Representatives of 34 States Woo California Firms at Relocation Fair

ANAHEIM —  Seventy-five groups from 34 states pitched the charms of their areas to executives considering moving companies out of California.

There was one notable absentee, though, from the business relocation fair Tuesday and Wednesday: California’s Trade and Commerce Agency, recently given cabinet status by Gov. Pete Wilson.

Agency spokeswoman Jeannie Winnick said of the expo’s organizer, “We did not want to dignify this guy’s effort by giving (him) state money.”

Business-development agencies compete nationally to attract companies from other areas. Many regard California as fertile territory because its business and living costs are comparatively high and its recession deep and persistent.

Dennis Carruth, president of Trends 2000, the Carlsbad-based organizer of the event at the Anaheim Marriott, said 300 people attended Tuesday--twice as many as at a similar expo in July.

Danny G. Fore of the Fayetteville, N.C., Area Economic Development Corp., said he was surprised California’s commerce agency hadn’t shown up.

“You’re dying a death of 1,000 cuts,” he said in reference to other areas’ efforts to woo California businesses.

John O’Donnell, owner of a Newport Beach-based investment bank, prowled the exhibition floor voicing familiar complaints about California’s allegedly anti-business attitude, high workers’ compensation insurance costs and stiff environmental regulations. “Los Angeles? I’m trying to get out of Los Angeles,” O’Donnell said.