Daily Business Report: Monday, May 23, 2022
Legislators shelve 220 controversial or costly bills
By Alexei Koseff | CalMatters
California lawmakers won’t be creating a state Election Day holiday this year. Nor will they be providing grants to local governments to convert public golf courses into affordable housing, or forcing health insurers to cover fertility treatments.
All of these proposals were victims of the seasonal culling of bills known as the suspense file. This stately and secretive process, led by the Senate and Assembly appropriations committees, serves as a final fiscal review before any legislation expected to have a significant cost to the state is sent to the full chamber for a vote.
In fast and furious hearings on Thursday that stretched for two hours, the committees ran through the fates of nearly 1,000 bills, offering no explanations for their decisions and, in many cases, no formal announcement at all that a measure was held.
The resultshad already been determined in private deliberations. The suspense file, among the most opaque practices at the Capitol, allows legislative leaders to not only shelve proposals that are too expensive, but to also more quietly dispatch those that are controversial or politically inconvenient, particularly in an election year.
About 220 bills were shelved. The bills that made it through — more than 700 of them — now face another looming deadline this week to pass out of their house of origin. If successful, they will move to the other chamber for further consideration.
TOP Illustration by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters; iStock
Port to deploy bonnet system to help further
reduce cargo vessel emissions on San Diego Bay
The Port of San Diego is moving forward with a system to control and capture cargo vessel emissions, also known as a bonnet. The bonnet will be available for use by cargo vessels that aren’t yet equipped to connect to shore power.
The Board of Port Commissioners has approved an agreement with Clean Air Engineering – Maritime Inc. (CAEM) to design, build, and operate a barge-based emissions control and capture system, also known as the Marine Exhaust Treatment System (METS), which will be certified by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
For vessels that aren’t yet shore power compatible, the METS places a bonnet over the vessel’s stack to capture and treat exhaust while the ship is at berth. CARB requires the exhaust treatment to be equivalent to electric power at berth. CAEM has received CARB approval on similar technologies that remove over 95 percent of particulate matter and nitrogen oxide.
The total cost of the project is approximately $11.5 million, with the Port directing $4.9 million in grant funds received from the California Transportation Commission (CTC). CAEM is covering the rest. The bonnet system is anticipated to be operational by Jan. 1, 2025.
UC system takes another step toward
keeping students debt-free
CalMatters
The University of California is vowing to offer its California undergraduates a debt-free college experience by 2030 as part of an overhaul of how the system views college affordability.
To get there, the system of 230,000 students seeking bachelor’s degrees is relying on a mix of state and federal support, revenues from recent tuition increases, and students working part-time to cover the full cost of an education. Students from wealthier households would also rely on parental support.
The system’s governing body, the Board of Regents, took another step toward that debt-free goal Thursday by voting to prioritize part-time work over taking out loans as part of the UC’s official financial aid policy. The change is subtle but is yet another instance of the UC signaling that its students should be able to earn a bachelor’s degree without the need to borrow within the next several years.
Ricardo Basurto-Dávila named chief
evaluation officer for County of San Diego
The County of San Diego has hired Ricardo Basurto- Dávila to be its new chief evaluation officer and lead one of the county’s newest offices, the Office of Evaluation, Performance and Analytics.
The office’s job will be to increase the county’s ability to collect, share and analyze data to help county leaders create and improve policies and programs to address top priorities including mental health, homelessness, equity, racial justice, and climate change.
County supervisors voted to create the office in May 2021, and it is still being developed.
Basurto-Dávila most recently was a principal analyst at the County of Los Angeles Chief Information Office, where he led a data-science team with the county’s Analytics Center of Excellence.
Before that he served as a health economist with the County of Los Angeles’ Department of Public Health, helping build and lead a team that conducted economic evaluations and health impact assessments of public policies.
He also served as a Prevention Effectiveness Fellow with the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he helped use data analytics to evaluate U.S. and international responses to the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic.
McCullough Landscape Architecture hires new
marketing and business development officer
Melanie Loria has joined McCullough Landscape Architecture as its new marketing and business development officer.
Loria has several years of marketing experience in the architectural, engineering, and construction industries. Most recently, she led the marketing department for the NewSchool of Architecture & Design as its marketing manager.
She has also worked in various marketing and communications positions with architectural firms Gensler and Sasaki, and construction manager J. Calnan & Associates Inc.
Her experience includes business development efforts, assisting with a firm re-brand, website design and management, social media strategy and execution, collateral design, writing and designing proposals, national and international award nominations, and training junior marketing team members.
She has a passion for creative design, project storytelling, and connecting with the community.
McCullough is the design force behind some of San Diego County’s most iconic natural environments, including San Diego Zoo exhibits, La Jolla Cove, and numerous university and professional campus settings, among others.
Kary’s Helping Hand honored by
San Diego County Credit Union
The San Diego County Credit Union has presented the second quarter of the 2022 George Chamberlin Community Leadership Award to Kary’s Helping Hand, selected for the positive impact they make in the San Diego community. The award recognizes individuals and organizations that devote their time, talents and resources to helping others and making San Diego a better place to live.
Kary’s Helping Hand is a nonprofit organization based in San Diego that has been providing home-cooked meals to approximately 150 individuals at their monthly community outreach events. They also distribute gently used clothing, hygiene products, blankets, jackets, socks, and other needed items. Their mission is to support every individual experiencing homelessness as they make the brave choice to ask for help and leave the streets behind. They build relationships with every person they reach out to, encouraging them to seek shelter when possible.
Since its inception in 2020, Kary’s Helping Hand has donated items to those in need at the East County Transitional Living Center (ECTLC), a nonprofit that aims to provide transitional living and help restore lives. Over the last two years, they have also facilitated annual toy drives for the children living at ECTLC, and have contributed new bedding for the transitional living dorm buildings and remodeled the children and youth rooms.
Tax credits available for small businesses to hire
The State of California’s New Employment Credit (NEC) allows San Diego businesses an opportunity to capture valuable tax credits intended to reduce their annual state income tax liability. The NEC allows qualifying companies to capture up to $56,000 in tax credits (per qualified employee) for hiring recently discharged military veterans, ex-offenders, long-term unemployed persons and public assistance recipients.
For more information regarding employer and employee eligibility requirements for the state’s NEC, please visit the California Franchise Tax Board – New Employment Credit Frequently Asked Questions.
Click on the following link (New Employment Credit Estimator) if you would like to find out if your business may be eligible for state tax credits based on full-time employees hired after Jan. 1, 2014.
For more information on economic development incentives and programs, please visit www.sandiego.gov/economic-development/industry
Westjet resumes service between Vancouver
and San Diego International Airport
WestJet has resumed seasonal nonstop service between Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada via Vancouver International Airport and San Diego International Airport. The nonstop flights operate two times weekly on Thursdays and Sundays through September. The resumption comes after WestJet suspended service to the city in March 2020 due to COVID-19.
This is WestJet’s second nonstop destination from San Diego. The airline resumed service between San Diego and Calgary, Alberta, Canada in September 2021. For schedule and tickets, visit westjet.com.
Red Door Interactive unveils new Sherman Heights HQ
Alongside EDC’s Mark Cafferty and staff from Councilmember Vivian Moreno’s office, Red Door Interactive, a nationa, award-winning marketing agency, unveiled its new San Diego headquarters in the historic Sherman Heights neighborhood. Red Door hopes its new campus is a step toward bringing more awareness and investment to Sherman Heights, a designated Opportunity Zone.
MaxLinear acquires Taiwan’s Silicon Motion
Carlsbad-based MaxLinear, which provides circuits for broadband markets, has acquired Taiwan’s Silicon Motion for $3.8 billion. The merger aims to provide additional technology and resources to accelerate MaxLinear’s product developmenrt and improve operational efficiency while lowering manufacturing costs.
Scripps Research awarded $67 million
for pandemic preparedness center
The National Institutes of Health has awarded Scripps Research $67 million to develop a new antiviral drug development center. The center will develop nex-generation drugs to combat coronaviruses and other viruses with pandemic potential, as well as build multidisciplinary research capabilities that can be readily refocused in a new pandemic situation.
San Diego’s Space Micro delivers Single Board
Computers to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
San Diego-based Space Micro Inc., a division of Voyager Space Inc., has delivered seven flight-level Single Board Computers to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for use in the space agency’s Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment, or SunRISE.
SunRISE, slated for launch in 2024-2025, will collect data obtained by a small satellite array to help scientists better understand how the Sun generates and releases solar particle storms into space and how these storms influence the interplanetary environment.
City of Carlsbad offers Cybersecurity
Awareness Program to small businesses
The City of Carlsbad invites local small businesses to participate in a new Carlsbad Cybersecurity-Awareness Program. The city is partnering with the San Diego Cyber Center of Excellence (CCOE) to offer several no-cost benefits. Carlsbad-based small business owners can:
• Understand your business’s current online exposure and risk assessment via a report from RiskRecon, a MasterCard company.
• Access training resources to help your employees become more cyber-aware, using ESET North America’s proprietary platform.
This program is provided at no charge for businesses with fewer than 100 employees that are located in Carlsbad or are suppliers to a Carlsbad business and is for educational purposes only.
Evofem Biosciences announces proposed public offering
San Diego-based Evofem Biosciences Inc. announced that it intends to offer and sell shares of its common stock (or pre-funded warrants to purchase common stock in lieu of common stock to certain investors) and warrants to purchase shares of its common stock in an underwritten public offering. The proposed offering is subject to market and other conditions, and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the offering may be completed, or as to the actual size or terms of the offering. All of the shares of common stock, pre-funded warrants and common warrants to be sold in the offering are to be offered by Evofem.
Evofem intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for the continuation of commercialization activities related to its commercial product, Phexxi (lactic acid, citric acid, and potassium bitartrate) vaginal gel, the continuation of its registrational Phase 3 clinical trial EVOGUARD, which is evaluating Phexxi for two potential new indications, the prevention of chlamydia and gonorrhea in women, and related development activities, and other general corporate purposes and other capital expenditures.
