Qualls’ Dismissal Riles Many OC Socialites; Irvine’s El Toro Plans
OC INSIDER
by Rick Reiff
Jo Ellen Qualls, whose name has been synonymous here with Tiffany’s since she opened the South Coast Plaza store in 1988, has been let go. The action has infuriated Qualls’ admirers, particularly those in the charitable circles that benefited from her time and Tiffany gift donations. Interior designer Nancy Weinstein said she cut short a business trip in China to launch a fax-letter campaign to Tiffany CEO Michael Kowalski and board member (and Burberry Ltd. boss) Rose Marie Bravo. Weinstein said the protesters include Janice and Roger Johnson, Arlene Cheng, Arden Flamson, Vicki Heston Lott, Betty Belden Palmer, Larry Thomas and Costa Mesa Police Chief David Snowden.
Qualls said she was “shocked and devastated” by her dismissal but heartened by the support. She said the South Coast Plaza store, which does an estimated $30 million a year in revenue, ranked in the company’s top five in sales and profits and registered a bigger sales gain last year than all but the Manhattan flagship. Weinstein said she and others are urging Qualls, who at 58 was two years short of early retirement, to sue for age discrimination. A Tiffany spokesperson said the company doesn’t comment on employee issues but did say management is in place at the store and that Qualls’ position would be filled
Things are moving fast on the El Toro front. The Insider hears Irvine officials plan to ask the county supes this week for support in annexing the former base and for exclusive negotiating rights with the Navy. The city is set to unveil a plan that calls for parks and other public uses on about 90% of the land, commercial development on the rest, park-user fees but no general tax and a “fair” financial return to the Navy
Managing Editor Roger Bloom, who has spent four years contributing to most of what you read in these pages, has decided it’s time to let lawyers benefit from his talents. Bloom is heading up marketing and PR for Rutan & Tucker in Costa Mesa. Rejoining the OCBJ to replace Bloom is former tech writer Mike Mason
Goodbye, Birmingham, Ala., hello, Orange: Baptist Health Foundation CEO Dana Todsen is the new executive director of the CHOC Foundation for Children, replacing Jeff Wilcox, now running CHOC’s outreach programs
International relations: Last summer, Blake Lyon’s family went on an African safari (detailed in this column). After returning home the Corona del Mar High School junior shipped a box of clothes to friends he’d made in the village of Judicia, South Africa. Blake was touched to receive a thank-you note in which the village elder mentioned that all of his people were praying for America in the wake of Sept. 11. Blake recently sent another shipment to the village, this one with more than 300 pounds of clothes collected from schoolmates. BAX Global waived the $4,000 shipping charge.
