Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Downtown San Diego Partnership threatened with lawsuit if it does not provide accounting of assessment district funds

San Diegans for Open Government demands any money spent on illegal activities is refunded to residents

Kris Michell, CEO of the Downtown San Diego Partnership, is driven to make downtown a center of innovation and creativity, a well-oiled machine that runs San Diego's economy.

She may also be driving the nonprofit straight to court, to defend the Downtown Partnership's use of tax assessments paid into the Property and Business Improvement District (PBID) by property owners in five downtown neighborhoods.

During the past four years, Michell has steered money from the local assessment district to pay high-priced consultants, for parking-meter-like donation stations for the homeless, to help pay for the nonprofit's new business plan, website, and logo, and by hiring a new homeless director with a salary of $110,000-a-year.

Those expenditures are now being questioned by local attorney Cory Briggs.

Briggs is threatening the CEO and the partnership with a lawsuit if the nonprofit does not provide accurate accounting of all expenditures and return any cash spent on non-permitted items not included in the operating agreement with the city or listed in state or local laws.

"On behalf of my client, San Diegans for Open Government, I am writing to inform you of my client’s intent to bring a lawsuit against the Downtown San Diego Partnership, Inc., for improper expenditures of taxpayer funds collected by the City of San Diego for the Downtown Property and Business Improvement District (“PBID”) and for a complete accounting of all expenditures of PBID funds. While your goals are laudable, your financial practices are illegal."

According to the maintenance assessment district law, approved PBID activities include security services, promotion of any public events or concerts in public areas of downtown, as well as street and sidewalk cleaning, graffiti and trash removal, and construction of parking facilities, pedestrian shelters, and public restrooms.

Nowhere in the law does it mention homeless services, business plans, or logos for the nonprofit organization that manages the district.

"By way of example and not limitation: It has been reported that the Partnership paid from PBID funds $130,000.00 to Marco Li Mandri and nearly $19,000.00 to Progressive Urban Management for consulting services, and more recently that PBID funds are being used for homeless-related services. However, none of those services is authorized by the Partnership’s operating agreement with the City or, more importantly, by the PBID’s governing legal documents. My client suspects that there may be other unauthorized expenditures of PBID funds."

Michell and the Downtown Partnership have until August 9 to respond. If no response is received, a lawsuit will be filed.

Having to defend any lawsuit will be a heavy burden for the nonprofit to bear. According to their own accounting, donations to the Partnership account for a small fraction of the organization's total revenues. Last year, the Downtown Partnership raised $927,250 in donations, whereas the PBID brought in $5.8 million

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jul/24/50007/

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Nation’s sexy soldiers stage protest at Pendleton in wake of change in Marine uniform policy

Semper WHY?

Kris Michell, CEO of the Downtown San Diego Partnership, is driven to make downtown a center of innovation and creativity, a well-oiled machine that runs San Diego's economy.

She may also be driving the nonprofit straight to court, to defend the Downtown Partnership's use of tax assessments paid into the Property and Business Improvement District (PBID) by property owners in five downtown neighborhoods.

During the past four years, Michell has steered money from the local assessment district to pay high-priced consultants, for parking-meter-like donation stations for the homeless, to help pay for the nonprofit's new business plan, website, and logo, and by hiring a new homeless director with a salary of $110,000-a-year.

Those expenditures are now being questioned by local attorney Cory Briggs.

Briggs is threatening the CEO and the partnership with a lawsuit if the nonprofit does not provide accurate accounting of all expenditures and return any cash spent on non-permitted items not included in the operating agreement with the city or listed in state or local laws.

"On behalf of my client, San Diegans for Open Government, I am writing to inform you of my client’s intent to bring a lawsuit against the Downtown San Diego Partnership, Inc., for improper expenditures of taxpayer funds collected by the City of San Diego for the Downtown Property and Business Improvement District (“PBID”) and for a complete accounting of all expenditures of PBID funds. While your goals are laudable, your financial practices are illegal."

According to the maintenance assessment district law, approved PBID activities include security services, promotion of any public events or concerts in public areas of downtown, as well as street and sidewalk cleaning, graffiti and trash removal, and construction of parking facilities, pedestrian shelters, and public restrooms.

Nowhere in the law does it mention homeless services, business plans, or logos for the nonprofit organization that manages the district.

"By way of example and not limitation: It has been reported that the Partnership paid from PBID funds $130,000.00 to Marco Li Mandri and nearly $19,000.00 to Progressive Urban Management for consulting services, and more recently that PBID funds are being used for homeless-related services. However, none of those services is authorized by the Partnership’s operating agreement with the City or, more importantly, by the PBID’s governing legal documents. My client suspects that there may be other unauthorized expenditures of PBID funds."

Michell and the Downtown Partnership have until August 9 to respond. If no response is received, a lawsuit will be filed.

Having to defend any lawsuit will be a heavy burden for the nonprofit to bear. According to their own accounting, donations to the Partnership account for a small fraction of the organization's total revenues. Last year, the Downtown Partnership raised $927,250 in donations, whereas the PBID brought in $5.8 million

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jul/24/50007/

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.