Daily Business Report-Aug. 24, 2016
Reality Changers graduate Jessie Sanchez excelled at Harvard College. The local nonprofit was honored by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce Tuesday.
Chamber Honors 5 Small Businesses
and 1 Nonprofit at Annual Awards
Reality Changers, a nonprofit organization that helps low-income, low-performing high school students achieve successful college educations, took top honors along with five local small businesses at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce’s 2016 Small Business Awards reception Tuesday night.
Presented annually, the awards honor local small businesses with fewer than 50 employees for their significant contributions as drivers of economic growth throughout the region. Reality Changers was the only nonprofit selected for an award.
“Small businesses are really a driving force of our region’s economy and the role they play is truly anything but small,” said Jerry Sanders, chamber president and CEO. “In fact, here in San Diego, half of our region’s workforce is employed by companies with fewer than 50 employees.
The 2016 Small Business Awards winners are:
Outstanding Nonprofit:
Reality Changers for their incredible success in helping low-income students — many of whom joined the program with less than a 2.0 high school GPA — graduate college at an 86 percent success rate. Since its founding, Reality Changers has recorded a total of over $100 million in earned scholarships.
Tech Savvy:
GroundMetrics Inc. because their proprietary electromagnetic sensor has become a world leader in the oil and gas technology market, helping its customers to use less fracking and drill fewer bad wells.
Only in San Diego:
Moniker Group for the owner’s ability to think beyond the “beaches and sunshine” and harness San Diego’s cooperative entrepreneurial spirit to provide a community where designers, makers, artists and tech professionals can thrive.
Cinderella Story:
The San Diego Sports Entertainment Center for the owner’s ability to revitalize the business into a thriving company — with plans to expand nationwide — after losing everything during the 2008 financial crisis.
Customer Service Star:
Innovative Employee Solutions for delivering on their motto that “excellent service isn’t something you should do, but something you want to do.”
Best For Vets:
Miramar Federal Credit Union because their team has demonstrated that — to best serve the military community and fulfill their motto, “Where Military Matters!” —they need veterans on staff who will connect with their customers on a level most civilians cannot.
All award nominations were evaluated by a panel of four judges who reviewed applications based on criteria for each award category. After rating each submission, the small business with the highest score in each category was selected as the winner.
Judges for the awards competition were:
Jim Berdeguez, owner of James Gang Company and a 2015 Small Business Awards Winner.
Dale Ganzow, sales manager at the San Diego Business Journal.
Felena Hanson, founder of Hera Hub: Collaborative Workspace for Women.
Greg Kassardjian, senior marketing manager at Confirm BioSciences and a 2015 Small Business Awards Winner.
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City Budget Analyst Report
Proposed Pot Tax Would Generate
$22M for San Diego in First Year
By City News Service
A proposed tax on San Diego businesses selling recreational marijuana could generate about $22 million for city coffers in the first year.
That’s according to an analysis released Tuesday by the city’s Independent Budget Analyst.
Proposed by Councilman Mark Kersey, Measure N is designed to cover city regulatory costs of marijuana legalization, which is projected to be around $650,000 annually.
Measure N will go before voters in November and would only take effect if voters statewide approve Proposition 64, which would decriminalize recreational use of marijuana.
The tax would be 5 percent of gross receipts in the first year, rising to 8 percent the second year. The City Council would have discretion in the future to hike the rate to 15 percent. Marijuana sold for medical use would be exempted.
The Independent Budget Analyst’s office based its projection on revenues in Colorado, where recreational use of marijuana has been legal since 2014. It zoomed in on Denver, which has roughly half of San Diego’s population.
“In 2015, Denver reported gross retail cannabis sales — excluding medical — of approximately $220 million from an average of 128 retail outlets,” the report said. “Adjusting Denver’s sales for San Diego’s population gives an estimated hypothetical sales figure for San Diego of $440 million. If the proposed (tax) were applied to this amount at the initial rate of 5 percent, the tax would raise approximately $22 million annually.”
The report said annual revenue would jump to $35 million at the 8 percent tax rate.
Actual revenue would fluctuate depending on the number of non-medical cannabis businesses permitted in the city, which has yet to be determined; the rate at which the industry develops; the amount of consumer demand in the region, including availability in neighboring jurisdictions; and the price of recreational marijuana, which may change over time.
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General Atomics Delivers Sensors
For Early Tornado Detection Research
ExecutiveBiz
The University of Alabama in Huntsville has received 20 Infrasound Collection Element small sensors from General Atomics’ electromagnetic systems subsidiary to support early tornado detection research and real-time tornado tracking.
San Diego-based General Atomics said the sensor works to gather radar-independent “infrasound” data that can be used to predict the path of a storm and potentially increase lead times for warnings on severe weather.
ICE sensors across North Alabama have helped gather signals from multiple large tornadoes in 2011 from 62 miles away in correlation with the documented tornado path, the company added.
“The use of infrasound in tornado detection has the potential to identify spectral emissions, or signatures, indicating the existence or progression of a tornado on the ground,” said Nick Bucci, missile defense and space systems vice president at General Atomics. “Such information enables higher detection confidence and increased lead times for severe weather warnings in threat areas that current solutions are unable to match.”
General Atomics said ICE can be used for field deployments and extreme environments and can also be utilized for nuclear explosion monitoring, hurricane detection and avalanche monitoring.
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Tri-City Healthcare District
Announces Key Affiliation
Tri-City Healthcare District and UC San Diego Health have officially entered into an exclusive affiliation agreement designed to enhance the delivery of high quality health care to patients in North County.
Under the terms of a master agreement, UC San Diego Health and the public health care district are collaborating to recruit primary care and specialty care physicians to Tri-City Medical Center’s service area supplementing the needs of their existing medical staff, jointly developing and marketing certain health care services and clearing a pathway to clinical integration for interested physicians and specialists.
Tri-City Medical Center and UC San Diego Health will launch a neurosurgery program under which UC San Diego faculty neurosurgeons will evaluate patients and perform operations at Tri-City Medical Center. UC San Diego faculty will also oversee the existing cardiac surgery program at Tri-City while working collaboratively with its current cardiac surgery team.
UC San Diego Health plans to place faculty physicians locally to provide select clinical services to North County patients. In addition, UC San Diego Health and Tri-City have taken steps to enable the Tri-City Medical Center to become a contracted provider under UC HealthNet Blue & Gold HMO and a provider under the Blue Shield/UC Care PPO product.
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Personnel Announcements
Cubic Promotes Darryl Albertson
Darryl Albertson, formerly Cubic vice president of corporate human resources, will take the new role of chief human resources and diversity officer at the company.
Cubic said Tuesday Albertson will help broaden the company’s efforts to support and promote diversity and inclusion among its customers, suppliers and employees.
Albertson served as Cubic’s VP of corporate HR since joining the company in 2013 and has also held various executive roles for CareFusion, Cardinal Health, Pfizer and the Leadership Research Institute.
He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communications from San Diego State University-California State University and a Ph.D. degree in communication arts and science from the University of Southern California.
