Daily Business Report-Oct. 9, 2020
(Image via iStock)
Unemployed Californians get a fright from EDD
As the employment agency tries to cut off fraudsters,
real unemployed have found their benefit accounts suddenly frozen
By Stephen Council | CalMatters
Joseph Wood went to buy gas in Ventura in anticipation of driving up the coast to visit his children this week. The 39-year-old gig driver knew he had money on a debit card connected to his unemployment payments when his purchase was declined.
Unable to fill up his tank, he found his card was frozen. By the time it unlocked Monday, $1,380 had disappeared.
In what appears to be the latest problem at the besieged state Employment Development Department, unemployed Californians say their accounts are being erroneously frozen, leaving them unable to access a financial lifeline amid the pandemic. Reports surfaced last week and continued over the weekend with beneficiaries reporting their Bank of America accounts — where benefits are deposited and spent — frozen, closed or drained of money.
Amid a backlog of 1.6 million unprocessed claims, angry lawmakers and out-of-work residents, California’s unemployment agency placed a two-week pause on new claims to implement an automatic identity-verification tool to speed up processing times. The move was among a list of recommendations from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s strike team to improve call center service and outdated technology. To date, more than 13 million claims have been filed and the agency has doled out about $94 billion in benefits.
Now as the department resumes full operation with a new identity verification system, a new issue has emerged: people can’t get their money out.
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Warner and Debbie Lusardi give $25 million
to Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas
Philanthropists Warner and Debbie Lusardi of Rancho Santa Fe have given Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas the largest donation in its history, a $25 million investment to help fund a new acute care hospital tower and pulmonary institute that are cornerstones of the hospital’s master plan.
The new hospital building, to be called Lusardi Tower, will be a three-story, 224,000-square-foot facility that will offer a broad range of patient care services. It will include 64 inpatient beds that will be used for a variety of clinical needs, including medical-surgical care, intensive care and progressive (or intermediate) care, as well as additional operating suites.
Scripps expects site work to begin at the hospital in early 2022, with the first phase of Lusardi Tower expected to be open for patient care in 2025. The tower will be situated between the existing main hospital building and the Leichtag Foundation Critical Care Pavilion.
Lusardi Tower also will be home to the new Lusardi Pulmonary Institute, which will provide the full spectrum of patient care for respiratory conditions. The institute will expand on the hospital’s existing state-of-the-art interventional pulmonary medicine program.
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Salk physician-scientist receives
NIH Director’s New Innovator Award
Salk Institute Assistant Professor Edward Stites has been named an NIH Director’s New Innovator for 2020 as part of the National Institutes of Health’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program. The award “supports unusually innovative research from early career investigators,” according to the NIH and provides $1.5 million for a 5-year project. For his project, Stites will use mathematical and biological approaches to identify strategies to convert failed therapeutics into effective agents.
Pharmaceutical companies design drugs to hit specific targets, such as a particular protein or a distinct cell type in cancer. Yet, one reason these drugs fail in clinical trials is because, even though they succeed in hitting their targets, the side effects are too severe to safely use. Stites, who has both a doctorate and a medical degree, believes that on- and off-target effects can each be titrated to convert the toxic drug to one that is safe and effective. Stites’ project will combine functional genomics (which seeks to describe the functions and interactions of large numbers of genes and proteins) and computational biology (which aims to analyze and model biological data) to identify these titration mechanisms.
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Tri-City Medical Center receives top awards
Tri-City Medical Center has earned eight certifications and awards from the American Heart and Stroke Association, including three Gold Plus Performance Achievement Awards for stroke care, heart care, and resuscitation quality, as well as two Gold Level awards for its care of patients with STEMI, or ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction, heart attacks.
Tri-City Medical Center is the only medical center in San Diego County to receive Gold Plus in both heart failure and stroke care and to earn more honors than any other hospital in the region.
“I am proud to celebrate these well-deserved recognitions that our employees, physicians, and leadership have worked tirelessly to achieve,” said Steve Dietlin, CEO of Tri-City Medical Center. “Tri-City Medical Center remains committed to quality and delivering the highest standards of care and evidence-based practice for our community.”
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Kate Roberts joins Kirei as sales manager
Kate Roberts has joined Kirei, a provider of design materials for commercial interiors, as sales manager, a newly created position. Roberts will lead and manage internal and external sales representatives, implementing processes to drive growth, open sales channels, and broaden Kirei’s relationships in the market.
With almost two decades of experience working within the architecture and design industry, Roberts has a track record for leading market growth through strategic manufacturer partnerships and client relationships. As sales manager, Roberts will also work closely with the architects, designers, acoustic consultants, building owners, operators and contractors specifying Kirei products.
Roberts joins the team from Soelberg, where she previously served as sales manager for over seven years, leading sales efforts across North America and Canada. It was there where she honed her skills for formulating, implementing, and communicating an effective sales plan that is driven by the company vision and mission, with an end-goal of optimizing client satisfaction and brand loyalty.
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The Children’s School converts to solar
The Children’s School in La Jolla has converted to solar. With the help of BVI Solar, the school went live in July, and is the only private school in the county that meets 100 percent of its electrical needs via solar, according to Head of School John Fowler.
“This project not only benefits the school, but benefits the greater community by reducing carbon waste,” said Fowler. “It also serves as a working example for our students as to how anyone can reduce climate change.”
The school was originally at 25 percent of its net consumption. BVI added enough new panels and inverters to increase capacity four times. Now, the school has a total of 160 panels.
The school is located at 2225 Torrey Pines Lane. For more information, visit www.tcslj.org.
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Privacy puzzle: Consumer advocates divided
over California’s Proposition 24
CalMatters
Prop. 24 is one of the most confounding fights on California’s November ballot. The measure that would give Californians new rights over how companies use their digital data has resulted in consumer-privacy advocates fighting among themselves while tech companies lie low, CalMatters’ Laurel Rosenhall reports.
To make matters even more complicated, the opposing campaigns are led by two Bay Area residents who were once allies in trying to win Californians the strongest data privacy law in the nation — the very law that Prop. 24 would amend. Confused
yet? Check out Laurel’s article for more on why this measure has divided the privacy community.
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New state metric focuses on health equity
The state has introduced a new set of guidelines intended to measure the impact the novel coronavirus is having on the county’s most disadvantaged communities. The new health equity metric is in addition to the case rate and positivity rate metrics and will be used to determine which tier of the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy the county is placed in.
The metric will only be used to help a county move to a less restrictive tier and allow the opening of further sectors of the economy, not to move backwards to more restrictive tiers.
“It has been clearly documented that certain communities, including low-income neighborhoods, areas that a large number of essential workers call home, and certain communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19,” said Wilma J. Wooten, county public health officer. “About a quarter of Californians live in such communities, yet they make up 40 percent of the state’s COVID-19 cases.”
Throughout the pandemic, the county has focused its testing, tracing and treating, or T3 efforts, in the communities that data shows have been hit hardest by the virus. The new metric will help the County better identify where it should expand outreach, offer testing and invest in resources in an effort to lower infection rates, hospitalizations and reduce the number of deaths.
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Rose Tolentino hired as
St. Paul’s Plaza director of nursing
St. Paul’s Senior Services announces the hiring of Rose Tolentino, RN, as the new director of nursing for St. Paul’s Plaza in Chula Vista. Tolentino, also a resident of Chula Vista, came to St. Paul’s, after working as interim director of nursing at Magnolia Post-Acute.
Prior to her seven-month position there, she worked for Bella Vista as an assistant director of nursing. She also worked for the American Red Cross as a nursing instructor, Reo Vista as a treatment nurse, and several years with San Diego Hospice.
As director of nursing, Tolentino will be responsible for the entire nursing staff and ultimately, overseeing all residents’ health and well-being. She is also in charge of the community’s fall prevention program.
During her time as an American Red Cross nursing instructor, she taught and trained students the proper techniques and skills needed to become a certified assistant. She educated hundreds of students on the importance of patient care, teaching them the “6 Basic Principles of Care.” She also supervised and evaluated students while practicing course skills.
She has three adult children and four grandchildren. Two of her kids have followed in her footsteps and have also become RNs.
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Community Advisory Board launched
for Sports Arena site development
Following selection by the City of San Diego to redevelop the Sports Arena site, Brookfield Properties and ASM Global launched the Sports Arena Community Advisory Board. The group is comprised of 19 members representing the business, transportation, neighborhood, climate action, military and higher education communities and will actively provide input to help shape the future of the Sports Arena property.
Sports Arena Community Advisory Board Members:
Cathy Kenton, Midway-Pacific Highway Planning Group
Dike Anyiwo, Midway-Pacific Highway Planning Group
Byron Wear, Point Loma Resident
Anthony Pretto and Chuck Pretto, Kobey’s Inc.
Kevin Sheehan, Phil’s BBQ
Rebecca Lieberman, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce
Nicole Capretz, Climate Action Campaign
Jason Riggs, San Diego Stadium Coalition
Chris Duggan, California Restaurant Association
Andy Hanshaw, San Diego County Bicycle Coalition
Jason Paguio, Asian Business Association
Mark Balmert, RADM, USN, San Diego Military Advisory Council
Lynn Reaser, Fermanian Business & Economic Institute, Point Loma Nazarene University
Sherry Ryan, San Diego State University
Angeli Calinog, Circulate San Diego
Karen Thatcher, Walter Anderson Nursery
Sunny Lee, Old Town Chamber of Commerce
Coleen Clementson, SANDAG
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Michael O’Donohue appointed GM
of Fairmont Grand Del Mar
Michael O’Donohue has been appointed general manager at Fairmont Grand Del Mar, one of only 14 Forbes triple five-star resorts in the world. He brings over 28 years of hospitality experience to the role, where he is responsible for managing the overall team and operations, performance, and strategic direction.
With extensive experience in luxury hotel management, O’Donohue joins the team after nearly five years with Montage International as general manager at Pendry San Diego, where he opened the flagship property. Previous to this, O’Donohue spent 10 years working in various positions at Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Prior to his time at Starwood Hotels & Resorts, O’Donohue worked at InterContinental Hotels and Hilton Hotels.
He started his career at Hilton Short Hills in New Jersey as an assistant chef after earning his Associate of Occupational Studies degree from the Culinary Institute of America.
O’Donohue is currently a board member of the San Diego Tourism Authority and vice chair on the California Hotel Lodging Association Hospitality Foundation, which supports hospitality management and culinary arts programs in California colleges and universities.
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Mission Pacific Hotel and The Seabird Resort
to debut in Oceanside
Hyatt Hotels Corporation and Oceanside Beach Resort Owner LLC, an affiliate of S.D. Malkin Properties, announce the naming of the new Mission Pacific Hotel and The Seabird Resort, both expected to open in spring 2021 in Oceanside.
The two adjacent hotels will be the newest and largest oceanfront resort development in San Diego County in more than half of a century, collectively spanning 700 feet of beachfront property. Along with immediate beach access, Mission Pacific Hotel and The Seabird Resort will offer guests a combined 387 guestrooms – most with water-facing views – as well as a variety of food and beverage experiences, oceanview pools and meeting spaces, full recreational programming for beach services and water sports, and more.
The new Mission Pacific Hotel will feature 161 guestrooms and suites, more than 3,000 square feet of curated retail, and three bespoke food and beverage experiences, including the only rooftop pool bar in North County, and a restaurant overlooking the pier from renowned Guadalupe Valley Chef, Roberto Alcocer.
The Seabird Resort will feature 226 guest rooms and suites, a full-service spa and fitness center, a 9,000-square-foot ocean-facing pool deck, and more than 20,000 square feet of meeting spaces with ocean views. The property will also feature two food and beverage experiences, including a signature California cuisine restaurant and an oceanview lobby living room bar and lounge perfect for taking in Oceanside’s famous sunsets.
Hyatt also announced the appointment of Michael Stephens as area managing director of both Mission Pacific Hotel and The Seabird Resort, overseeing all operations for the hotels.
