Carey Cullinane, medical director of the Cancer Risk and Prevention Program at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center’s Todd Cancer Institute, “Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the United States, exceeded only by heart disease.” Cullinane is pictured at the Todd Cancer Institute, located at 2810 Long Beach Blvd. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)
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Advancements In Pediatrics (Continued From Page 1)
baby is visible in ultrasound until they reach age 21, we should reflect in our name what it is we do.” The name isn’t the only aspect of the hospital that has evolved. New technological advancements, for instance, have enabled doctors to not only diagnose infants in the womb but treat them as well, particularly in prenatal and pediatric cardiology, she said, adding that the hospital is one of the only hospitals in the country to have a surgeon who specializes in the field. “If we detect a heart problem before the baby is born, the mother and family can
SPECIAL REPORT – HEALTHCARE meet with the cardiologist or the cardiac surgeon to talk about treatments, outcomes and what the life of the child will look like,” Joshi said. She said such prenatal treatment is also frequent in urology, such as detecting bladder abnormalities or dysfunctions in other organ systems. Advancements in surgical equipment have also enabled doctors to provide more “minimal invasive surgery,” which involves using small fiber optic cables as a camera and for making small incisions. Using these new instruments helps shorten the time a patient is required to stay in the hospital, reduces risk for complications and leaves a smaller scar than previous procedures, Joshi said.
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General Dentistry
(562) 421-9361 3840 Woodruff Ave. #208 Long Beach, CA 90808
The hospital has also made technological advancements in “supportive care” through highly sophisticated breathing machines and ventilators, she added. “When a child is critically ill, we have to breathe for them,” Joshi stressed. “Sometimes we have to make the heart beat for them. We have to fight infections for them. We have to feed them . . . we have to do everything for them.” Another major step forward in pediatric care is the hospital’s ability to make a genetic or biological diagnosis for treatment, she said. Doctors are now able to diagnose different types of leukemia, for instance, with specific abnormalities and provide treatment based on the specific genetic makeup of a condition. This enables doctors to use such treatments like chemotherapy on specifically targeted cancer cells, thereby reducing side effects, such as loss of hair and vomiting, associated with treating the entire body.
Telemedicine One way the hospital is providing a more convenient experience for patients and their families is through the use of telemedicine, using two-way video, email, smart phones, wireless tools and other forms of telecommunications technology for medical purposes. In the past, if a child was sick and needed special treatment not offered at a nearby hospital, the child would be placed in an ambulance and brought to Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach, Joshi said. Today, however, medical information
May 26-June 8, 2015
May 2
can be exchanged from one site to another simply by turning on a camera, enabling a doctor to diagnose a patient or make a physical exam remotely via telemedicine. She said this technological advancement has become vitally important in pediatric care. “We’re working on expanding that and linking different hospitals and communities to this hub via telemedicine,” Joshi said.
Consolidating Clinics The hospital is also in the process of consolidating its seven clinics to operate under one roof, establishing a “one-stop shop” for medical services, she said. Within the next two years, the hospital will be consolidating its clinics to operate at one 60,000-square-foot building near the hospital instead of having medical services, such as X-ray technicians and pharmacologists, spread out amongst several nearby offices. The project, which is being partly financed through federal funds, will provide more patient convenience, improve quality of care, create better teamwork and increase efficiency, Joshi said. “I think that is one of the biggest projects we’re working on,” she said. “It will make a really, really big impact on the health care of children.”
Mental Health Services In addition, the hospital and the pediatric community in general are now considering how mental health plays a role in a child’s or young adult’s physical health, Joshi said. She said the hospital is in the process of expanding its mental health services for both children and pregnant women. The
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2015
May 26-June 8, 2015 hospital is currently seeking grant funding to hire a psychologist for the entire children’s hospital as well as for the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). “It takes more than just fixing the body to fix the person,” she said. “I think we thankfully, in the 21st Century, have come to understand that you can’t separate mind and body. That is where I think pediatrics is ahead of the adult medicine.” Joshi noted that current research indicates that, the more stress a child is under, the greater the risk he or she will have a chronic disease as an adult. She said different factors, such as being bullied at school, could actually impact a child’s immune system. “What we do to children affects what happens to them in adult life,” she said. Joshi said recent studies also show that up to 70 percent of mothers who give birth in the NICU have some form of post-traumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD), which can adversely impact a child’s mental health and, ultimately, behavior well into adulthood. Having a dedicated psychologist on hand at the hospital will not only “help parents in the present” deal with stress, but also “help parents be better parents in the future,” she said. Joshi said the hospital also provides “child-life specialists” trained in how to “professionally play” with children to explain what is going to happen and to ensure a safe environment. “If you’re totally stressed out or you don’t understand, you will not heal as quickly and you won’t comply with the
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Long Beach Business Journal 11 treatment as well,” she said. “So, the environment is important for the outcome.”
Major Renovations Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach is also in the process of making major renovations to its 20-bed pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), which provides care to toddlers, children and teenagers who become critically ill or injured. Matt Farhadi, spokesperson for the hospital, said the three-year renovation project includes creating “private patient rooms” to increase comfort for patients and families. The $30 million renovation project is officially underway, he said. Phase 1, which includes eight new private patient rooms, a new PICU classroom and a new pediatric pharmacy in the north wing, is projected to be completed by March 2016, Farhadi said, while the entire PICU renovation is expected to be completed by November 2017. In addition, the hospital is expected to open its new $1.2 million urology and nephrology center in June that will join the two programs, thereby improving services and providing more convenience for patients, he said. The 34,000-square-foot Larry & Helen Hoag Foundation Pediatric Urology & Nephrology Center will be located in the Hartley Medical Building at 2888 Long Beach Blvd. “This consolidation of disciplines allows us to better serve patients in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of kidney disease, while we continue to provide high-quality patient care and pursue innovative research in urology,” Farhadi said. ■
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12 Long Beach Business Journal
NEWSWATCH had ratified the new five-year contract. The following day, longshore workers in the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) did the same. According to an ILWU statement, 82 percent of its members voted in favor of the agreement. The PMA did not provide a percentage breakdown of member votes, but stated that the contract was “overwhelmingly� approved. “This contract provides an important framework for the hard work ahead to overcome new competitive challenges and to continue to position the West Coast ports as destinations of choice for shippers worldwide,� PMA President and CEO Jim McKenna said in a statement released following the ILWU’s vote. “The negotiations for this contract were some of the longest and most difficult in our recent history,� ILWU International
Finalized Longshore Workers’ Contract Approved ■By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer A contract for West Coast longshore workers has finally been agreed to by the two negotiating parties after nearly a year of discussions and disagreements. The previous contract expired July 1, 2014. The new agreement is retroactive to that date and runs through June 30, 2019. On May 21, the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents the employers of West Coast longshore workers, announced that its members
President Robert McEllrath said in a statement. “Membership unity and hard work by the negotiating committee made this fair outcome possible.� The ILWU statement explained that the new contract maintains health benefits and improves wages, pensions and job safety protections for workers. Additionally, the contract limits outsourcing of union worker jobs and provides for “an improved system for resolving job disputes.� Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners President Doug Drummond applauded the ratification of the contract in a statement released on May 22. “This new pact is terrific for management and labor, and proves that by working together, we can build a partnership that will continue to help to improve this economy and provide jobs all across the United States,� he stated. Contract negotiations began to grow
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May 26-June 8, 2015 heated last October when multiple ports reported that fewer longshore workers than necessary were being deployed to unload ships. The move worsened already historic levels of congestion caused by a confluence of issues within the supply chain. In the early months of this year, employers locked workers out of docks over multiple weekends so that they could clear the docks, which the PMA alleged was due to the work slowdown. Ultimately, a visit from U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez resulted in a tentative agreement, the details of which were not revealed. The details of the finalized, approved contract have also not yet been released. McKenna, however, stated in February that full-time longshore workers made an average of $147,000 per year with fully paid health care and a maximum yearly pension of $79,920 under the old contract. Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, emphasized the importance of the contract approval in relation to supply chain efficacy. “The approval of this labor contract allows us to move full speed ahead sharpening our competitive edge,â€? he said in a press release. “In the last 90 days, labor and management throughout the San Pedro Bay supply chain have made excellent progress eliminating the backlog of ships, getting services back on schedule, and improving cargo flow in and out of terminals.â€? â–
Harbor Trucking Group Launches New Chassis Pool And Expands Commitment To Train More Drivers ■By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer The Harbor Trucking Association (HTA), which represents more than 100 trucking companies serving California’s ports, announced on May 20 that it is expanding educational and industry partnerships to help improve the trucking industry and supply chain. The association is entering into a new partnership with ChassisFinder.com to create a new pool of 250 chassis – the trailer equipment used to haul shipping containers – to be used by HTA members at West Coast ports. The pool is called the Trucker Chassis Connection. Two hundred of the chassis are dedicated to the San Pedro Bay ports, with the remaining 50 to be used around the Port of Oakland. ChassisFinder.com is an online chassis reservation program that provides “realtime information on chassis availability and pricing.� Truckers using the Trucker Chassis Connection will be able to locate and obtain chassis through this program. The announcement comes on the heels of historic levels of congestion at the San Pedro Bay ports, in which a shortage of chassis played a large role. Greg Boyle, president of HTA, said the new pool would “create more reliability and should help create faster turn times for port truck drivers.� The association also announced it would be expanding its partnership with Long Beach City College (LBCC) to help train (Please Continue To Top Of Next Page)
May 2
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2015
May 26-June 8, 2015 more truck drivers, thanks to a $220,000 grant from Jobs for the Future and the Walmart Foundation. HTA and the city college first partnered on a truck driver training program in 2013 to address a shortage of truck drivers in local ports. Since then, the program has graduated 100 drivers. With the new grant, LBCC and HTA will be able to train 300 more drivers, with a focus on recruiting more women for the program. “With this grant, Long Beach City College will be able to further strengthen our efforts to prepare our local workforce for well-paying careers in these industries,” LBCC Superintendent-President Eloy Oakley said in a press release from HTA. “We feel in order to best serve our members and our industry, we need to do more than just be advocates,” HTA Executive Director Weston LaBar said in a statement. “We need to make bold moves that help solve issues that our industry faces . . . The only way we can accomplish this is by thinking outside the box and partnering with other stakeholders to implement game-changing programs that move our industry forward.” ■
Visioning Session On Future Of Main Library Scheduled For May 30 ■ By SEAN BELK Staff Writer A community-wide discussion on the future of the main library, which will be a central part of the city’s new civic center in Downtown Long Beach, is scheduled to take place this Saturday, May 30, from 10 a.m. to noon. The meeting is being held at the main library’s auditorium, 101 Pacific Ave. Representatives with Plenary Edgemoor Civic Partners (PECP), a development team chosen by the city council last year to take on the civic center rebuild project, will be available at the meeting along with members of the Long Beach Public Library Foundation and Friends of the Long Beach Public Library. The main library and the city hall buildings, both of which have been declared seismically unsafe, are expected to be demolished and rebuilt as part of the civic center rebuild project. For more information on the civic center rebuild project, visit www.pecplong beach.com. ■
Long Beach Business Journal 13
Three New Apartment Projects Move Forward (Continued From Page 1)
appeal to “a broad range of downtown residents.” Plans for the apartment building on Seaside Way incorporate a pedestrian bridge planned by the city into its design. The bridge, intended to better connect the Long Beach Performing Arts Center and Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, will be about 30 feet wide at the front of the building, and will become part of an “integrated promenade” with a ground floor café, Sayles said. “We’re designing a special rooftop deck with a boutique hospitality appeal and great ocean views,” Sayles said of the Seaside Way development. Plans for the building include 53 studio apartments, 33 one-bedroom units and 27 two-bedroom units. The development is being built on a parking lot behind the historic Breakers building. The 95-unit Ensemble project is located behind the California Bank & Trust building at 444 W. Ocean Blvd. Amenities planned for the development include a fitness room, rooftop deck and pool, according to a city staff report. Plans include 43 studios, 21 one-bedroom lofts, 25 two-bedroom units and six three-bedroom units. The third development approved by the planning commission is a 216-unit apartment building at 150 W. Ocean Blvd., proposed by Lennar Multifamily Communities. The project is adjacent to the Ocean Center building at 110 W. Ocean Blvd., with The Pike Outlets located behind it. The seven-story project, dubbed “Oceanaire,” includes a mix of studios and one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom floor plans. According to a city staff report, “Residential amenities include a business center and bicycle storage facility along the Ocean Boulevard ground floor frontage, a large courtyard with an internal reflection pool, a pool and spa amenity deck on the third floor, and roof decks on the fifth and seventh levels.” The city is requiring Lennar to improve the portion of Victory Park between the proposed structure and Ocean Boulevard. The developer must also create a new “dog and fitness park” where the development touches Seaside Way, according to a city staff report. ■
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14 Long Beach Business Journal
NEWSWATCH
May 26-June 8, 2015
City Council Allows Long Beach Yellow Cab To Rebrand Itself, Lower Rates To Battle Uber, Lyft ■ By SEAN BELK Staff Writer The Long Beach City Council has allowed its only licensed taxicab service to lower rates, expand its fleet size and rebrand itself to stay competitive with ride-hailing services, such as Uber and Lyft, which have recently gained popularity and market share. The city council voted unanimously, 9-0, at its meeting on May 12 to allow Long Beach Yellow Cab Cooperative, Inc., which has been the city’s sole permitted taxicab provider since 1982, to have 24 more taxicabs on the roads, change its logo and offer discounted or even free fares. The move, which makes Long Beach the first major city in the nation to deregulate its taxicab service, has received national attention as taxicab companies locked in with fixed rates across the country have been struggling to compete with ride-hailing services that offer variable prices and convenient smart phone apps. As part of the rebranding, Long Beach Yellow Cab is repainting its taxicabs a new “highlighter yellow” and launching a new “Ride Yellow” mobile phone app, which already offers a $15 discount on trips for passengers using it for the first time, to rival ride-hailing services. In a separate item, the city council on May 19 directed city staff to draft an ordinance to establish a pilot program to change certain regulatory elements of Long Beach Yellow Cab’s current taxi permit that would ultimately give the company more
William J. Rouse, general manager of Long Beach Yellow Cab Cooperative, Inc., is seen with the organization’s newly branded, highlighter yellow taxicab and displayed logo that are already on the street after receiving Long Beach City Council approval. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)
flexibility with its business model. City staff expects the pilot program to be implemented during the peak summer travel season if the ordinance is ultimately approved. “We as an industry find ourselves the reluctant participants of one of the great public policy debates that is going on today,” said William Rouse, general manager of Long Beach Yellow Cab, during the city council meeting on May 12. “Cities everywhere are struggling with really what to do with their taxicab companies to address issues of the unlevel playing field that exists . . . In the end, it’s going to be the customer who benefits from better service.”
The council’s action comes after a biennial report on public convenience and necessity regarding taxicab service found that “the number of authorized taxicabs is insufficient for the needs of the city,” according to city staff. Ride-hailing services, such as Uber and Lyft, are officially known as transportation network companies (TNCs), which enable drivers using their personal vehicles to provide prearranged rides for compensation after being connected with passengers via smart phone apps or other online devices. Operating with a virtually unlimited number of vehicles and unregulated pricing
allows these companies to use supply and demand to their advantage, increasing prices during peak hours, which attracts more drivers to be available and dropping prices when demand is low, which entices more customers. In an interview with the Business Journal, Rouse said taxicab companies, on the other hand, have been regulated by cities as a consumer protection, and, with set rates and fixed vehicle supply, taxicabs have had no room to budge when competing with TNCs. He said a new business model to let Long Beach Yellow Cab, which has recently seen a decline in business, implement flexible pricing and increase its fleet size from 175 to 199 vehicles would enable the company to compete. With the new model, Long Beach Yellow Cab would be able to reduce “dead miles” (when drivers are without passengers), an improvement ultimately resulting in more revenue for the company and drivers as well as faster service and discounted prices for customers. “With a fixed supply, you’ll never meet peak period demand,” Rouse said. “As you increase your number of passengers and your density, the portion that’s dead, where there’s no revenue, gets reduced more and more. As that portion is reduced, it also corresponds to faster service.” He said the new business model might eventually lead to something that allows Long Beach Yellow Cab to “flex” vehicles in rotation to address peaks in demand, enabling the company to see an increase in service capability. With TNCs on the rise in the last few years, recently passed state legislation now requires that such companies file various reports with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). A bill passed last year that goes into effect on July 1, in fact, codifies new insurance requirements for TNCs. Rouse said, however, backers of Uber, Lyft and Sidecar, another TNC, spent more than $1 million in lobbying efforts last year to defeat state legislation that would have required stricter regulations such as mandating drivers pass drug tests and have permanent vehicle markings to notify law enforcement. He said Long Beach Yellow Cab requires that all drivers pass drug tests and extensive fingerprint background checks. City staff notes that the taxicab company is required to pay more than $79,000 annually for a business license with the city. In addition, the company coordinates with the Long Beach Police Department and has cameras installed in all vehicles to ensure safety for the driver and passenger. Rouse said TNCs, however, don’t have such strict requirements because it would impact their business model. “Uber’s entire business model is about shifting costs and shifting responsibility on to others,” he said. “So they don’t background check their drivers because they’re not held responsible for doing so.” Email requests for comment from Uber were not returned by deadline. During the May 12 city council meeting, Mayor Robert Garcia lauded Long Beach Yellow Cab as a “community partner” that provides transportation services to the disabled, seniors and tourists, as well as voters on Election Day. (Please Continue To Next Page)
May 2
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May 26-June 8, 2015
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Long Beach Business Journal 15
NEWSWATCH Sixth District Long Beach Councilmember Dee Andrews, pictured top center, who is seeking a third term as a write-in candidate, is seen with, from left, Juanita Wilson, Virgia Wade, Alice Robinson, Charles Wade and Cintha Wade, members of the Central Neighborhood Advisory Committee (CNAC). (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)
Dee Andrews To Seek Third Term On City Council – As Write In ■ By SEAN BELK Staff Writer Sixth District Long Beach City Councilmember Dee Andrews announced on May 22 that he plans to run for a third term. Due to the city’s term limits law, Andrews must run as a write-in candidate during the primary nominating election scheduled for April 12, 2016. He is the first candidate to officially announce for the seat. “I’m proud of my record working to improve and protect 6th District neighborhoods but there is much work that still
Yellow Cab Rebranding (Continued From Page 14)
He clarified that the city council isn’t necessarily taking a side in the ongoing dispute over the “sharing economy” but rather is allowing the city’s permitted taxicab service to stay competitive in the marketplace. “I think the rebrand is incredibly thoughtful,” Garcia said. “This is actually a very significant moment, I think, and I’m really proud of Long Beach for taking the lead on this issue.” ■
needs to be done and there are projects I want to see through to completion,” he said in a statement. “After a lifetime in Central Long Beach, I think voters have a pretty good idea of who I am, what I stand for and what they can count on me to fight for,” Andrews added. “Today, I will begin what is likely to be my final political campaign, by asking voters to write my name in to allow me the honor of continuing to represent them at city hall.” Andrews is the fourth councilmember in the city’s history to seek a third term, ac-
cording to Andrews’ campaign. State Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell ran and won a third term for the 4th District only to leave the remainder of the term vacant to take the state office that he won last year. Andrews, a 60-year resident of Central Long Beach, was elected to the city council in a special election in 2007, was re-elected in 2008 and then ran unopposed to win reelection in 2012. According to his campaign staff, Andrews has focused on “strengthening neighborhood safety, prioritizing funding
for local infrastructure improvements, expanding after-school programs and instituting commonsense reforms to improve the delivery of city services.” Andrews served as the first AfricanAmerican student body president at Poly High School, where he was an All-American High School Football and Track star. He holds a bachelor’s degree in social science and physical education from California State University, Long Beach, and is a member of the Long Beach State and Long Beach City College Athletic Hall of Fame. For 29 years, Andrews taught black history and government at Long Beach Poly and Wilson high schools, and he currently works as a substitute teacher at Cabrillo High School in West Long Beach. ■
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16 Long Beach Business Journal
REAL ESTATE LUNCHEON
May 26-June 8, 2015
May 2
Long Beach Commercial Real Estate Event Focused ■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer
Keynote speaker Lewis C. Horne, president of the greater Los Angeles Region for CBRE, Inc.
Long Beach elected officials (including Mayor Robert Garcia and 4th District Councilmember Daryl Supernaw), city commissioners, local business people and commercial real estate professionals gathered for the Long Beach Commercial Real Estate Council’s Annual Luncheon And EXPO on May 21 at The Westin Long
Beach. The event is co-sponsored by the
of selling Long Beach is some of the most im-
Long Beach Business Journal. Mayor Garcia provided opening remarks,
portant work that happens in our community.” Following Garcia’s comments, Ryan Al-
in which he emphasized the importance of the local commercial real estate industry in
toon, executive vice president of AndersonPacific LLC, spoke about how sustainable
marketing Long Beach. “In commercial real estate business, you
building practices incorporating walkable elements and amenities can activate commu-
are all selling our city every single day. You
nities. In Long Beach, AndersonPacific and
are selling our city to business folks. You are selling our city to people who want to invest in the community,” Garcia said. “That work
its partner, Ledcor Properties, are building The Current, a 17-story, 223-unit apartment tower at 707 E. Ocean Blvd. that Altoon said
Randy Lindros, Community Bank; Hal Compton, Firstline Mortgage; Ed Nance, Wells Fargo; and Paul Hesse, Penta Pacific Properties and President pro tempore for the Long Beach Holli Applegate, Old Republic Title Company; Steve Warshauer, Coldw BLAIR WESTMAC; Shannon Allen, DOMA Properties; and Garrett Mas Commercial Real Estate Council Ryan Altoon, executive vice president of AndersonPacific LLC, spoke about his project, The Current, under construction in Downtown Long Beach
Dan De Leon, Mark Correll and Cameron Jacques, all of Coldwell Cheri Bancroft, David Keller and Chandra Johnston, all of Kamus + Keller Banker Commercial BLAIR WESTMAC John O’Connor, Monica Estevez and Bob Klaewtanong, all of the Sares-Regis Group Arnie Garfinkle, All Star Group; Jenny Redlin, Partner Engineering and Science; and Craig Sullivan, Parkwest General Jon Legg, Old Republic Title Holding Company; Kimberly Wirz, iCore Global; Noel Aguirre, Lee & Associates; Derek Burnham, Burnham Development; Contractors and Christopher Scott, Old Republic Title Holding Company and Sean Lieppman, Lee & Associates
1_LBBJ_MAY26_2015_PortAnniversary 5/26/15 9:51 AM Page 17
2015
May 26-June 8, 2015
Long Beach Business Journal 17
REAL ESTATE LUNCHEON
Luncheon guests join members of the Long Beach Commercial Real Estate Council Board of Directors (Board), from left: David Pintar, Driver Urban (Board); Martine Crutchfield, Cardinal Pacific Escrow; Randy Jones, Spectrum Commercial Lending (Board); Ryan Altoon, AndersonPacific; Kelly Dent, CBRE (President of the Board); Mark Sokolowski, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (Board); Todd LaPlante, 5 Points Realty (Board); Juan Huizar, Sage Realty (Board); Arnie Garfinkle, All Star Group (Board); Francisco Williams, Capital Financial; Brian Russell, Coldwell Banker Commercial BLAIR WESTMAC (Board).
Focused On Sustainable And Creative Design Trends would be completed in April 2016. Upon completion, the company plans to begin work on a second, 35-story and 219-unit residential project adjacent to The Current. The Current will be Long Beach’s first residential building to meet the Gold Certification of the U.S. Green Building Council’s
Leadership
In
Energy
&
Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development ranking system. Lewis C. Horne, president of the greater
Los Angeles Region for CBRE, Inc., a
“free address” format – meaning that no em-
global real estate firm, served as the function’s keynote speaker. He discussed how
ployees, not even executives, have their own offices. The design, which also incorporates
the trend of creative office space is evolving from being defined by open spaces and ex-
the latest technology and healthy-living office equipment such as standing desks, facil-
posed industrial elements into a more complex design strategy that may change office
itates a more inclusive and collaborative corporate culture. This concept, he suggested,
culture entirely.
may be the future of creative office space.
To illustrate his point, Horne explained how CBRE completely gutted and redesigned its offices in Los Angeles into a
The Long Beach Commercial Real Estate Council was formed in 1993. To join or for more information, visit: lbcrec.com. ■
Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia presented opening remarks
Rich Carry, Main Street Realtors, and Rayne Sherman, Sherman Design Group
Michelle Reagan, Pacific Western Bank; Michelle Filerman, Wells Fargo; Sossi Crilly, Stewy; Steve Warshauer, Coldwell Banker Commercial art Title; and Dino Champagne, Asset Preservation roperties; and Garrett Massaro, Lee & Associates
John Fucci and Jim Axtell of Kilroy Realty, and Dave Smith, CBRE
Johanna Cunningham, Apartment Association, California Southern Cities, with Long Beach 4th District Councilmember Daryl Supernaw
D. Rocky Rockefeller, Rockefeller Partners Archi- Frank Colonna, Colonna & Co Realty, and Samantha Argosino, The Brass Lamp Book Bar & Lounge, and Mark Handian, Handtects, and Kraig Kojian, Downtown Long Beach Jared Lucas, Union Bank ian Construction Associates
us + Keller
ham Development; Lynn Stearns, First American Title, and Debbi Fixen, Shoreline Village, and D.J. Murray Anderson, US Bank Jones, Premier Business Centers
George Bustamante and Steve Warshauer, Kelly Dent, CBRE, and Becky Blair, both with Coldwell Banker Commercial Coldwell Banker Commercial BLAIR Art Demarillas, Community Bank, and WESTMAC BLAIR WESTMAC James Arom, Wells Fargo
Photographs by the Long Beach Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly
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18 Long Beach Business Journal
May 26-June 8, 2015
NEWSWATCH
Long Beach city leaders and business representatives who have helped organize the “Beach Streets Uptown” event scheduled for June 6 up Atlantic Avenue through Bixby Knolls to Houghton Park in North Long Beach convene at the park where a festival will take place during the event. Pictured from left are: Jay Lopez of the Long Beach Special Events Department; Nate Baird, Long Beach mobility coordinator; 8th District Councilmember Al Austin; 9th District Councilmember Rex Richardson; 7th District Councilmember Roberto Uranga; Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association (BKBIA) Project Manager Krista Leaders; BKBIA Executive Director Blair Cohn; and Uptown Business Improvement District Executive Director Sean Duren. In the background is the Vietnam Memorial. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)
‘Beach Streets’ Event On June 6 To Open Up Atlantic Avenue Through Bixby Knolls To Houghton Park In North Long Beach To Cyclists, Pedestrians ■ By SEAN BELK Staff Writer Ever wonder what it would be like to ride a bike or walk in the middle of a street without fearing automobile traffic? On Saturday, June 6, the public will have a chance to experience just that in Long Beach during “Beach Streets Uptown,” when a 3.5-mile section of Atlantic Avenue from Wardlow Road to Harding Street will be temporarily closed off to vehicles, creating a route for walking, bicycling, socializing and other activities. The event is based on “Ciclovia,” which means “bike path” in Spanish, first coined in the 1970s in Bogota, Columbia. Also known as “Open Streets,” such events that temporarily close off streets to let bicyclists and pedestrians roam freely have caught on in cities across the country and the world as a way to promote healthy physical activity, spur local economic growth and make social connections. Funded by a grant from the Los Ange-
les Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Long Beach event, which takes place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and spans three council districts (7, 8 and 9), is expected to rival other such events in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and New York, city officials said. Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said in a statement that he expects the bike and pedestrian-friendly event to give the “uptown” community in North Long Beach more exposure while supporting local businesses there. “The Beach Streets event is going to be a great way to explore Bixby Knolls and North Long Beach and support local businesses uptown,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing the community out on their bikes, and I want to encourage everyone to bring the whole family out.” While some businesses, such as automotive-related shops, might be negatively impacted because vehicle access will be mostly closed off for the day, most businesses along the route are embracing the event as a way
to increase “visibility,” said Nate Baird, Long Beach’s mobility coordinator, in an interview with the Business Journal. Several businesses, including restaurants and clothing boutiques, are actively engaged in the event and will be using parking lots for programmed activities and musical entertainment, such as DJs, while some are offering special deals, he said. “Folks are generally seeing it as a positive to have so much visibility on a Saturday,” Baird said. “We’re really hopeful that the visibility will be good for everybody along the corridor.” “CicLAvia,” Los Angeles’s version of Open Streets, boosted sales for businesses on the day of the event in June 2013 by 10 percent, according to a study by UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs. The event, which drew about 150,000 people down to Wilshire Boulevard, increased sales revenue for the corridor of 128 businesses by a total of $52,444, according to the study. Long Beach, already known for its com-
mitment to become the most bicyclefriendly city in the country, should draw a fairly sizable crowd, Baird said. However, he said it’s uncertain exactly how many people will attend. “I think we’d be pretty happy with 30,000 to 50,000 people,” Baird said. “We want this to be a great event, and we don’t want it to be overcrowded.” He said a number of Long Beach city departments, nonprofits, businesses and volunteers have come together to organize the event, which is being marketed to local residents in addition to people across Southern California through advertising and social media. “We are doing the event very uniquely,” Baird said. “It’s being entirely Long Beach made. People know Long Beach for our bicycle infrastructure and our commitment to bicycling, so I think we could have a pretty good draw.” In a presentation to the city council on May 12, Baird said there are expected to (Please Continue To Top Of Next Page)
Long Beach Announces Innovation Team (i-team) Funded By Bloomberg Grant The City of Long Beach recently hired its first Innovation Team (i-team), a group of eight people with backgrounds ranging from cultural anthropology to government to health tasked with creating solutions for city priorities. The team is going to tackle one city priority at a time, beginning with economic development. According to a city statement, “the i-team will use a data-driven process to assess problems, generate solutions and deliver measurable results.” The Innovation Team, which reports to Mayor Robert Garcia and City Manager Pat West, is funded by a $3 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to be distributed to the city over three years. Bloomberg Philanthropies is a
John Keisler Director
Ryan Murray Deputy
Holly Okonkwo Researcher
Alex Chavez Programmer
nonprofit organization encompassing all of former Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg’s charitable works. “The City of Long Beach is focused on innovative economic development for the 21st century,” Garcia said in a statement. “We are honored and grateful to Michael Bloomberg and his team at Bloomberg Philanthropies for providing the resources to put this amazing team together.” Members of the Innovation Team are: John Keisler, director; Ryan Murray, deputy; Holly Okonkwo, researcher; Alex Chavez, programmer; Alma Castro, fellow; Eric Romero, fellow; Heidi Wiersma, fellow; and Chase Airmet, Designmatters fellow. ■
Alma Castro Fellow
Eric Romero Fellow
Heidi Wiersma Fellow
Chase Airmet Designmatters Fellow
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rth Long h District s; BKBIA elly)
May 26-June 8, 2015 (Continued From Page 14)
be more than 150 programmed places set up around the route to provide live music and family-oriented activities. The daylong event will also include various festivals and activities at Scherer Park and Houghton Park. To lessen traffic impacts, crossing points for vehicles and public transit will be set up at major intersections. However, the city is encouraging local residents to leave their vehicles at home and either bike, walk, skateboard, rollerblade, roller skate or take public transit to the event. For more information on the Beach Streets event, visit www.beachstreets.com or call 562/570-5333. ■
A Seat At The Table (Continued From Page 1)
hasn’t been occupied for quite some time. Elected officials have been pretty much free to do as they wish. They don’t have to compromise because, as the PLA vote showed, no one from the local business community is offering alternatives or holding their feet to the fire or showing up to present testimony. Even if the “writing is on the wall” as to how a council vote may go, that’s no excuse for not being involved. This has to change. It must change to ensure a level playing field for businesses and for the business community to regain credibility with the mayor, city council, city staff, city commissions and others who control the direction of the city. The fact is, no matter the subject, the business community has a tremendous amount of expertise to offer in shaping the future of this city. The voice of local business must be heard, whether it’s to provide constructive criticism, offer a solution or alternative, get behind a project or development, or even to praise elected officials and city staff for a job well done. The city has a chamber of commerce, an apartment association, a commercial real estate council, several business improvement districts (Downtown, Belmont Shore, Bixby Knolls, East Anaheim Street, 4th Street, Magnolia Industrial Group, North Long Beach, etc.), the Westside Project Area Council, an international business association, several retail merchant associations and others. These groups need to work together on issues impacting Long Beach. Collectively, they represent thousands of businesses and tens of thousands of jobs. That should translate into a powerful voice that influences decisions being made at city hall. It begins at the top with the various boards of directors. The board sets policy for the organization’s president/executive director to carry out. Writing a check isn’t enough. Boardmembers – who do not and should not attempt to run the day-to-day operations of the organization – need to be active and involved in the group they have agreed to serve. They need to “show up” and “speak up” at monthly board meetings. Remember, no one at city hall – no one – is telling business organizations that their input is not welcomed. But it’s up to the business community to make it happen. The only thing standing in the way of the business community being an active participant and partner in moving the city forward is the business community, itself. ■
NEWSWATCH
City Council Votes To Support ‘Meatless Monday’ Campaign ■ By SEAN BELK Staff Writer Though not everybody agreed, the Long Beach City Council approved supporting “Meatless Monday,” an international campaign that, according to city staff, “encourages individuals and organizations to cut meat from one’s diet one day a week for personal health and environmental benefits.” The city council voted 7-2 to direct the city attorney to draft a resolution supporting the campaign, which has already been supported by city councils in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Councilmember Stacy Mungo, who
spoke at length about her concerns with the item, and Councilmember Daryl Supernaw cast the two dissenting votes. Councilmember Suzie Price who introduced the agenda item along with Councilmembers Al Austin and Lena Gonzalez, clarified that the item was brought forward as merely a way to “raise awareness” about public health benefits of “eating more fruits, vegetables and salads,” adding that it shouldn’t be taken as a mandate. Gonzalez said she signed on to support the campaign to promote a “different perspective on eating habits” while helping the city reach its sustainability goals, adding that the meat industry contributes more to climate change and uses more water than other food alternatives. Austin said he brought the item forward to promote healthy eating habits in Long Beach, which he added has the “highest rate of obesity in overweight children between the ages of 2 and 5 anywhere
Long Beach Business Journal 19 in California, with a rate of 40 percent.” The Meatless Monday campaign was founded in 2003 by Sid Lerner, a former advertising executive, in association with the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, according to the campaign’s website. The campaign was revived from previous movements during the world wars as a means to conserve food. Mungo said she decided to oppose drafting such a resolution out of respect for steak houses and restaurants that serve meat, adding that city governments shouldn’t be “telling people” or “making proclamations based on preferences.” In response to Mungo’s comments, supporters of the campaign stated that the city might be able to use the movement as a way to increase business for restaurants, adding that people who choose to follow the campaign would be encouraged to dine out on Mondays, which are typically slow days for restaurants. ■
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May 26-June 8, 2015
NEW SICK LEAVE LAW
California’s Sick Leave Law Effective July 1st (Continued From Page 1)
use outside payroll services or not, are still unaware of the new law that requires workplace notices be posted after January 1, 2015. The statute carries fines starting at $100 for failure to post the notice and administrative penalties as high as $4,000 for noncompliance of the policy requirements, Jenkins said. “I have given probably eight speaking engagements since the beginning of the year to different businesses groups, large and small . . . and you would inevitably get 80 percent of the audience that [had] no idea that this is coming,” Jenkins said. Under the law, employers have two options. The first option is to provide paid sick leave on an accrual basis by offering a minimum of one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Employees may start using accrued sick days on the 90th day of employment, Jenkins said. Under this method, employers must allow their employees to carry over earned unused sick days to the following year of employment. At the same time, however, employers are allowed to cap total maximum sick leave accrual at 48 hours or six days. The other option is to give workers the full amount of sick leave at the beginning of each year, also known as “front loading,” pursuant to meeting requirements of the new law. Under this method, the carryover provision is not required, Jenkins said. Employers who use paid time off (PTO) policies, which often put vacation, sick leave and personal time off in the same category, must also still meet requirements of the new state law and must pay out accrued time off when an employee leaves, she said. Furthermore, even if an employee never takes sick leave, the new law requires that accrued sick leave be tracked so that if an employee is then rehired within one year, the employer must provide any accrued unused sick time from previous employment. Under the new law, employers may provide sick leave in increments, but they must set a minimum increment of no more than two hours, Jenkins noted. In addition, sick leave must be paid no later than the next payroll period after the sick leave was taken. The law stipulates that paid sick leave must be compensated at the employee’s hourly wage rate. However, if an employee were paid at different hourly rates or by commission, an employer would have to calculate an average hourly rate over the last 90 days in which to pay the sick leave, she said. Jenkins said her law firm is currently seeking clarification on this issue because, in some cases, particularly those involving commissioned workers, an average hourly wage rate may be considerably higher than the regular hourly rate.
Shannon Jenkins, a partner and employment attorney with Tredway Lumsdaine & Doyle LLC, which has offices in Long Beach, Downey, Irvine and Beverly Hills, said employers should contact a knowledgeable employment attorney or human resources consultant to ensure full compliance with California’s new paid sick leave law that goes into effect July 1. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)
In addition, exempt or salaried employees who aren’t paid overtime are deemed to work 40 hours per week regardless if their workweek is more or less, she said. The new law also broadens the reasons an employee can use for calling in sick. Under the new law, an employee can take sick leave for “diagnosis, care or treatment of an existing health condition or preventive care” for one’s own or a family member. Additionally, the new law defines a “family member” more broadly than under current state and federal statutes, expanding the definition to include “biological, adopted, step, foster and domestic partner” with regard to children, parents, spouse, grandparents, grandchildren and siblings. The law also allows employees to take sick leave for being a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. The law states that the employer may not require the employee to search for or find a replacement worker to cover paid sick days and may not require a doctor’s note. In regard to employers using temporary staffing agencies, Jenkins points out that, under the new law, an employer is “respon-
sible” for providing paid sick leave to a temporary worker as a joint employer. She said it’s important for an employer to make sure that the contracted staffing agency is providing the paid sick leave to the temporary worker; otherwise, the responsibility will fall on the employer. “What this law says is temporary employees from staffing agencies are also covered under the new law,” Jenkins said. “So whoever is the employer or joint employer is required to provide paid sick leave.” In addition, Jenkins said that, under the new law, employers must show on a pay stub or a document issued the same day as the paycheck how many days of sick leave are available. Employers must also keep records showing how many hours an employee has earned and used for at least three years. This information may be stored on documents available to employees electronically, she said. The legislation was pushed by labor unions and workers’ rights organizations that argued sick pay should be mandated, especially for low-wage workers in the private sector who often have to choose be-
tween keeping a job and taking care of their families. Several business groups and industry trade associations across California, however, opposed the law and attempted to thwart its passage last year. The California Chamber of Commerce (CalChamber) had originally placed the legislation on its annual list of “job killer” bills, measures that would negatively impact economic and job growth throughout the state. The chamber, however, removed the law from its list after legislators made several amendments to the legislation, said Jennifer Barrera, policy advocate for CalChamber, in a phone interview with the Business Journal. One of the main changes made to the law, she said, was allowing employers with existing policies, such as PTO plans, to accrue time off in a different manner, such as through a pay period, rather than “hours worked.” She said the law was amended so that employers would still be compliant as long as their policies provide three days of sick leave per year or 24 hours in a 12month period. “Our concern was that a lot of employers already provide paid sick leave or some type of paid time off policy, but they just don’t necessarily do it in an hours-worked method because it’s more administratively difficult,” Barrera said. “Especially if you have a large workforce, you’re not tracking all of their hours.” Still, she said, the CalChamber continues to oppose the new legislation based on the fact that it will be a “significant mandate on employers” and “a costly benefit to provide,” especially for small businesses that don’t have any paid time off or paid sick leave policy. Even for employers who already have a policy, the bill comes with a “huge expansion” to part-time and seasonal workers, Barrera added. “With regard to some of the provisions of the paid sick leave mandate, the implementation of it is going to be costly and administratively difficult for a lot of employers,” she said. “I don’t know of one industry that’s not impacted by this bill.” One sector that may be particularly impacted is the restaurant industry. Costa Mesa-based Kings Fish House, for instance, which has 20 locations – including two in Downtown Long Beach – and employs about 1,500 people, is one of several restaurant operators that now have to develop and implement a system for tracking sick pay for hourly workers. “I think we’re all probably in the same boat,” said Kelly Ellerman, chief people officer for King’s Fish House, referring to restaurants in California. “We’re all trying to get ready for [the new law].” She said the company, which uses an outside payroll service, has already started accruing sick leave for employees as of January. Asked whether the new law will impact the company’s bottom line, Eller-
“ . . . it appears the California Legislature has taken the approach that employers are bad people and cannot be trusted. . . . The Democrats in Sacramento – most of whom know zip about running a business – are slowly zapping the energy and creativity of small business people. I simply do not understand why they are bent on making it so difficult for honest, hard-working entrepreneurs to succeed?” Long Beach Business Journal Publisher George Economides
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May 26-June 8, 2015 man said, “It will, but we just don’t know what that will be because it’s a voluntary benefit.” Matt Sutton, vice president of government affairs and public policy for the California Restaurant Association, said the new law is ultimately going to force restaurants to “pay double for the work of one employee.” Unlike other businesses, restaurants require an immediate replacement to cover a shift, he said, adding that restaurants are “incredibly flexible” with schedules in which employees trade shifts amongst each other. “If you take a manufacturer or an employee in a general office, if they come in sick, the company is not going to call in a replacement for them that day,” Sutton said. “Given the labor needs of a restaurant, you’re going to pay for them to be out sick and you’re also going to pay for the replacement labor to come in. So you end up sort of paying double for the work of one employee . . . That’s an unintended consequence, but the cost implications I think are the greatest for the restaurant community.” He added that the California Retail Food Code already mandates that restaurants make sure anyone who comes in sick with certain symptoms is immediately told to leave. “The last thing an operator wants is a sick employee to show up and possibly get a patron sick and then the patron would be upset and not come back as a repeat customer,” Sutton said. “So there were a lot of things in place that we thought were adequately addressing this.” He said the new labor law comes at a time when restaurants are already dealing with the impacts of the Affordable Care Act, which he said has added costs for
Basics of AB 1522: • All employers regardless of size must comply (with limited exceptions). • All employees (including part-time and temporary) are entitled to three paid sick days per year. • Employers must elect to offer three full days of leave at the beginning of the year or use an accrual method. • Employees may use sick pay for a broad range of circumstances affecting themselves and their families. • Employers using temporary staffing agencies must provide sick pay to a temporary worker as a joint employer. • Employer must follow use, increment, cap and rollover requirements even if current sick/PTO plan in place. • Employer must have compliant tracking and disclosure methods, workplace postings and use the labor commissioner notices.
Employers should: • Familiarize themselves with the law (visit www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Paid_Sick_ Leave.htm). • Revisit current benefit practices within their business to verify that they are compliant with the law. • Make the appropriate decisions regarding how they will offer the benefit • Consult their payroll provider to ensure compliance with tracking and reporting requirements. • Contact a knowledgeable employment lawyer or human resources consultant. Source: Tredway Lumsdaine & Doyle, LLC
NEW SICK LEAVE LAW
“With regard to some of the provisions of the paid sick leave mandate, the implementation of it is going to be costly and administratively difficult for a lot of employers.” Jennifer Barrera, Policy Advocate, California Chamber of Commerce
restaurants, in addition to the state’s increase in the minimum wage. “It’s a difficult time for operators to be adjusting to all this and come July 1 they’ll be taking on the new costs associated with the sick leave,” Sutton said. Business Journal Publisher George Economides said he is baffled by all the anti-business legislation coming out of Sacramento. “In trying to comprehend how this law is to be implemented, especially when it comes to non-full-time em-
ployees, it appears the state legislature has taken the approach that employers are bad people and cannot be trusted,” he said. The way legislators structured the law, it not only invites abuse by employees but also lawsuits, with the burden of proof falling on the employer. “The Democrats in Sacramento – most of whom know zip about running a business – are slowly zapping the energy and creativity of small business people. I simply do not understand why they are bent on
Long Beach Business Journal 21 making it so difficult for honest, hardworking entrepreneurs to succeed?” Jenkins warned that fines and/or penalties for noncompliance could come as a result of either Internal Revenue Service (IRS) action or complaints from disgruntled employees. She said employers who fail to comply might be threatened with litigation. “I have multiple clients who come to me who have said, ‘I’ve been doing this for 30 years and have never been sued,’” she said. “Well, it’s inevitable.” Jenkins recommends that employers consult with their payroll provider to ensure compliance with tracking and reporting requirements. Small businesses that don’t use an outside payroll service should contact a knowledgeable employment attorney or human resources consultant, she added.” ■
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FOCUS ON LAW
Keeping Up With Employment Law (Continued From Page 1)
“Almost inevitably it happens to any business, particularly one with growth,” Marron said. Owners of growing businesses work less closely with employees and may pass on managerial duties to others. That loss of direct oversight sometimes results in situations where lawsuits can occur, Marron explained. “It’s really important for employers to pay attention to the environment within their company,” Holly Gagas, junior partner at Clinton & Clinton, told the Business Journal. Gagas heads up the firm’s employment law section. “It is most important to communicate with supervisors and employees regarding any applicable laws, including any changes in laws,” she added. Keeping up with changing employment laws may not be an easy task for alreadybusy business owners. “For a business owner to completely stay up on employment laws, it cedes the business owner’s need to focus on generating money and growth of the business,” Marron said. He continued, “Some good approaches are as follows: obviously have a good law firm that represents the company and get involved in trade associations for the industry, because the trade associations typically have the money and resources to educate membership about important employment law issues.” He also recommended joining the California Chamber of Commerce, which he said “has tremendous resources, particularly for small employers, on how to deal with
Paul Marron, principal and founder of Marron Lawyers in Downtown Long Beach, told the Business Journal that employment-related lawsuits are almost inevitable for business owners. To better protect themselves, business owners should make sure their workplace policies are clear and provide proper training on human resources issues, he said. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)
employee and human resources issues.” When it comes to any employee-related matters it is important to properly and thoroughly document hours worked, overtime hours and complaints of any kind, according to Pamela Tahim, senior associate at Tredway Lumsdaine & Doyle. Doing so enables business owners to defend themselves when lawsuits arise. “We see a lot of employers still not using time cards or proper time reporting sys-
tems,” Tahim said. If an employer doesn’t properly document when employees clock in and out, for example for lunch breaks, the employer has no evidence of how many hours the employees worked or if they took the required meal time. “It’s really critical that they have their employees clock in and out or put it in their time card . . . because if somebody turns around and says well ‘I wasn’t paid for my lunches,’ how are you going to defend it?” Tahim explained.
May 26-June 8, 2015 A common misstep employers make when it comes to lunch breaks is allowing or requesting their employees to perform their duties during lunch, Tahim noted. “They need to make sure that the employees are completely relieved of all of their duties for their meal and rest breaks,” she stressed. “They can’t say ‘okay, well you are going to take your lunch at your desk and you are going to answer the phones.’ The employer is automatically liable for that,” she said. “Another problem we see is failure to properly track overtime hours,” Tahim said. Business owners need to understand that “the burden is on the employer” to keep track of overtime hours – not on the employee, she noted. Gagas said a common mistake business owners make in relation to wage and hour laws is failing to provide a final paycheck and full payment of benefits to an employee on the day a person is fired. In her experience practicing law, some of the most common lawsuits against employers are related to misclassification of employees as exempt (from the requirement for overtime pay and other protections) when they are actually nonexempt, Tahim said. There are three classifications of exempt employees, including those in professional, executive and administrative positions, she explained. Each of these classifications comes with its own set of requirements. “It is very important for employers to make sure that they have a job description for employees who are in these exempt categories,” Tahim said. To be labeled exempt, 50 percent or more of the work an employee does must qualify under the requirements
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May 26-June 8, 2015 of one of the exempt, she explained. If an employee is misclassified as exempt, “then the employer has to pay for overtime wages . . . [and] missed meal and rest breaks” in addition to financial penalties, she noted. Another common misclassification occurs when a business owner mislabels an employee as an independent contractor, Tahim said. If an employee is “coming to your office every single day and you’re directing the way they work and you’re supervising them, then they are not an independent contractor,” she said. Frequently, she sees lawsuits related to misclassification of truck drivers and security guards as independent contractors. Under California Senate Bill 459, willfully misclassifying an employee as an independent contractor results in a $15,000 to $25,000 fine per violation, Tahim said. To better protect themselves against employee lawsuits claiming harassment, discrimination or retaliatory practices in the workplace, business owners need to thoroughly document any complaints, Gagas and Tahim emphasized. “Documentation is really important [for] any reviews and any complaints about employees or by employees,” Gagas said. “Any investigation [of these complaints] needs to be documented and completed thoroughly.” “When there is a performance problem or there is a dispute within the office between an employee and another employee or a supervisor, always promptly investigate and document,” Gagas said. “And have the employee acknowledge it in writing.” To prevent such claims from being made in the first place, business owners should
Long Beach Business Journal 23 make sure their supervisors and management staff are trained in matters of harassment, Gagas said. She recommended that all employees receive the same training. Of critical importance in avoiding lawsuits is hiring the right employees, Marron said. “Probably the most significant [factor in employment lawsuits] is hiring the wrong employee,” he said, adding that background checks are important measures when hiring. “Hire slow, fire fast. In other words, if possible, bring employees on temporarily to see if they are going to work out,” he explained. “But if employees don’t work out, fire them sooner rather than later.” Business owners who aren’t so careful in their hiring practices may find themselves taken advantage of. Marron said that, in his experience, many employees who sue their employers “are problem employees who take advantage of very worker-friendly laws in the State of California to manipulate poor performance into multiple reasons for suit, such as discrimination, unpaid wages, unpaid overtime, breaks not provided, et cetera.” Both Marron and Tahim advise business owners to purchase employment practices liability insurance. “That covers wrongful termination suits,” Marron said. “If the employer has insurance, the employer is really protecting himself from basically going out of business” due to litigation-related costs, Tahim said. All three agreed that one of the best steps business owners can take to prevent litigation – and save money when it does occur – is to retain a law firm to advise on business and employment law. “Have somebody on your speed dial,” Tahim said. ■
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FOCUS ON LAW
May 26-June 8, 2015
Faced With Tough Job Market, Law Grads Likely To See More Promise In Private Practice, Small Firms ■ By SEAN BELK Staff Writer In a tough job market for attorneys where there are far more applicants than available entry-level jobs, most law school graduates are likely to find work in their own private practices or at a small law firm, according to local legal professionals. After working for a small law firm in Long Beach for eight years, Matthew Fischer, for instance, opened up his own private practice as a business lawyer nearly a year ago. Starting out has been a challenge, Fischer said, especially during a tumultuous time for the legal industry when more people following the recession have been settling cases out of court rather than paying for an attorney to go to trial. Still, Fischer, who serves as president of the Long Beach Bar Association (LBBA), an organization of more than 500 members, said work has recently picked up as the economy has slowly improved. “It seems to be picking up for the business community and legal community in general – that the farther away we get from the 2007-2008 financial collapse, the more legal needs are reappearing that had shrunk over the past few years, “ he said.
“I think we’re through the worst of it,” Fischer added. “Now, you’re starting to see people expand and look for new opportunities, and along with that come legal needs they may not have had previously.” On the national level, there was a slight rise in the percentage of 2014 graduates obtaining entry-level jobs last year compared to 2013, according to figures released in April by the American Bar Association (ABA). The data also shows, however, that there was a slight decline in the total number of jobs, according to the ABA, which notes that there was also a small drop in the number of law school graduates in 2014 compared to the previous year. Even with slightly more graduates obtaining entry-level jobs nationally, locally there appears to be more lawyers looking for work, both recently graduated and experienced, than there are jobs. Take, for instance, Kaiser, Swindells & Eiler, which employs about 10 lawyers and has clients including national restaurant chains, hotel corporations, shipping companies and even the City of Long Beach. The law firm, which has been in existence since 1981, received about 50 applications about a year ago for just one available lawyer position that required a minimum of 10 years of experience.
Long Beach 320 Golden Shore, Suite 410 Long Beach, CA 90802 P | (562) 432-7422
Matthew Fischer, an attorney who opened up his own private practice a little more than a year ago at 400 Oceangate, Suite 800 in Downtown Long Beach, serves as president of the Long Beach Bar Association. The Local bar has more than 500 members. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)
“That’s quite a few [applications],” said Pamela Swindells, a partner of the law firm and a member of the LBBA. She agrees that the job market is tough for prospective lawyers but adds that law school graduates might have better success at making a living if they can stay
Orange County 2415 Campus Drive, Suite 250 Irvine, CA 92612 P | (949) 679-9823
“visible” and match the needs of an employer. Right now, the job market at most law firms is primarily geared toward attorneys with five to 10 years of experience, Swindells said. “It’s tough out there,” she said. “But the jobs are there . . . It all depends on the fit
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May 26-June 8, 2015 and the personality and where they’re at in their careers.” Fischer said changes in legal needs for the business community in Long Beach and Southern California in general has forced law firms to change their practice and the way they staff their offices. “I think there are fewer legal opportunities within the traditional firm and government structures out there,” he said, adding, however, that there are still a lot of opportunities for smaller firms and solo practices to “carve out a niche.” Charles Hicks, adjunct professor and dean of Pacific Coast University School of Law, a non-profit private college in Long Beach, agrees that most graduates, some seeking a second career, are finding work in private practice while others are able to land jobs in small to medium-size law firms. Hicks said that enrollment at the university has risen over the last five to six years but has recently started to “stabilize” at about 60 new students per year, with total student enrollment at a little more than 200 students. He added that there still appears to be workforce demand for attorneys in governments, such as cities, counties and states. Starting salaries, however, are not as high as they used to be for entry-level positions, even for graduates from top-tiered law colleges, Hicks said, adding that attorney positions that once carried starting salaries of $150,000 per year have “gone by the wayside.” Hicks noted that, while there continues to be students graduating with law de-
FOCUS ON LAW
Charles Hicks, adjunct professor and dean of Pacific Coast University, School of Law in Long Beach, said that most law school graduates are finding work in private practice or small to medium-size law firms. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)
grees, the demand for lawyers, for the most part, has dropped. About 80 percent of people in Orange County, for example, are getting divorced “pro per” (representing themselves) because they can’t afford attorneys anymore, he said. “You’re looking at $350 an hour or more for an attorney,” Hicks said. “The average person can’t afford that. So what you find is that [fewer] people are going to the law firms for assistance, and they’re doing it on their own.” There does appear to be growing de-
mand for lawyers, however, in the area of alternate dispute resolution (ADR) mediation services, as more cases are being handled outside of court rather than going to trial, he said. In fact, Hicks added that an ADR mediation course has been instituted as a requirement at his university for all students in their second year of law school. Swindells said cutbacks to the local court system have only made cases even tougher to go to trial, which may inadvertently impact the job market.
Long Beach Business Journal 25 She said that, because of budget cuts in recent years, injury cases that used to be filed at the Long Beach courthouse now must be filed in Downtown Los Angeles, making it harder for cases, particularly those with witnesses, to be litigated. “It’s become very difficult for everybody here in terms of trying to get a case to trial and that could affect the job market as well,” Swindells said. Hicks said careers that show great promise for attorneys in the local area include those involving patent law, copyright law and healthcare. He added that there are even more job opportunities in rural areas. Swindells said her law firm hires based on “people skills” and looks at such factors as litigation experience, dedication and stability, adding that staying connected in the industry may also help prospective attorneys obtain employment. In addition, Fischer said building a reputation in the community creates job opportunities as a private practice attorney as well. “If you do good work, you work with good people, you do the work to get your name out there and you demonstrate that you’re capable and honest, there are plenty of opportunities for growth,” he said. In the long term, Hicks said that there eventually may be a “void of qualified attorneys” in the future since many lawyers are now reaching retirement age. However, he said that likely wouldn’t occur for five to 10 years as many lawyers are able to practice law well into their later years. ■
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26 Long Beach Business Journal
IN THE NEWS
May 26-June 8, 2015
American Gold Star Manor Commemorates American Heroes Every year, the American Gold Star Manor holds a Memorial Day Ceremony to honor American military service members who gave their lives for their country. The American Gold Star Manor, located at 3021 Gold Star Dr. in West Long Beach, is named for the national group Gold Star Mothers, a group of mothers whose children lost their lives in service of their country. The community is home to Gold Star Mothers and Fathers, as well as veterans and low-income seniors. At this year’s ceremony, held May 22, residents of the American Gold Star Manor were joined by local, county and state elected officials, community leaders and veterans for a wreath-laying ceremony, and commemorative prayers and remarks. Members of the Cabrillo High School Junior Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps Color Guard performed a presentation of colors, and the Stephens Middle School Band was joined by the American Gold Star Manor Resident Choir for a performance of the Star Spangled Banner. Pictured in photograph at left are, from left: Randy McConnell, chaplain in the California State Military Reserves; Coco Wang; Wang’s husband and military veteran Vern Hollingsworth; and Rob Ewing, chaplain. At right, American Gold Star Mothers Sheila Thomas (left) and Nadia McCaffrey lay wreaths at the American Gold Star Manor Memorial as manor President/CEO Terry Geiling looks on. Both McCaffrey and Thomas had children who died in military service, and both are residents of the manor. (Photographs by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)
2015 Executive Quick Start Class of Leadership Long Beach Is First In Six Years Leadership Long Beach’s Executive Quick Start Class of 2015 is the first class of its type since 2009. According to Leadership Long Beach, the class “is made up of leading executives in Long Beach, most who are new to the city and new to their leadership positions. They met for five sessions in the month of April at different locations around the city learning about key topics, issues and segments of Long Beach and created opportunities for them to meet and network with other key leaders in the city.” Pictured at the Rancho Los Cerritos library, from left, are: Rolando Cruz, board president of Leadership Long Beach; Kenneth McDonald, president/CEO of Long Beach Transit; Patrick Shirmer, director of customer operations for Boeing Commercial Airplanes; Linda Alexander, executive director of the Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership; Carmen Taylor, vice president of student affairs for California State University, Long Beach; Lori Lamb, vice chancellor of human resources, California State University, Office of the Chancellor; Kelly Colopy, director of the Long Beach Health & Human Services Department; Kandice Taylor-Sherwood, director of the Long Beach Civil Service Department; Jeff Williams, executive director of Leadership Long Beach; and Patrick Brown, head of school-elect of Westerly School. (Photograph by Oscar Cosby)
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2015
at 3021 Mothers mmunity rformed left are, old Star who died
May 26-June 8, 2015
IN THE NEWS
Long Beach Business Journal 27
Westerly School Breaks Ground On New Classrooms Mayor Robert Garcia and leadership from Westerly School broke ground on the school’s new permanent learning studios on May 19. When completed in early 2016, the studios will replace the K-8 school’s modular (mobile) classrooms. A crowd of more than 250 guests attended the event, including Westerly’s 150 students and their families, alumni, faculty and community leaders. The new classrooms (pictured inset left) are made possible by the school’s Building Westerly’s Future (BWF) campaign, which has a fundraising goal of $5 million. More than 100 donors have contributed $3.6 million to the campaign thus far. “My gratitude for current families and trustees who dreamed this impossible dream, that the school could design and then raise funds to break ground, all within a nine-month period, is nothing short of Herculean,” Patrick Brown, who is taking the reins as head of school on July 1, said at the event. Pictured above, from left, are: Byron Pinckert, project architect; Theresa Aranda, BWF campaign chair; Eileen Edwards, BWF committee member; Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia; Ralph Holguin, BWF committee member; Chris Rodenhizer, current Westerly head of school; Neil Kinney, Westerly School board chair; and Brown. At right, a Westerly School student attends the groundbreaking ceremony wearing a souvenir hard hat. (Photographs by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)
Team 100 Delivers Food To Roosevelt Elementary School On May 22, members of Team 100 Food For Kids, a group of Long Beach area men dedicated to fighting childhood hunger, delivered bags full of groceries to benefit students and families of Roosevelt Elementary School in Long Beach. The group, now in its fourth year, has donated more than 130,000 meals to local students from seven elementary schools. Team 100 partners with Food Finders, an area nonprofit that helps procure and deliver the food on a weekly basis. According to Team 100, more than 54,000 elementary school-aged students in Long Beach are low income and live below the poverty line. While these students receive school meals Mondays through Fridays, they may not have enough to eat during weekends. Team 100 makes these food deliveries in the hopes of alleviating the hunger these students may experience during the weekend. Pictured at Roosevelt Elementary school, from left, are: Tim McBride, founder and former president of Team 100; Arley Baker, Team 100 member and senior director of communications for the Port of Los Angeles; and Patti Larson, executive director of Food Finders. This Saturday, May 30, Team 100 is presenting its annual Blue Martini Ball, sponsored by Ruth Peck, to raise funds to combat hunger. For more information on making a tax-deductible donation to Food for Long Beach Kids, visit: http://team100lb.org. (Photographs by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)
Architect Kelly Sutherlin McLeod Recognized With Two Awards Kelly Sutherlin McLeod, a Long Beach-based architect specializing in the preservation and rehabilitation of historic buildings, has been recognized with two awards for contributions in her field. On May 6, she received the University of Southern California’s 2015 Distinguished Alumni Award, which in the past has been awarded to well-known architects such as Frank Gehry and Thom Mayne. McLeod is the first woman to receive the award. “She represents the very best in our profession: a prolific practitioner, a highly accomplished advocate for design excellence and heritage conservation, a true citizen architect and a public servant,” Robert Harris, former dean of the USC School of Architecture, said in a statement. McLeod accepted the award at a gala dinner at the Gamble House in Pasadena, a national historic landmark which she, as project architect, preserved. McLeod is also being awarded the Modernism in America Award of Excellence by Docomomo US (the international committee for the documentation and conservation of buildings, sites, and neighborhoods of the modern movement) at the organization’s national symposium on June 5 in Minnesota. She is receiving the honor for her work restoring the Hafley House, a Long Beach residence designed by architect Richard J. Neutra in 1953. McLeod has her own firm, Kelly Sutherlin McLeod Architecture, Inc., and is a member of the design/build team for Plenary Edgemoor Pacific Partners, the group building the new Long Beach Civic Center. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)
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May 26-June 8, 2015
PERSPECTIVE
HealthWise
Small Business Dollars & Sense
Making Strides – The Path To Understanding cystic Fibrosis
Planning a vacation? don’t Break the Bank!
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here are approximately 30,000 people in the U.S. living with cystic fibrosis (CF), and about 1,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Based on research by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, it also is known that an additional 10 million people – about one in every 31 Americans – are symptomless carriers of the defective CF gene. With May being Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month, it’s an opportunity to educate our community to help promote a greater underBy Terry standing of this life-threatening genetic disease. It’s also a time to chin, M.d. highlight the great strides that have been made over the last few decades to improve the lives of those living with CF. Cystic fibrosis primarily affects the lungs and digestive system. A defect in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene causes CF. This gene makes a protein that controls the movement of salt and water in and out of the body's cells. In people who have CF, the gene makes a protein that doesn't work well. The defective gene and its protein product cause mucus in the body to thicken and become sticky. The thick, sticky mucus builds up in the body’s organs, especially the lungs and pancreas. When build-up occurs in the lungs, it makes it difficult for the person to breathe. Buildup in the pancreas prevents the releases of digestive enzymes that help the body break down food. This leads to problems with growth and development. Cystic fibrosis is a complex disease to treat – affecting multiple organ systems in the body, which can cause a variety of serious complications, each requiring highly specialized treatment. Coordinating this multi-disciplinary care takes a unique kind of expertise and a lot of teamwork. In the 1950s, few children with this incurable disease lived to elementary school age. Once considered a pediatric illness, advances in research and medical treatments have extended life for children and adults with CF by decades. Now many people with CF live well into their 30s and 40s, with some even living into older adulthood. Many people with CF live “normal” lives. Children and teens can be active and go on to college. As adults, many people with CF eventually get married and have children of their own. Research studies today are showing great promise in increasing the life expectancy of people with CF, many of which are being conducted right in our own backyard. In the last few years alone, the Food and Drug Administration approved an oral medication that targets the underlying defect of CF for patients with several different mutations. Additional trials are examining whether people with numerous different mutations can benefit from a combination of drugs. Researchers are not only discovering more effective therapies to help treat CF symptoms, but are working hard to continue to improve quality of life for people with CF and eventually find a cure. It’s a complicated disease, but the most important thing to remember is that for people living with it, CF is a diagnosis, not the thing that defines them. (Terry Chin, M.D., is the assistant medical director, Pediatric Pulmonary Center, Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach.)
Effective Leadership Start With Why
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imon Sinek wrote a book entitled “Start With Why.” He reminds us that everybody knows what they do. Even less know how they do what they do. And only a few know “Why.” That’s good for a business organization, but it’s also good for an individual. By Mick Life has a way of pushing us over if UklejA we let it. One of the main antidotes against being a pushover is to know what we truly want out of life. This comes down to a decision to invest in yourself. The most difficult phase of life is not when others do not understand you. It’s when you don’t understand yourself. What do you want out of life? What is your vision for your future? What are your strengths and passions? Where are you in your current state of life? The happiest and most successful people I’ve encountered are those who have broken the chains of procrastination.
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ccording to the recent Wells Fargo’s “How America Buys and Borrows” survey, the cost of a vacation will be one-third of American’s largest expense this year. Your ticket to avoiding a Break the Bank situation may be sitting in your wallet: your rewards credit card. These tips can help you turn your vacation dreams into reality. Understand how your rewards card works Read the terms and conditions thoroughly to understand earning By Ben and redeeming rewards. Some cards offer cash back or points. Know AlvArAdo if fees or charges occur when redeeming and whether your rewards ever expire. Use rewards you’ve already earned Some consumers track rewards and redeem them regularly. Others rarely think about them. If you fall in the second category, check your rewards balance. You may have earned enough rewards to offset vacation costs like airfare, hotel stays or gift cards to merchants you plan on visiting while vacationing. Earn rewards for the money you’ll spend on vacation According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics the average vacationer spends just over $1,300 for travel expenses on a vacation. By responsibly using your rewards credit card for vacation costs, rewards can add up for use later, perhaps, for next year’s vacation! Understand travel-related benefits that come with your credit card Traveling with your credit card offers a safer way to pay, if a card is lost or stolen, your bank can stop charges to your account. Additionally, many card perks may help make your travel smoother -- 24/7 concierge services to help with travel plans, rental car insurance, no-fee currency conversions, competitive currency conversion rates, and insurance for lost or damage luggage. To learn more about these benefits, read your credit card agreement. Make the most of your vacation by using smart budgeting and money management basics. Let your bank know you’re going out of town, and stay on top of your finances by using your bank’s mobile app. Then kick back and enjoy your time away! (Ben Alvarado, a 23-year veteran of Wells Fargo, is the president of the bank’s Southern California Region, which stretches from Long Beach to Orange, Imperial and San Diego counties.)
Don’t leave yourself out of your life! Bet on yourself. Listen to your soul. Trust your instincts. Following are five of my acquaintances who could have come up with a hundred reasons why they didn’t have enough time or money to follow their passions. They already had commitments and responsibilities. Yet they overcame their fears. Here’s their story in brief. Trudy was a divorced single mom stuck in a job as a waitress. She went back to school, got her degree and was eventually nominated for Teacher of The Year by the San Diego School District for her work with “at risk” high school students. Melanie was a single mom whose mother and sister were murdered before her eyes by her stepfather. Her son was killed by the boy he was mentoring. She now motivates harden young criminals to reverse their lives and created M.A.T.F.A. (Mentoring, A Touch From Above). Choelene, was a captain on United Airlines flight 93. She called in sick with the flu and her life was miraculously spared from 9/11. It caused her to pause and reflect. She found new meaning in the life she already had. She, along with her partner, reached out to help and build a community center in Mississippi for the survivors of Katrina. Rachel, with severe ADD, struggled through college and ended up teaching children with learning disabilities. She has an incredible passion for this work, and she resolved to do what she wanted.
Vicki was a divorced mother. She is now a business consultant, author, and speaker. She is a coach for Nike, Toyota, Gap, Merrill Lynch, etc. She completely altered her life from that of a teacher and assistant principal to discover her “why,” and now teaches leaders and managers instead of children. These women could have come up with a hundred reasons why they didn’t have time or money to follow their passions. After all, they already had commitments and ongoing responsibilities. They overcame their fears and went for it. In most cases it entailed learning a new skill or applying an existing skill in another context. In every case they answered the question, “Who am I becoming, and how far will that person take me?” We’ve all been reminded that life does not owe us anything. These women had a deeper understanding that life had already given them everything they needed. What they did was not an act of self-indulgence. It was an act of self-respect. Don’t let your but get bigger than your why, is another way of saying, “Don’t leave yourself out of your life.” (Mick Ukleja keynotes across the country on topics related to leadership. He is president of LeadershipTraq and author of several books, including co-author of Managing the Millennials. His clients have included Fortune 500 corporations and non-profit organizations. Check his weekly blog at www.leadershiptraq.com.)
May 2
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2015
ys and ird of Break credit eality.
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May 26-June 8, 2015
Realty Views investors, Flippers Taking larger Home Share
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ust when it looked like owner-occupants were taking back the housing market and investors were cutting back their appetite for purchasing single-family homes because of appreciating prices, some new statistics seem to indicate that investors are increasing their share of home purchases this year and the quick-strike investors – By Terry or flippers – are showing good profits as well in roSS that segment of the investment arena. According to new nationwide statistics released recently by RealtyTrac, one of the leading property data companies, existing home sales to non-owner-occupants reached a new high of 36.8 percent in the first quarter of 2015, the highest level since the first quarter of 2011 when the firm started releasing its Cash, Investor & Distressed Sales Report. It showed that owner-occupant buyers accounted for 63.2 percent of all residential single-family home and condo sales in the first quarter of 2015, down from 65.8 percent in the previous quarter and 68.6 percent a year ago. A couple of overall trends also emerged as well. It appears that non-institutional investors are playing a larger role in this market trend as small investors are taking over a larger portion of purchases – and more purchases are involving financing. All-cash buyers accounted for 25.9 percent of all single-family home and condo sales in the first quarter of 2015, down from 30.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014 – a four-year low. A total of 14,621 single-family homes were sold to institutional investors – entities that purchase at least 10 properties in a calendar year – in the first quarter of 2015. This was 3.4 percent of all sales and down from 6.2 percent a year ago, the lowest share in four years. “The first quarter sales data broken down by owner-occupancy status suggest two important trends in the housing market: first, investor activity continues to represent a disproportionately high share of all home sales activity in this housing recovery, but unlike the past three years the large institutional investors are backing out while the smaller, mid-tier and mom-and-pop investors are remaining active,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “The second trend is that a growing number of investors are not buying all-cash, but instead
3rd Sector Report The Westerly Way: capital campaigning done right
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or many nonprofit leaders, the only conversation more terrifying than fundraising is the one about capital campaign fundraising. If only buildings wouldn’t wear out or growth in service to the community could be achieved without having to grow infrastructure. By jeFFrey Over the years, Long Beach has had Wilcox many good examples of successful capital campaigns. We’ve also experienced drives that generated far more lessons learned than actual dollars raised. With the breaking of ground last week for new construction at Westerly School, just months after launching a major drive for contributions, it would appear that its leaders are proving to the rest of us what it means to be a master teacher on the subject of capital fundraising. Founded in 1993, Westerly School has contributed significantly to the quality education landscape of Long Beach. The school launched with a zeal to provide a unique student and family education experience that would eventually become known as “The Westerly Way.” Like most highly successful nonprofit organizations, it channeled as many precious resources as it could muster over the years to do its best work.
Long Beach Business Journal 29
PERSPECTIVE are taking advantage of the broader set of financing options now available to them thanks to a new crop of nationwide companies that have emerged offering financing specifically for investment properties.” In Southern California, investor activity increased to 29.2 percent of home sales in the first quarter. The average gross profit – the difference between the purchase price and the flipped price – for completed flips in the first quarter was $72,450, up from $65,290 in the previous quarter and up from $61,684 in the first quarter of 2014 to the highest level going back to the first quarter of 2011. The average gross return on investment (ROI) – average gross profit as a percentage of the average original purchase price – was 35.1 percent for completed flips in the first quarter, down slightly from 35.3 percent in the fourth quarter, but up slightly from 35.0 percent in the first quarter of 2014. “The strong returns for home flippers in the first quarter demonstrates that there is still a need in this recovering real estate market for move-in ready homes rehabbed to more modern tastes, particularly given the dearth of new homes being built,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “The challenge for flippers in 2015 will be finding inventory to flip. Flippers ideally want to buy distressed homes that provide them with an opportunity to add value in markets where there is good affordability and ample demand from buyers for the finished flip product – whether those buyers are millennials becoming first-time homebuyers, baby boomers purchasing their present or future retirement home, or buy-and-hold real estate investors looking for turnkey rental properties that cash flow.” Another telling statistic from the RealtyTrac numbers also suggest that flipping is not for all price ranges. More than half of all homes flipped in the first quarter of 2015 sold (flipped) for between $100,000 and $300,000. Best returns were on homes sold between $100,000 and $200,000; and from $1 million to $2 million. Completed first quarter flips with a flipped price between $100,000 and $200,000 yielded an average gross ROI of 47 percent – the highest of any price range – followed by those with a flipped price between $1 million and $2 million, which generated an average gross ROI of 44 percent. Of the completed flips on single-family homes in the first quarter, 34.7 percent were sold (flipped) to non-owner-occupant buyers –real estate investors and second home buyers – the highest share since the first quarter of 2011. It is apparent by these first quarter numbers that investor activity in single-family homes is a key driver of the housing market – and is not going away anytime soon. (Terry Ross, the broker-owner of TR Properties, will answer any questions about today’s real estate market. E-mail questions to Realty Views at terryross1@cs.com or call 949/457-4922.)
By the end of last year, however, the decision-makers at Westerly, under the capable leadership of Board Chair Neil Kinney and Head of School Chris Rodenhizer, knew that without a significant investment to move from aging modular classrooms into state of the art learning facilities, the trailblazing force of a Westerly education could diminish. A $5 million campaign was officially launched at the beginning of the year, and, at Mach speed, a hardhat groundbreaking ceremony and celebration was held just last week (see photos on Page 28). The Westerly team, headed by volunteer capital campaign chair Theresa Aranda and committee members Ralph Holguin, Maureen Baker, Eileen Edwards, and Jim Martin, have put the fundamentals of savvy capital campaigning to work with more than satisfactory results. First, the campaign message is rooted not in a message about covering construction costs, but rather, advancing the cause of Westerly and what it represents to the community: Guaranteeing a state of the art private education experience for children and their families. Second, the leaders didn’t outsource their responsibilities. Westerly put an interim capital campaign manager, Joan McBride, on its payroll to work with them arm-in arm and in a campaign headquarters environment rather than contracting with an independent party. Third, Westerly leaders built community equity in the campaign before it ever started. Major contributors were personally contacted by the leaders to solicit their buy-in about needed renovations prior to asking them to cash-in on the costs. The result was a group of vested contributors in the campaign’s overall success prior to launch. Fourth, from day one, the campaign established a high sense of urgency to raise funds in a timeframe that most fundraising professionals would consider unthinkable.
Vol. XXVIII No. 10 May 26-June 8, 2015
EDITOR & PUBLISHER George Economides SALES & MARKETING EXECUTIVE Heather Dann STAFF ASSISTANT Larry Duncan EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT SENIOR WRITER Samantha Mehlinger STAFF WRITER Sean Belk CONTRIBUTING WRITER Gerrie Schipske PHOTOJOURNALIST Evan Patrick Kelly COPY EDITOR Pat Flynn The Long Beach Business Journal is a publication of South Coast Publishing, Inc., incorporated in the State of California in July 1985. It is published every other Tuesday (except between Christmas and mid-January) – 25 copies annually. The Business Journal premiered March 1987 as the Long Beach Airport Business Journal. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited unless otherwise stated. Opinions expressed by perspective writers and guest columnists are their views and not necessarily those of the Business Journal. Press releases should be sent to the address shown below.
Office South Coast Publishing, Inc. 2599 E. 28th Street, Suite 212 Signal Hill, CA 90755 Ph: 562/988-1222 • Fx: 562/988-1239 www:LBBusinessJournal.com Advertising and Editorial Deadlines Wednesday prior to publication date. Note: Press releases should be faxed or mailed. No follow up calls, please. For a copy of the 2015 advertising and editorial calendar, please fax request to 562/988-1239. Include your name, company and address and a copy will be sent to you. Distribution: Minimum 22,000.
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Fifth, the capital campaign acknowledged there were also ongoing fundraising needs for the day-to-day work of Westerly that couldn’t be jeopardized. The campaign case has its own website at www.westerlysfuture.com and the annual giving program was maintained through a dedicated staffing effort. Unique to Westerly, the capital campaign also became a teaching tool for its students to understand what philanthropy means. Kindergartener Henry Day, on his own, began collecting spare change for his school and proudly brought in $3.02 to firmly make his mark on Westerly’s future. In any capital campaign, the timing for breaking ground is a risky proposition. While it’s a significant milestone, it can be misinterpreted that the campaign is over and funds are no longer needed. The leaders at Westerly wisely timed their public event to culminate the school year, celebrate the successes and the legacy of Rodenhizer as he prepares to retire next month, welcome Westerly’s new Head of School Elect Patrick Brown and plant the seeds of anticipation for an exciting next chapter in the school’s history. The community’s continued enthusiasm and contributions, however, are still required as the campaign still needs more than $1 million to cover the final bill. Capital campaign fundraising is both a reality and a responsibility for every nonprofit leader. Facilities must be modernized, relics retired and adequate infrastructures in place to serve a mission. The Westerly Way is a good example of how to conduct campaigns right and exercise leadership well. (Jeffrey R. Wilcox, CFRE, is president and chief executive officer of The Third Sector Company, Inc. Join in on the conversation about this article at the Long Beach Business Journal website, www.lbbusinessjournal.com)
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ART MATTERS
Brought To You By The Arts Council For Long Beach • www.artslb.org
Achieving Mental Wellness through Creative Arts ■ By LOARA CADAVONA, LISA GOLDFEIN and LISA JACKERT MemorialCare Health System
Art Matters to Keesal, Young & Logan
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■ By SARAH BENNETT
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ach year the number of individuals suffering from mental illness and substance abuse increases. A recent study stated that 1 in 5 adults have been diagnosed with a mental condition. Due in part to this rise, in 2013, the Obama Administration declared May as Mental Health Awareness Month to raise national awareness of the millions of individuals who live with a mental health condition. In addition to traditional forms of treating mental health conditions, such as psychotherapy, rehabilitation or medicine, non-traditional therapies, such as creative arts are being utilized with psychotherapy. Creative arts therapy, or expressive arts, uses art practices such as visual and the performing arts to engage the patient in the creative process. The creative/expressive arts therapies can be used to treat patients suffering from a wide variety of ailments including severe depression and anxiety. Long Beach is fortunate to have the MemorialCare Center for Mental Health & Wellness located at Community Hospital Long Beach (CHLB). The Center offers a full spectrum of mental health programs to maximize the continuum of care for each patient, including psychiatric inpatient programs, an outpatient psychiatric clinic and a partial hospitalization/intensive outpatient program. Unique to the program are the team of creative/expressive arts therapists – board certified and masters prepared in music, dance and movement – who work with inpatient adults and older adults, as well as patients with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. The therapists also work with patients who attend the partial hospital and intensive outpatient programs. Using the arts in therapy to address the needs of our patients has been in place since 2002 when the
Long Beach Business Journal 30 May 26-June 8, 2015
Arts Council for Long Beach Contributor
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Center, at that time called the “Behavior Health Unit,” re-opened. Since then, CHLB has seen consistent positive outcomes that ultimately result in increased patient satisfaction and shorter hospital stays as these therapies are an important and integral part of the patient’s overall treatment. There have been many cases where the only therapy that a patient is able to meaningfully engage in is the creative/expressive arts. Due to the non-verbal aspect of these therapies, creative arts therapy can provide a necessary outlet for patients who have limited communications skills. Many times, patients are highly anxious, confused or preoccupied with delusions or hallucinations and have difficulty verbally articulating their feelings. Through dance or movement and music therapy interventions these patients have the opportunity to express themselves, either through dance/movement or by playing a percussion instrument, singing or listening, which provides them a greater sense of themselves, promotes reality orientation and begins the connection with others as well as their surroundings. It also helps connect and integrate the mind and body, providing more self-awareness, connection and understanding of their emotions to begin the healing process. Creative arts therapy can help develop trust, which builds a bridge between the patient and their treatment team. ■
Gallery Corner Taking place at 18 locations around Long Beach, from Bixby Knolls to El Dorado Park to Belmont Heights and places in between and beyond, the Mid-City Studio Tour on June 6th and 7th from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. gives the public a look into the working studios of professional artists. More than 25 artists, including painters, book artists, sculptors and ceramicists, will open their studios to the community and art collectors to connect artists and audiences. Artwork is available for purchase. This is a rare opportunity to meet artists and learn about their background. The Cultural Alliance Long Beach and other locations will have activities for children. For a map and more information, visit midcitystudiotour.com.
ward-winning legal legend Skip Keesal has a motto: “Lead from the side.” It’s a reflection of how the lawyer runs Keesal, Young & Logan (KYL), the successful law firm he founded in downtown Long Beach in 1970. It also shows how he encourages his partners and employees to humbly give back to the community in which they reside. Through both its charitable foundation (which has donated $6 million to local organizations since 1991) and the volunteer efforts of individuals, the firm’s philanthropic contributions in Long Beach are legendary. Most of them, however, remain behind the scenes. “If you talk to Skip, you’ll find that he’s involved in 100 things you didn’t know about and he’s doing it all for the good of those organizations, not for the credit,” said Justin Hectus, the KYL’s director
Harmony Project at KYL. Photo by Justin Rudd.
of information. “People here are doing all kinds of charitable work that they’re not going out and telling people about. It’s a part of the fabric of the firm.” Hectus himself is active in local arts, both as a longtime former board member of the Arts Council for Long Beach and co-founder of the seven-year-old Summer and Music (SAM) concert series, which presents live music in the streets of downtown. He continues to volunteer his time each year to help organize and put on SAM’s four distinct events, giving local musicians an opportunity to play outdoors for thousands of people. But Hectus isn’t the only person affiliated with KYL who gives back to Long Beach arts. Most of the large arts organizations in the city have had a KYL partner on their board at some point or another. International City Theatre, Musical Theater West and the Long Beach Symphony have all benefitted from the donation of time, money and event space. “We’ve created a support system where if you think this is worth it, then the firm will support you in your efforts,” said Hectus. “The thing I talk to folks about in encouraging them to have similar efforts at their companies, is that it provides personal development that’s almost impossible to do at a corporation. It allows your employees to have opportunities to grow and to learn.” The most visible example of KYL’s involvement in the arts can be found on your next invitation to a fundraising event, meeting or initiative kick-off. Many of these events are hosted by KYL at their office at 400 Oceangate, which they donate to charities and nonprofits. Most recently, the firm’s office was donated as a venue for The Harmony Project’s launch party. The program promises weekly instruction on a classical instrument for elementary and middle school students and is rolling out a pilot program in several Long Beach schools. “There’s a broad recognition that the arts are a way to bridge socioeconomic gaps and build community in a way that no other nonprofit sector can,” said Hectus. “Especially in a community as diverse as Long Beach, if you can bring people together and make then feel good about where they live and who their neighbors are, that’s a pretty significant thing.” ■
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THE NONPROFIT PAGE
Long Beach Business Journal 31 May 26-June 8, 2015
Curated By The Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership
Building a Healthy Long Beach Health, as defined by the World Health Organization, is a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Generally, the focus of health in the U.S. is access to quality health care. We support individuals to enand roll, encourage forprofit and nonKelly Colopy, p r o f i t Director, Long Beach organizations Department to provide it to of Health and support emHuman Services ployee health. However, only 10% of long-term health stems from access to health care. Long–term health is driven more by social conditions (55%) and behavior (30%). What does this mean? It means that when we talk about supporting healthy individuals, organizations and communities, in addition to the classic definitions of health (nutrition, exercise, targeted illness prevention), we are also talking about safety, education, jobs, housing, community togetherness, healthy relationships, and wellness opportunities. Their presence in individuals, organizations and communities support our longterm health. Their absence ac-
counts for so many of our chronic physical and mental health conditions. A focus on building these strengths is essential to a healthier population and to reduce health care and other societal costs. Our Vision for a Healthy Long Beach is that our individual residents and our communities are Healthy, Safe and Thriving: Healthy: Physically and mentally well. Safe: In our homes and in our communities. Safe from crime. Safe on our roads, sidewalks and in our parks. Thriving: Educated, employed and living in safe housing. We know that for individuals and communities to be healthy, they must: Be Educated as to what it means to be healthy and well and how to achieve it. Have Access to opportunities for health, including healthy foods, health care, and safe places to recreate and congregate. Make Choices every day to support their health. Nonprofit organizations in Long Beach play an essential role to the overall health of our City. They provide jobs — 19,230 direct and 41,970 indirect (LBNP Economic Impact Report, 2014). They also provide many of the services needed to build the strength of our individuals and communities to support opportunities for health. Nonprofit organizations are a key link
Capacity Corner: Upcoming Calendar of Events From the Nonprofit Partnership Grantwriting Certificate Program Wednesdays, May 27-June 10, 9 am-4 pm; This 3-session certificate program will expand your knowledge and develop the skills needed to prepare a winning grant proposal.
Supervising Skills for Success Wednesday, June 17, 2015, 9:00am-4:00pm Learn tips and tools to excel in supervising others. Identify factors that lead to supervisory success, learn how to successfully confront challenges and pitfalls, and acquire communication and motivational methods for improving performance in others.
between government and communities and individuals, providing direct services such as family support, violence prevention, access to nutrition through food banks and community gardens, mental health and substance abuse counseling, services for seniors, pre-school and afterschool programs, job training, the list goes on. Nonprofit organizations in Long Beach have also taken on an important role of building community engagement and support to address social conditions and behaviors within our communities. Effective, coordinated and collaborative partnerships between non-profit organizations, communities, government, business, and individuals are THE KEY to achieving the vision of a Healthy Long Beach. Effective partnerships occur throughout the City already. Developing common goals for our work together, understanding the skills and services we all can bring to the table, enhancing communication struc-
Data for Grant Writing Access to data about our communities is essential to planning and grant writing. The Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services recently launched a new data information website: livewelllongbach.org. This site provides data on 100 different health indicators for the City. LBDHHS will be uploading additional data elements as they become available. I urge you to visit the site and provide feedback. We want to make sure it meets your needs.
tures, and sharing data will carry our efforts even further toward a Long Beach that is Healthy, Safe and Thriving. I look forward to our work together.
Supporting Nonprofit Health Often, when we think about healthy nonprofits, we focus on financial sustainability. It is a key social condition for longterm health of the organization. However, there are other social conditions that are crucial to a nonprofit’s health and well-being. There are social conditions that a nonprofit can support within its walls—opportunities for learning and growth, ensuring safety while working, modeling health daily. There are also opportunities to support health and safety throughout the organization — providing time for organizational community togetherness to build relationships and trust, opportunities for exercise (walking meetings or “instant recess” are a great way to fit this in), and access to healthy snacks. Many nonprofits are highly committed to their mission and community while living within the reality of being resource lean, so everyone is working hard, often in emotional settings, for long hours. Wellness breaks are vitally important. Be healthy and remember to take time to breathe!
From our Partners 501(c)onference 2015 June 2-3, 2015 This annual gathering is an opportunity to explore pressing issues and seek solutions through creative collaboration. For more info, visit: cnmsocal.org.
Meet Gilbert Tran of the federal Office of Management and Budget Wednesday, June 3, 2015; 7:30-10:00 am. RSVP for this unusual chance to ask all the questions you have ever had about the OMB Uniform Guidance. For more information, visit: calnonprofits.org.
Save the Date: CalNonprofits 2015 Policy Convention November 4, 2015—Oakland, CA Focusing on the economic and political forecast for California’s nonprofit sector. For more info, visit: calnonprofits.org.
The area’s regional capacity builder, serving local organizations to strengthen and grow through leadership, education and collaboration. Offering: Professional Development & Training Networking & Collaboration Custom Training & Consulting Services Information Resources To learn more, visit us at www.lbnp.org. 4900 East Conant St., Building O-2, Suite 225, Long Beach, CA 90808 562.888-6530
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