Rotacare Clinic Celebrates Two Yrs. in Pittsburg................................2 More people use facebook and twitter for business.........................3 2013 Tech Palooza a great success..........................................................4
ISSUE 04
VOLUME 46
April 2013
Business Today
the official publication of the pittsburg chamber of commerce
RotaCare clinic celebrates two years of service in Pittsburg
County Supervisor Glover to hold town hall meetings during April in unincorporated communities
RotaCare Pittsburg Free Medical Clinic at St. Vincent de Paul is a bustling place, what with volunteer doctors, nurses and other medical professionals taking care of patients who benefit from the no-cost care provided to them.
Contra Costa County Supervisor Federal Glover will hold four town hall meetings this April in unincorporated communities in his District 5 to give constituents an opportunity to raise issues directly with him and his staff.
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San Francisco, San Jose team up to keep tech companies See Page 3
For years, as they've jockeyed for tech jobs and the cachet that comes with them, San Francisco has touted its cosmopolitan allure, while San Jose has countered with its vast supply of land.
Registered nurses and other medical personnel that volunteer their services on a regular basis gather for a group photograph at the two year celebration of RotaCare Pittsburg Free Medical Clinic being in operation in Pittsburg, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. Photographed from left are Angela Rivello, Yesenia Alvarez, Vivian dela Cruz, John Soliz, Tricia Soliz, Dollie Sorenson, Patricia Collazos, Joahna Duhamel, Blanca Estrada, Molly Dudziak, Katie Messina, Lydia Ramos, and Helene Glaser. (Susan Tripp Pollard/Staff)
U.S. Agency Revises Form I-9 for Use in Verifying Eligibility to Work See Page 2
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a revised Form I-9 for use in verifying employmenteligibility on March 8.
2013 Pittsburg Chamber President’s Club:
On Tuesday, March 19, 2013, New Chamber members; Momo’s Restaurant celebrated their Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. Their much anticiapted arrival was celebrated by Pittsburg City Officials, Chamber CEO, Harry York and more importantly...eager patrons. The new casual Japanese Fusion Restaurant located at 7th and Railroad in downtown Pittsburg opened it’s doors to host patrons for dinner and drinks. Since their grand opening, Momo’s has delighted guest with their amazing food, great atmoshere and outstanding service. On behalf of the Chamber, we happily welcome Momo’s to downtown Pittsburg!
2013 Partners:
U.S. Agency Revises Form I-9 for Use in Verifying Eligibility to Work All employers are required to complete a Form I-9 for each employee.
Revisions, Effictive Dates The USCIS stated that the revisions to the form include: A new field; Reformatting to reduce errors; and Clearer, expanded, user-friendly instructions for both employees and employers. The Department of Homeland Security published a notice in the Federal Register informing employers of the new Form I-9. According to the USCIS, effective March 8, 2013: Employers should begin using the newly revised Form I-9 (Rev. 03/08/13N) for all new hires and reverifi cations. Employers may continue to use previously accepted revisions (Rev. 02/02/09N and Rev. 08/07/09Y) until May 7, 2013. After May 7, 2013, employers must use only Form I-9 (Rev. 03/08/13N). According to the USCIS, employers should not complete a new Form I-9 for current employees if a properly completed Form I-9 is already on file. HRCalifornia has been updated with the new form.
Spanish Version A Spanish version of Form I-9 (Rev. 03/08/13N) is also available, and HRCalifornia is updated with the new form. The Spanish version is for use in Puerto Rico only. Spanish-speaking employers and employees in the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and other U.S. territories may use the Spanish version for reference, but must complete the English version of the form.
Handbook Updated The USCIS has updated the Handbook for Employers: Guidance for Completing Form I-9 (M-274) to correspond to the new form. According to the USCIS, helpful new images have been added to illustrate how employees and employers can complete Sections 1–3 of the new form. The revised handbook is available at www.uscis.gov.
RotaCare clinic celebrates two years of service in Pittsburg This week, volunteers were not only busy seeing patients but also took out time to celebrate two years of providing services at the clinic, which recently added twice-a-month Saturday hours in addition to weekly clinic hours on Wednesdays.
is a member of the clinic's advisory council. "I fell in love with the whole idea once I started (volunteering), just seeing how much it was doing for people who don't have insurance," she said. "It's been great to see so much good come out of so little. A few of us had an idea, and because of collaboration and working as a team, we've created something very valuable in the community."
The clinic specializes in providing short-term urgent care, which includes medical exams, diagnostic and lab testing, and medications, to low-income patients. Most of them are uninsured. If necessary, patients are referred for surgical proceBut it's not just her fellow volunteers that Rivello dures to Operation Access, a partnering organizapraises. tion. The clinic would not be the clinic it is without the The clinic first opened its doors in February of 2011 patients who have made the decision to take care through an ongoing partnership of 10 local Rotary of their health. clubs, churches and St. Vincent de Paul of Contra Costa County. It receives financial support from "We don't just see uninsured and undocumented several foundations and corporations. (patients). We see folks whose jobs were cut back and there was a cut in their (medical) benefits," "We need this clinic because there's a huge Rivello said. "It can be pretty humbling to come uninsured population in Contra Costa County, and here." East County was hit more than the rest of Contra Costa because of the foreclosure and unemployment situation," said Barb Hunt, development director for St. Vincent de Paul. Most of the 1,800 patients who have been seen by the clinic since it opened have come from Antioch and Pittsburg, she said. Dr. Hamidreza Khonsari, who has a private practice in Antioch, has been volunteering at the clinic for two years and was recently named its medical director. The clinic has added nutritional and educational classes aimed to help patients cope with long-term chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity. "We found that 40 percent of our patients have some chronic (condition) they are dealing with, something they have to learn how to manage," Hunt said. Angela Rivello, a retired Kaiser Permanente nurse, has been volunteering since the clinic opened and
Dr. Hamid Khonsari speaks with his patient Ariel Belisario, of Antioch, who visited the RotaCare Pittsburg Free Medical Clinic for the first time in Pittsburg, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. Khonsari became the new medical director on Feb. 1. The clinic staff made up almost entirely of volunteers celebrated two years in operation Wednesday night. (Susan Tripp Pollard/Staff)
By Eve Mitchell Contra Costa Times contracostatimes.com
By: Gail Cecchettini Whaley, Cal Chamber
Business Today
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Coffee & Commerce
We've got Coyote Valley with another kind of development already targeted expansion zones potential. We're trying to provide for tech firms. lots of different kinds of environments for companies to work in. Now, in an effort to add a weapon But some say the area already is so Those that want to be in a San filled up there's little room for Francisco high-rise will choose to his city's arsenal, San Francisco growth. "When you go to lunch in that." Lee's proposal isn't without its Mayor Ed Lee has proposed SoMa, you have to get out of the sharp critics. Some commuters reshaping a 30-acre stretch of office before noon or you're going worry it will slow traffic in and out freeway and rail yards into highdensity housing, shops, restaurants to be standing in line," said Jason of the city. Caltrain officials, too, say they need the rail yard to house and more than 2 million square feet Johson, co-founder of startup accelerator Founders Den, which trains, especially with plans afoot to of high-rise office space. sits near the Caltrain yard in Lee's electrify the line as part of the But rather than a new stage in a Bay sights and offers startups shared state's high-speed rail project. The Area arms race, Lee's plans are office space and other resources. city is POWs theCaltrain Bataan Death payingonfor to March. being hailed as a sign of a new, (U.S. Air Force photo) study conduct an eight-month "At certain times, companies have cooperative sentiment sweeping weighing the plan's potential the region. "Mayor Lee wants to see to leave because of their size, or impacts, according to Santa Clara how to promote the Bay Area," said because of tax incentives County Supervisor Ken Yeager, who elsewhere," Johnson said. "San his spokeswoman, Chrisine Falvey. heads the Peninsula Corridor Joint "There will be widespread benefits Francisco has lost a lot of Powers Board that owns and companies over the years." if companies relocate or expand to operates the commuter line. Still, San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland or Yeager acknowledged, despite To be sure, Lee's plan won't give nearby areas." Added San Jose Caltrain's concerns, Lee's plan Mayor Chuck Reed, whose city long San Francisco anywhere near the "would be a tremendous boon" for amount of office space San Jose has billed itself as Silicon Valley's San Francisco and the rest of the boasts. The 30 acres the mayor capital: "I'm worried about Texas," region. thinks can be freed up is about the not San Francisco. "We've got much bigger competition for companies size of a single corporate campus Ultimately, economic forces that are that are expanding to other states on San Jose's North First Street. far stronger than the ambitions of And Reed and other San Jose and countries instead of keeping the mayors of San Jose and San officials are making plans of their their growth in Silicon Valley." own to add millions of square feet Francisco are likely to carry the day, said UC Berkeley's Moretti, who Enrico Moretti, a professor of to that area, accommodating as wrote the 2012 book "The New economics at UC Berkeley who has many as 20,000 new jobs. Geography of Jobs." studied the region's history of Rather than view Lee's plan as a innovation, said traditional rivalries possible threat, Reed sees it as "The labor markets in the Bay Area have yielded to the reality of a another piece of the region's real are getting increasingly integrated," fast-shifting business landscape. estate portfolio. "It's important that Moretti said. "This is very good for "It used to be the case that tech we have options in the Bay Area," the region, very good for high tech companies were either in the South Reed said. "North San Jose's got and very good for the Bay Area Bay or San Francisco. Now they are one kind of development potential. economy." in both locations," he said. "And workers are much more mobile." At the same time, Moretti said, Lee's proposal to knock down Interstate 280 north of 16th Street and relocate a Caltrain storage yard near AT&T Park is an aggressive move for the business-friendly mayor, who has worked to keep startups in town as they grow.
San Francisco, San Jose team up to keep tech companies
Lee already has cut tax deals with such startups as Twitter in exchange for help revitalizing rundown areas, and he persuaded city voters in the fall to eliminate a payroll tax the mayor and others insisted punished companies for growth. "Knocking down the 280 extension makes a lot of sense," Moretti said. "It will free up a lot of land to attract companies and create jobs." Lee, in fact, said razing the overpass and rail yard is the city's last, best hope to create the kind of corporate campuses that San Jose and other cities long have used to woo companies that have
Business Today
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DropBox , A free web application you can use to sync your media with other computers and it works great with mobile devices.
More people are using Twitter and Facebook to contact businesses More people are using Twitter and Facebook to contact businesses instead of dialing the 1-800 customer service number, but companies are slow to respond on social media, leaving concerns unanswered and even deleting questions, according to a study released recently. The findings, released by Redwood City-based LiveOps, which sells cloud-based customer service technology, and marketing research firm Harris Interactive underscore what many consumers already know -customer service can be lackluster on social network sites. More than half of companies don't respond to questions posted on Facebook and Twitter, the study said, even though social networks are quickly becoming one of the most popular ways to connect with businesses. "You're destroying your brand by not responding," said Natalie Petouhoff, a business consultant and lecturer at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, who conducted research for the study. "Companies are going to wonder where they went wrong and went down the drain." The study, paid for by LiveOps, surveyed 1,255 consumers age 18 and older and researched customer service centers at retail, financial and telecommunications companies and other businesses over four months. About 70 percent of complaints on Twitter and Facebook are ignored, according to LiveOps' findings. Most customers wait more than two days for a response on Facebook, when an appropriate waiting period is less than an hour, researchers said. More than one-third of retailers have erased a customer's question from their Facebook page, according to the research. Most companies want to provide good customer service, experts say, but many don't have the technology to address customer complaints on multiple channels. For instance, some copy and paste tweets into a complaint database rather than replying on Twitter. Other companies restrict social media sites for advertising only, and even today, some are "still waiting to see if this (social media) phenomenon thing is real," said Marty Beard, president and chief executive of LiveOps. But while they wait, businesses could be losing out. Customers are likely to spend about 30 percent more money with retailers that interact on social media Petouhoff said. And social media can do a lot of damage -- and good -- to a company's reputation, because comments spread in seconds to huge populations of customers. United Airlines took a beating in 2009 when a passenger's YouTube video about how his guitar was broken during a flight went viral. In 2011, Los Gatos-based Netflix (NFLX) suffered a strong backlash when consumers, outraged by plans for a price hike, took to social networks to protest. Yet, Some companies have figured out how to keep customers happy on social networks. Nordstrom, for instance, was quick to address one customer's complaint on Facebook recently that a clothing model looked too skinny.
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"You're better off getting in front of the fire than being on the back end of it," said Marshal Cohen, consumer behavior and retail expert with The NPD Group. "To do nothing you just allow yourself to be blasted."
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April 2013 Calendar of events County Supervisor Glover to hold town hall meetings In April One topic of discussion will be a Northern Waterfront Development Initiative that Glover is promoting. County staff members also will attend the town hall meetings and answer questions.
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02 SCORE Business Small Business Counseling By appointment only
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10 Chamber Mixer El Salvadoreno Restaurant 5:30pm-7:00pm
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17 Coffee & Commerce
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20 Pittsburg Marina Grand Re-opening & Ribbon Cutting Ceremony 1:00pm-2:00pm
Location: 985 railroad ave. 8:00AM to 9:00AM
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The schedule for the town hall meetings is as follows: Bay Point: 6-7 p.m. April 2 at Ambrose Community Center, 3105 Willow Pass Road. Pacheco: 6-7 p.m. April 11 at Glover's office at 651 Pine St., fourth floor, Martinez. Crockett: 6-7 p.m. April 24 at the Crockett Community Center, 850 Pomona St., Crockett. Rodeo: 6-7 p.m. April 25 at the Rodeo Senior Center, 189 Parker Ave., Rodeo. For more information, contact Supervisor Glover's office at dist5@bos.cccounty.us or 925-3358200 or check out his website at: www.cccounty.us/supervisorglover. By: Tom Lochner Contact Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760 or tlochner@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow him at twitter.com/tomlochner
2013 State of Education:
2013 Techpalooza a great succes!!! The 2nd annual TechPalooza event, held on Tuesday March 19, 2013 was another great success! The brain child of Antioch Chamber Board member Matthew Hart, the Antioch Chamber of Commerce and in collaboration with the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce, Pittsburg Chamber Board member, PJ Quesada and the Los Medanos College Foundation, The event was a great success and had an impressive attandance yet for it’s second year. Techpalooza is a full day event for businesses to be educated on cutting edge technology. This year, twelve dynamic presenters spoke on fresh new topics such as mobile marketing, the Cloud, and so much more! Plans for next year’s TechPalooza event are underway with ideas for new topics, speakers and dynamic contet. Look for a save the date in the coming months on our website at www.pittsburgchamber.org. This year, we ere excited to be joined by Baypoint, Oakley, Brentwood and Rio Vista Chambers and their members and look forward to another great TechPalooz event in 2014!
The 2013 Sate of Education was a great success. A special thank you to the CCC Office of Education, Los Medanos College and the Pittsburg Unified School District for a terrific event! Check our facebook page @pittsburgchamberofcommerce for more details and great pics from the event!!!
Business TodAY
Yesterday's Techpalooza was PHENOMENAL!! The Chambers of Commerce, serving our region, among the other visionary and generous sponsors and participants, deserve high public commendation. I hope to produce a City-Journal article, to that effect, as soon as I can get "all my ducks in a row." You all did a very good thing and I, for one, am eternally impressed and grateful. Well done, friends at the Pittsburg Chamber and beyond!!!!!!!! ~David Nelson~ Pittsburg, CA. Contact us for advertising at (925) 432-7301 or email
chamber@pittsburgchamber.org
New Members Momo’s Restaurant 610 Railroad Ave. Pittsburg, Ca. 94565 (925)252-9931
CES Premier Real Estate Services 1317 Buchanan Rd. Pittsburg, Ca. 94565 (925)432-3600
Business Starts Here Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce 985 Railroad Ave. Pittsburg, CA. 94565 (925)432-7301
Newsletter
Monica Couture Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce
monica@pittsburgchamber.org
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