[Editor’s Note: This is an article from the SDFP archives, written in 2014.]
By Norma Damashek
In response to requests I received for the names of people I alluded to in last week’s commentary Too Many Years of Inbreeding I’m providing a list of Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s recent appointees, plus a brief description of who they are.
Many names will be familiar to those of you who have been following city affairs over the years. For others, the people on this list may not ring a bell; like the city’s water and sewer pipes they tend to operate beneath the surface. But their organizational interconnectedness and crossovers are readily identifiable by one and all.
(As for interconnectedness, those of you interested in the city hall game of Chinese Checkers will find a good description in this 2009 Reader story. Be assured, the game is still being played.)
Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s leadership team
Stephen Puetz – Chief of Staff
VP at Revolvis/a full-service Republican consulting firm. Campaign manager for Kevin Faulconer. Political consultant for Mark Kersey, Scott Sherman, Carl DeMaio. Staffed Faulconer in Council District 2
Jaymie Bradford — Chief of Policy
Staffed Carl DeMaio, Jerry Sanders, Todd Gloria. Legislative advocate on SANDAG. Internal communications for Building Industry Association. SD Chamber of Commerce public policy committee
Felipe Monroig — Chief of Community Engagement
Attorney. CEO for SD Taxpayers Assn. Carl DeMaio’s chief of staff. Worked for DeMaio’s Performance Institute
Matt Awbrey — Chief of Communications
Formerly staffed Fauconer D2. SD Chamber of Commerce public policy committee
Craig Gustafson — Press Secretary
Former politics reporter at U-T San Diego
Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s transition team
Tony Young
Former SD council president. Former CEO at SD Red Cross. Presumed new chief at Civic San Diego
Businessman. Chair, SD Chamber of Commerce. Chair, SD Convention Center. Board of Downtown SD Partnership. Chair at SD Port Commission. SD Red Cross. Special assistant to former mayor Jerry Sanders
Former general manager Cox Communications. Past chair SD Regional Chamber Commerce. SD Regional Economic Development Corp. Organized efforts for choosing Faulconer as Republican Party candidate
CEO Downtown SD Partnership. Former chief of staff to mayors Golding and Sanders. Considered Sanders’ link to the downtown establishment. SD Regional Chamber of Commerce public policy committee. Balboa Park Centennial board. VP govt relations for SD Padres
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Phew! This is remarkable, a basic and mandatory tool for activists. Just putting names on the oligarchs interrupts their invincibility. Those links… some of them to videos… further reduce the sense of their untouchability. Where do they live? What do they drive? Do they go to taco stands? Can you call them up, or text them?
Do they fart? And what do they say afterward?
It’s been a long time since I had any access even to their aides and doorkeepers, but my dim memory is of a tribe of p.r. people and managers whose interpersonal skills weren’t all that effective; they were just tuned in to necessity.
Time to start writing them letters, so their decisions can have … er… moral?… informed?… weight.
Nice work. I felt a full wave of nausea by the time I read the last name.
Next, do a compilation on double inbreeding: second-order between local governance, then first-order among the local “press,” for lack of a better term for Manchester dot com and the Lewis dot org staffers (I would loathe to call them writers, journos, or anything similar). These staffers are inbred down to genetic fatality: they spend half their time slamming out poorly written propaganda, and the other half chatting about how fabulous they are and how pathetic everyone else is (take pleasure in knowing they do read you, else they couldn’t think of any hateful snarks to pass around). The little Mobius strip on which they crawl back and forth between the two publications has only one off-ramp: city hall, when their kind are in power.
Dorothy — your imagery is wonderful. Can I borrow your Mobius strip analogy?
Yes! Where’s the “Like” button when you need one?
August F. Mobius says Yes!
In Wikipedia, it is said that giant Mobius strips are used as conveyor belts. Works like that in SD.
This is a reminder of what we lost (or gave up) in Filner.
In case anyone considers Faulconer a “moderate,” tally up the number of people in the inner circle who are associated with Carl DeMaio. The dragons’ teeth have been sown. The dragon is unnecessary.
I was struck by that also. Is that payback for Carl being aced out of running for mayor?
Below is a link to where in 2009 I suggesting dispersing that 10th Floor incestuous political hamster pile throughout the nine Districts. The close proximity of the nine Councilmembers and their politically in-bred staff on one overcrowded City Hall floor is a walking, talking, permanent breach of the Brown Act. But the lobbyists love it.
http://www.blogofsandiego.com/BlogArchives/2009-1st-Quarter.htm#03/12/09
a slight edit: Linden Blue is General Atomics, not General Dynamics. Ronne Froman was a vp for General Atomics; I don’t know if she has other ties to General Dynamics.
For those who know the local MIC, there’s a large difference between General Dynamics and General Atomics. If you fix this in the article, please delete this comment.
Tom — thanks for picking that up.
General Atomics was founded as a division of General Dynamics.
Ronne Froman’s title is Senior VP of General Atomics (San Diego’s largest defense contractor).
Her husband Linden Blue is co-owner of the same organization, General Atomics.
What happened to Tony Young and the Red Cross? As I recall, he resigned from the City Council to take the Red Cross job. He was a Democrat at the time.
He’s still nominally a Dem, I hear. Looks like he’s headed to Civic San Diego. The situation with Red Cross has got !!!! written all over it, but nobody’s blabbing to the press yet.
They probably put him in the Red Cross for a short stint in order to put some “execute” time on his resume, which is required for the Civic San Diego job. If so, it demonstrates once again how this town is governed – by a small cadre of insiders.
Civic San Diego is sitting on the biggest pot of money in town, they are going to want one of their own in charge of it. What does that say about our Tony?