John Davies, Quintessential Rainmaker

A big fan of high-tech policing, San Diego sheriff Bill Gore is in the market for an elaborate, new, state-of-the-art, Star Wars–style computer and video console system for his watch commanders. According to a recent request for quotation on the county’s bid site, “The sheriff’s watch commanders are required to manage multiple LCD/CRT monitors, plus additional ancillary rack mount electronics. These consoles are utilized 24 hours per day/ 7 days per week by many different employees, with many different physical sizes and needs.

“It must be recognized that this user environment will receive at least five times the use of typical office furniture each year. The console system shall be specifically designed and engineered for emergency communication centers and mission critical environments…the console system shall be a fully welded design using a minimum of 14-gauge and 16-gauge, cold rolled steel, finished with a uniform application of epoxy powder-coated paint…‘cubicle’ type walls shall be deemed unacceptable.”…The death of downtown Republican superlobbyist John Davies of pancreatic cancer in May may deal a blow to the lobbying operations of the law and lobbying firm where he last worked, Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis. A quintessential rainmaker, Davies was always appreciated for many favors he’d done over the years for everyone from San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders to the hundreds of sitting judges he helped appoint when he was judicial appointments secretary for GOP governor Pete Wilson to county supervisor Ron Roberts, whose first city council campaign Davies engineered.

According to Allen Matkins’s most recent lobbying disclosure filing in May, during the first quarter of this year the company booked $23,000 from Westfield Corporation for helping to restructure the company’s Horton Plaza deal with the City’s Redevelopment Agency. (When Davies chaired Pete Wilson’s Planning Commission, he expedited the mall for developer Ernie Hahn.) Extended Stay Hotels of Signal Hills paid the firm $4000 to retrieve compensation it says was owed by the City due to a flooding incident. (Davies favored up-zoning Mission Valley and channelizing the San Diego River to make way for more development.) And Kilroy Realty forked over $33,000 to influence a “Carmel Valley mixed-use project entitlement.”