Business Focus
i , Briefs
?
Ehlinger elected president
of Estate Planning Council
Timothy "Tim" J. Ehlinger, a partner with the
Vaughn Perkinson Ehlinger Moxley & Stogner, LLP law
firm in Winston-Salem, has been elected president of the
Winston-Salem Estate Planning Council
Ehlinger focuses his practice
in the areas of tax law, estate plan
ning and probate, general busi
ness, tax controversy and tax liti
gation He has written a number of
articles on taxation issues and is
active in legislation regarding tax
and estate issues
Ehlinger is a member of the
N.C. Bar Association's tax, estate
and fiduciary law and business
law sections and serves on the leg
islative committee of its estate and
fiduciary law section. He is a
member of the bars in North Carolina and New York and
practices before the U.S. Tax Court.
He is active in community and civic affairs, serving
*3>n the N.C. Citizens for Business and Industry's Tax and
Fiscal Policy Committee and Forsyth Medical Center
Foundation's Planned Giving Committee. He alsd
served on the Winston-Salem Economic Development
Loan Committee from 1990-96 and has been % volunteer
with Young Life for the past 16 years.
He received a B.S. degree with honors in accounting
from the State University of New York at Albany in
; 1981 and a J.D. degree from the University of North
Carolina School of Law in 1984.
Fyock & Associates, Novant Health
. win public relations awards
I Fyock & Associates, in conjunction with Novant
J Health Inc., recently earned three "Wallie" Awards from
) the Carolinas Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing
? Society (CHPRMS). Fyock and Novant Health shared
i Wallies in the audiovisual category for three separate
video news stories that Fyock produced. The awards
were presented at the annual CHPRMS conference at the
Grove Park in Asheville.
; CHPRMS is a professional association serving
; health-care institutions, HMOs, physician groups and
? consulting firms in the Carolinas and neighboring states.
< The Wallie Awards, which are open to all members, rec
! ognize excellence in Health-care public relations and
marketing in more than a dozen categories.
Fyock and Novant Health won a Wallie Award for the
video news story "Pediatric Oncology," This news story
; was produced at Presbyterian Healthcare in Charlotte to
; inform the public about its newly-opened outpatient
? oncology clinic specifically for children.
Another Wallie Award was given for Fyock's "Nucle
oplasty" story. This story-showcased nucleoplasty. the
minimally invasive surgery that relieves back pain. Dr.
Brian Blue of Thomasville Medical Center (a Novant
Health member fiospital) was the first orthopedic surgeon
on the East Coast to perform the surgery.
Fyock's third Wallie Award recognized the video
news story ''S.A.N.E." (Sexual Assault Nurse Examin
ers). This news story was produced at Forsyth Medical
Center and featured S.A.N.E., a service the medical cen
ter provides to support victims of sexual assault through
medical treatment, recovery and the search for justice.
Fyock & Associates is a full-service communication
solutions company in Winston-Salem. Fyock's core com
petencies include public relations, marketing, video/mul
timedia production and communication skills training. In
addition to Novant Health, Fyock's list of clients
includes the Piedmont Triad Partnership, Federal
Express. Sara Lee Corp. and Eastman Chemical Co.
Sara Lee Intimate Apparel
to consolidate business units
To further strengthen its competitive position by taking
advantage of synergies across product lines, Sara Lee Inti
mate Apparel (SLIA) is consolidating offices for its tjjree
intimate apparel units into one location. Playtex Apparel
Inc. will relocate its headquarters from Stamford, Conn.,
to Winston-Salem, where offices for the company's Bali
Intimates and Hanes Her Way Intimates are based. About
50 employees in the Stamfoid offices will be affected by
the move. The company will create 40 new positions in
Winston-Salem to support the Playtex business.
In addition, the company will close Playtex packaging
and distribution centers in Dover. Del., consolidating those
functions with Bali operations in Kings Mountain. N.C.
The move will affect about 385 employees at the two
Dover facilities. The company expects to add 250 employ
ees in Kings Mountain to process the additional volume.
"Sara Lee's portfolio includes some of the strongest
brands in the intimate apparel market - Bali, Wonderbra.
Playtex. barely there. Hanes Her Way, Lovable and Just
My Size - and bringing them together under 'one roof'
will allowji^o leverage the best practices across all of pur
businesses," said Charles L. Nesbit Jr., president and chief
executive officer of Sara Lee Intimate Apparel. "This
move is Consistent with Sara Lee's reshaping program,
which we launched in May 2000 to strengthen the catego
ry positions of our leadership brands."
Design studios, and sales showrooms wfor three of
SLIA's operations - Playtex, Bali and Liberty Fabrics -
will remain in New York, but will be located at a single
site. "We are particularly excited about the possibilities
that come with bringing technical and material resources
together in one world-class design center location." Nesbit
said. "While each of the design groups will remain didjrete
units focused on their own projects, having a broader
range of resources available to each team will greatly
enhance their creative potential."
No changes will be made in Playtex's sales organiza
tion. ,
The Stamford transition is expected to be completed
by May I and the Dover closure by Dec. 31. All affected
employees will be eligible to receive salary and benefits
continuation, and outplacement services.
Despite
settlement,
questions
still linger
BY THOMAS C. TOBIN
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES .
DAVTONA BEACH, Fla. - For the first
two days, Maurice Rizzo, his wife and three
children were having a great vacation cat the
Adam's Mark hotel in Daytona Beach.
Then, he said, "the hotel changed complete
ly." It was just before some lOO.IXX) young peo
ple were scheduled to arrive for the 1999 Black
College Reunion, a loosely organized.weekend
celebration attended mostly by young African
Americans.
The housekeeping staff removed furniture
from the lobby. The security presence - stid
denly heavy with uniformed officers walking
the upper floors - made Rizzo and his family
feel awkward and fearful. At breakfast, a hotel
worker chained the restaurant doors facing the
Atlantic Ocean, prompting Rizzo, a safety offi
cer with the New York City Transit Authority, to
complain about access in the event of fire,
"It put a bitter taste in my mouth. I didn't
want to be there," said Rizzo, 38, a white Staten
Islander who felt inconvenienced but also
grasped that the hotel was locking down for the
black guests who were arriving as he left. Had
he been one of those guests, he said, "f would
feel insulted."
His comments, made to lawyers in August,
were to be one of the building blocks in the case
against Adam's Mark - a case brought by five of
its black customers from that weekend in April
1999 and later joined by the Florida Attorney
General's Office.
But not one of them will have his or her day
in court.
Last month, Adam's Mark agreed to pay
about $1 million to former guests and four of
Florida's historically black colleges. The
NAACP agreed to end an economic boycott
against the chain.
The settlement put an end to the dispute, giv
ing both sides a modicum of satisfaction. But it
also left an emotional debate over racial dis
crimiiiation strangely unresolved.
It seemed a compelling case. But public
records released this month show that it also
was going to be hard to prove. "This court case
is a roll of the dice for both parties and there
may be a better way," Fred S. Kummer, presi
dent of Adam's Mark's parent company, HBE
Corp., wrote in an August letter that offered an
olive branch to NAACP President Kweisi
Mfume.
The day before that letter, Kummer sparred
with state and plaintiffs' lawyers in a con
tentious, daylong deposition. He admitted that
his hotel may have gone too far during Black
College Reunion. He called the event frighten- .
ing.
He also was made to confront statements he
gave to two Florida newspapers:
"It's pretty much a community under siege,"
Kummer once said of the event. "We man the
fortress. We nailed down everything we could."
He also had said: "I think what we did was
get too protective about property and not sensi
tive enough about people." He referred to some
of the hotel's actions as silly and unwarranted,
yet stuck by his managers. (He did not respond
to a request for an interview for this article.)
On the other side of the case, howevet? the
outlook was not much better.
Seventeen Orlando-area residents wno lis
tened to a mock version of the trial last month
struggled with the notion of discrimination.
Fifteen of the 17 mock jurors agreed that the
hotel's policies during Black College Reunion
1999 differed from its policies for other special
events in Daytona Beach. They wanted to award
damages.
But then the 17 were asked to go a step fur
ther - to consider whether the hotel had dis
criminated against its guests based on race. A
bare majority - nine - said yes.
Of those nine, only one was white. The rest
were black and Hispanic.
The hotel compiled a to-do list for the
weekend of April 9-11. 1999. The tasks includ
ed: setting up 65 metal bike racks to use as bar
ricades at the front entrance; distributing a letter
to all rooms and making a public address
announcement designed to prod guests into
checking out by 11 a.m. Sunday, lest they be
charged for another night's stay: removing fur
niture from the lobby; locking the in-room
liquor cabinets, known as "robobars": locking
all entrances to the hotel except the front door;
locking the garage and beach club elevators;
restricting all in-room movies and phones until
guests paid cash in advance.
The hotel also required guWts to pay the full
cost of their rooms in advance, plus a $50. per
night damage deposit. The money was refund
able, but you had to request it no later than 30"
days before the event. That arrangement locked
many guests into staying at the Adam's Mark.
even though some wanted to swit?h hotels after
seeing the bunker-style atmosphere.
Guests also complained about having to
wear bright orange wristbands to get into the
hotel and not being allowed to have visitors in
their rooms. Because many of its 437 rooms
were occupied that weekend by three or four
people, the Adam's Mark ordered 2,000 wrist
bands to meet the demand.
Guests also reported a serious breakdown in
the hotel's housekeeping and room service.
Many beds were never made during the week
end and guests had to track down maids for
fresh towels.
Guests were not allowed the usual conven
ience of putting restaurant meals or room serv
ice or even rollaway beds on their room tub. The
hotel wanted cash.
According to the state, the accommodations
hardly lived up to Adam's Mark's marketing,
which bills the hotel as the "best-on the beach"
and promises "remarkable services and ameni
ties you would expect from a premier resort."
The hotel insists that none of the changes^
was made because of the guests' race. However."
the state produced the ? sworn statement of a
white kitchen worker who said his white boss
referred to arriving guests as animals who need
ed to be caged.
Kummer, the chain's president, attributed
the hotel's reaction to the youth and "exuber
ance" of its guests that weekend. He called them
"people trying to get too much into 24 hours,
into 48 hours."
He added there was no sin in tailoring a
hotel to the tastes and demands of its guests.
"We may be totally different in terms of our
response" to different groups, he told lawyers.
"That's the nature of every business, and even
more so maybe in the hotel business."
The previous year, 1998, hotel managers
Said they felt besieged by Black College
Reunion guests. There was a stabbing on the
LI th floor, 11 aggravated assaults on the upper
floors, a major fight in the lobby and more than
See Adam's Mark on A9
KRT Photo
When this photo was shot of the Daytona Beach Adam's Mark late last yearthe hotel was
undergoing a massive facelift. About 300 rooms were added to the building.
DaimlerChrysler
named Company
of the Year by
popular magazines
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
AUBURN HILLS,
Mich. - The Chrysler
Gjcoup of DaimlerChrysler
AG has been named as the
2002 Patterson-Greenfield
Company of the Year by
African Americans on
Wheels and Latinos on
Wheels magazines. The
award was presented during
the recent sixth annual
Urban Wheel Awards at the
Detroit Institute of Arts.
The gala event is annu
ally held in conjunction
with Press Preview Week of
the North American Interna
tional Auto Show in Detroit,
Mich., to honor individuals
and corporations for contri
butions to diversity in the
automotive industry.
According to Randi
Payton. founder of the
Urban Wheel Awards and
president and CEO of On
Wheels Inc.. parent compa
ny of African Americans on
Wheels and Latino*, on
Wheels magazines. Daim
letChrysler was recognized
for its "long-standing sup
port of diversity."
Wolfgang Bernhard.
Chrysler Group chief oper
ating officer, accepted the
award on behalf of the com
pany's employees. "In spite
of our challenges this past
year, we have remained true
to our values," Bernhard
said.
Specifically, the compa
ny's annual spending with
minority vendors and sup
pliers grew to $2.7 billion; it
launched a major diversity
motorsports program to
increase the number of
minority drivers and techni
cians in the field of motor
sports; and Chrysler Group
was among the leading cor
porations with diverse work
forces. Cur?ent!y. people of
color make up 27 percent of
the company's work force.
In 1997, the former
Chrysler Corp. was named
the Patterson-Greenfield
Company of the Year, fast
year, the Chrysler PT Cruis
er was named Car of the
Year.
The Patterson-Green
field Company of the Year
Award is named in honor of
the first African-American
coach bus and car company
operator. Following a nomi
nation process, award recip
ients are selected by an
independent panel of auto
motive journalists.
Bell Ringers
L.A. Ch'ppers stars Elton Brand and Corey Maggette ring the opening bell
last week at the American Stock Exchange.