Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 20

1X1 3Jic Arisana flailu Slar Tucson, Thursday, February 15, 1996 Page Four After 25 years, eegee's is still on a roll Pair honored ML, AJL, A I7 II 2 meetings to deal with utility rules Two public meetings scheduled tomorrow in Tucson will deal with utility regulation. A 10 a.m. public comment session is set on the rules being formed by the Arizona Corporation Commission to govern a so-called Universal Service Fund. The fund would help ensure affordable phone service to all customers as increasing competition changes the telephone industry. That meeting will be held downtown in Room 222 of the north wing of the state office building at 400 W.

Congress St. Commission members are not expected to attend the session. Hearings in Phoenix today are expected to collect the bulk of testimony from companies that will be affected by the new rules. The advisory board for the Residential Utility Consumer Office meets at 1 p.m. in room 205 of the "Swede" Johnson Alumni Building at 1 1 1 1 N.

Cherry Ave. Discussion of RUCO's role in the recent rejection by the Arizona Corporation Commission of a rate settlement for Tucson Electric Power Co. is expected. RUCO was the only party to object to the settlement, which would have raised rates less than 2 percent and barred further rate hikes for five years. As part of the settlement, TEP also would have "been able to invest, under many restrictions, up to $50 million a year in energy businesses outside its regulated territory.

The settlement, worked out. between the utility and the ACC staff, was rejected by the commission on a 2-1 vote. Greg Patterson, RUCO director, later endorsed the TEP settlement after modest changes that did not change the proposed rate increase of a little over 1 a month for residential customers. Public comment is invited mi any RUCO agenda item. Tomorrow's meeting was set at the urging of RUCO board member John Huerta of Tucson, who last month told Patterson that there was some concern in Tucson about rejection of the TEP settlement and RUCO's role in the matter.

as deli chain's business grows By Richard Ducote Anjona Daily Star After 25 years of building a business, Ed Irv ing and Bob Greenberg could have taken the whole day off to accept the plaudits of Tucson Mayor George Miller and several charitable groups. But the two men, who founded eegee's in 1971, knocked off work for only a couple of hours for the festivities at the new East Speedway and North Tucson Boulevard location of their deli-sandwich and frozen-drink chain. Then they got back to attending to details, one of the ingredients of their business success. Shortly after the ceremonies, the pair proudly showed off their new central commissary and warehouse taking shape on East Ajo Way near South Palo Verde Road. Just the "cold end" of the new quarters and its energy-efficient refrigeration system is costing $500,000, Irving said.

Production of the eegee's slush drinks has already moved from Speedway to Ajo Way. where a new computerized single-unit continuous-production system will triple the capacity of the 12 old machines each mixing 12 gallons of eegee's drinks at a time. Last summer, Irving said, production at the old plant could barely keep pace with business operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The new system will easily keep up with demand operating only 10 hours a day, six days a week, with plenty of capacity for future growth, he said. The new facility will offer huge savings in labor and energy, both Irving and Greenberg said.

All food storage, food preparation, baking, distribution and warehouse and office functions will be moved to Ajo Way within the next four Bruce McClelland, The Arizona Daily Star Greenberg, left, and Irving have been serving up slushes and sandwiches long enough to know the importance of details months, he added. Total cost of the project to transform the Ajo Way industrial building shell into the hub of the 1 6-restaurant chain is about .5 million, Irving said. Friends since kindergarten in Providence, R.I., the two set their sights on Tucson after Irving finished school at the University of Arizona. He told Greenberg, who attended school in another state, he longed to return to Tucson. Thinking of possible business opportunities, Irving said they listed three things Tucson lacked in 197 1 that were common where they came from -Italian ices or frozen lemonades, bagels and good pizza.

"We have all three now," Irving said after adding a disclaimer that some people, nodding toward Greenberg, are still looking for the perfect Tucson pizza. Irving concedes that the two businessmen had a lot of luck in the process of building a business from an initial investment of $2,500 and first-year sales of $20,000 to one with sales exceeding $10 million a year and more than 400 employees. "We were fortunate. We grew up with the town and grew up with our customers," he said. A new business coming to town today would have a difficult time establishing such a presence, he said.

Seed money for the venture in 1971 was the $2,500 they put together by selling Ir-ving's old Buick and Green-berg's 850cc Fiat. That got them a $500 truck that had passed from the Postal Service through several other owners, a $175 deposit on a small space along Speedway and a small machine in which to make their first frozen lemonade concoction. The company name comes from their names: for Ed and for Greenberg. While Irving seems to deal more with operations and Greenberg concentrates on finances, insurance and such, both "slide around" into all aspects of the business, Green berg said. "We like to be in the stores," he said.

"You've got to stick your head in often or the business goes down." Looking back on a quarter century of business, Irving said their ill-fated foray into Phoenix was probably the biggest mistake they made, but it yielded a valuable though expensive education. The five-year attempt to gain a toehold there was a $3 million loser, he said. "But it taught us to be efficient when there was a big black hole sucking in money from the profitable (Tucson) operations." The company still sells See EEGEE'S, Page 7B Sexes differ on job equality, survey finds Women in the workplace A survey conducted by Fortune magazine found men and women disagree about the general status of women in 8 Men the workplace: Women Ml A Fortune subscribers. About 1,880 of the replies came from women, and about 230 came from men. The average age of the women respondents was 41 and their mean personal income was $87,500.

For men, the average age was 47, and their mean income was $113,000. Eileen Collins Neri, a senior research 75 Both sexes work equally hard in the workplace. 44 17 Female employees work harder. 54 8 Male employees work harder. By Karen Schwartz The Associated Press NEW YORK As men and women spent Valentine's Day puzzling over the mysteries of the opposite sex, a new survey reports that their perspectives are often as different at work as they can be at play.

A survey of Fortune magazine subscribers found men and women disagree about a number of issues concerning the status of women in the workplace. For instance, three-quarters of men thought that both sexes worked equally hard in the workplace, but less than half the businesswomen, only 44 percent, agreed. A majority of women, 54 percent, thought female employees worked harder, a sentiment shared by only 17 percent of men. Similarly, 77 percent of female respondents thought women need to have more experience or a higher degree than men when applying for the same job; 43 percent of men agreed. A like number of men, 43 percent, thought the genders are judged equally when applying for a job; only 20 percent of women agreed.

The survey, conducted by Fortune Marketing Research and Yankelovich Partners, was released yesterday by the accounting firm Deloitte Touche LLP. It evaluated about 2,100 mail questionnaires returned last fall by percent of women were similarly satisfied. One area where men and women nearly agreed was in their estimation of how women are doing overall. Ironically, both sexes were overly optimistic. They estimated that 4 percent to 5 percent of chief executive officers in corporate America are women.

According to the U.S. Labor Department, only two women, or less than 1 percent, are CEOs of the 1,000 biggest companies in the United States. The respondents thought 7 percent to 10 percent of the top 10 officers of Fortune 500 companies are women. The Labor Department reported that women hold only 5 percent of the senior-level management jobs in America's 1,000 largest companies. And women and men were both overly generous when estimating the number of women earning $100,000 or more annually, guessing 8.5 percent and 5.8 percent respectively.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 1.1 percent of women earned $75,000 or more in 1994. On a positive note, both men and women said the presence of women in the workplace has had a positive effect. More than two-thirds of men and women said it has placed more emphasis on families and promoted a greater awareness and acceptance of different styles and points of view. Women are satisfied with the overall status of women in the workplace.

Women need to have more experience or a higher degree.than men when applying for the same job. 61 44 Women were a lot less satisfied in their careers than men realized. manager at Fortune Marketing, said the survey was intended to "focus on solutions, not to gripe about the problems and the barriers." Although not representative of the population as a whole, the survey found some interesting distinctions between the way men and women perceived the workplace. Women were a lot less satisfied in their careers than men realized. The majority of men, 61 percent, thought women were satisfied with the overall status of women in the workplace.

Only 44 percent of women agreed. On a personal level, 87 percent of the male respondents said they were satisfied with the current state of their careers. Only 78 77 Heshe is satisfied with the current state of their career. 1 43 Both genders are judged equally when applying for the same job. 20 Survey was conducted by Fortune Marketing Research and Yankelovich Partners and released by Deloitte LLP, which evaluated 2,100 Fortune subscribers.

About 1 ,880 were women, and about 230 were men. The average age of the women was 41 and their mean personal income was $87,500. For men, the average age was 47, and their mean income was $113,000, AP PERSONAL FINANCE Love and marriage go together with money, planning Los Angeles Times Syndicate There's no time like the present for love-struck couples to talk about money. Money? What about love, marriage and togetherness? Any couple that hopes to stay together must eventually have a frank discussion about financial goals, says Kathy Stepp, a certified financial planner with the Kansas City, Kan- "Money shapes your life together in a very substantive way," says Esther Berger, a Beverly Hills, certified financial planner and author of "Money-Smart Divorce." "If you know what you are dealing with the good, the bad and the ugly it helps to form a better financial partnership, as well as a better personal partnership." Adds Peg Downey, a Miami-based financial planner: "At the point that things start getting serious, you definitely need to talk about how you feel about money. The things that you think money is for.

Is a tool? Is it a reward? Is it a treat?" Once talk of love turns to marriage, discussing money is "absolutely critical," adds Linda Lubitz, a Miami-based financial planner. But it won't be easy. Money, planners agree, remains that last verbal taboo. "It used to be that people wouldn't talk about sex," says Downey. "Now it's money.

But the fact that it's taboo makes it essential that you can talk about it now before you start building up resentments." However, talking about money doesn't mean that you have to trade information about checking-account balances or details about your salary and 401(k) plan. At first, at least, you're best served discussing financial goals and aspirations and the way you handle money overall. In other words, what do you expect for the future? Do want your own house? A luxury car? Do you aim to take time off or quit if and when you have children? And, importantly, on a day-to-day level, do you save for major expenses or do you simply charge them? The one financial detail that couples really must share, however, is whether they come to the marriage with outstanding debts, says Berger. Do you have thousands of dollars in student loans that must be paid off? Do you owe money to the Internal Revenue Service or a half-dozen credit card companies? What is your plan to pay it off? "You want to make sure that you don't inadvertently inherit somebody's credit problems," Berger adds. "If you talk about it, it's on the table.

You know what you're getting into." Additionally, says Stepp, eventually you'll have to determine how you'll handle household expenses. If both of you are working, do you plan to have a joint checking account, keep accounts separate or have a joint account for joint expenses and separate accounts for your individual discretionary spending? If one spouse will stay home, how will that spouse buy things? Will he or she get an allowance or a credit card that can be used to some limit, no questions asked? Or will one spouse be in control of the purse strings? "The one things I've found is that people really need to have some of their own money -even if it's only to buy gifts for the other person," says Stepp. If one partner is too controlling, it makes the other feel helpless and often resentful. But what if the love of your life says he or she is not comfortable talking about money? You'd better find out why, says Berger. "You wouldn't want to find out after you were married that your partner doesn't want to have children and you do," she adds.

"This is the same thing. Money is going to come up in your relationship, whether it's because of work or how to save or what to buy. If one person thinks the conversation invades their privacy, you are going to be in a pickle sooner rather than later." Kathy Kristof is the personal finance columnist for the Los Angeles Times. She can be reached by e-mail Kathy. Kristoflatimes.

com Kathy Kristof firm of Stepp Garrett. Indeed, the vast majority of couples who split up cite money as the main or a primary factor causing the split. A Citibank survey, for example, found that 57 percent of divorced couples said financial disputes were a primary reason that they couldn't get along. Another 10 percent said it was the main reason they divorced. Planners say their experiences with individual clients bear out the statistics..