San Gabriel Valley boasts deep roots

Pasadena Star News

By: Cynthia Kurtz

Posted 7/24/2013

The San Gabriel Valley has deep roots. That is how Wayne Ratkovich, President of the Ratkovich Company and past chair of the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership, describes the region. Mr Ratkovich knows. He grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, graduated from UCLA and built his business in Southern California.

Many of us are transplants. We came from somewhere else and happily adopted the San Gabriel Valley as our home – including me. We didn’t take the eighth grade civic class that would have taught us about California and the role San Gabriel Valley played in making California a great state, so many of us don’t know about the region’s rich history. 

The first mission in the Los Angeles region - the San Gabriel Mission - was in the San Gabriel Valley. This was the region of orchards. The region where Los Angeles businesses expanded, turning it into a job producing major manufacturing center. You just cannot tell the history of California without talking about the San Gabriel Valley.

There are many famous people associated with the San Gabriel Valley - George Patton, Jackie Robinson, Mark McGuire, Julia Childs and Father Junipero Serra just to name a few.

If I stumped you on that last name you are probably not a native. In all fairness Serra was actually not from the San Gabriel Valley, but he had a huge impact on the San Gabriel Valley and California.

Born in 1713 into a humble family in Spain, Serra was ordained as a Franciscan priest at the age of 16. He served as a professor of theology for six years. He turned to missionary work at the age of 24 - first in Mexico where he preached, heard confessions and helped at the Mexico City College of San Fernando.  

In 1769 he became head of the missionaries in Baja California. He spent the rest of his life founding nine of the 21 California missions including the San Gabriel Mission. His work is not without controversy. Three hundred years later, his treatment of native Indians falls far short of the standard of human rights we defend today. 

Beginning August 17, there is a great opportunity for natives and transplants alike to learn more about California history, the San Gabriel Valley and Father Junipero Serra when an exhibition about his life opens at the Huntington Library, Arts Collection and Botanical Gardens in San Marino. Paintings, books, artifacts, writings and prints will tell the story of this defining time in California history. The exhibit is about the rich and complex history of Serra and the California Missions.  

Wayne Ratkovich is right. The San Gabriel Valley has deep roots. It is authentic California. The Huntington exhibit is a great way to learn about our roots. Don’t miss it.

Lawsuit threatens to put 300 out of work

Pasadena Star News

By: Cynthia Kurtz

Posted 7/16/2013

We have a great legal system. We probably use it too often to settle disagreements that could be resolved by getting everyone in the same room at the same time. But sometimes it is necessary to hand a matter to the lawyers. It is nice to know that our legal system is there in case you ever do need to use it.

By and large, I think the courts find reasonable ways to handle the business and employment grievances put before them. However, once in a while you hear of a case and wonder how can that be fair?

The case in point is a recent judgment against a company in the San Gabriel Valley. What started as a dispute over a single termination might end up impacting 300 employees and their families. The company is Valley Vista Services, a family owned solid waste and recycling company that has served the San Gabriel Valley since 1957.

This case began when one of Valley Vista’s female employee became ill and wasn’t able to work. After using sick leave and vacation time, she still wasn’t back at work. Valley Vista tried to contact her but she didn’t respond and so the company terminated her for job abandonment.

Her lawyer says Valley Vista’s action was a wrongful termination and that the company didn’t try hard enough to accommodate her special needs - panic attacks.

I didn’t hear the trial and I don’t know all the details so I make no judgment on whether the employee was treated fairly or unfairly. The court’s determination was that she deserved monetary compensation. So let’s accept that and say that Valley Vista Services should pay the employee damages. 

First, she was awarded $5.2 million in compensatory damages. These are intended to make her whole for the loss of her job. She was also awarded punitive damages. Punitive damages are intended to punish the “wrongdoer.” California doesn’t have any caps on punitive damage awards in these types of cases. Twenty-two of the 45 states that allow punitive damages set limits.

California does allow the court to look at the company’s value before setting the damages. In this case the plaintiff’s attorney argued that the company’s value should not be based on revenues but on the value of the company if everything was liquidated. 

Yes, I said liquidated. Everything sold, piece by piece, no more company. The court accepted this argument and Valley Vista Services was hit with an additional $16.5 million judgment. The $21.7 million penalty is the largest employment related award of its kind in Los Angeles County history. Unless it is overturned on appeal, it will put Valley Vista Services out of business and put 300 employees out of work. 

We’ll see if an appeal of the case changes the outcome. But if it doesn’t, taking away the jobs of 300 people who were not the “wrong doers” as a way of righting the wrong to one employee just doesn’t make sense to me.

Weather has become a taboo topic

Pasadena Star News

By: Cynthia Kurtz

Posted 7/10/2013  

There was a time when the weather was considered a neutral topic for polite conversation. You could always bring up the weather. Not anymore. Start talking about the weather and pretty soon you are talking about global warming, climate change, AB 32, and green power. These are definitely not neutral topics! 

Pepperdine University recently surveyed California voters on their opinions about the environment and energy. While the majority of voters believe climate change is a moderate or serious threat, Californians don’t agree on what to do about them and who should pay for the solutions.

Let’s start with climate change - 38 percent of those surveyed say it is a serious threat, 33 percent a moderate threat and 20 percent say it is no threat or not real. Clearly, a majority believe that climate change is some level of threat. 

One would then assume that there would be support for public policies that will address this threat. Don’t jump to that conclusion too quickly. California has adopted the most advanced public policy on climate change, the Global Warming Solutions Act, also known as AB 32. Ask those same people if they think that AB 32 is having a negative or positive effect and 32 percent say positive, 30 percent say negative, and 29 percent say neither.

We know that climate change is strongly linked to power generation and policy leaders are adopting regulations intended to increase the use of “green power.” There are conflicting theories attempting to convince Californians that these policies are creating jobs or driving companies to other states taking the jobs with them. Neither side is winning that battle - 52 percent of voters say they can’t tell how jobs are being impacted while 21 percent say jobs are being created and 27 percent say jobs are being lost.

Cost and jobs are very important to these respondents. When asked if they would be willing to ease environmental regulations on oil extraction and refining if they reduce the price of gasoline and increased the number of jobs in California, 51 percent said yes to just 28 percent responding no.

When it comes to paying for these policies, the message is not surprising. Asked if they would be willing to pay more for gas, electricity, food and other consumers to increase the use of green energy and help the environment, 53 percent said no - 30 percent said yes. 

There are clear winners and losers when it comes to support for future sources of energy: 77 percent support increasing the use of solar; 70 percent support increasing the use of wind; 70 percent support increasing the use of water; 51 percent support increasing the use of liquid natural gas. Only 23 percent support increasing the use of coal.

                                                                                                           

Support for increasing nuclear power is split with 35 percent supporting and 30 percent not supporting it. You may be interested in knowing that this survey was taken after there were known problems at San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant but before Edison’s announcement that they would close the plant

So now that we can’t use the weather as a “go to” topic, how should one start a new conversation? “How about them Dodgers”?

Uncle Sam based on real-life person

Pasadena Star News
By: Cynthia Kurtz
Posted 7/03/2013 

Uncle Sam was a real person. The iconic representative of American government is reportedly based on a man named Samuel Wilson who was both a successful businessman and a government official.

Samuel Wilson was born in Arlington, Massachusetts - known as Menotomy, Massachusetts at the time - on September 13, 1766. He moved to Troy, New York with his older brother Ebenezer when he was 22 and Ebenezer 27.

Samuel was very involved in the Troy community. In 1808 he took the Oath of Office as the community’s Office Assessor. Soon after, he also took the Oath as Path Master, better known today as “road commissioner.”
 

Samuel and Ebenezer were quite the entrepreneurs. They opened several successful businesses under the name, “E & S Wilson,” among them a meatpacking firm. In 1812, E & S was successful in getting a contract to supply Elbert Anderson with the pork and beef he needed to fulfill a contract to supply rations for the U.S. Army.

The supplies of meat were shipped in barrels and the barrels were stamped “E.A - U.S.” indicating the supplier and the purchaser. Legend has it that first dockworkers, then eventually soldiers who knew the meat came from the Wilson packing company started saying they were being fed by “Uncle Sam”. 

The stamped barrels became the property of the U.S. government which evolved into calling all government property “Uncle Sam’s.”

You are probably wondering if the white-haired, goateed image with the top hat we are so familiar with from recruitment posters is the image of Samuel Wilson. Alas no. That well known image was created by James Montgomery Flagg in 1917. It is based on a British recruitment poster image of Lord Kitchener, a British Field Marshall famous for his imperial campaigns. 

If you want to see what Samuel Wilson looked like you can visit his Massachusetts birthplace where a memorial statue stands in honor of their famous native son. Uncle Sam Day is celebrated every September 13th. 

The official home and final resting place of Samuel Wilson is in Troy, New York which also has a memorial to Wilson in the city’s Riverfront Park.

There is some evidence that the term “Uncle Sam” might have been used to refer to the government before Samuel Wilson stamped his first meat barrel with the familiar “U.S.”  But there is no doubt that Samuel Wilson, his barrels of meat, and those hungry soldiers provided the spark that made “Uncle Sam” a household term. On September 15, 1961 the United States Congress made it official when then they “resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives that the Congress solutes Uncle Sam Wilson of Troy, New York as the progenitor of America’s National symbol of Uncle Sam.”  

Have a wonderful and safe July 4th.