Bob Cleator has cozied into his new office at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, 2727 Shelter Island Drive in Point Loma, just beneath the Brigantine. His new career follows nearly a year of regrouping after he closed Cleator Corp., the classy contract office furniture manufacturer in Mira Mesa. The 28-year-old company he used to own with his late uncle Bill Cleator was “closed due to runaway worker’s compensation premiums,” says Cleator, who couldn’t even sell the business because the insurance had become so expensive. “We let go of about 150 employees,” some of whom had become co-owners. “I wish it would have worked out better for them.” In his new career, Cleator is representing buyers and sellers of residential properties.
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Phil Bracamonte, president of Jimsair, is rallying supporters, fearful that the Airport Authority may soon take action that ends his nine-year quest to expand corporate aviation services at Lindbergh Field. In a worst-case scenario, the authority would significantly limit private aviation at Lindbergh on the grounds of making the airport more available for commercial flights. No wonder the folks at McClellan-Palomar are so furiously expanding and upgrading their corporate aviation operations.
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   San Diego photographer Bob Covarrubias’ striking images of the America’s Cup races held here in 1988, 1992 and 1995 are on exhibit through June at the San Diego Hall of Champions Sports Museum in Balboa Park. Covarrubias braved the same waves the racing boats did. ‘I have seen him take a beating on the water,’ says skipper Dennis Conner, ‘riding around in a small boat for many hours, just to get that perfect shot.’
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Attorney Pat Shea, the advocate of municipal bankruptcy, confidante of Mike Aguirre and Donna Frye, husband of pension whistle blower Diann Shipione and candidate in the mayoral primary (2.37 percent, 6,299 votes) seems to be counseling anything but political compromise and cooperation. Less than a week after Jerry Sanders won election as San Diego’s mayor, Shea sent to supporters, with no commentary, the following quote from Frederick Douglass, a leader of the abolitionist movement who fought to end slavery in the United States well before the Civil War: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; and it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
Asked about the quote, Shea says he believes in it. “We in San Diego do ourselves no favor by characterizing active debate and serious advocacy as ‘intemperate’ or ‘impolite,’” he says. “It’s what allows us to tolerate muddled standards and questionable behaviors that become civic disasters. It’s what prevents us from reaching our best decisions, and our highest levels of public service. I wish Jerry nothing but success in the difficult adventure he has undertaken. I’ve offered to help in any way I can on the structural finance issues.”
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Rudolph A. Johnson III has been promoted to g.m. of the San Diego Convention Center and will oversee a full- and part-time staff of 350 and an annual budget of $15 million. Johnson previously was convention center director, a position eliminated with his promotion. Johnson joined the center as a special projects manager in 1998 to help lead the $216 million expansion of the facility and after nine years of service with the city of San Diego.
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Neil Hokanson of Hokanson Capital Management in Solana Beach joins Jim Freeman of Financial Alternatives in La Jolla as San Diego’s two representatives in Worth magazine’s report on “The Top 100 Wealth Advisors” in the nation. In an interview with the magazine, Hokanson says about his clients: “Their big concern is that their kids don’t have an appreciation for what it took to create wealth and to manage it. In some cases, they may not even have an appreciation for philanthropic activities.”
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Singer, songwriter, freelance writer and cancer survivor Jamie Reno has released “Survivors’ Songs: Jamie Reno’s Greatest Hits.” Reno has long shown an ability to get big name artists such as Dickey Betts and Charlie Daniels to lend a hand on individual songs. Highlighting this collection is a new song, “Survivors’ Song,” that with an upbeat melody, strong drumming and fancy guitar work celebrates living with or beating cancer. “We are alive. We will survive,” is the repeated refrain. The song is rockier than most of Reno’s pop-flavored tunes. It features Peter Frampton on guitar and cancer survivors as the chorus. The album is available at Tower Records and on iTunes (a first for Reno.) Free copies of the CD, and its accompanying 20-page booklet filled with treatment information and inspiration, are being given to 20,000 lymphoma patients nationwide. More is at jamiereno.com.
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Robert Todak, former manager of the upscale Delano Hotel Miami Beach, has been tabbed to manage the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego, the condo hotel to be built at Fifth Avenue and L Street Downtown. Greg Casserly, president of Tarsadia Hotels, which will operate the 12-story, 420-unit hotel, says Todak spent five years at the Delano, “a popular hangout for celebrities and rock stars, which is where we’re going in San Diego.”
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Colorado State University’s Rams will face the Navy Midshipmen in the inaugural San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl Dec. 22 at 7:30 p.m. in Qualcomm Stadium. The Rams finished the regular season with a 6-5 overall record, 5-3 in the Mountain West Conference. The game will be televised by ESPN2. This will be the first meeting between the Rams and Middies. This year will mark the first time in school history that Navy has gone to three straight bowl games. Colorado State has visited San Diego three times to play in the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl. It was defeated by Michigan in 1994 (24-14) and Kansas State in 1995 (54-21). The Rams beat Missouri in 1997 (35-24). Tickets are at poinsettiabowl.net.
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Emerald Plaza, a staple of Downtown’s skyline since 1991, has another new owner. Triple Net Properties of Santa Ana, which purchased the 30-story office tower at 402 W. Broadway for $91.6 million last year, sold it for $123 million to RREEF, a real estate investment adviser. Fifty-two tenants occupy the building, among them the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, Foley & Lardner and Mack Barclay. It was the 23rd sale for Triple Net this year and the second major purchase in the city by RREEF since it acquired the second phase of Rio San Diego Plaza office park from Carlsbad-based Newport National Corp. in October.
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Downtown law firm Post Kirby Noonan & Sweat LLP will change its name to Kirby Noonan Lance & Hoge LLP on Jan. 1 to reflect the next generation of partners taking leadership roles. The two partners added to the name are James R. Lance and Charles T. Hoge. Greg Post is senior partner. Michael Kirby and David Noonan continue in the firm. Newer members are Steven W. Sanchez, Theresa M. Brehl, Jonathan A. Boynton, Ethan T. Boyer and Matthew P. Nugent. The firm was founded in 1976.
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 The Purple Passion team from GlaxoSmithKline led by Kendall French raised $450 at the American Lung Association’s annual Asthma Walk in Mission Bay Park.
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At home, networking no longer means how mom finds new business and it is even evolving from how dad manages to hook together the family computers. Home networking is going multi-toy digital, with families wanting to seamlessly connect computers, stereos, camcorders, televisions, TiVos and other devices so any member can get any show, document or song regardless of where they happen to be in the house using an electronic appliance. Right now it is a wireless or tethered pain for most. So how will consumers, and businesses that support the effort, proceed? Addressing that topic Dec. 13 at a CommNexus San Diego program will be experts from Qualcomm, PulseLink, Staccato, Entropic and Conexant. Registration for the Digital Video special interest group event starts at 7:30 a.m. The cost is $10 before Dec. 10; $20 at the door. Visit commnexus.org for details.
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 Downtown real estate agents Francine Finn (short blonde hair and white jacket) and, to her left, Raye Scott, held a thank you party on board the USS Midway for Scott~Finn & Associates clients and employees. More than 330 people attended for an evening of dinner, dancing and play on flight simulators. Among the special guests were 10 wives of Navy personnel deployed aboard the USS Tarawa.
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The Children’s Dental Health Association’s 2006 Golden Crown Gala has chosen “Embracing the Future” as the theme for its annual dinner, silent auction and dance set for Feb. 25 at the Hilton Resort on Mission Bay. Proceeds will finance the new orthodontic program starting in the spring of 2006 for underserved children at the Golden Hill Dental Center. Honorees this year are local orthodontists, Dr. Soona Jahina and Dr. Budd Rubin, along with hygienists Beverly Hom and Kay Stuckhardt. All have made significant contributions to the field of dentistry and children, in particular. For more information, contact one of the co-chairs — Mary O’Connor or Kimberly Miller — at (858) 571-1795 or visit childrensdentalhealth.org.
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Geologist R. Gordon Gastil has used his knowledge of the earth and his travels to write a fiction book, “Follow the Sun,” released at $14.95 by Sunbelt Publications in El Cajon. Gastil, and his co-author, his wife Janet, have produced a novel that reads like history. Gastil, a teacher and field geologist best known for mapping major sections of northern Baja California and Sonora, Mexico, is professor emeritus of geology at SDSU. Phone the publisher, (619) 258-4911, for information on obtaining the book.
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Darla Fox, owner of Helping Hands for Life, has signed on to be the San Diego area representative for Giving Profits, an e-store that partners with nonprofits by donating back up to 33 cents of every dollar in sales. Giving Profits provides nonprofits with a turnkey e-commerce site that the nonprofit can direct its supporters to. The site is heavy on personal care and health items from Shaklee. For more information, contact Fox at (619) 957-9403 or givingProfits@sdccu.net.
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 Del Sur, a Black Mountain Ranch LLC community located east of I-5 off SR-56, has implemented a state-of-the-art construction recycling program to divert 90 percent of construction waste for reuse and recycling. Del Sur's full-time recycling professional circles the construction site several times daily, carrying scrap metal, drywall, wood, recyclables and concrete debris and trash to the community's temporary 4.5-acre recycling lot for processing.
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Budget cutbacks won’t affect city library users in San Diego who depend upon computers with Internet access, thanks to a $114,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The money will be used to upgrade computers given earlier by the foundation through its U.S. Library Program to support libraries in offering free access to digital information. In 2000, the foundation gave funding for 96 computers to the San Diego Library.
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The Romance Writers of America’s San Diego chapter has planned its Spring Into Romance conference March 17-19, 2006, at the San Diego Marriott Mission Valley Hotel. A portion of the conference proceeds will benefit READ San Diego, a nonprofit tutoring service for adults 18 and older, says Tamara Fisher, conference chair. Speaking and teaching workshops will be bestselling authors Catherine Coulter, Julia Quinn and Jennifer Crusie. For more information call (619) 933-4372 or e-mail info@springintoromance.com.
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 The history of Miramar military installations, from the Navy back to the World War I days of the U.S. Army Camp Kearny (above), is profusely depicted in ‘Marine Corps Air Station Miramar’ by retired Marine Col. Thomas O’Hara, curator of the Flying Leatherneck Museum on the base. The book is part of Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series ($19.99 at bookstores or through arcadiapublishing.com).
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 Rick Mandelbaum
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Promoted to CEO of Landmark National Bank is Rick Mandelbaum, 58. The former president, chief credit officer and COO retains has president’s title. He’s replacing Ron Carlson, the bank’s founding CEO and chairman. Succeeding Carlson as chair is real estate investment executive and attorney James Schmid, a founder and vice-chair. The new vice chair is Vincent Benstead, a founder of Legacy Bank which merged with Landmark this past summer. Carlson remains on the board.
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 Roel Construction has completed tenant improvements in the lobby and nine floors at The Irvine Co.’s Wells Fargo Plaza Downtown. Palmer Construction Services was construction manager; Gensler, the architect; KTU+A, the landscape architect; and Michael Wall Engineering, the electrical engineer of the $5 million job.
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The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego has received a $500,000 grant from the James Irvine Foundation to help finance the museum’s Downtown expansion. The expanded campus will comprise two new structures in addition to the existing building on Kettner Boulevard. The 1915 “baggage building” next to the Santa Fe Depot will be renovated to offer four gallery spaces and will be named in honor of Joan and Irwin Jacobs. A new Copley Building, named after contributor David C. Copley, will be built adjacent to the Jacobs Building. The three-story structure designed by Gluckman Mayner Architects will have a lecture hall and terrace, education programming and art handling spaces, offices and a board conference room. Opening of the enlarged campus is scheduled for January 2007. The Irvine Foundation grant was its fifth to the museum since 1986.
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A calendar girl or 12, almost in cammies, decorate the months of 2006 in a skin-baring wall calendar with philanthropy at its heart. Operation Calendar features young women who work as role players for San Diego television producer Stu Segall’s Strategic Operations, a live training venue for military and law enforcement personnel in Kearny Mesa. Calendar proceeds will benefit wounded veterans and their families. The price is $12.99 plus tax and shipping. Visit operationcalendar.org to see the dirty dozen.
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The San Diego Boat Show anchors at the Convention Center and Marriott Marina’s docks amid steel drum music and 400 boats to be toured and inspected Jan. 5 through 8. The boat show, the second largest annual consumer event at the center, expects attendance near 30,000. Special attractions include free sailing lessons and kids’ activities. Adult admission is $10. For more, visit sandiegoboatshow.com or call (858) 274-9924.
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The history of Hillcrest has been encased in a virtual museum thanks to the cyberhandiwork of Ann Garwood and Nancy Moors. Hillcresthistory.org is the product of the Hillcrest History Guild, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization they founded. The partners’ newest Hillcrest-oriented enterprise follows their Ad Ink agency and HillQuest urban guide and Web site.
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The New York Times travels well west of the Hudson River to include several San Diego museums and theaters in its annual Arts & Leisure Weekend Jan. 5 through 9. Buy one admission and get the second free at the Mingei International Museum, Museum of Photographic Arts, Aerospace Museum, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego Junior Theatre and La Jolla Music Society with the weekend pass from nytimes.com/alweekend.
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A holiday battle that could become a tradition is showing again this season at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center’s IMAX screen through Jan. 11. In “Santa vs. the Snowman,” a lonely snowman discovers Santa’s domain and wants to become Santa. He launches a battle that jeopardizes the delivery of Christmas toys to children all over the world. As order is restored, the snowman learns what the holidays are about. The film features the voices of Jonathan Winters, Ben Stein and Victoria Jackson. For information on tickets and show times, call (619) 238-1233 or go online to rhfleet.org.
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