The South County Economic Development Council had a special guest speaker at its annual holiday breakfast at the South Bay Fish & Grill in Chula Vista.
San Diego Padres CEO Tom Garfinkel spoke to South County business leaders and members at Tuesday’s event about the Padres’ work in the South Bay community and provided updates on the team.
Garfinkel said he’d been talking with the council’s CEO Cindy Gompper-Graves and Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox about coming to the South County.
“We haven’t done a good job of reaching out to the other parts of San Diego,” Garfinkel said.
Gompper-Graves asked Garfinkel to be the guest speaker to give the South County more exposure.
“South County often gets over looked by our bigger companies … we want to make sure that they embrace South County and are working toward getting the Padres more involved in South County and the border region,” Gompper-Graves said.
Garfinkel said the Padres are about showing San Diego pride and being stewards of public trust.
During the question and answer portion of the meeting, members brought up topics pertaining to the South Bay region.
San Diego County Board of Education member Jerry Rindone suggested having a South Bay night at the Padres for all South Bay cities.
Garfinkel said he and the council have discussed having a South Bay night at Petco Park.
“We have a lot of Padres fans down here,” Gompper-Graves said. “South County citizens are aware of what the Padres are doing because they do draw a lot of attention to the San Diego region and as a part of that we hope they draw attention to the South County also… We’ve have a lot of more talented people who could be part of the Padres organization.”
Approximately 150 members attended the holiday breakfast, including several local elected officials and delegates including County Supervisor Greg Cox and National City Mayor Ron Morrison.
