Only the Best Quit Here

Should you be calling yourself “one of America’s best managed” savings and loans when the boss is quitting?

In at least one ad for certificates of deposit that ran last week in The Times, Columbia Savings & Loan in Beverly Hills touted itself that way, even though a day earlier Chief Executive Thomas Spiegel said he would quit at month’s end.

Spiegel’s exit from the controversial Beverly Hills thrift comes amid growing losses caused by a sharp fall in the value of Columbia’s $3.8-billion junk bond portfolio.

In addition, regulators, concerned by the growing losses, have clamped down on Columbia’s growth, dividend payout and other activities until it submits an acceptable plan to restore its capital, or the financial cushion against losses.

The management void at Columbia goes beyond Spiegel, who left to set up an entity where Columbia hopes to divest its junk bonds. In September, Lawrence K. Fish, Columbia’s president and chief operating officer, also left.

Called in From the Bench

And more on Columbia:

Attorney Kenneth R. Heitz, who is temporarily replacing Spiegel as chief executive until headhunters find a replacement, was better known as Kenny Heitz around Los Angeles about 20 years ago.

Heitz played in the late 1960s for UCLA basketball coach John Wooden on three consecutive NCAA championship teams, where he started off and on at guard and forward, playing alongside such stars as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor), Mike Warren, Lynn Shackelford and Lucius Allen.

For part of his career at UCLA, Heitz had the reputation of being a dependable player who could be summoned from the bench when needed, not unlike what happened to him at Columbia last week.

Source for Bright Ideas

Beginning today, practical help to plan more efficient commercial lighting, potentially an important weapon in the battle against the Greenhouse Effect, is available in Seattle.

The Lighting Design Lab, the first of its kind in the country, provides free technical tips, a reference library, computer design services and model rooms for experiments to commercial-building professionals (sorry, no weekend remodelers).

The lab was the idea of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a national environmental group, as well as the local utility, Seattle City Light, and the Bonneville Power Administration, which has jurisdiction over federal dams in the Columbia River Basin.