Daily Business Report-Sept. 17, 2018
Meet SANDAG’s new boss
Hasan Ikhrata runs the Southern California Association of Governments
Voice of San Diego
A year after its previous director departed in scandal, the San Diego Association of Governments has hired a replacement.
Hasan Ikhrata, currently executive director of the Southern California Association of Governments, SCAG, will helm San Diego’s transportation network, beginning Dec. 3.
He’s taking over SANDAG at a critical time for the agency. The agency is updating the region’s 40-year plan for transportation projects and its outline for how many homes are needed. Its sales tax-funded program to pay for those regional projects is short on funds and looking for a lifeline to deliver the projects promised to voters.
And it’s still dealing with the aftermath of a scandal, uncovered by Voice of San Diego, in which it misled voters over how much money its tax measures would bring in and how likely it was that previous promises would be completed. That’s what led to the ouster of Gary Gallegos, the former director.
Ikhrata said the public should “moving forward, expect only honest information, not based on politics.”
“There will not be anybody at this agency while I’m in charge that will mislead, or manipulate or play with the numbers,” he said. “You can expect and always expect true information based on facts only.”
And he said he’s not especially concerned with the financial problems facing TransNet, the agency’s capital program funded in part by a countywide sales tax.
“I’ve been hearing, I don’t have the facts, that TransNet is running out of money, or it’s going to run out of money before it finishes the projects,” he said. “I will say this, and you might be surprised: The last thing I want to start talking about is money. Let us define our vision. Let us know where we are going … and then the money comes later.”
This report is an excerpt from Voice of San Diego’s Politics report. Click here
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Gov. Brown ends climate
summit with a cosmic boom
Gov. Moonbeam is finally sending California into space. Jerry Brown closed his climate summit in San Francisco on Friday with a dramatic announcement: California will launch its own satellite into orbit to track and monitor the formation of pollutants that cause climate change. He did it with a flourish: “With science still under attack and the climate threat growing, we’re launching our own damn satellite.”
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San Diego agencies select 15
companies for voucher program
The San Diego Military Advisory Council and San Diego Regional EDC
unveiled 15 companies selected to participate in the Defense Innovation Voucher program, a comprehensive business initiative designed to build resiliency in small, local defense companies and help them find pathways to diversify their revenue
The DIVx program provides each company with a complimentary $15,000 in consulting credits and additional services.
The 15 companies are: Accel-RF Instruments Corp.; Amaratek; American Lithium Energy Corp.; Coast Precision Enterprises Inc.; EpiSys Science Inc., Fuse Integration Inc.; GET Engineering Corp.; IntelliSolutions Inc.; Marine Group Boat Works LLC; Ocean Aero; Planck Aerosystems; Sidus Solutions; Trabus Technologies; VetPowered LLC; Vortex Engineering.
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County’s new mobile website
serves up restaurants on the fly
The County’s Department of Environmental Health has created a new mobile website, SDFoodInfo.org, that gives people a quick, easy way to find and get information about thousands of restaurants, food trucks and markets across the county.
The site will not only let people see three years’ worth of health inspection results for restaurants, it will show a map of the restaurants near them, draw street directions to get there on the map, and even let them call the restaurant if they want to check about reservations. Just bookmark SDFoodInfo.org on your smartphone or desktop computer and you’re ready to go.
Environmental Health regularly inspects almost 15,000 food facilities, including nearly 8,000 restaurants, as well as food trucks, supermarkets, convenience stores and most of the places that serve or sell food, to make sure they’re complying with food safety regulations. Residents, tourists, and foodies have been able to see County health inspection results for years to find out if their favorite restaurant has earned an “A” grade card and to get information about the County’s food inspection program on the department’s web pages.
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National wireless emergency alert
system to be tested on Sept. 20
Your mobile phone will emit a special tone and vibrate as it receives an emergency test message on Sept. 20. It is part of a nationwide test by the Federal Emergency Management Agency of Wireless Emergency Alerts systems to assess its effectiveness.
You don’t need to take any action for the test. In a real situation, the system would be used to warn the public about dangerous weather, missing children, or another critical situation that may require you to evacuate or remain in place.
The message is scheduled to be sent within 30 minutes of 11:15 a.m. PDT on Thursday, Sept. 20 with a heading of “Presidential Alert.” It is the first nationwide test to wireless phones using this system. Wireless Emergency Alerts do not require users to “opt-in,” and most mobile phones in use today can receive the 90-character text-like messages. Wireless Emergency Alerts can be sent by the National Weather Service, local first responder agencies, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the President through a system devised by FEMA and the Federal Communications Commission.
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Personnel Announcements
Kathryn Richman joins Hughes Marino
Kathryn Richman has joined Hughes Marino as general counsel. Richman brings over two decades of extensive experience advising and representing clients in all aspects of business law, risk management, research, contract law, state and federal administrative and regulatory law.
Originally from Oregon, Richman attended the University of Oregon where she earned her bachelor’s degree and went on to attend California Western School of Law. She also served as a state administrative law instructor for the paralegal program at the University of San Diego for six years.
Prior to joining Hughes Marino, Kathryn was responsible for all management, risk, research and SEC reporting for a publicly reporting real estate investment trust while advising multiple members of the board of directors. She managed and proactively advised on company-wide portfolio risk, negotiated and drafted office and industrial commercial leases, drafted all purchase and sale agreements related to commercial properties, and assisted with projections, all in addition to supervising legal issues and her team.
Other prior experience includes working as general counsel and an attorney for prominent residential real estate and mortgage companies, where she gained extensive experience in providing regulatory compliance advice, legislation tracking and review, licensing and legal research.
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Lisa Glatch joins Sempra Energy
Sempra Energy announced that Lisa Glatch is joining the company in the newly created position of strategic initiatives officer.
Most recently, Glatch led business growth efforts as executive vice president and chief strategic development officer for CH2M, a consulting and program management firm. Prior to joining CH2M in 2014, she served as senior vice president of global sales for Jacobs, a global design, engineering and technical services firm. Previously, Glatch spent 24 years with Fluor Corporation in a range of management positions, including president of Fluor’s government group and senior vice president of project operations for Fluor’s energy & chemicals group.
Glatch graduated with honors from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. She also received a U.S. Department of Transportation Medal of Honor in 2002 for her work in helping to establish the Transportation Security Administration in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
