So it’s ironic that the former chief operating officer, Jim Kovach, quits the Buck and is moving his own startup from Berkeley to Marin. The former San Francisco 49er linebacker-turned-doctor-and-lawyer (See “Age of Understanding,” June 2010) tossed in the towel in the hills of Novato so he could spend all his time at Athleticode. The company tests for genetic predisposition to athletic injuries and customizes individual training plans for athletes.
Started with angel funding and three other partners, Kovach believes the new company is hitting its stride at just the right time, with the raised awareness of concussions in football. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) from football and other contact sports is just one of the areas Athleticode will explore.
The blotter
One of the many things people hate about the media is that we print arrests on the front page, but when somebody is found innocent, it’s on page 57, below the fold. Only in Marin strives to avoid the clichés of traditional coverage and instead give people new and exiting reasons to hate us ink-besmirched types.
A few months ago, I ran an item about Mehrdad Hakimian, owner of Glass Emporium of Marin. At the time, Hakimian had run afoul of the FBI and was looking at spending some time in coveralls behind a possible wire fraud beef. As it turns out, the FBI was right. Seems Hakimian ordered his employees to fib on insurance invoices and to substitute less expensive windshields for more expensive ones. And I can’t even bring myself to tell you what they did with moldings.
OK, they charged for the moldings but didn’t install them.
Hakimian had 60 stores across the country under the Glass Masters and Glass Pro brands. The feds investigated for two years before they arrested Hakimian, and now he’s going away for 42 months after pleading guilty.
Not long ago, I wrote about a lawsuit against Lucasfilm Ltd., which charged the company with discrimination against a pregnant woman as well as wrongful termination. The legal action sprung from charges by Julie Gilman Veronese, who said she was hired as an assistant to George Lucas’ personal assistant by the company but then let go after the film company discovered she was in a family way. She was more than ably represented by Angela Alioto. The jury awarded Veronese $113,800, but Veronese told the Marin IJ it was never about the money.
One thing the trial did do is force the big man himself, George Lucas, to testify. It wasn’t easy though, as the company’s legal reps tried unsuccessfully to convince Judge Lynn O’Malley that the Star Wars creator didn’t know much about the whole brouhaha and that he was a pretty busy guy. In the end, Lucas went through the metal detectors like everybody else, testified and, after he was done, even stopped outside the courtroom to sign autographs and do impressions of R2D2.
I’m kidding about that last part.
Lucasfilm’s lawyer said the company plans to appeal.
Nothing but Novato news
As this column goes to press, the Novato City Council is considering a ballot measure to increase sales tax in Marin’s northernmost city by a half-cent. Lean times forced the city to cut its budget by $4 million, and it cut 20 percent of its workforce. The increased tax, which would bring Novato even with San Rafael at 9.5 percent, would be a general tax and land in the city coffers, which requires only a majority vote to pass. The tax would be for five years.
City Councilwoman Pat Eklund felt that a special tax targeting a specific need would be more palatable to voters—and she has a point. On the other hand, it would have required a two-thirds majority vote and, politics being what they are, finding 34 percent of the electorate to just say no to any tax is a pretty easy game.
While raising taxes couldn’t be more old school, the city is looking in different directions to bring new life to downtown. The Redevelopment Agency has signed up Novato resident and well-known food columnist GraceAnn Walden to act as a headhunter to bring new eateries to Grant Avenue and the surrounding area. Walden, who pens the amazing “Yummy Report,” is working on her second six-month $7,500 contract with the agency, trying to recruit restaurants to Novato.
On the other hand, the Redevelopment Agency, as authorized by the city council, is dropping as much as a cool $50,000 on a consultant to help it come up with a sign program that will point people toward the downtown area. The “Wayfinding” signs are a way to direct people, traffic and business toward the Old Town area, where the city has already spent north of $11 million. When you say the city has already spent $11 million, what’s another $50,000? You put it like that, it doesn’t seem like such a bonehead expense.
But when you say Novato is tap city and you want to hand a consultant $50,000 so he or she can tell you where to put signs and what they should say, it looks very much like a bonehead move.
