“Tell them that Erick is ready and willing to do anything,” Erick Crawford said Thursday as the Sacramentan filled out a job application at a Kohl’s hiring fair near Cal Expo. Crawford was laid off last year from a temporary job building skylights.Erick Crawford of Sacramento didn’t have a car, and his bicycle had a flat tire, so he walked.
Four hours later, he sat in the lobby of a Courtyard by Marriott hotel near Cal Expo, patiently filling out a job application, his résumé resting on his lap.
Kohl’s Department Stores was hiring and Crawford, laid off the night before Christmas last year from a temporary job building skylights, didn’t want to miss out.
“Tell them that Erick is ready and willing to do anything,” he said Thursday.
Hundreds of local job seekers attended Kohl’s series of Sacramento-area job fairs last week, lured by the retailer’s promise to hire 600 people for four new stores in Sacramento County and Lodi.
The Kohl’s locations – in Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova, Sacramento and Lodi – are among 30 that the Wisconsin-based department store chain plans to open statewide this fall, creating more than 4,200 jobs.
“They were very well-attended. We were excited that the turnout was so positive,” said Kohl’s spokeswoman Kristen Cunningham from the chain’s suburban Milwaukee headquarters. “There was a lot of excitement for the California job fairs in general.”
At Thursday’s event in Sacramento, Veronica Rivas hoped to be among Kohl’s 600 new employees.
A self-described “housemom” with two young sons and prior retail experience, she’s hoping to return to the workplace after her husband recently lost his job.
“I feel pretty confident. You try to be positive. That’s the best thing to be,” said Rivas, of West Sacramento.
Rada Medjed showed up hours early to the afternoon event, carrying a box of homemade baklava.
Since losing her job as a photographer several months ago, the single mom from Sacramento has begun to bake the sweets on the side for extra income.
But on Thursday, the sales floor, not the kitchen, was on her mind.
“I feel really fortunate about the opportunity at Kohl’s,” she said. “Something’s got to happen.”
New hires will be notified in the next few weeks and Kohl’s will keep applications on file for one year in consideration for future openings, Cunningham said.
For information on openings at Kohl’s, call (877) 639-5645 or visit www.kohlscareers.com.
Prepare to find a job
Searching for a job is hard work. Unemployment remains high and the competition is tight, but confidence, perspective and an open mind can lead to success, a pair of local employment experts said recently in separate interviews.
Preparation and confidence go hand in hand, said Richard Bunch, a work force coordinator at the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance.
Knowing your employment history, the company and position you are seeking puts you a step ahead with an employer and puts you more at ease, Bunch said.
“Being prepared is a big confidence builder,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest steps of being comfortable in an interview and it helps you feel in control.”
It’s just as important for job seekers to keep their chins up, said Christina Moneypenny of the employment Web site EmploymentGuide.com.
“Even though you’re frustrated, you have to market yourself,” Moneypenny said “We tell the job seeker, ‘Yes, it’s frustrating, but be professional, go out there and make it happen.’ ”
Job fair Wednesday
Job seekers will meet with employers from a variety of career fields Wednesday in Sacramento.
The free job fair, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Scottish Rite Center, 6151 H St., is sponsored by EmploymentGuide.com.
Representatives from up to 30 companies will attend, according to a representative for the Web site, including retailer the Gap, the Sacramento City Unified School District, Radio Disney and Select Staffing.
For more information, call (800) 244-0353 or visit www.sacramento. employmentguide.com and click on “Job Fairs.”
Ask a job counselor
Got career or job-hunting questions?
Ask Terri Carpenter, one of The Bee’s “Ask the Experts” writers, who can answer your questions online. As a veteran career counselor at the Sacramento Employment Training Agency, Carpenter has lots of expertise in résumé-writing, job skills training and career counseling.
To post your question or see her advice to other job seekers, go to: www.sacbee.com/ask.

Anthony Pratt, a Kohl’s employee, talks to Veronica Rivas about her application at Thursday’s job fair. Rivas, of West Sacramento, is hoping to return to the work force after her husband lost his job.

Weeks after wrapping up a deal to close a $26 billion budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking aim at what he calls California’s next great fiscal problem: the state’s battered pension system.
Reviving an idea he floated during budget negotiations in June, Schwarzenegger wants legislation creating a two-tier system that would deliver lower benefits to newly hired public employees – not only state workers but firefighters, police officers, teachers, and other local-government employees.
Along with proposed cutbacks in retiree health benefits, Schwarzenegger says, the plan would save $90 billion over the next 30 years.
The Republican governor says the state’s pension system faces tens of billions of dollars in unfunded obligations and is increasingly unaffordable.
“We cannot continue promising people things that we cannot deliver,” Schwarzenegger said at a July press conference.
Public-employee pensions have long been politically untouchable in California, and Schwarzenegger’s previous attempt to overhaul the system flopped.
Things might be different now.
The state and local governments that support California’s two big pension funds are struggling financially – and are being told they’ll need to pump more money into the retirement system to offset the funds’ huge investment losses. Taxpayers, struggling to cope with declines in their private 401(k) plans, might not want to spend more on the two funds, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.
“From a financial standpoint, I would argue they’re unsustainable,” said Dwight Stenbakken, deputy executive director at the League of California Cities. “Politically, they’re unsustainable. I just don’t think the benefit levels that are in the public sector can be defended in a public debate.”
Although current workers and retirees wouldn’t be affected, Schwarzenegger’s plan has enormous long-term implications for the Sacramento area, where state employees make up 10 percent of the work force. State workers, already smarting from their 14 percent salary cut caused by furloughs, consider their pensions something of a birthright – a reward for paychecks that lag behind those of the private sector.
“When workers decide to become state employees, they often trade off higher wages in the private sector for the promise of (more secure) pension benefits in the public sector,” said Jim Zamora, spokesman for Local 1000 of the Service Employees International Union. The local represents 95,000 state workers.
Yet at least 10 states have cut benefits for newly hired workers in the past five years.
And Orange County just created an optional two-tier system, though it needs to be approved by the state Legislature.
The SEIU and some other unions say they’re willing to discuss Schwarzenegger’s plan or other cost-saving proposals – but through contract negotiations, not legislation.
“We’re open to talking about it,” said Chris Voight, staff director at the California Association of Professional Scientists. The union represents 3,000 state scientists.
Legislative Democrats also say the proposal should be negotiated with the unions first. Schwarzenegger “needs to bring the issue to the table with the unions,” said Alicia Trost, a spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.
In any event, Schwarzenegger’s advisers believe lawmakers will ultimately prove receptive to the governor’s proposal because pension obligations are crowding out other state spending priorities.
“I think the appetite (for change) is really there,” said David Crane, the governor’s special adviser for jobs and economic growth. “Billions in cuts have had to take place because money is needed to meet past pension promises.”
CalPERS is declining to take sides, but is offering itself up as a neutral provider of data. CalSTRS gave the governor’s proposal a lukewarm reception.
In a statement, CalSTRS Chief Executive Jack Ehnes said the current system “provides a modest income equal to about 62 percent of our members’ final salaries. As our members do not pay into Social Security, CalSTRS remains the sole source of guaranteed retirement income for many.”
Declines in the stock market and other investments have hammered the two giant pension funds, making it more difficult for them to meet their pension obligations.
The two funds, which lost a combined $100 billion in the just-finished fiscal year, say they need more money from taxpayers. CalPERS can impose higher rates at will and plans to do so beginning next summer for the state and in mid-2011 for local governments. CalSTRS needs legislative approval to raise rates and has begun initial talks with lawmakers.
In 2005, Schwarzenegger pushed a ballot initiative to convert CalPERS and CalSTRS into 401(k)-style plans designed to stabilize the state’s costs while forcing workers to shoulder the market risk. That plan, like his current proposal, would have affected new workers only.
The governor, under assault from the unions, scrapped the proposal because of a snafu in how the initiative was worded.
In his new plan, Schwarzenegger is trying to turn back the clock – to 1999, when his predecessor, Gray Davis, signed a bill sweetening pension benefits.
The move remains controversial, particularly with fiscal conservatives. The state’s annual contribution to CalPERS has tripled since the mid-1990s, to more than $3 billion, although CalPERS attributes much of that to increases in the state payroll.
Under Schwarzenegger’s proposal, newly hired workers would get the same pensions that were in place in 1999.
Keith Richman, a former Republican assemblyman and longtime advocate for pension change, is pushing a November 2010 ballot initiative to scale benefits back further.
“There’s no question that the unions are going to fight this type of initiative tooth and nail,” Richman said. “But the public has become much more aware of the problem.”
CalPERS acknowledges that last year’s market meltdown, which cost the fund approximately $56 billion, put the pension fund in a hole. Its “funding ratio,” which compares assets against liabilities, fell below 70 percent in July. Pension funds generally aim for 80 percent.
Although CalPERS’ staff considers last year’s losses a unique event, the fund doesn’t think a return to normal market conditions will cover its long-term obligations.
While final calculations haven’t been made, contributions from the state and local governments that use CalPERS, likely will rise 0.4 percent to 2.2 percent, according to a CalPERS staff report. The increases would be considerably higher if not for a “smoothing” system that will stretch last year’s losses out over 30 years.
“No one knows what the future returns are going to be like,” said CalPERS spokeswoman Pat Macht. “At least in the short term, we can’t invest our way out of this.”

Sacramento
Bob Gray of Sacramento has been named president and chief executive officer of the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation, a nonprofit organization that trains people to become leaders in the state agriculture industry. He will begin Sept. 1.
Wedbush Morgan Securities has hired Michael Mattson of Sacramento as an investment executive and Amy Baker of Sacramento as a registered sales assistant.
Dr. Heidi Pham-Murphy, O.D., of Roseville, has become the new owner of Visions Optometry.
American River Bank has promoted Craig Christiansen of Roseville to senior vice president and manager of the real estate group at the Point West office.
Christopher Barnum of Sacramento has transferred to McGinnis Chen Associates’ Sacramento office as project manager. Previously, he worked as project manager in the firm’s San Francisco office.
Rancho Cordova
Erica Fernandez of El Dorado Hills has joined American River Bank as senior vice president and retail banking manager.
Shingle Springs
Red Hawk Casino has promoted Pat Farrington of Woodbridge, San Joaquin County, to director of facilities.
Roseville
Smart Click Realty has hired the following for its client relation center: Shelley Lewis of Sacramento, Realtor; John McClure of Fair Oaks, sales agent; Al Saporito of Citrus Heights, Realtor; Jill Hicks of Roseville, Realtor; and Cathy Guerrero of Applegate, Realtor.
Dr. John Baskett, O.D., of Granite Bay, has joined Eye Designs Optometry. His main office is at the Westfield Galleria at Roseville, but he also will work at Arden Fair mall and Sunrise Mall.
Woodland
Marjorie Rist of Oroville has been appointed interim chief probation officer for Yolo County. She was most recently the county’s assistant probation officer and has been with the county since 2004.

Tuesday
9-noon – The Federal Technology Center presents a free seminar called “Doing Business With General Services Administration” at Citrus Heights Career Center, 7011 Sylvan Road, Citrus Heights. To register, call (916) 334-9388 or visit www.theftc.org.
9 a.m.-noon – The Federal Technology Center presents a free seminar called “Marketing to Government” at Elk Grove Chamber of Commerce, 9370 Studio Court, Suite 110, Elk Grove. To register, visit www.TheFTC.org or call (916) 334-9388.
9 a.m.-noon – SCORE presents a workshop called “Small Business QuickBooks” at Hillsdale Business Information Center, 5655 Hillsdale Blvd. Cost is $35. To register, call (916) 635-9085 or visit www.sacscore.org.
1-4 p.m. – SCORE presents a workshop called “Small Business QuickBooks Laboratory – Hands On” at Hillsdale Business Information Center, 5655 Hillsdale Blvd. Cost is $35. To register, call (916) 635-9085 or visit www.sacscore.org.
5:30-8 p.m. – UC Davis Extension and Financial Planning Association present a free career night for those interested in financial planning at Sutter Square Galleria, 2901 K St. To register, call (800) 752-0881 or visit www.extension.ucdavis.edu/business.
6-7:30 p.m. – Golden 1 Credit Union presents a free workshop called “Budgeting 101″ at Carmichael Library, 5605 Marconi Ave., Carmichael. To RSVP, visit www.golden1.com or call (916) 732-2900.
Wednesday
8:30-11:30 a.m. – SARTA’s Leadership Series presents “Risks & Rewards for Emerging Growth Companies” at City of Folsom, Community Center, 52 Natoma St., Folsom. Cost is $30. To register, visit www.sarta.org.
9 a.m.-noon – The Federal Technology Center presents a free seminar called “Introduction to Federal Contracting” at Sierra College-Roseville Gateway, Room 215, 333 Sunrise Ave., Roseville. To register, visit www.TheFTC.org or call (916) 334-9388.
9 a.m.-noon – Mather Business Information Center hosts a free workshop called “How to Do Business With the County of Sacramento” at 10638 Schirra Ave., Mather. To register, call (916) 228-3129.
11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. – The California Capital Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals presents a luncheon meeting about how to exceed fundraising goals at Sierra Health Foundation, 1321 Garden Highway. Cost is $40. To register, visit www.afpccc.org.
Noon-1:30 p.m. – Sacramento Association of Health Underwriters presents “The Medical Group: What It Is, Where It Fits and Why It Matters” at its monthly luncheon at Doubletree Hotel, 2110 Point West Way. Cost is $40. For more information or to register, visit www.sacbenefits.org or call (916) 565-6553.
1:30-3 p.m. – The Greater Sacramento Small Business Development Center presents a free workshop called “SBA Financing Options” at 1410 Ethan Way. To register or for more information, visit www.sbdc.net.
6-7:30 p.m. – Golden 1 Credit Union presents a free workshop called “Financial Steps Following Job Loss” at South Natomas Library, 2901 Truxel Road. To RSVP, visit www.golden1.com or call (916) 732-2900.
Thursday
10 a.m.-3 p.m. – AB Workshops and Small Business Sales Force presents “The Business, Success & Music Tour” at Sierra II 24th Street Theater, 2971 24th St. Free with donation for a Christmas basket program, otherwise tickets are $45. To register visit www.abworkshopsarethebest.com.
11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. – Golden 1 Credit Union presents a free workshop called “Identity Theft” at 1108 O St. To RSVP, visit www.golden1.com or call, (916) 732-2900.
5:30-7:30 p.m. – Roseville Chamber of Commerce’s young professional organization, Ignite, hosts its main event at Piatti Ristorante & Bar, 3003 Douglas Blvd., Roseville. Cost is $20. To register, visit www.rosevillechamber.com.
5:30-7:30 p.m. – UC Davis Extension presents a free information session for its green building and sustainability courses and certificate program at Sutter Square Galleria, 2901 K St. To register, call (800) 752-0881 or visit www.extension.ucdavis.edu/gbd.
6-7:30 p.m. – Golden 1 Credit Union presents a free workshop called “Estate Planning” at Vista del Lago High School, Building F, 1970 Broadstone Parkway, Folsom. To RSVP, visit www.golden1.com or call (916) 732-2900.
6-9 p.m. – The Greater Sacramento Small Business Development Center presents a workshop called “Business Basics” at 1410 Ethan Way. Cost is $40. To register or for more information, visit www.sbdc.net.
7-9:30 p.m. – John Groom, a certified public accountant, speaks at the NORCALERIA meeting at Holiday Inn Northeast, 5321 Date Ave. Cost is $20. For more information, visit www.NORCALREIA.com or call (916) 791-8322.
Friday
9-11 a.m. – Sacramento Municipal Utility District presents a free workshop called “Doing Business with SMUD” at Stockton Boulevard Business Information Center, 4990 Stockton Blvd. To register, call (916) 875-3280.
E-mail announcements of your business meetings, seminars and other events to bizcal@sacbee.com by noon Tuesday for publication the following Monday.

Phil Stubblefield
of Sacramento,
with his daughter
Kristen, ran into a
roadblock trying
to help Kristen
and another
daughter get their
mortgage modified.
He said bank
officials told him
to sell the house.WASHINGTON – Nearly three years into the deepest U.S. housing slump in generations, lenders are modifying only a small number of problem mortgages, and rising foreclosures are restraining the economy’s recovery.
The Obama administration has stepped up pressure on lenders and their mortgage servicers, who act as bill collectors on behalf of investors who own mortgage bonds. The administration on Aug. 4 unveiled the first of what will be monthly “name and shame” exercises, publishing data on the loan-modification efforts of about three dozen companies.
McClatchy’s Washington Bureau received calls and e-mails from borrowers across the nation in response to a recent story about the “name and shame” effort. In subsequent interviews with them, a common theme emerged: Virtually all say they were encouraged, directly or indirectly, by their lenders to fall behind on their mortgage payments in order to qualify for loan modifications. Then the modifications never came.
These borrowers burned through retirement savings, destroyed their credit ratings and suffered mental and financial hardship. Here are two of their stories:
‘A LOAN … THAT WAS GUARANTEED TO FAIL’
Phil Stubblefield, 61, arrived in loan-modification hell quite by accident. His ex-wife died of heart failure April 20, and her Sacramento home and Countrywide mortgage passed to their daughters, one of whom was in college and the other starting medical school. As students, each had limited income.
Stubblefield reached out in May to Bank of America, which had bought Countrywide in January 2008, as it faced a bankruptcy filing because of problems with its loan portfolio. Stubblefield sought to modify the loan on the property in order to stay current amid unusual circumstances.
“Virtue was met with no help at all. The only recommendation was, ‘We can help you when the loan goes into default,’ ” said Stubblefield, an Amtrak train conductor in California’s capital. “That’s when I said, ‘That’s easy; then they’ll talk to us.’ ”
After the mortgage payment became two months late in June, the girls started receiving what Stubblefield dubs “nasty-grams.” Getting authorization to speak for his daughters, he tried to negotiate a lower interest rate to reduce payments enough for him to help, or to have some portion of the loan forgiven.
“I was waiting for them to turn around and say, ‘What can you do for us?’ There was no coming together, no negotiation,” he said. “It was ‘Sell the house,’ and that’s when I came back and said, ‘Don’t you read the newspapers? There are 40,000 foreclosures in Sacramento and a 19-month turnaround on (real estate) listings.’ ”
What especially irks Stubblefield, who worked for eight years as a mortgage broker, are the comments from lenders that they’re doing everything possible to keep people in their homes and out of foreclosure.
“It comes off to me that it’s just window dressing and speech that doesn’t translate to anything,” he said. “No action.”
Stubblefield’s ex-wife had a mortgage payment of about $1,850 a month, more than half of her take-home income from a state government job. Until lending standards became unhinged from 2004 to 2007, conventional wisdom was that lenders wouldn’t underwrite loans with payments that exceeded 35 percent of borrowers’ take-home pay.
“They put her in a loan to begin with that was guaranteed to fail,” Stubblefield said.
A Bank of America spokesman took Stubblefield’s loan information from McClatchy but didn’t comment.
‘I FEEL LIKE ALICE IN WONDERLAND’
A work-from-home psychotherapist and Realtor, Helen Rudinsky, who’s now 53, bought property in the nation’s capital in June 2004. At the height of the housing boom, she took out an interest-only loan, offered for pricier homes and marketed as virtually risk-free because of climbing home values.
A few years later, she gave birth to a boy who was diagnosed with autism. She has temporarily moved to Bend, Ore., seeking easier access to expensive testing and therapy for her child.
Rudinsky contacted Wells Fargo last October about mortgage options because her payment of $2,500 a month was set to leap by $1,000 this August. She said that a Wells Fargo employee advised her that only loans that fell behind on payments were reviewed for modification.
Rudinsky had never missed a payment, had a credit score of 770 – anything higher than 600 is considered good – and put down $130,000 when she bought her home, clear evidence that she was a reliable customer. She took the employee’s response as a suggestion to miss payments and as a solution to her problem.
“I got behind, and then it spiraled out of control,” she said.
Assigned a loan negotiator, Rudinsky called many times a week but got nowhere. She followed a checklist to ensure that all necessary documents were with the lender, but it was never enough, she said.
“Every time I call them, they either say they need more documents, or that I am fine and I should hear from them,” Rudinsky said. “I’ve talked to over 50 Wells Fargo people around the country, and I am starting to wonder if I will ever get anywhere.”
In May, she was told that she was approved for a program with interest payments potentially as low as 2 percent, she said. More documents, more back and forth, and Rudinsky said she was assured that things were on track and that the foreclosure process was on hold. To her shock, nearly 10 months after her initial call to Wells Fargo for help, her home suddenly headed for auction. Her frantic calls and e-mails were ignored.
The sale was scheduled for 10:15 a.m. Aug. 4. Rudinsky raided her retirement funds to pay $30,795 in a last-ditch move that saved her home minutes before the auction. Days later, Wells Fargo called again, demanding that she make good on her loan or lose her home, she said.
“I don’t know what to do anymore. I feel like Alice in Wonderland, because whatever you do, it isn’t enough,” Rudinsky said. “It’s so absurd. It feels like a Third World country. I can’t believe this is happening here in the United States.”
Wells Fargo had modified just 6 percent of its eligible loans through June. Kevin Waetke, a spokesman for Wells Fargo, declined to comment on the specifics of Rudinsky’s case but denied that the company encouraged mortgage delinquency.
“I can assure you that Wells Fargo has comprehensive training in place, we have this guidance readily available, and we advise customer service representatives to tell them to make their payments,” Waetke said.

Helen Rudinsky bought a home in Washington, D.C., with an interest-only loan. She ran into trouble after giving birth to a boy who was diagnosed with autism.

Air Force wife Denise Fernandez wants to help high school and college-age kids of military families get financially savvy. Sacramento-area retiree Bart Aspling, whose wife recently deployed to Texas, hopes to offer financial counseling to families stressed by frequent military relocations.
The two are among nearly 200 U.S. military spouses who last week were awarded financial counseling fellowships aimed at arming more military families with money-management skills.
The two-year fellowships pay for training costs and require recipients to provide up to 1,000 hours of volunteer financial counseling. They also give military spouses a “portable” career, said Gerri Walsh, a vice president with the nonprofit FINRA Investor Education Foundation, which co-sponsors the program.
For spouses whose jobs are often upended by military moves, “It’s a way to help increase their employability,” said Walsh.
The 4-year-old fellowship program also meets a demand for financial education in the military community, especially in this economy and amid deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
About two-thirds of U.S. military personnel have “more debt than they are comfortable with or have gone deeper into debt within the past year,” according to a February poll by Kiplinger’s magazine and the Council of Better Business Bureaus.
“When you’re dealing with the military, having a debt isn’t just a frustrating money issue for the family. It can be a security issue that can end your career,” Walsh said, noting service members can lose their security clearances for falling into serious debt.
This year’s 196 fellowship winners will spend up to two years taking online classes to earn an accredited “financial counselor” certificate, equipping them for jobs as money-management counselors at military credit unions, community centers and financial aid offices, as well as the private sector.
It dovetails with increased efforts by the U.S. Department of Defense, financial institutions and nonprofits to boost financial fitness in the military.
For years, military families have been in the cross hairs of dubious financial sales pitches. They’ve been targeted by payday lenders clustered outside military bases and wooed by unscrupulous financial advisers charging exorbitant fees for inappropriate investments.
There’ve been some cease-fires. Congress and California have passed laws capping interest rates on payday loans to military personnel. And a number of financial firms have been fined for unfairly targeting servicemen and women.
In perhaps the biggest case, a Texas-based financial company – First Command – was fined $12 million in 2005 for charging inflated investment fees to current and retired military personnel. Part of that settlement – $6.8 million – was set aside for financial education by the Washington, D.C.-based FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority).
This year’s class of fellowship recipients, chosen from about 2,000 applicants worldwide, comes from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, including 26 who live overseas with their military spouses.
Another 22 live in California, such as Hernandez and Aspling.
At 68 and a state government retiree who worked various stints as chief of budgets, accounting and audits at the state Department of Education, Aspling figures he has the time and background to offer financial counseling once he completes his training.
He may be doing so while commuting. Aspling’s wife, an Air Force reservist, recently gave up a hospital administration job at Kaiser to become a medical claims specialist stationed at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
A former reservist himself, Aspling says, “I know (military life) puts a strain on family finances with frequent moves and relocations,” especially when moving from low-cost states into markets like California.
Dealing with higher costs for housing, utilities, gas and groceries, he said, can stress military families in transition. And when personnel are deployed overseas, “the remaining spouse takes care of all the household expenses and may need help making those kind of decisions.”
Aspling sees himself providing basic training – “the mundane aspects of managing a household budget.”
Hernandez, a former accountant whose husband is a medical superintendent at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, said she’s also seen the financial difficulties facing military families and young airmen. Many are exposed to predatory lenders sitting “right outside the gates of military installations,” she said.
There’s a need for “extra guidance” for younger recruits, she said, and also for teens and college-age children of military parents.
The mother of two college-age daughters, Hernandez hopes to set up programs at Travis offering financial education for military teens and 20-somethings who are often bombarded by credit card offers that can quickly lead to debt.
“They need some financial background so they can start out on a more firm footing financially,” Hernandez said.
Since the program started in February 2006, its 600 participants have logged nearly 140,000 hours providing volunteer financial counseling, according to FINRA. Following the commitment, the spouses are free to use their financial counseling expertise in any job capacity.
The fellowship program is co-sponsored by the National Military Family Association and the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education. For more information, go to www.saveandinvest.org/ military.
New GI Bill pays for school
On another military financial front, the federal government this month launched a new version of the GI Bill, the popular benefit that provided college educations for millions of World War II veterans and others. The new program, called the Post-911/GI Bill, offers payment of college tuition, fees, housing and some books and supplies to military members who have served at least 90 days since Sept. 11, 2001. It’s available to all branches of the military, including reservists.
The education payments vary, depending on your state, length of service and type of education. In California, for example, the maximum tuition paid per credit hour is $287 and the maximum coverage of fees per term is $2,165.
In some cases, the Post-911/GI Bill benefits can be transferred to military spouses or children enrolled in college.
For more information, go to: www.gibill.va.gov or call (888) 442-4551.

Kids compete in a Yu-Gi-Oh trading card tournament at Metropolis Comix, an unusual tenant at the new Strawberry Creek Shopping Center in Elk Grove.For 10 years, Chris Neary clung to his dream of a comic book store with art deco flourishes and plenty of space for kids. But no landlords were interested.
Until the recession.
Today, Neary is the new owner of Metropolis Comix at Strawberry Creek Shopping Center in Elk Grove, rubbing elbows with big-name tenants like Target and RadioShack.
“I’m so ecstatic,” said Neary, who feels he got a prime location at a bargain price.
It’s a phenomenon being repeated across the region, as the recession squeezes out formerly reliable retail banners and leaves behind acres of barren floor space that landlords are feeling pressured to fill at bargain rates.
National brands and regional chain stores in a position to expand are rubbing their hands in delight. Large chains like Forever 21 and Kohl’s have pounced on vacant space left by Gottshalks, Mervyn’s and others.
The big guys aren’t the only ones benefiting, however. For budding local business owners like Neary, this is truly a golden opportunity.
Small, homegrown stores are snagging big-time retail locations, promising to change the homogenized character of malls and shopping centers for years to come.
Some have found spaces in large shopping malls like Arden Fair or Sunrise. Others have snagged good deals on neighborhood storefronts in more urban locations, where rents would previously have priced them out.
“Landlords are responding to decreased demand and doing what they can, which is lower the rent,” said Tim Trainor, a spokesman for CoStar Group, a commercial real estate information company in suburban Washington, D.C.
Neary’s retail dream unfolded in a bustling, new shopping center with restaurants and familiar brand-name retailers. It’s a prime, high-traffic location that Neary would never have been able to afford if times were flush.
In July, less than two months after he opened, young teens gathered at long tables on stained concrete floors inside his 2,245-square-foot store at Bruceville Road and Cosumnes River Boulevard.
They were there to play card games tied to popular comics, such as the Yu-Gi-Oh series. Overhead, four flat-screen monitors played wildly popular Japanese animation films.
The numbers tell the story of a retail market increasingly skewed toward renters.
A report this month from Colliers International showed the retail vacancy rate in the four-county Sacramento region at 12.9 percent. In some submarkets, the report showed, rates are much higher: 18.3 percent in the Arden/Howe/Watt area; 13.6 percent in the Roseville/Rocklin area; 19 percent in Lincoln.
“Now is the best time to find a deal,” said Scott Laeber of Colliers, who brokered Neary’s lease.
Some of the shopping centers offering good deals are brand new, like Strawberry Creek.
Laeber is still negotiating a few spaces in the Strawberry Creek Shopping Center, which has 70,000 square feet of retail space, excluding the company-owned Target.
Neary signed a five-year lease, but shorter lease terms are becoming more common locally, Laeber said. Laeber had never written a 12-month lease until this year.
“It’s the classic supply-and-demand curve,” said Scott Crowle, a senior associate at commercial broker Marcus & Millichap in Roseville.
Tenants once considered “bulletproof” proved less so once the economy took a shot, he said. That’s created a new reality: “If you have a vacancy, it doesn’t hurt to give a wide-eyed entrepreneur a chance.”
Prices will continue to drop, Crowle said.
“It was imperative that lease rates came down because they weren’t sustainable,” he said.
Besides offering leasing deals, some landlords are holding off on evicting tenants who are behind on rent, he said. Others are glad to get tenants who contribute to the upkeep of common areas in the shopping center, but otherwise pay no rent.
One caution to landlords, Crowle noted: Lenders might view short-term leases as vacancies when considering loans to someone interested in buying the shopping center.
Still, the overriding concern remains filling space.
“The most important thing is synergy,” Crowle said. “You’re not going to get the chance for that with no one next door.”
At Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, the mix of national brands with startups like Casual Friday, a clothing store, and Sunshine Gifts offers a balance that is proving popular, said Arna Bobo, director of the mall’s speciality leasing.
Unlike typical leases that can be five to 10 years, specialty leases in malls are short-term.
In some cases, the rents are lower, but specialty tenants can be booted with as little as a month’s notice.
Sunrise’s vacancy rate is less than 10 percent, but there has been an increase in renting prime storefronts to speciality retailers – the type of small business that in better times might have been consigned to a cart or kiosk.
Bobo said she has been hearing from a growing number of people ready to move their retail business from their home or other location and test them in a mall.
People who had hesitated going into business or those who got laid off are finding possibilities alongside national retailers, said Bobo, who sometimes becomes adviser and hand-holder to new business owners.
“There’s a lot of gratification in seeing a person take an idea, turn it into a business and watch it grow,” she said.
Kathy Reyes and her husband are hoping to be counted among the success stories.
The two ran a cell-phone and accessories store in Modesto for a few years, but declining sales forced them to revamp, Kathy Reyes said.
They wanted to get into fashion and started by selling T-shirts from a cart at Sunrise Mall.
In July, the couple opened 8T’s Anderpass, a punk fashion store in the mall.
“We got it for a good deal,” she said. “When we saw this little store open up, it was just the perfect size.”
They still have the cart, where Reyes plans to add hats. Both venues have given local designers a chance to create clothing and jewelry to sell, she said.
Regional retail powerhouse Arden Fair mall also is renting to more small specialty shops these days.
“We don’t have opportunities for those spaces often,” said Rick Momet, who does speciality leasing at Arden Fair.
Not every new business owner seeks mall space.
Bobby Ingle preferred the independent flair of a street-front shop for his skateboard shop.
But in what he calls the “Second-Saturday area” of Sacramento, primarily midtown, rent was too steep.
Launching his business with money from bartending and disc jockey jobs, Ingle was getting outbid by businesses backed by million-dollar equity.
He expanded his search outside midtown and found a space in the 3200 block of Folsom Boulevard in east Sacramento.
“I got a smoking deal on monthly rent,” said Ingle, now owner of Nine16 Skateboards and Barbershop. A friend does the barbering.
The 2,400-square-foot storefront had been vacant for seven months. Ingle signed a three-year lease, first three months free.
“I gave myself one year to turn a profit,” Ingle said, “but I’ve been covering daily expenses since day one.”
Back at the Elk Grove comics shop, Neary also said his sales are trending upward weekly.
He is waiting for the new school year, including the return of students to Cosumnes River College down the street.
“I’m going to be sitting pretty,” he said.

Owner Chris Neary greets customers
as they come into Metropolis Comix.
“I’m so ecstatic,” said Neary, who
says he was able to lease a prime
location at Strawberry Creek Shopping
Center in Elk Grove at a bargain
price because of the recession.

Metropolis Comix owner Chris Neary waited 10 years to realize his dream of opening a comic book store. Small, homegrown stores like Neary’s are snagging big-time retail locations, promising to change the homogenized character of malls and shopping centers for years to come.

Chung Boon Yoon, owner of th 9th St. Deli, says furlough Friday’s have been bad for business. Here she helps customer Wayne Collins on Friday, Aug. 14, 2009.It’s become a depressingly familiar scene.
Three Fridays monthly in this summer of deficit reduction, owners of retail stores, restaurants and coffee shops in downtown Sacramento endure their own personal version of the state’s budget crisis.
Lately, their troubles have been compounded by the Legislature’s summer break, which has emptied out the Capitol. City and county furloughs add to the bleak mix.
Seats are empty. Cash registers are quieter, too, as thousands of furloughed state employees stay home from office towers in the heart of downtown.
“You could shoot a cannon off here most Fridays and who would notice,” said Robin Ritts, owner of a boutique womens’ clothing store, Robin Lyle. “Furlough Fridays has hurt absolutely everybody.”
“Our lunch business on those Fridays has dropped by 50 percent,” said Kelly Brean, general manager of Spataro, a popular restaurant across the street from Capitol Park.
This August is hitting such businesses in downtown’s well-heeled Capitol corridor especially hard. Not only are state employees staying home; the 120-member Legislature and much of its staff has been on vacation and doesn’t return until this Monday.
At 8:30 a.m. Friday, the normally car-choked Capital City Freeway was virtually deserted in both directions from Cal Expo to the downtown street exits. Morning traffic on Interstate 5 North into downtown Sacramento might have been a scene from 1985.
If the absence of state employees wasn’t enough, local government employees of Sacramento County and the city of Sacramento- hundreds working downtown in the same shopping districts - are also taking furlough days.
City officials say most are taking one day off per month. Some who work for the county take two days. Employees pick their own furlough days rather than take the same day. But many choose Fridays to make a long weekend.
“I’m taking mine two Fridays from now,” said Michelle Phulps, a human resources staffer for Sacramento County. “That means I don’t come here,” she said Friday, as she ordered lunch at La Bou Bakery & Cafe at 10th and I streets, across the street from Sacramento City Hall.

The fate of a proposed 25-story downtown hotel won’t be determined for at least another 10 days.
Developer Bob Leach was scheduled to appear before the City Council this week, asking for free land and tax rebates for a full-service, 409-room Marriott hotel at Eighth and K streets and an adjacent parking garage.
Instead, he asked for a delay until Aug. 25 after glimpsing a city staff report he considered critical of the financing plan for the $137 million project.
“I was told a neutral report was coming out,” says Leach. “But it was anything but neutral. They slammed it.”
That’s not the case, says Assistant City Manager John Dangberg.
He says the city is trying to work out a financing deal for the project, but staffers have concerns about some deal points, including a proposal that $15.4 million in room taxes be rebated to Leach’s group during the hotel’s first eight years of operations.
Leach’s development group - backed by a South Korean company that he says has pledged $91.7 million in financing - is also seeking a $4.7 million rebate of tax increment funds and city-owned land valued at $14 million.
Any deal could come down to how much equity the Leach group is willing to give the city in exchange for its support.
“If we’re going to put up (more than) $30 million and take on some risk, we want to share in the upside,” Dangberg says.
Leach says he’s willing to sweeten the terms.
“We’re going to take a couple of weeks and fine tune it,” he says of his team’s proposal. “I think they’ll be impressed.”

Sacramento’s new-home sales are still down and out, but some capital-area builders are betting money that the region’s suburbs will soon resume their growth boom.
They’ve begun snapping up ready-to-build home lots at prices ranging from $25,000 to $67,000, setting the stage for a new suburban land rush.
The phenomenon suggests that a real estate market in decline for four years may be resetting for a new business cycle, some say.
Builders looking for land are focusing on “finished” lots, which already have government approvals, streets and utilities.
“They just have to pour a slab and start building,” said Kathryn Boyce, Sacramento analyst for Costa Mesa consultant Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.
Capital-area builders say prices for finished lots have risen 20 percent since April as giant public builders muscle back into the region’s land game for the first time since 2005.
Boyce said the land rush is greatest in Placer County, followed by Folsom and Elk Grove.
Hanley Wood counts 17,251 finished lots in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties. Many are owned by lenders that repossessed them. Others are owned by development firms that need to raise cash. Investors own still more.
The recent escalation in land prices has led some in the industry to question whether they can make money when so many homes are priced at $250,000 or less.
“Prices might be going up too fast,” said Tim Lewis, owner of Roseville-based Tim Lewis Communities.
Lewis recently bought lots at two projects in the capital region and one in Reno – his first in that city. “I’m cautiously looking at projects, but I’m certainly not on a buying frenzy like some of these publics (publicly traded builders) might be,” he said.
Even with the recent rise, land prices in the Sacramento region are nowhere near the dizzying levels of five years ago. At the height of the real estate boom in 2004, builders paid up to $150,000 for finished lots in Roseville, and up to $120,000 in Natomas and Elk Grove.
Still, the renewed scouting and buying by building giants has sent a buzz through an industry that has endured prolonged downsizing and financial trauma.
“There is a consensus out there that we are at the bottom or pretty darn close,” said James Radler, a Roseville-based land broker with Park Place Land Advisors of Irvine.
Radler and others say publicly traded home builders such as Los Angeles-based KB Home, Texas-based D.R. Horton, New Jersey’s K. Hovnanian Homes and Meritage Homes, headquartered in Arizona, are among those looking at lots and buying. Others in the game include private Arizona-based building giant Taylor Morrison. All are among the capital region’s top builders.
“These guys need lots,” Rad- ler said. “If they don’t do deals, they don’t build homes, and if they don’t build homes they aren’t in business.”
Most of the builders didn’t respond to Bee inquiries, which is not surprising, say those who watch the industry. Said Boyce, “They’re trying to position themselves without anybody knowing.”
“They all want to be under the radar as much as they can,” added Dean Wehrli, vice president and Sacramento analyst for Sullivan Group Real Estate Advisors of San Diego.
During the housing downturn that began after area home prices peaked four years ago this month, many large builders sold off home lots to maintain balance sheets. A few closed down divisions and left the area. Now, though capital-area home building remains sluggish – just 1,764 sales the first half of 2009 – firms are competing again for lots in a market they expect to begin rising as early as 2010.
Industry analysts say big Wall Street home builders, especially, need more lots to keep operations going while waiting for a new cycle.
“They essentially haven’t done any buying for four years,” said Radler.
The supply of lots is also constrained by the closing of Natomas to new building permits through 2011. That region, popular with buyers and builders for much of this decade, is under a building-permit moratorium until levee fixes bring 100-year flood protection.
The building freeze has worked in favor of Placer County, and Roseville, especially, which accounted for 26 percent of the capital’s new-home sales in the second quarter of 2009, according to the Gregory Group, a Folsom industry consultant. During the real estate crash, the affluent city has remained the region’s strongest new-home market.
Boyce said builders are buying lots throughout Placer County – in west Roseville, at Rocklin’s Whitney Ranch and in Lincoln. Radler, too, confirmed the Placer County rush.
“That’s where it seems everybody wants to be. That’s the first choice,” he said.
“We’re looking all over the region,” said Russ Davis, vice president of Folsom-based Elliott Homes. “Whether it makes economic sense or not is always the question.”
Davis said the firm has decided for that reason against buying raw land in Placer Vineyards, a potential zone of future home building southwest of Roseville’s current growth area. A plan approved by the Placer County Board of Supervisors last year there proposes 14,132 homes. But lawsuits have challenged the approval, adding to previous delays in readying the land for a new wave of housing.
“We’re not actively pursuing it,” said Davis. “We’ve looked at it a couple times. But it doesn’t make economic sense for us.”
Michigan-based Pulte Homes, though not buying new lots yet in the Sacramento region, plans to start soon after finalizing a merger next week with Dallas-based Centex Homes. That merger will make the combined entity the region’s market giant, accounting for almost one in five sales.
“We’re looking to buy. Inventory is shrinking,” said Chris Cady, Pulte’s Sacramento division president.
Also back in the hunt amid a run-up in lot prices is Kevin Carson, Sacramento division president for a startup builder, the New Home Co. That’s an Orange County-based venture launched by former executives of John Laing Homes, which crashed and closed earlier this year.
Carson, Laing’s chief Sacramento executive since 1999, said the firm aims to start at least one new-home community quarterly in the region, primarily in the “move-up” category. Among options: buying back some of the Laing land that went back to lenders after the company folded.
Carson isn’t thrilled about suddenly accelerating land costs at a time of cheaper home sales prices, saying, “It’s not a good trend. If the land keeps escalating in price it will take us right out of affordability.”
But bigger signals about the housing market keep him searching. He said, “Signs are certainly looking toward cycling out of this.”