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City Left Holding the Bag as Balboa Park Centennial Group Folds Up Shop

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By Doug Porter

The Balboa Park Celebration, Inc., a group empowered by former San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders to organize a centennial celebration of the Panama-California Exposition, is calling it quits.

Despite having $2.8 million in taxpayer-funded startup monies and a contract giving them exclusive control over the nation’s second oldest urban cultural park, the organization is dissolving its corporate entity and handing back its responsibilities to the City of San Diego.

Centennial organizers have been in the spotlight in recent weeks, amid calls for greater transparency. BPC, Inc steadfastly maintained to the end that they were under no legal obligation to reveal financial information or documents related to their activities. Lawsuits were being prepared, news accounts questioning their activities began appearing on a regular basis, and incoming mayor Kevin Faulconer joined the chorus of public concern.   [Read more…]

The Quest for a San Diego Summer Olympics in 2024

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By Doug Porter

It’s easy to poke fun at the idea of San Diego putting together a bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics in light of the failures of the leadership for the Balboa Park Centennial. It’s not so easy to figure what the actual benefit would be if such a bid succeeded. And, since there are people working hard to make it happen, it’s worth pondering.

The Balboa Park centennial group tried to build an event from the top down, jetting off to Panama and Mexico for marquis events while ignoring offers from the likes of the former CEO of Legoland. Now their $50 million event has been downsized to $2 million, much of which will seemingly be spent on executive compensation.

A Summer Olympics comes with the marquis events included. Local boosters are charged with presenting a plan building from the bottom up including venues, accommodations, security and logistics. “Build it and they will come” can be considered the mantra for such an event. While we should expect much to be made in the media about the dollars needed, the social and political costs will likely be glossed over.   [Read more…]

A New Era Begins for San Diego, Just Like the Old Era (With a Few Deletions)

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By Doug Porter

By the time you read this City Councilman Kevin Faulconer will have taken the oath of office to become San Diego’s 36th Mayor. He will, I think, have about a nine month honeymoon prior to starting his reelection campaign for 2016.

UT-San Diego’s been busy trying to setting the tone with its editorials over the past few days, urging the Democratic Majority on the City Council to appoint a Republican to replace Faulconer, pleading for Council President Todd Gloria to be the new mayor’s ‘bi-partisan partner in reform,” and cheerleading for further policies to privatize public services.

Lost amid the ceremonies and promises of better times are the moves being made to insulate the politics of ‘business as usual’ from public disclosure. City Attorney Jan Goldsmith’s successful efforts to derail an Open Government initiative and the iMayor’s last-minute issuance of a policy destroying city emails after one year are examples of the true nature of bi-partisan cooperation at the highest levels in local government.   [Read more…]

Thou Shalt Not Challenge a Sitting Judge and Other Legal Oddities (Updated)

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By Doug Porter

The story in last Friday’s UT-San Diego seemed pretty straightforward: the local legal establishment closed ranks, telling Carla Keehn that she wasn’t welcome to challenge incumbent Superior Court Judge Lisa Schall.

The newspaper’s account stemmed from a decision by the Tom Homann Law Association, a group for gay and lesbian legal professionals, to withdraw an earlier endorsement. It seemed a little odd, but not too far out of line in a city where truth and reality are regularly mangled in the quest to keep business as usual on track.

The San Diego Free Press ran a profile of candidate Keehn early February. Contributor Eva Posner met Keehn, found her to be an interesting person and wrote a profile. She certainly didn’t seem to be any kind of troublemaker, having worked in the US Attorney’s Office in San Diego as a federal prosecutor since 1995.

So I thought this political shunning might make fore an interesting item for one of my daily columns. Then two things happened: the SDPD misconduct scandal reached a peak and I started getting emails by the inbox full about this judicial race. I decided to hold off writing the story until I poked around a bit.   [Read more…]

As City Attorney Pulls the Strings, New SDPD Chief Gets Warm Welcome

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By Doug Porter

Mayor elect Kevin Faulconer surprised San Diego yesterday by naming SDPD veteran Shelly Zimmerman as new chief of police. The surprise wasn’t his choice of Zimmerman, a well regarded veteran with 31 years of service in the department; it was how fast he moved to make the announcement.

As was the case with Chief Lansdowne’s retirement, the local media was filled with statements praising Zimmerman. Even the Reader’s Don Bauder, who regularly dishes up dirt on local politics, approved, saying Zimmerman was an ideal choice for a police department in trouble for its members’ sexual misdeeds.

Caught flatfooted by the announcement was iMayor Todd Gloria   [Read more…]

SDPD Chief Lansdowne Takes One for the Team

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By Doug Porter

San Diego’s Chief of Police is gone as of Monday, March 3rd. Retired. Resigned. Whatever.

Incoming Mayor Kevin Faulconer will be starting his term with a clean slate, able to downplay reports of police misconduct as the failures of prior administrations.  

The systemic problems within the SDPD won’t be actually resolved by his resignation, but the perception that action has been taken will likely trump demands for actual reforms, or, God forbid, an actual independent monitor. Fortunately, there was another, less noticed, development yesterday that may derail hopes by local officials that these scandals will fade away.      [Read more…]

It’s ‘Pin the Tail on Filner’ Week in San Diego

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By Doug Porter

‘Blame Bob Filner’ seems to be the catchphrase of the week here in San Diego. Months of demonizing our former mayor in the media have seemingly created an atmosphere where it’s possible to deflect political and legal problems by simply blaming The.Worst.Mayor.Ever.

I don’t argue the point that he screwed up. He’s suffering the consequences. And it’s my educated guess that there’s more legal troubles headed his way. But this business of trying to blame him for all of San Diego’s ills has got to stop. What’s next? Can we blame Filner for the lack of rain? Or too much rain, if that should happen?

If you believe reports in the Daily Fishwrap and other local media, the ex-mayor is now supposed to take the fall for two of our city’s new found embarrassments-an illegal campaign contributions scandal and a floundering Balboa Park centennial– in what seems to me to be an obvious effort to protect other officeholders.   [Read more…]

The Dark Side of the 2015 Balboa Park Celebrations

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By Doug Porter

A non-profit group set up by the city to create a world class year long celebration of the centennial of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition  in Balboa Park hasn’t produced much of anything concrete to date, despite spending millions of dollars in public monies. And they’re making the claim that their lack of progress is nobody’s business.

Citizen activist David Lundin’s inquiries into the machinations of the group responsible for planning the Balboa Park Centennial Celebration have stirred up quite a fuss. After reading reports about difficulties and missed deadlines by the entity (Balboa Park Celebrations, Inc) he filed a series of requests for documents (ala Public Records Act).

The resulting exchange was simply stunning in its arrogance and hostility. My response from reading the email exchange between Lunkin and the group is that something must be seriously amiss with this group.

  [Read more…]

‘Jim Crow’ Campaign Against Gays Goes National

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By Doug Porter

A 33-27 vote in the Arizona House last night sent legislation to GOP Gov. Jan Brewer allowing business owners in the state to assert their religious beliefs to refuse service to persons who they believe to be homosexual. The state that brought us openly racist anti-immigrant laws four years ago has once again taken the lead in defending bigotry.

Conservative Christian groups and their Republican allies are desperate to stop the clock. The handwriting is on the wall.  Sexual orientation as a criteria for full participation in society is on its way out. In state after state, the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government are chipping way at policies that enforce discrimination based on who you love.

Lest you think this Arizona legislation is an aberration caused by too much time in the sun, be aware that even more heinous legislation was promoted by GOP pols in Kansas, Idaho, Oregon, South Dakota, and Tennessee. Furious public opposition has stalled those efforts for now, but there’s always next year.   [Read more…]

Another Day, Another SDPD Sex Scandal: Can City Leaders Put a Lid on It?

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By Doug Porter

Police Chief Bill Lansdowne called a press conference yesterday evening to announce yet another reported incident of sexual misconduct involving a SDPD officer.

One of the women contacting the SDPD following allegations against officer Christopher Hays, provided information leading to yet another officer, who is now under investigation for allegedly touching and exposing himself to a female arrestee.

The chief told the assembled press that the officer has been placed on paid administrative leave while the investigation continues. “We are doing everything we should be doing in this case,”  Lansdowne said, and repeated an earlier plea for any other potential victims or witnesses to come forward to report wrongdoing   [Read more…]

Candidates Jockey for Kevin Faulconer’s City Council Seat; OB’s Gretchen Newsom Garners Endorsement from Women’s Group

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By Doug Porter

The dust hasn’t settled from the February special election, but the jockeying for a soon-to-be-open position on the San Diego City Council in District 2 is getting into high gear.

Run Women Run, the non-partisan group advocating for increased female participation in electoral politics, announced their support for Gretchen Newsom as the interim appointee this morning. Let the politicking begin!

Kevin Faulconer’s ascendancy to the city’s top job in March will leave his seat on the city council open. Within 30 days after he takes the oath of office the remaining council members are tasked with appointing a replacement who by law cannot then run for re-election for that seat.

There are four candidates (that I am aware) of vying for the job: Ed Harris (Life Guard) , Don Mullin (Former Chief of staff for Marti Emerald), Gretchen Newsom (OB Town Council President), and Howard Wayne (Former Assemblyman). Since the campaigning in this situation is largely out of public view, today I’ll take a quick look look at those seeking the position.   [Read more…]

The First Order of Business for the Post-Election City Council: A Minimum Wage Referendum

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By Doug Porter

It’s time to give the Lincoln Club and their allies a dose of their own medicine. They’ve collectively decided to wield veto power over our elected officials, effectively turning San Diego into a case study of rule by initiative.

Fine. It’s likely the City Council will have a veto-proof 6-3 majority for the foreseeable future. If there’s one issue that polls well with the general public, would actually benefit people not in a position to belong to the yacht club and will simply drive Jerry Sanders along with the rest of Kevin Faulconer’s transition team crazy, it’s raising the minimum wage.

Putting such an initiative on the November ballot, which the council can do without hiring professional truth twisters to harass shoppers, will have the additional benefit of increasing voter turnout, something favoring Democrats and progressive causes.   [Read more…]

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