News Scrapbook 1988

San Diego, CA (San Diego Co.) Evening Tribune (Cir. D. 123,092)

Solana Beach, CA (San Diego Co.) The Citizen (Cir. 2 x W. 20,000) F "l'' ', '--" !Cit P. C. B F.,1. 1888

fEB 2 1 8

/ l~v~~tigatibh niay ~$1-~ Troiani case Y Rocky Rushing ' Watkins less than :two weeks a Staff Writer ruling is still pending'. ' ' VISTA - in the center of Su- If a comp~aint is filed, Patton's perior Court Judge Gilbert co_-counsel and law-firm partner, Nares' courtroom stands a scale• ".-' 1 l~iam.. Fletcher, COQld not con- model of the rural Oceanside , tmue to represent Watkins road where Marine Staff- Sgt. ·b1;cause he would become a Carlo Troiani was fatally"shot in witness to the accessory con- 1984. troversy, Deputy District At- It is . a reminder that Kevin· _torney Philip Walden said. Watkins, the last of six· defen- A~torneys '"".ere in court dan'ts in North County's most ex- ,Thur~day s_eHmg dates for pensive and most ubl' • d pretrial mot10ns and how they case, has yet to be trie~. icize would pick a ju~y for the high- There is . however a profile case. but 1t could all slop unresolved i;sue, nearly 'as 01 ~ if the .~ar f~es an "order to show as the case itself that co Id cause agamst Patton. postpone the litigation ~n- . Stat~ bar spokesman Tod Mar- defi,nitely. , tm s~1d Patton could be tern- A worst-case scenario would. porarily suspended until a hear- see the two defense Jawyets now mg on the allegati~n is conclud- , . ,. cd , representing Waktins being :, · . · replaced and the tax money The hearing w?uld tak~ _on spetit on his defense seemingly ;~e aspects of a tnal," he said, wa~ted. · · where w1~nesses w_ould be '.t:a.ll'. Tpe situation that bothers ed and a .~1nal ver,d1ct wouf~ b~ - thqse involved in the Watkins re nd ered. · i trial exists because the state bar _Patton_ wa~ ac;:cused of has'. not concluded its investiga- withhold~ng ev1def!ce f~om the tion; into an allegation made prose_cution, a diary written by ' aga)nst defense lawyer Bradley W~tkms th~t su.i:iposedly con- Patton more than two years ago. tams damagmg _ev1dcnce against R;obert Fellmeth, UnivecsiJ.¥ of him, Patton said_ the diary was San Diego law professor sa·d protected from disclosure under tfie :state bar is overwhel~ed ~y- the attorney-client privilege and the;number of cases it must in-· that • he_ was cleared of any vestigate. ~rongdomg by a Superior Court "They take the easy ones Judge. . first," Fellmeth said,-, "the dif- . Walden, howev~r. said the rul- ficult ones sit on the bottom of a mg that_was ~ade during a clos- stack." ed hearing did not clear Patton .of the allegation. The judge rul- Fellmeth was appointed by the ed that Patton would not be state Attorney General's Office . removed from the case and that in January . 1987 to monitor the allegation of wrongdoing disciplinary procedures of the should__be forwarded to the state bar. In June and November he ba~ by the_ District Attorney's presented reports critical of the Office, Walden sa_id. • bar's practices. · , "I' know 'the 'stat bar grinds " He concluded the bar does not Patton said, adding he is confi- have the resources needed to in- dent of being cleared of any vestigate the large number of wrongdoing. complaints it receives against Troiani, a 37-year-old Vista lawyers. And it is poorly struc- resid~~t. was . fatally shot on t11red to investigate the "difficult Oceanside'& North River Ro;id. cases" where disciplinary action His wife, Laura Ann, has been might :.ie warranted, he added. convicted of fi,rst-degree murder "There are 1,000 meritorious and is serving a life term without , cases just sitting that deserve a , the .possibility- of parole. The hearing and severe disciplinary rema!ning defendants, except for action," Fellmeth said. . Watkins, have pleaded guilty to Fellmeth said a solution to the murder to avoid the death penal- problem is the proposed legisla- ty. tion SB 1498 authored by state Walden ·has said the death Sen. Robert Presley, D-River- penalty would not be sought for side. ' Watkins, m_aking' the maximul}l s_entence_ he faces- ifTound~guilty '

'COACHAND A CHEERLEADER' ~~Cook's tour nourishes firms y Richard Spaulding Tribune Fuu,nc1al 11-'rlter ''I LWAY wanted to be a football coach," said McKenzie "Ken" Cook. Oregon State University and the Uruversitn of San Diego and had a tainly unusual: An equipment rental firm called Metro U.S. Ser- vices; The Growing Grounds, a re- tail nursery; Cook's Comer, a

tryout WI h llie"SanFtancisco 49ers, getting into a couple of preseason games before being cut, bas founded and co-founded six successful San Diego companies in the past 25 years. And if the number is not im- pressive enough, the range is cer-

chain of retail kitchenware stores; Computer Accessories, a manu- facturer of computer components; a real estate development firm called Equishare; and Springtime Growers, a wholesale nursery. From high tech to low tech, from computers to plants, Cook feels he brings his own brand of exuberance to his enterprises. "I bring the dream, the vision. I bring the added value through people. I am successful at attract- ing good people. I'm the coach and the cheerleader," he said. "I enjoy the conceptualization. I enjoy the actualization. Then I opt to sell," he said. And if the busi- ness is built right, selling is no problem. "If you build quality into a business, you build value," Cook said. The current focus of Oregon- born aod San Diego County-raised Cook is 8-year-old Springtime Growers. It is the 15th largest wholesale nursery operation in the country with sales last year in excess of $22 million and pretax profits of more than $2 million, be said. Springtime occupies a total of 500 acres, 350 in San Diego County aod 150 in Arizona. Springtime was founded in 1980 on one acre, Cook said, through four separate limited partnerships involved in four separate seg- ments of the nursery · dustry, Please see COOK: A- 5, Col. 1

But the bwlder of diverse San Diego companies never made 1t, ]though he still considers himself "a coach and a cheerleader." Coo , 50, who played football at

Tribune photo by Tammy L. Ljungblad

"IF YOU BUILD QUALITY INTO ABUS~, YOU BUILD VALUE." McKenzie ''Ken" Cook lllld Fashion Valley kitchenware store be started

*C7ok--~----- {l}ntfnuell From A-IJ i S 5 anythmg he could do in Minoeapolis from interior plants to boxed trees. he coul~ do in San Diego County: Four y rs ago, the partnerships Cook said he put an ad in papers here were m rged into one master limited looking for a job. The only bite came partnership which, in tum, recently from a small equipment rental firm was transformed mto a stock compa- in Escondido. ny with· the partners becoming He took it and in a couple of years shareholders. Last April, the inves- bought the firm. By 1968, the once tors put $4 milhon mto Springtime, $250,000-a-year firm had revenues of Cook said, with the proviso that he $2.5 million and was renting equip- devote 100 percent of bis time to the ment for everything from conslruc- enterpri . tion parties. Cook id he owns "ju t under 5 Cook then sold the company, .called percent" of Sprmgtime, which is the Metro U.S. Services, to Intermark ay he plans it. Corp. of La Jolla, itself a growing "If you want to build a company in conglomerate. He stayed and operat- three to 10 years and you want to be ed Metro as an Intermark division successful, there has to be a tremen- for Charles "Red" Scott until 1970 dous dissolution of (your own) owner- when he was asked to take over man- ship." The founders ownership in the agement of another lntermark unit, company falls, becau e to bring in Nurseryland. money, he must eU shares to other He headed Nurseryland for six mvestors. years, building it from six outlets Cook said essentially the same sit- when Intermark acquired it in 1968 uatton exists with his involvement in to 19 outlets. 5-year old Computer Accessories, a In 1976, Cook left Nurseryland and company he said he co-founded with Intermark "when Red (Scott) and I Myron Eichen, founder of Brooktree decided we were going in different Corp., and Alan Rashon. directions." Cook's direction was to found The The three put up $300,000 after Growing Grounds, a complex of four their own survey showed there was a separate retail entities under one market for cables used lo tie com- roof; dry goods, garden party sup- puters and components together. plies, kitchenwares and a plant nur- Previous efforts to interface equip- sery. ment was largely a backshop opera- By 1980, he had eight Growing lion and caused warranty problems Grounds in San Diego County and one for both hardware and software, in Orange County, sales of $6 million Cook said. and a buyer: Intermark. Cook's rela-

Del Mar, CA (San Diego Co.) Del Mar Surfcomber (Cir. 2XW. 1,845) £i

Encinitas, CA (San Diego Co) Coast Dispatch (Cir. 2 x W. 30,846)

hfe m pnson without parole.

"It would be the key to the Patton sHuation and any like it ,, • :"J · 1•{ • Through an' increase in at-· torney bar dues, "the bar would have enormous resources it never had," such as a special prosecution unit. The prop~sed law has the sup- port of the bar's board of direc- tors who, by an overwhelming vote, approved increasing the annual fee from $275 to $470. At issue in the Watkins case is whether Patton was an accesso- ry to murder in actions he took nearly three years ago in. defense of his client. The allegation was made by the District Attorney's • Office and_ file? with the State Bar of Cahf~ut with the trial of he said.~- . ·

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P. C. B

[,, 1888

Rancho Santa Fe, CA (San Diego Co .) R,mch Santa Fe .Times (Cir. W. 500) ffB S

._A.[~', P. C. B

Est. I 888

KEITH JOHNSON Degree in communications

tionship with Intermark still conlin- ues. Nurseryland is Springtime's largest supplier. "Red (Scott) and I have an understanding. As long as I don't compete with him, he'll buy my The one thing Cook took with him products."

Computer Accessories now has a line of computer peripheral products from cables to power savers and sales of more than $25 million. through venture capital totaling $7 million, Cook said bis interest in the company is "just under 5 percent." After two round of financing

Loan officers a

Loan office expanded Keith 0. Johnson and Richard S Padrnos have joined Torrey Pines Bank as loan officers. Johnson held a similiarposition at Bank of America . He has a bachelor ofarts degree in commu- nications from Biola University. Padrnos will be responsible for administering current and devel- oping new accounts through the Regents Park office. He was with Bank of America where he was a commercial loan olflcer. He holds a master's degree , 10 business administration-fi- ' ance from the University of San Diego and a bachelor of science degree in marketing from the l ' niversity of Colorado. He currently resides in Mission 1 Valley. The bank has also added Tracy L. Hamilton as a financial ana- lyst. She will be responsible for preparing and providing detailed analyses relating to asset and liability management and budgeting

Hamilton was a financial ana- lyst for Gibraltar Money Center. She holds a bachelor of sf· ence degree in finance from San iego State University. --=~-----------.J

was the kitchenwares concept, which Cook started building companies was and still is called Cook's Comer. here 'In 1965 two years after he By 1984, he had a chain of 10 stores moved back from Minneapolis. In the in San Diego, Los Angeles and Ari- Midwest, he was working for a con- zona and big plans for franchising !ruction company and traveling a and a mail order catalog. The plans lot. He said he realized that with a never quite worked out. "Financially wife and two children he was missing Cook's. Corner is the toughest think out on h· own family life. I've ever done," he said. At the same time, deciding that

Cook picked Houston and Dallas as major expansion markets, and when the oil-based economies there col- lap;:ed, "we took a large six-figure hit. The attempt at mail order also produced "another substantial hit." "The operating stores always made a generous profit, always made money," Cook said, but the hits were too many and too big. All but two of the 14 stores were sold off. The two be kept, in University Town Center and Fashion Valley Shopping Center, are still profitable, with com- bined sales "close to $500,000 a year " Cook said. ' Cook's construction company has an unusual twist. It's called Equishare, and tenants in the compa- ny's 400,000 square feet of space built in the past four year are not just renters. They also get an equity own- ership share of the property. In building a business, Cook said "the moment of truth is when you put up the money. Sometimes that comes very easy, and ometimes it comes very hard."

:rRACY HAMILTON Financial analyst

RICHARD PADRNOS Will develop new accounts