Daily Business Report-Oct. 23, 2020
Illustration by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters; istock, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
Why do we keep voting on this?
Exploring Prop. 13’s ‘tax revolt family tree’
By Ben Christopher | CalMatters
The tax revolt started in California in 1978, but it never really ended.
Four decades ago mad-as-hell voters banded together to pass Proposition 13, capping property taxes, slapping a constitutional muzzle on state government and wringing local budgets like a washcloth. The electorate’s anti-tax fever may have broken in the years since, but the legacy of Prop. 13 is still very much with us.
Need proof? Check your ballot.
This year, Californians are being asked to weigh in on two more changes to the tax-slashing constitutional amendment that has done more than any other California ballot measure to reshape the state’s fiscal landscape and the politics of taxation.
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Commercial properties tax measure — Prop. 15 — a nail-biter
CalMatters
Will Californians decide to raise taxes on commercial properties — approving the biggest change to the state’s property tax structure in more than 40 years — or won’t they?
With less than two weeks before the election, the Prop. 15 race is shaping up to be a nail-biter. Around 49 percent of likely voters support the measure, compared to 45 percent opposed and 6 percent undecided, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll released late Wednesday night. That marks a slight decline from the 51 percent of likely voters who supported the measure in September.
The campaigns supporting and opposing Prop. 15 have together raised more than $124 million, making it the second-most expensive ballot measure. At stake is a major component of Prop. 13, the landmark 1978 measure that capped property taxes and forever altered the politics of taxation in California, as CalMatters’ Ben Christopher shows with a sprawling graphic of the Prop. 13 family tree. (Another measure on the November ballot, Prop. 19, would also amend Prop. 13.)
Meanwhile, things aren’t looking so good for Prop. 16, which would overturn California’s affirmative action ban. Around 50 percent of likely voters oppose it, compared to 37 percent in favor and 12 percent undecided, the PPIC survey shows. In September, 47 percent opposed and 31 percent supported it.
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Barrio Logan fruit stand, bakery
and market to get revitalization funds
Nine local affiliates of Rebuilding Together will receive a total of $1 million in grants from the Republic Services Charitable Foundation to help revitalize locally owned small businesses that have been disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In San Diego, funding will be used for structural renovations and improvements to a fruit stand, bakery and market in the Barrio Logan neighborhood.
The funding is part of Republic Services’ Committed to Serve initiative, which was launched this spring to help support the company’s employees, customers and communities through the pandemic. Individual grants ranging from $50,000 to $125,000
“Small businesses are an integral part of a thriving community. Many of these small businesses have experienced hardships and have had to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Caroline Blakely, president and CEO of Rebuilding Together. “We are proud to partner with Republic Services to support the critical needs of small businesses across the country as they return to normal business operations.”
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Townhome community in Kearny Mesa sells for $107 million
San Francisco-based multifamily investment firm Prime Residential has purchased Agave Ridge, , a 369-unit townhome community in the Kearny Mesa, for $107 million. The seller was Los Angeles-based real estate investment and operating company Goldrich & Kest.
Located at 7901 Harmarsh St., the 368,575-square-foot property was originally built in 1959. The unit mix is composed of all three-bedroom and two-bedroom townhomes, with an average unit size of approximately 1,000 square-feet. Amenities include playgrounds, pools and a fitness center.
CBRE’s Kevin Mulhern Allen Chitayat, Stew Weston, Dean Zander and John Montakab represented the seller. The buyerwas self-represented.
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Susan Guinn named chief innovation
officer for The San Diego Foundation
The San Diego Foundation announced that Susan Guinn has been hired as chief innovation officer. Guinn will seek new funding opportunities and cross-sector initiatives that will allow the foundation and its partners to better address community needs in San Diego County.
Guinn is an experienced litigator with three decades of law practice spanning climate protection, consumer rights and product safety, workers’ rights, and human rights, including wins against Big Tobacco. With her extensive legal background and passion for philanthropy, Guinn will further The San Diego Foundation’s mission of enabling community solutions to improve the quality of life in our region.
Guinn most recently served as special adviser to San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher and currently serves on the COVID-19 Community Response Fund’s Granting and Executive Committees. Previously, Guinn founded KidsEcoClubwith her son in 2010 and was president of St. Paul’s Foundation for International Reconciliation, a nonprofit which provides legal and financial support to the St Paul’s Center in Kampala Uganda.
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Former energy executive Jessie J. Knight Jr.
returns to Alaska Air Group board of directors
Alaska Air Group announced the appointment of Jessie J. Knight Jr. to the company’s board of directors, effective immediately. The former chairman and CEO of San Diego Gas & Electric previously served on the board from 2002 to 2017.
Knight will also join the boards of directors of the company’s airline subsidiaries Alaska Airlines Inc. and Horizon Air Industries Inc.
Knight is the managing director at Knight Angels Consulting LLC, a private equity and philanthropic organization.
His professional background includes a breadth of business, sustainability, and civic andpublic affairs executive roles, including president andCEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and commissioner for the California Public Utilities Commission.
Knight was vice president of marketing for the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner newspapers from 1985 to 1992. He began his corporate career in 1975 with Dole Food Company Inc., where he worked for 10 years and rose to the level of marketing director for North America. He earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Louis University and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin. He was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri, and currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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Daily U-T circulation drops to 88,000;
Publisher calls outlet ‘Healthy, Profitable’
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Monday that its daily circulation over the past year had plunged nearly 16 percent to a figure well below 100,000 copies.
In its Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation — required annually by the U.S. Postal Service — the U-T said its average daily circulation was 87,834, down from 104,377 over a similar 12-month period ending in September 2019.
The 2020 data said paid distribution was 76,932 — a figure that represents about 6.4 percent penetration of San Diego County’s 1.2 million households.
eff Light signed the statement Oct. 1 as U-T publisher and editor-in-chief. On Tuesday, Light said the print circulation numbers were not a sign of distress.
“That is simply a mature and declining part of our business that is proceeding as planned,” he told Times of San Diego via email. “The U-T is healthy, profitable and tracking favorably to our long-term business plan for the transition to the digital era.”
Light said the 152-year-old news outlet has added close to 40,000 digital-only subscribers “as we fortify the foundations of the company in the community.” He declined to respond publicly to a question about total online subscription figures.
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Endeavor Bank names new COO, chief banking
officer and director of community relations
Mark Anderson has been named executive vice president, chief operations officer for Endeavor Bank in San Diego. Anderson has over four decades of banking and operations experience, and several prior roles as EVP/COO in local community banks. He was most recently SVP, director of branch banking for Pacific Premier Bank, which acquired Grandpoint Bank in 2018, where he held the title of EVP, branch operations administrator. Prior to that, he was with Regents Bank as chief operations officer after Regents acquired California Community Bank in 2012. Anderson was a founding organizer of CCB where he spent nine years as executive vice president, chief operations officer.
The bank also announce the promotion of John Harelson to SVP, chief banking officer, and the appointment of Robert Horsman as SVP, director of community relations. Harelson has been with Endeavor for over two years, has taken a leadership role in client relationship growth and development, and has been a San Diego banker for over 31 years.
Horsman has over 47 years in San Diego commercial banking. He is a founding member of the Endeavor Bank Team and has been a leader in the bank’s community involvement and advisory board.
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San Diego’s Neurocrine Biosciences
ranks No. 8 on Fortune Best Workplaces list
Fortune has named Neurocrine Biosciences, one of the largest public companies and employers in San Diego, to its Best Small & Medium Workplaces 2020 list. Neurocrine Biosciences was ranked No. 8 of 100 medium-sized companies on the list.
Neurocrine Biosciences is a neuroscience-focused, biopharmaceutical company with nearly 30 years of experience discovering and developing life-changing treatments for people with serious, challenging and under-addressed neurological, endocrine and psychiatric disorders. In 2020, the company received FDA approval and subsequently launched a new Parkinson’s disease treatment in the U.S. This new treatment for Parkinson’s disease is the second medicine that Neurocrine Biosciences makes available to patients as the company also discovered, developed and makes available to patients a treatment for a condition called tardive dyskinesia, an involuntary movement disorder.
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Is Spirituality a Component of Wisdom?
Yes, say researchers, though it’s not as critical
as pro-social behaviors like compassion and empathy
Wisdom has gained increasing interest among researchers over the last few decades as a biologically based personality trait relevant to physical well-being and mental health. Previous studies have identified six common, measurable components of wisdom: pro-social behaviors (empathy, compassion, altruism and a sense of fairness), emotional regulation, self-reflection or insight, acceptance of divergent perspectives, decisiveness and social decision-making.
In a study published in the October 22, 2020 online edition of the Journal of Psychiatric Research, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine add a seventh component of wisdom: spirituality.
“There has historically been controversy about whether spirituality is a marker of wisdom,” said Dilip V. Jeste, co-first author of the study, senior associate dean for the Center of Healthy Aging and Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “Our findings show that spirituality is significantly associated with better mental health and well-being and may add to an individual’s overall wisdom.”
Data for the study was collected from a national sample of 1,786 adults ages 20 to 82 living in the United States.
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David C. Copley Foundation awards Tri-City
Hospital Foundation with $1.2 million gift
The David C. Copley Foundation has awarded Tri-City Hospital Foundation with a two-to-one matching gift of up to $1.2 million that will become the cornerstone of a redesign of Tri-City Medical Center’s emergency department (ED), a major resource for emergency and critical care for the North County coastal community.
Once funded, this project will completely renovate the medical center’s emergency room entrance, patient and family waiting area, lighting, triage area, and Station A, one of three major treatment areas in the ED. This redesign will improve Tri-City Medical Center by streamlining the triage process to decrease wait times and improve the patient experience.
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Ashford University partners with Symplicity
on second virtual career fair
Ashford University’s Career Services partnered with Symplicity Career Services Manager to host the university’s second Virtual Career Fair on Oct. 7. The event aligned with fall 2020 commencement activities and connected more than 1,900 registered jobseekers with 46 employers from an array of industries. Ashford students and alumni met in a convenient online setting with top employers, government agencies, and non-profit organizations such as the FBI, General Dynamics, The Home Depot, UPS, PepsiCo, and the Association of Controls Professionals. Each hiring organization utilized their own landing page to share available job opportunities, publish information about their organization, and chat live with student and alumni participants.
