Busted

San Diego — Ex-San Diego city councilwoman Valerie Stallings, forced to resign in January after admitting her failure to report a raft of gifts from Padres owner John Moores, has filed her leaving-office financial-disclosure statement as required by state law. According to the statement, filed on January 23, the day of her guilty plea, Stallings sold between $2000 and $10,000 worth of stock in Neon Systems, the Moores-controlled company in which she first invested almost two years ago, in March 1999. It was the revelation that Stallings had been led to Neon and received special treatment from Moores -- who was seeking subsidies from city taxpayers for the downtown ballpark -- that set off the federal grand jury investigation leading to her downfall. In her disclosure, Stallings reports getting a telephone answering machine from Moores sometime "in or about 1999 or 2000," which she valued at $53.86. No other Moores-related gifts are listed. Nor does the statement mention any form of outside income. The ex-councilwoman does list a rental house on Frankfort Street said to be worth between $100,000 and $1 million and a loan on the residence from World Savings in an amount greater than $100,000. But she does not disclose the amount of rent she collected. Other gifts listed as having been received by Stallings include $75 worth of tickets from gay activist Nicole Ramirez-Murray (listed on the form as Murray-Ramirez) to a tribute to ex-mayor Maureen O'Connor aide Ben Dillingham; $167 in meals at tony La Jolla eateries Roppongi, George's at the Cove, and La Valencia from developer Barry McComic; a hundred dollars' worth of tickets from businesswoman Lucy Goldman to an event at the Museum of Photographic Art honoring banker Murray Galinson; and $170 in "inaugural gala dinner" tickets from the same museum.

Brought to you by... A candidate for the Sixth District seat of Valerie Stallings has been advertising his political exploits courtesy of San Diego County's official website. Steve Danon, chief of staff to supervisor Ron Roberts, is one of 11 candidates who have filed for the special election next month. "Nineteen ninety-eight was an active and successful year for Steve," according a Danon bio found on the county's site last week. "He took a leave of absence from his chief of staff duties to work with Campaign Strategies, Inc. where he successfully won both campaigns he consulted on: No on Proposition B (Rural Heritage Initiative) and Jerry Jessop for Judge. In addition to these two campaigns, Steve successfully managed Congressman Bilbray's and Mayor Susan Golding's 1996 campaigns. Mayor Golding won with the largest winning percentage in the history of San Diego (78.4 percent). Steve was part of the management team that won Bilbray's '94 and Golding's '92 campaign." Meanwhile, Peter Navarro, also a candidate in the race, has been asking questions about the mysterious deal between the Padres and the Union-Tribune to put those giant U-T billboards on the back of the "Tri-Vision" scoreboards at Qualcomm Stadium. Under a year-old agreement quietly rushed through the city council, the Padres can sell the space and keep the money, but no other terms have ever been revealed. In a memo to San Diego city manager Mike Uberuaga released to the media, Navarro asks, "How much are the Padres charging the Union-Tribune on a monthly basis for this signage? Did former City Manager Jack McGrory lobby your office for permission to put up this signage? Does the Union-Tribune hold any equity position in the Padres or own property in the ballpark zone?"

Moores money The ballpark isn't the only project keeping Padres owner John Moores busy. According to documents filed with the county recorder on January 3 of this year, a limited-liability company related to the venture-capital mogul spent $10.4 million on a 15-acre chunk of empty residential land near Brown Field on Otay Mesa. JMIR-Otay Multifamily, LLC financed the deal with a $6.65 million loan from San Diego National Bank. Last August, the same lender provided $17 million to finance the $24.3 million purchase by Moores of San Diego Gas & Electric's eight blocks in the putative downtown ballpark district.

Contributor: Matt Potter