Pub. 3 2021-2022 Issue 3

16 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15 Ally donates $1,000 from each nominee to a 501(c)(3) charity you select. The charitable donations for finalists are $5,000, and the winner’s donation is $10,000. You already support many charities. Which charity did you select for this honor? Why? The Boys & Girls Club has been my passion for 30 years. We now have four clubs, and I helped build all of them. The Boys & Girls Club Southwest County will be the beneficiary. Why should CNCDA dealers join the association? How does membership benefit its members? It has been more apparent these past two years going through the pandemic. I suspect the association has grown in the last two years because dealers have needed help to ensure they comply with state and federal law during the pandemic. The law is constantly being changed or modified. Dealers rely on the association to guide them on the legal and legislative issues surrounding vaccinations and other issues such as wage and hour lawsuits, to name a few. What is the biggest issue facing California dealerships in the next 3-5 years? Wage and hour lawsuits are my biggest concern. The law is complicated for the employee and employer. The electrification mandate that manufacturers are requiring is also of concern. The cost to do the modifications to sell electric vehicles is extremely expensive. Some dealers will be forced to opt out of selling electric cars due to the expense of this mandate. The association has protected the interests of the dealers for so long, and it will continue to play an important part in resolving problems like these. Tell us about “See the need, do the deed.” Where is that from? How has it shaped your life and your dealership’s culture? We opened in February 1992, and in June 1992, the Border Patrol was chasing a Suburban through Temecula, and several people in front of a high school were killed. The dealership had been open only three months. One of our employees, Denny Mighell, asked how we could help. We didn’t have a lot of resources at the time, so we got a group of business owners together and did what we could to fill the needs of the families affected. After that terrible incident, it showed me that “If we see the need, we need to do the deed.” That attitude has been part of who we are ever since. We never do the wrong thing for the wrong reason. Even now, we have 25 managers and 205 employees, and “see the need, do the deed” is part of the culture of every employee who works here. You find a way to solve problems when you get committed, good people together. We have applied that to our business. Since that time, we have come together when a crisis occurs in our community. What are three pieces of advice you would give someone if you were mentoring them? 1. Find that balance between life and career. I don’t know why previous generations thought we couldn’t have both, but times have changed. Success depends on having both, and not having them causes you to fail. 2. Just sit down and figure out what to do when you have a problem. If you fail, you can learn from that. I have failed as many times as I have succeeded.