Economic Forecast Breakfast - VICA Business Forecast Conference

Over the last few weeks, voters mailed in their ballots and headed to the polls for early voting, but Tuesday marked the culmination of months of work by VICA. VICA's Board vetted every measure on this year's ballot, considering how each proposition would impact the business community and our economy. VICA took positions on fourteen state and local measures, and voters have agreed with VICA on majority of the most pressing ones. It appears we have ended with a 79% success rate based on current results.

VICA is proud that our advocacy proved successful on the following ballot measures:

While VICA celebrates our current 79% success rate, we are disappointed with the outcomes for the following ballot measures:

Some ballot measures have not been officially called yet. The following ballot measures seem to be heading towards success for VICA:

If you missed VICA's 2020 Business Forecast Conference, please click on the image below to read and download our Post-Event Report or to see the panel videos on the VICA YouTube page.

Tim Gaspar - Gaspar Insurance Services

Tim Gaspar is the proud owner and principal at Gaspar Insurance Services. A lifelong entrepreneur, Tim started his first business in high school and ran a number of businesses while attending California State University, Northridge. Tim worked with Marsh & Co., an independent insurance agency in Encino, where he worked as a producer offering personal and commercial insurance and risk consulting. In February 2008, Tim purchased his book of clients from the Encino agency and founded Gaspar Insurance Services, Inc. As of 2020 Gaspar Insurance Services has over 60 team members and is one of the largest independent insurance firms in both Los Angeles City and the San Fernando Valley (as ranked by the LA and SFV business journals). Additionally, Gaspar Insurance was ranked by Inc. magazine as of the fastest-growing companies in America in 2020, 2019, and 2017. Committed to his community, Tim supports a number of non-profit organizations focused on youth and public safety and serves on a number of boards including the Discovery Cube Los Angeles and West Valley YMCA. My wife Christina loves game shows and contests and I get to enjoy her spoils. We won Celebrity Name Game on KTLA in 2016, took a trip to Jamaica courtesy of KIIS FM, have been to more free concerts than I can remember and the coup de grais is when we won a pallet of Peeps candy and we don’t even like Peeps.

VICA has been awesome. VICA obviously serves as a great way to connect with local business people and to stay up on legislative action at the city, state and national level. It’s important to have someone in our corner when these laws are being drawn up.

If you want to support the people that are advocating for our business community it’s a must. You can’t complain about the laws passed in Sacramento if they hurt your business if you aren’t trying to do something about it.

When COVID first hit the City of Los Angeles came up quite a few laws that would have made doing business in Los Angeles during a pandemic that much harder dictating who could be laid off and when. VICA was very quick to mount an opposition against these laws and speak up for business owners. I definitely saw the value of VICA during this process.

First and foremost we want to ensure our employees are safe. 80% of our team is working from home through at least January 1st. As a company we are doing everything we can to support local businesses by getting takeout food, connect clients to each other and keep our customers informed in important COVID related insurance issues.

VICA strongly supports S. 4421 (Murphy), the Temporary Reciprocity to Ensure Access to Treatment (TREAT) Act, which will provide temporary licensing reciprocity across state lines to medical practitioners. It is crucial to ensure that our health system is capable of handling national emergencies both now and in the future.

The COVID-19 Public Health Crisis has demonstrated that access to health care services is crucial to the welfare and economy of our nation. The TREAT Act would allow healthcare professionals to bypass lengthy license requests while still adhering to safety measures. In doing so, the TREAT Act expands possibilities for treatment and provides important flexibility to accessing safe and timely health care in national emergencies.

During our current crisis, economic activity has been limited by public health authorities and other government officials to flatten the curve of infections and hospitalizations. Maximizing efficiency of health care resources is vital to reopening the economy. By enabling health care workers to work across state lines during national crises, the TREAT Act will ensure that health care personnel can be readily mobilized to respond to dynamic and evolving situations.

Sponsored by The Garland

Online Video Conference

Monday, November 16th

12 to 1:30 p.m.

Wednesday, November 18th

9 to 10:30 a.m.

Friday, November 20th

We need to hear from you and your ideas for practical changes VICA can advocate for, which would help businesses recover from the economic impacts of COVID-19 and thrive in Los Angeles.

Don't miss this chance to submit your suggestions for VICA's 2021 Legislative Priorities! Please send your ideas by Tuesday, November 10.

For more information, email [email protected].

Los Angeles County recorded the highest daily COVID-19 case numbers since July, while the U.S. passed a milestone of over 100,000 COVID-19 cases per day.

Los Angeles public schools are unlikely to reopen until January 2021 due to high COVID-19 rates, says LAUSD Board of Education President Richard Vladovic.

After a hot September and October that contributed to one of the worst wildfire seasons in history, L.A. could see the first rain of the season this weekend as temperatures cool down.

The Los Angeles City Council postponed voting on a proposal that would allow the removal of homeless encampments in the City without the condition of offering shelter to the unhoused.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has made history this week. For the first time in over 150 years since the Board's inception, the Board of Supervisors will consist entirely of women.

The California Department of Insurance has issued a one-year moratorium on canceling or not renewing homeowners insurance in wildfire-stricken areas.

U.S. employers added 638,000 jobs in October and the unemployment rate has dropped from 7.9% in September to 6.9% in October, signaling a slow, but sure, recovery after the pandemic.

It may be until 2022 before the United States feels a sense of normality, says Dr. Anthony Fauci amid a resurgence in cases.

Leading National and State Advocacy Groups, Ben & Jerry's, and the Sacramento Bee Endorse Proposition 17

Each year, the VICA Foundation offers scholarships to outstanding local students with a demonstrated interest in business. We strongly encourage our member schools to share this opportunity with their students.

For more information and to apply: VICA.COM/SCHOLARSHIPS

Application Deadline: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13

A $1,000 scholarship to a full-time undergraduate student attending a VICA member university or college

A $1,000 scholarship for a full time undergraduate student attending CSUN, Los Angeles Mission College, Los Angeles Pierce College, or Los Angeles Valley College.

VICA members can promote their business, events and news in VICA Weekly. Member messages are available for $50 per week or $175 for four weeks. Messages are text-based and may not contain more than 70 words. A logo may be added for an additional $5 per week. For more information or to schedule your member message, contact [email protected] or call (818) 817-0545.