Something’s Not Right At City Hall

“No one is responsible, nobody is to blame... Either all are guilty or none...”--Billy Childish

Politics continues to be, at best, strange in San Diego. In 2020 voters opted for Todd Gloria as Mayor over Barbara Bry. The choice between the two Democrats was easy from my point of view.

Gloria had done a good job in Sacramento and was remembered by many for his hopeful outlook during his tenure as interim mayor after Bob Filner went away. His minimum wage/paid time off advocacy while on the City Council seemed destined to be compromised by the downtown business types, and then they walked away from the table.

Bry’s limited experience as an elected official made evaluating her not-that-different Democratic-flavored campaign promises more difficult. While her overall voting record on matters before the city council wasn’t that different from Gloria’s, her actions at key junctures indicated a willingness to play nicer with Republicans. I’d cite her backing of Myrtle Cole as President of the Council over David Alvarez in 2016 as an example.

So here we are in 2022 and there are ominous clouds on the horizon. 

There can be no doubt that Mayor Gloria is in a serious competition with Supervisor Nathan Fletcher for most press releases announcing wonderful things (that may or may not be fluff).

On the other hand, former Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s legacy while in office should have been irrevocably stained by the disastrous deal for the 101 Ash Street office building. 

Since I know this is an “eyes glaze over” event when the details are laid out, I’ll just say that what should have been a good thing (consolidated the scattered offices of the city bureaucracy) has turned out to be a bad thing. 

There’s crimin’ in there somewhere, but it’s become apparent that the entire weight of the city’s legal team and the real estate interests involved is behind trying to bury this deal. It should be a no-brainer for a Democratic administration to throw the former top guy under the bus, but it hasn’t worked out that way. 

We (as in taxpayers) are out tens of millions of dollars, what we paid for is worthless as teats on a slab of bacon, and the main players are still…ugh…playin’.

Perhaps they’ve taken pity on California’s remaining potentially electable statewide Republican not bound by the crazies who’ve taken over the party. It’s not like Faulconer was strangling kittens or chasing skirts; he was at least superficially a congenial guy while in public.

Yet somehow I don’t think the politics version of little league baseball’s mercy rule is in play here.

There are lawsuits. There are investigations. There are regular bombshell details coming out in the press. The latest revelations, published at Voice of San Diego involves deposition testimony from former city real estate chief Cybele Thompson. 

She resigned in 2020. as the deal became public knowledge, hoping to avoid being the fall guy in all this. On her way out the door, she cc’d hundreds of documents to herself, as insurance against the long arm of the law coming for her some day.

While the contents of the documents include some sensational stuff, (which, in the interests of the no-eyes-glazed-over-rule, I’ll refer you to the VOSD story) the really bad news for the city was that they’d somehow failed to produce some of those documents in discovery for the people suing on behalf of taxpayers. That’s a no-no, known to make judges more amenable to requests from the overlooked party..

This “oversight” brings the city’s legal beagles into focus, who’ve already cast suspicion on themselves and the current administration by way of political zigs and zags over the past two years.

Bottom line: Mayor Todd Gloria and City Attorney certainly seem to have some involvement in this mess that they wish to keep people from knowing about.

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Then there’s the latest real estate grand bargain for the city involving what’s popularly known as tailgate park. Last week, City Council members voted 8-1 to sell the site for $35.1 million to Tishman Speyer and Ascendant Capital Partners. 

There is a 189-page development agreement meant to ensure the buyer redevelops the site in a timely fashion as proposed. Included are 1,800 residential units with no less than 270 residential units reserved for low- and middle-income families.

Eh, not all bad, though housing advocates would like to see more affordable units. There’s a proposed park, along with all the whistles and bells usually promised in such deals.

But… there’s a lawsuit from Cory Briggs on the horizon. This deal would have run afoul of the same state regulations about offering redevelopment that sank the Midway District/Sports Arena grand plan, except it is alleged that some documents were backdated. That’s the “Keep It Simple, Stupid” version, having the potential to leave San Diego with the existing field of asphalt for years to come. Stay tuned. This could be a nothingburger… or not. 

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Finally, there’s the aforementioned Midway/Sport Arena opportunity to turn blight into beauty. Several developers bid on the project, and one was selected. And then, the seller (aka the city) couldn’t pull off the deal.

The Faulconer administration should get the blame for an agreed upon deal that fell apart in 2018, thanks to legal “oversights.” The land, by law, should have been offered up first to developers of affordable housing. 

Had the City not rushed the process, it’s likely that no group would have been able to get enough funding to redevelop the 48 acres of mostly very sad looking strip malls. 

In order to make the promised redevelopment plan pencil out financially it was (and is) necessary to build “up” higher than the coastal 30 foot limitation allowed. No problem. A handy-dandy ballot measure was put together with support from some adjacent property owners. And it passed. 

But it didn’t pass legal muster, according to Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal. It seemed as though the 2018 community plan update’s environmental impact assessment, used as the legal basis Measure E, wasn’t good enough. Although Mayor Gloria promised to “fight like hell” to appeal the ruling, a new and environmentally improved measure will be on the fall ballot.

Since the redevelopment deal fell through, the city was obligated to reopen bidding for the project. I’ve been told that it was expected that there would be no serious bids, and the project could then be awarded to the original builder, Toll Bros. and partners, who would then update their first round of bidding, aka the Midway+ plan.  

The deal must have looked sweeter this time out, because no less than five redevelopment teams made the first cut. 

City staff (read Mayor’s office) wanted the City Council to shortlist three proposals for further evaluation. A council committee on land use, said, ugh, no, we should look at all five.  

If the plans are all equal, due diligence is a great idea. All five groups have lined up powerful allies, including the blessings of the San Diego and Imperial County Labor Council.

Analyzing the finances of the plans will be time consuming, not to mention sorting out what each developer thinks affordable housing is. I don’t want to see a wall of 60 square foot pods being counted over actual homes where families could live.

I’ll come back to this when I’m able. There certainly is the opportunity for some hinky business with the Midway/Sports Arena development. 

Given the City’s recent performance, the Council has the opportunity to do the right thing. It would go a long way toward building citizen confidence in what could be described as a comedy of errors. 

I doubt the people searching for a place to live a couple of years from now in our ongoing housing shortage will be laughing, though.

Email me at: WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com