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CEO Revolving Door at Tri-City Costly to Taxpayers

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Tri-City Healthcare District Chairman of the Board, Jim Dagastino, gushed last week about the appointment of the hospital’s third CEO in three years, the promotion of chief financial officer, Steven Dietlin. “Mr. Dietlin made an immediate impact on Tri-City medical center’s financial well-being as CFO when he arrived at the hospital in 2013.”

The board chairman had to keep a straight face in his praise of outgoing CEO Tim Moran for his “leadership. Moran, the San Diego Business Journal’s Most Admired CEO of 2016, lasted less than two years before being canned by Tri-City. He collected $600,00 in severance pay and a year of medical and dental coverage.

What Dagostino didn’t mention is that the CEO they fired three years ago brought Dietlin to Tri-City in early 2013. Larry Anderson needed help to fix serious problems with the hospital’s financials. Like Moran, Anderson had been named Most Admired CEO by SDBJ in 2011, apparently the kiss of death for Tri-City executives.   [Read more…]

Carlsbad City Hall No Place For Apologies

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By Richard Riehl

Mayor Matt Hall called for peace in the city at the Carlsbad City Council’s March 8 meeting, days after Measure A was defeated. After enduring a verbal waterboarding of criticism by seven speakers who asked him to apologize for his role in dividing the city, he concluded the meeting with a promise:

“If an apology is what it takes to bring us all back together I will say that 1,000 times. I realize there was a difference in this and I realize the passion for what you believe in. But right now I think the best thing for us is to come back together. That’s what separates Carlsbad from any other city in North County. It’s allowed us to go through a lot of different issues where there were differences. But at the end of the day we came back together and were willing to work together. And that would be my commitment to you.”

I guess he wasn’t ready to begin those 1,000 apologies just yet. But after someone yelled from the audience to remind him, he relented. “I apologize to you, Greg. Looking at you, I clearly apologize, if that’s what it takes to bring us back together, I apologize.”   [Read more…]

Carlsbad City Council “Very Unfamiliar” with Lagoon Mall Review Process

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Three days after the San Diego Registrar of Voters announced the defeat of Carlsbad’s Measure A, Mayor Matt Hall was interviewed on KUSI. When asked how he and the city Council would deal with the fallout over an issue that had been unanimously approved by the Council before the people said no and called for a public vote, here was his reply:

“The city council, our role, is to process projects. And obviously there’s more than one way to process a project. We’re very knowledgeable about the CEQA way of doing things (the California Environmental Quality Act). Mr. Caruso chose to use the 9212 Report, which the city is very unfamiliar with. So part of the difficulty was trying to work our way through a 9212 Report and get clear understanding. Most of the people I’ve talked to leading up to this, that was their biggest concern, that there was this sidestep of CEQA. And I think that’s one of the things we really need to look at. And I know, from my personal belief, that anybody coming forward that want to use a 9212 Report I would say, (long pause, nervous chuckle) not my idea…”
  [Read more…]

Billionaire Developer Pays Off County GOP for Backing Carlsbad’s Measure A

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Following Caruso Affiliated’s Money Trail

By Richard Riehl / The Riehl World

When I got an email a few days ago from an unrecognizable sender with the single word “Caruso” in the subject line, I was skeptical. Was this just another phishing expedition? But curiosity got the better of me. Opening it I found the unsigned message, “Caruso Acquisition LLC gave $50,000 to the San Diego County Republican Party on 12/31/15.” It was followed by a link to the California Secretary of State’s website. Checking it out, I found only one thing wrong with the anonymous message. The gift was actually made on December 30.

The timing of the donation struck me as odd. Rick Caruso had already invested $7 million in an attempt to build a shopping center next to Carlsbad’s Agua Hedionda Lagoon. Why the sudden urge to give big bucks to the Republican Party?   [Read more…]

Carlsbad Lagoon Foundation No Friend of Nature

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Backs Caruso Mall, Measure A

A billionaire L.A. developer came to town planning to transform one of Carlsbad’s three lagoons into a magnet for tourist dollars. After winning the approval of local officials, he encountered a group of protesters bent on preserving the lagoon the right way.

No, that’s not the story of Rick Caruso’s plan to build a shopping mall next to the Agua Hedionda Lagoon. It’s about another L.A. developer’s failed attempt to build an amusement park, Nemo’s Secret Harbor, surrounding the Batiquitos lagoon in 1972. The L.A. Times carried a retrospective story about the fiasco on March 31, 1985.

The size and scope of the 1972 project dwarfs Caruso’s. But the developer’s aim was the same, to make money off the site’s beauty while putting it at risk. There are, however, two important differences:   [Read more…]

 Consultants Agree on Inflated Lagoon Mall Benefits – Part 2

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Retail Demand and Revenue Overstated

By Ricard Riehl / The Riehl World 

The Westfield Corporation donated $75,000 to the opponents of Carlsbad’s Measure A, which, if passed, would enable an L.A. developer to build a mall near the city’s pristine Agua Hedionda Lagoon.

The developer, Rick Caruso, has spent $7 million for paid signature gatherers in a misleading initiative campaign, out-of-town marketing consultants to develop a flood of glossy mailers and TV ads, staffing of an information center at the lagoon, and transporting local residents to behold the splendor of his L.A. mall.

The group opposing the billionaire’s plan, Citizens for North County, has relied on an army of volunteers to gather referendum signatures, canvass neighborhoods, organize pop-up tents information meetings, use social media, put up handmade signs, and host fundraisers to pay for two mass mailings.   [Read more…]

No, Mayor Hall, What We See is Not What We’ll Get

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Carlsbad Braces for Special Election Vote on Lagoon Mall

By Richard Riehl / The Riehl World

As the February 23 special election approaches, Carlsbad voters may want to recall words spoken by Mayor Matt Hall and Councilmember Mark Packard at the November 17 meeting of the City Council.

After signatures were ratified on a successful citizens-led referendum, the Council could either rescind its decision to allow a billionaire LA developer to build a shopping mall on the shores of the city’s pristine Agua Hedionda Lagoon, put the issue up to voters in a special election, or put it on the ballot of the General Election.

The Council decided to spend $600 thousand on a special election. As on August 25, the vote was unanimous. The regular absence of split votes by this group on contentious issues suggests either unusually unified thinking or a careless observance of the Brown Act. If it’s the former, a disregard of constituent diversity of opinion is a matter for voters to think about in the next election. If it’s the latter, it’s time for someone on the inside to be a whistleblower.   [Read more…]

Carlsbad Report on Caruso’s Lagoon Mall: Close Enough for Government Work?

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By Richard Riehl/ The Riehl World

On February 23 the people of Carlsbad will vote on Measure A, an L.A. developer’s attempt to bypass normal city and state reviews, allowing him to build a thirteen-acre shopping center overlooking the Agua Hedionda lagoon.

The City council’s staff report claims to be an “impartial planning, policy, economic, and environmental analysis” of Rick Caruso’s lagoon mall plan. But I was reminded of a summer job I once had with the Washington State Highway Department, working to keep contractors honest by testing their highway asphalt samples.

I learned how politics trumped highway safety when my supervisor kept telling me to re-test failed samples until they passed. I guessed he didn’t want to bring bad news to his boss’s desk. So I stopped bringing it to his, following the advice of my fellow workers, the lab’s old timers, “Close enough for government work.”   [Read more…]

The Rise of the Little People

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A Carlsbad Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, in the land of pink-tiled roofs, the clueless King Hallmat of the Village-by-the-Sea was troubled as he sat on his throne. The Little People were at the castle gates, carrying torches and pitchforks, chanting, “Down with the king! Down with the king!” His subjects were angry because he brought to the village the slippery Sir Caresnot, the black knight of Tinsel Gridloc, the largest kingdom in the land, 1,000 furlongs to the north.

A stonemason by trade, the black knight was known for despoiling one-of-a-kind villages with identical temple squares honoring Plutus, the god of wealth. His grandest, The Grovel at Tinsel Gridloc, brought streams of carriage traffic from beyond what the eye could see.   [Read more…]

Public Prayer Challenges Carlsbad Council’s Credibility

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Carlsbad Leaders Hear from Referendum Winners

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we’re off to a good start,” said Carlsbad Mayor Matt Hall, after Councilmember Mark Packard’s opening prayer spurred murmurs from the audience, one member declaring, “Separation of church and state, Dr. Packard!” That led to Dr. Packard’s stern reproach from the dais, “Do not take offense when none is intended.”

The closing words of Packard’s prayer, “We pray for these things in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” were what stoked up the crowd. Mayor Hall, realizing his rosy greeting was premature, wisely called for a ten-minute break.

Twenty Carlsbad residents lined up to speak about the city council’s receipt of the report by the San Diego County Registrar of Voters of a sufficient number of signatures on the referendum to overturn the Carlsbad city council’s August 25 approval of the 85/15 Agua Hedionda South Shore Specific Plan for 85% Open Space and 15% Retail Initiative.   [Read more…]

L.A. Developer Awakens North County’s Sleeping Village by the Sea

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Lessons Learned by Rick Caruso, Elected Officials and Carlsbad Voters

By Richard Riehl / The Riehl World

Signatures have been validated on a referendum overturning Carlsbad’s city council approval of a shopping center on the shore of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon. It’s time to reflect on lessons learned from the developer’s failed attempt to bypass city voters, the normal review and approval process, and the California Environmental Quality Act.

When L.A. developer Rick Caruso approached city officials three years ago, they urged him to build community support for his plan. They must have assured him 48 acres of land adjacent to the pristine lagoon would be the perfect place for a shopping center.   [Read more…]

Carlsbad Referendum Signatures Stun Caruso, City Council Pals

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Strawberry Field Owner’s Campaign Donations Revealed

By Richard Riehl

It must have been quite a shock for L.A.’s Caruso Affiliated executives to see the stack of signed petitions delivered to the Carlsbad city clerk’s office last Thursday. The 9,000 signers of the referendum petition are calling for a public vote on the developer’s plan for a lagoon-view shopping center, as promised in the title of the initiative, Measure to be Submitted Directly to the Voters.

When the Carlsbad city Council unanimously approved his plan on August 25, Caruso had already spent nearly $3 million on signature gatherers and a blizzard of glossy, full-color mailers to persuade 20,000 Carlsbadians that his plan to build a shopping mall was all about saving the Strawberry Fields.

The day after the council voted, a grassroots group, Citizens for North County, announced its plan to launch a referendum drive. Caruso had to redouble his marketing campaign. But this time his mailers, accompanied by daily prime time TV ads, featured headshot photos of and quotes from all five city Council members, as well as the owner of the Strawberry Fields. Each repeated the lie that signing the referendum would destroy the Strawberry Fields, despite the promise of Prop D to preserve them, passed by voters in 2006. The Caruso mailer included a detachable, postage-paid card to return to the city clerk for signers of the referendum to have their names withdrawn.   [Read more…]

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