Nathan Fletcher's heading south

Qualcomm has amended its lobbyist disclosure statement to add another task of influence to its already considerable agenda at San Diego’s city hall. According to the document, filed September 26, the corporate giant has dispatched its agents to “monitor city budget”; “monitor implementation of San Diego water reduction ordinance”; “monitor incentives for corporate relocation and expansion”; “monitor linkage fees”; and “support Qualcomm campus expansion.” The filing also reveals that two top executives of the prosperous cell-phone-chip maker, CEO Paul Jacobs and government affairs chief William Bold, have been busy fundraising for the company’s Nathan Fletcher, the former Republican assemblyman turned Democrat now running for mayor.

Whether by coincidence or not, Fletcher has announced that as mayor he would “explore opportunities to establish new joint economic development incentives and infrastructure financing mechanisms,” adding, “my administration will actively recruit innovation economy firms to manufacture their products in Otay Mesa.” And then this past Friday, October 4, a bevy of friends and family members connected to an outfit called Paragon Real Estate Investments dumped a bunch of cash into Fletcher’s campaign, according to a city filing. $1000 donors included Ricardo, Roberto, Daniela, Sonya, and Karen Jinich, all of La Jolla, and Daniel Berkus of Villa Park, California. Paragon’s website says that its chairman, Sergio Jinich, who also gave $1000, is a graduate of the National University of Mexico and, among other roles, has “served as President of the Mexican Chamber of the Construction Industry for two years, an entity that groups all the construction firms in Mexico and acts as the industry’s liaison to the government.” Regarding Roberto Jinich, the site says “During the mid 1990’s Roberto served as CEO for the Mexican construction company, La Nacional, where he was responsible for day-to-day operations, business development and strategic planning. La Nacional had annual sales of over $100 million during that period. In 1998, Roberto moved from Mexico City to San Diego and started Paragon.”

According to Paragon’s website, the Jinich family is currently busy on a big Otay Mesa development project with Shamrock Holdings, Inc., a closely held family enterprise founded by Roy E. Disney, the late nephew of Walt. “In partnership with Paragon, Shamrock Holdings is investing in the development of a 162 parcel of industrially zoned raw land directly adjacent to the US-Mexican border, in an unincorporated portion of San Diego County, near East Otay Mesa. During the next 3 years, the joint venture is expected to complete the entitlement process, obtaining a tentative tract map that will subdivide the property for industrial development.”