April 28, 2004

This week’s Bulletin was compiled by Tom Sayer

Vocational Services Day

San Diego Convention Center – Hosted By Maureen Eberle – PHOTO by MICHAEL CLARKSON – Reported By david dawson

We began our morning with a firm hand-shake, a warm smile, and a hearty breakfast. Our visit quickly kicked off into the economic impact the convention center has in San Diego. Just to make a few bullet points:

Ø      $10 billion in economic impact

Ø      $227 million in tax revenues for the City

Ø      Held over 3000 events

Ø      Attracted 10 million guests

Ø      Generated more than 7.4 million hotel room nights

Ø      FY04 will generate a record-breaking $1.2 billion in economic impact

What makes the convention center perform so well? Repeat business. The industry average is 73% bi-annual business. The San Diego Convention Center scores 86% bi-annual repeat business.

 

People are drawn to what catches their eyes. San Diego is the place for that. Keeping that in mind, the convention center actually helps increase the population in San Diego. People visit San Diego and want to move to San Diego.

Some fast facts:

Ø      San Diego is expensive relative to other convention centers

Ø      Even with four more hotels, San Diego does not have enough hotel rooms

Ø      San Diego is in the top 5 convention centers for service

Ø      San Diego convention center is 22nd in size amongst its peers

Ø      Security is the number 1 priority

Ø      Comicon is largest annual convention (100k+ attendees)

9-11 hurt everyone. San Diego quickly got back on track. However, only now is business starting to really pick up. San Diego convention center only targets to 206 associations. This is due to those associations being the best fit or in other terms; the only associations that can afford the expense of being in San Diego.

What really amazed us is that San Diego is nearly self sustaining. Almost all cities provide a subsidy for their convention center. San Diego convention center receives a $2.9 million subsidy annually, compared to most other major cities at twice that amount or higher.

The goal of the convention center is to be completely self-sustaining. At their current rate, this will come sooner than expected.

THE MIGHTY 1090 – Hosted by Frank De Francesco – Reported by John Addams

Frank DeFrancesco, CFO, treated a large group to a behind-the-scenes tour of The Mighty 1090 AM radio station (and home of the Padres) located in UTC.  After

complimentary bagels, donuts, and coffee, Frank introduced us to morning talk show personalities Billy Ray Smith and Scott Kaplan inside the show studio.  The studio

was impressive, with 9 television screens, multiple computers, and piles of newspapers to update the personalities on sports and world events.  Billy Ray and Scott answered our sports questions during a break, and then returned to the air live to talk with Kurt Rambis on his sports show.  We also got to see the intricate coordination done by engineering and production – all very high-tech.

Frank then took us to the boardroom and, along with program director Joe Tutino, explained the business of radio and answered our questions.  Topics included market share and advertising, formatting, local radio personalities, air coverage, and yes, even Howard Stern.  The Mighty 1090 has the largest AM air coverage in the county thanks to its 50 kW antenna in Mexico via satellite.  (Hopefully, a trip south of the border to see the antenna is on the horizon.)

If you haven’t had the chance to see the station in person, this is a must see on future vocational services days.  Thanks Frank.  You can check out the website for program information (as well as live listening) at www.mty1090.com.

 

Hall of Justice - Hosted by Judge Patricia Cowett - Reported by Ron Erbetta

In Attendance: Pete Mc Guire, Tana and Dan Cleaves, V. Anisimow, Bill Poirier, Sharon Cox, Rick & Karyn Logan, Ron Erbetta, Christine Thompson, David Buro, Mitra Mujica, and guest Alessandra Sgubini (from Italy!).

After a continental breakfast in the Judge's chambers, we were seated in the courtroom Jury Box and got a rundown of the Superior Court system. Patsy introduced Judge Sam Martino who told us that the Superior Court system has 1600 employees, a budget of $185 Million, and is the 2nd largest court system in the State and the 3rd largest in the Country!

There are 600,000 filings per year broken into Criminal and Civil cases.  Criminal run the gambit of murders to traffic violations, and Civil deal with probate, family, and Juvenile issues.  Patsy then introduced Marilyn James, who has the unbelievable job as 'Chief Evaluation and Planning Officer' for the entire county court system, Downtown, Chula Vista and  North County as well. In 1998 these three court systems were combined into a much more efficient and cost effective single "Unified Superior Court of San Diego.  She reminded us that the Judicial system is the 3rd branch of Government and has the task of resolving disputes of any kind.  The Courts are involved in Community Outreach Programs for students at all levels.

Patsy also introduced Tom Well, who is the Research Attorney for Patsy's Court, and helps her with the 600 active cases she is assigned...amazing volume when you consider all the pretrial hearings that go along with these. Now, under the new Court System, 85% of these are heard within a year versus in 3 to 5 years under the old system.

We then took a tour of the Jury waiting room on the first floor where hundreds of prospective jurors were waiting to be assigned to a court.  Back upstairs in Patsy's Court, she introduced Judge Charles Hayes who spoke to us about the study and successful program of using Mediation as an alternative to going to trial producing a 25% cost reduction!  An independent 3rd party hears both sides and tries to settle.  They will sometimes use retired judges and lawyers at $125 per hour versus trial lawyers at $250 to $350 per hour!

We adjourned at about 8:45 am but not before Patsy brought in Linda Haselton from an adjoining Court...Linda is a past member of our Club.  Thank you Judge Patsy for a very interesting tour!

San Diego Police Department – Hosted By Lou Scanlon – Reported By Jerrilyn Malana

Lou Scanlon hosted fellow Rotarians at the San Diego Police Department’s headquarters bright and early at 7:00 a.m.  We were treated to breakfast along with a tour of the inner workings of San Diego’s finest.

Lou provided us with an overview of the Police Department’s mission, organizational structure, and geographical jurisdiction.  We also discussed the current budget of $270 million, and the financial challenges facing the Police Department due to the fact that 92% of its budget is marked for personnel expenses with only 8% remaining for all other expenses.   We also learned that San Diego has far less police officers per capita than New York or Los Angeles (i.e., New York has 1 officer per 216 residents; Los Angeles has 1 officer per 417 residents; and San Diego has 1 officer per 635 residents).

During our tour, we inspected and handled some of the weapons carried by SWAT team officers.  We also visited several areas including the communications area where 911 calls are received, the watch officer’s area, and the intake and processing area (sally port).  We also visited the forensics department, which reminded us of the “CSI” television show.  One of the most fascinating departments we toured was the cavernous property room where countless articles of evidence had been inventoried and stored for pending cases.

The tour was fascinating and helped us to gain a better understanding—and true appreciation – for the invaluable service that Lou Scanlon and the entire Police Department provides to the citizens of San Diego.   Thank you Lou!

Center For Disease Control – Hosted By Steve Waterman – Reported By Tom Sayer

Our group included host Steve Waterman, Margaret Oppliger, Martin Blair, Lesa Chang, Joe Ciokon and his guest, Joe Fitzsimmons, Susan Davis and Tom Sayer.  The

Center For Disease Control (“CDC”) began with the early shipping industry to control the spread of diseases coming off ships from foreign lands.  During WWII, the CDC focused primarily on controlling malaria contracted by troops in overseas war zones.  Now the CDC is a multi-billion agency with a two part mission of protecting public health and promoting healthy behavior.  Perhaps the most known arm of the CDC is the Epidemic Intelligence Service (“EIS”), the part of CDC that responds to outbreaks such as SARS and bio-terrorism threats such as anthrax.  This department is staffed with 70-80 physicians, veterinarians, nurses and social workers, half of whom work out of the home office in Atlanta and half of which are assigned to local health departments around the country.  One example of their work was a situation with multiple people infected with hepatitis-c in the same locality.  The EIS discovered that all the infected people had been seen by the same clinic.  With further investigation, it was deduced that infection probably occurred as a result of the virus being inadvertently injected into a multi-use vial of intravenous medicine and then transferred to multiple patients from there.  Some resources we learned about include the website for CDC: – www.cdc.gov – a great resource for immunization information, and the best defense against the West Nile Virus that has now spread to San Diego – a good insecticide with a strong concentration of the ingredient DEET.

Home - Calendar of Events - Getting Involved - Member Info

Service Committees - Bulletin - Links

Created by David Tereschuck of:

Copyright © 2000