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It’s the summer doldrums, time for the quiet filing of annual midyear financial disclosures by members of the San Diego City Council. As usual, more than a few of the elected officials have shamelessly taken advantage of corporate generosity. Kevin Faulconer, for instance, was hosted at San Diego State University’s Monty Awards dinner to the tune of $175 on April 24 by U.S. Bank. BN Associates, a PR outfit, paid $150 so Faulconer could go to the San Diego County Taxpayers’ Golden Fleece awards dinner on May 20. BN’s address is the same as the Robinson Mews residence of Bob Nelson and Murray Olson; Nelson, a Jerry Sanders insider, chairs the City’s convention center corporation, and the couple are big fund-raisers for ex–Democratic city councilwoman Toni Atkins, now running for the assembly. Faulconer also attended the Downtown San Diego Partnership’s annual golf tournament, thanks to Poseidon Resources, the big desalination outfit, another Sanders favorite.

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On June 19, Faulconer’s fellow councilman Todd Gloria showed up at the $190 “Ritz in the Zoo” courtesy of Hecht, Solberg, Robinson, Goldberg, and Bagley, which does a lot of lobbying at city hall. Mission Bay–area business owner Robert Gleason put up $75 for a “victory fund brunch.”

Bridgepoint Education, the controversial online college operator, treated Councilman Tony Young to a $250 Tux ’N Tennies symphony benefit on June 26. Young also got a free $95 spot at the San Diego Association of Realtors annual golf tourney on June 19. The San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation paid $225 for Councilwoman Sherri Lightner to go to a “BIOCOM Dinner” on May 24. And Aaron Feldman, builder of the notorious Sunroad high-rise office tower near Montgomery Field that was chopped down to size by Mayor Jerry Sanders after a public outcry led by then–city attorney Mike Aguirre in 2007, picked up a $153 unidentified dinner tab for Councilman Ben Hueso on May 6 and paid $150 for another event, referred to as a “Chamber Dinner,” on February 3.

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