Zero Corp.

In response to “Business Winners That Get Ignored Amid the Whiners,” by Joel Kotkin and David Friedman, California Portfolio, Opinion, Dec. 27:.

Kotkin and Friedman have written another article on California’s business winners and “whiners.” They opened their article with the accusation that Zero Corp. “moved the bulk of (its) business to Utah, while selling off much of its technology to the Japanese.” They are wrong on both counts.

First, in January, 1990, Zero Corp. announced that it was moving only two of nine California operations from California to Utah--hardly the bulk of our business. Second, Zero has not sold technology to the Japanese. We have sold our Zero Halliburton briefcases and luggage to the Japanese. In fact, we have sold the same beautifully deep drawn aluminum cases throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. That is our business.

If Kotkin and Friedman are wrong on simple facts, how can we expect credibility when it comes to their “opinions”?

Rather than labeling them with the epithet of “whiners,” congratulations should go to those entities that responsibly have called our Legislature’s attention to the pathetic California business climate--a business climate that forces jobs to flee the state.

The California Chamber of Commerce, the Council on California Competitiveness, the Assembly Democratic Economic Prosperity Team (ADEPT) and many others have worked diligently over the past year to provide concrete recommendations to change California’s workers’ compensation laws (fraught with fraud), permitting system (lengthy and uncertain), secondary educational system (crumbling), legal system (expensive and lengthy) and excessive bureaucratic regulations (no comment needed).

The entities seeking change are the true winners! They are trying to create a healthier California.

WILFORD D. GODBOLD JR.

President, Zero Corp.

Chairman, Calif. Chamber of Commerce

Los Angeles