Dear Neighbor:

I have always enjoyed business, and I have an entrepreneurial spirit. 

Even when I was a youngster in the Philippines, I would sell all kinds of items around my city. 

Carson is a wonderful city and is a great environment for doing business. 

I'll do everything I can to promote new business and support established business. 

It is through establishing successful businesses that people learn how to help themselves, and self-help is the American way. 

I also want to promote tourism in Carson, since we have many major attractions here that can bring in considerable income for our merchants.

Sincerely,

Lucille Mozena

Dear Fellow Carsonite:

I will bring more jobs to Carson by assisting established businesses and attracting new ones, including restaurants, hotels and theaters. I'd also like to help fellow Carsonites who want to start their own businesses in Carson. I will make this city a business-friendly place. This will create more income and increase the tax base, making new and improved city services possible.

I'm a member of the Carson Chamber of Commerce, a long-established businessman and I know how to make business happen.

We need a pragmatic businessman on our City Council who will bring jobs and money to Carson. At the moment the Council is dominated by teachers and former public service employees.

First, let me tell you about my background. Both my parents were entrepreneurs. My father owned a medical and surgical supply and equipment company, wholesale and retail. It was initially known as Physicians and Hospital Supply, or P & H. My mother owned a vintage store and the first bed and breakfast in Portland, OR, which she named "Portland's White House".

I worked in all facets of my dad's business, from cleaning the restrooms, shipping and receiving, obtaining and quoting governmental, non-profit, and private bids, from the VA to GSA, MDA and MS. I sold supplies, did purchasing, filing, virtually every possible job in the company.

At weekends, I would help my mother buy used merchandise for her store as well as work there, dealing with customers.

Additionally, I worked for the Portland Park District announcing baseball games and for the State of Oregon at the Oregon Health Science Center at its Lab Stores, Accounting and Purchasing Department.

I also attended four years of Junior Achievement, being President of my company as well as the Top Sales Award recipient for one year.

At the private Catholic high school I attended, as one of a number of fundraisers, we needed to sell candy, and all profits would go to support a variety of needs for the school. Our school's choice of candy was Almond Roca. I personally sold about $1,500 worth of Almond Roca, at $1.50 per can, in my junior year. In my senior year, I far surpassed everyone, selling $5,000 worth of goods, about five times more than anyone else. In my junior and senior years, I personally gathered many donated gifts, from restaurant gift certificates to stereos, as prizes from local businesses to be given to my fellow high school students for top Almond Roca sales performances.

After my father died in 1979, I found a buyer for his company. Our top salesman quit our Seattle office for one of our competitors and I agreed with the new owners to stay on in Seattle for several months while they found a new salesman. I kept 99 percent of our top salesman's territory, which encouraged him to come back to work for the new owner. Once I had finished my job with them in Seattle, I moved back to Portland where I created a company to put together $5,000 orders for the State of Oregon Dental Store at the Oregon Health Science Campus. I contacted all the manufacturers, purchased the items and sold them to the Dental store.

Later, I worked in the restaurant business, for McDonald's, Steamer's, Olive Garden, Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority's Kitchen, and Cafe Giovanni's. I learned all facets of the business, from waiter and bartender to cook and cashier.

I worked in various supply fields, physicians, nursing homes, and hospitals, with my father's company. I also worked for American Hospital Supply, FoxMeyer Hospital Supply, Bay Area Medical and Surgical, Daly Drug and Hospital Supply, and Stuart Drug and Surgical Supply.

I also worked in the communications field, as a morning radio personality at FM 100 KLZI in Phoenix, Arizona, and did internships at KUGN AM Radio in Eugene, OR, Cottage Grove Sentinel newspaper, and KPTV Channel 12 in Portland, OR. In my late teens I was a volunteer voice talent for the worldwide inspirational radio program "Open Door", by the Reverend Bud Frimoth of Portland.

In 1988, I created my company called "Blazer Tails" to capitalize on the success of the Portland Trailblazers. The Blazer Tails were three streamers tied to car antennas, a forerunner of the car flags as a sign of support of the team. From an initial investment of $200, I made $8,000 in one week. I sold the Blazer Tails primarily through the Fred Meyer stores throughout Oregon and in "Made in Oregon" stores as well.

I have now owned my publishing business for educational materials for 16 years. At first the company covered primarily Southern California colleges, then in 1994, as ETEXT.net, it expanded nationally.

How will I use all my experience to help Carson?

First, I would temporarily halt all housing and business construction and commission experts to rethink all the zoning and urban planning. At the moment, it's awful. There are industrial parks next to residential areas, which bring semi-trucks rumbling through those areas. I would create a plan for buffer zones for families to enjoy their homes in peace and quiet and safety.

I want to make Carson enticing so that commuters, business travelers and tourists will turn off the freeway and spend their money in Carson.

We need to make sure access is easy so I would work with Caltrans to improve the on and off ramps. As an example, I would work to get on and off ramps at the dormant truck stops, located on both the southbound and northbound 405 freeway, thus creating an on and off ramp for the Del Amo overpass, also known as the Calas bridge, which I would rename. I find it repulsive to name anything after a politician. If it should be named after anyone, it should be after a Carson child who has fought hard to survive, but succumbed to cancer or some other illness.

Also, motorists need to see what we have here, and I'd make sure the signs for the 110, 91 and 405 are high enough. At the moment, Burger King can hardly be seen from 110 near K-Mart. For the South Bay Pavilion Mall, I'd like to move the sign closer to the freeway so it can be seen. Also, now that the new owners of the Mall are doing renovations and upgrades, I'd like to see it become more representative of the area, to include all types of ethnic foods and stores. In fact, if possible, I'd like the City of Carson to buy the Mall, and sell the stores to local merchants and have them form a business mall association, with appropriate rules and regulations, rather like condo owners form homeowners' associations.

Additionally, I would propose the removal of Don Kott's Car Dealership and Altmans' RV along the Dominguez Channel, so we can develop the Dominguez Channel with shops, restaurants, offices, trees, shrubs and a walkway. It has great frontage of the Canal, and it can also be seen from the 405.

The Dominguez Channel can become a great attraction for visitors if we make it into a recreation area, with restaurants and retail stores, paths for biking, roller blading, and walking. There should be lots of trees, flowers and greenery for visitors and residents alike.

Additionally, I would like an Indian Casino to locate along the Dominguez Canal, near the Golf course, and be viewable from the 405.

I'd like the NFL to come here, but I want a citizen-owned team. Let us all, as Carsonites and fans, financially benefit from the team instead of just the billionaire boys' club. Also, I want the stadium to include local food vendors with concessions from the different ethnic groups in Carson from Filipino, to African American and Mexican, just to name a few.

On the lower portion of the stadium, I'd like to see a "Stadium Shopping Center," which would make better use of the stadium and its ample parking year-round, since the NFL season is short and only has about a dozen games a year.

Another use of the stadium would be for the sports programs of all local Carson schools, from elementary to high school. They could practice and play their games there. The Home Depot Center could be used for the benefit of the local school sports programs as well.

I would ask the U.S. Post Office to close its main post office on Avalon, and consolidate it with the Post Office in South Bay Pavilion, which has more parking facilities and better hours. We could use the vacated Post Office lot, along with the adjacent closed gas station, for a restaurant like "Hometown Buffet".

With my restaurant background, I will bring restaurants to Carson. I've already been working in the background to make this happen.

I will also work to bring medical manufacturers to Carson.

I also want to increase tourism revenue by improving Carson's image. This would include beautifying the city by tree trimming, landscaping, and creating safe, clean sidewalks and streets, to be maintained daily. No more graffiti. I will encourage planting of vegetable gardens and fruit trees and the placing of many hanging plants in the city. I will introduce better lamppost banners announcing events, and have music playing in the downtown area. We need to develop a city identity that will attract visitors. One idea is that Carson could be known as the city of beautiful water fountains.

I understand the ups and downs of business and will offer my expertise to established businesses as well as start-ups. I want to help all Carsonites who dream of owning their own company to accomplish their goals. One example of this was when I helped the African-American small-businessman who founded www.wirebike.com to grow his company with the Web.

My overall goal is to bring the entire community together and make Carson a great city for all Carsonites.

Respectfully,

Steve Mozena