Spindrift July 24, 2020

Steve Pool - Reporter

OPENING THE ZOOM
President George Lesley spoke about what we do for the guests in the meeting. George found a “NextDoor Newport” social media posting to be quite profound and he called it the“Next Time” prayer. It was a prayer about seeing more clearly and being kind. Ken DuFour led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

We’ll be meeting at the BCYC mid-patio. We’ll be out on the patio with 4 at a table and plenty of space between tables. Please, WEAR YOUR MASK unless eating.

There are 7 tables with plenty of seating. Food will be served (sorry folks, no chow line) at 12:20. There’s plenty of shade but please do bring some sun protection as we’ll be sitting outside.

Please consider coming if you’re feeling healthy (no symptoms), don’t have underlying health issues, and want to socialize with one another respectfully!

FancesMurphy

GUESTS

George introduced Frances Murphy, Jill Golden and, and his wife, Gina Lesley. They all met quite a while ago in the OC Ski Club and have been good friends ever since, welcome Jill, Frannie, and Gina!

JillGoldenReginaLesley
DaveSchapiro

Clarification came from Dave Schapiro about a promising therapy for COVID that he shared that was mislabeled as a “cure”. He apologizes for the confusion!

PROGRAM

NEWPORT CHAMBER Steve Rosanski, Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce President is also known as our “Business Mayor” always brings us interesting and important news about our business community.

Steve Rosansky

Steve started his talk with a comparison with “prior to COVID” and that the Chamber had just made it’s way out of debt with a large final payment early in March, they had a robust outlook for the year ahead. Then the reality of the pandemic took hold and he wishes he hadn’t paid off the loan.

Life goes on though and through the PPP & EIDL Programs, they got $150k at 2.75% for 30 years. The chamber has been in business for 113 years!

Steve talked to us about the changing guidelines and how disruptive it is to businesses to make such dramatic shifts from week to week. For instance, in the foodservice sector: Curbside only gave way to indoor dining which caused cases to go up and shifts back to curbside pickup and outdoor dining. Most recently Gov. Newsom ordered restrictions on congregating indoors: fitness centers and non-essential offices or businesses were hit with restrictions that they are working with.

It’s become clear that our personal social hygiene is critical to the containment of the effects of this virus. The chamber has started a mask-wearing promotion campaign!

Tourism is suffering. In June, we had a 24% occupancy rate. Normally, we have 80-90% occupancy at this time of year. Although July was looking promising, They’re now predicting that the occupancy will remain low, around 24% for July. This means only about 25% of the anticipated tax revenue will be generated from Bed and Sales taxes that visitors contribute to our economy during their stay.

Home Prices are going up due to lack of inventory.

ELECTION DAY is 4 months out. There are three seats up for election in November and filing to run for office just opened up. Our club member and Mayor Will O’Neill submitted his paperwork as well as Jeff Herdman representing Balboa Island. Others running have yet to file: Brad Avery, Nancy Scar-borough, and Shaun Johnson.

STATE ISSUES:

John Moorlach vs. Katrina Foley, Cottie Petrie-Norris vs, Diane Dixon, and Harley

Rouda v. Michelle Steel are the races of interest for our district.

PROP 15 is proposed to get around PROP 13 taxing limitations. Prop 15 adjusts Prop 13 to not apply to Business or Investment property. It will impact tenants and customers as the costs will be passed along. Prop 15 will leave residential properties alone. George Lesley chimed in to note that this proposition also affects personal property tax and considers this to be a real disaster. Steve noted that it affects personal property over $3 million only. The proceeds from Prop 15 is slated to distribute 40% to schools and 60% to local governments. Teachers and workers are backing this proposition.

Saveourbusiness

Thank you for the great talk, Steve!

Wear a mask! Physically distance! Wash hands often!

Presy George asked for a reminder about how to sign up for Stu News: stunewsnewport.com