Jerry Sanders’s playhouse

It has to be tough being a lobbyist for the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce these days. What with taking down the Barrio Logan Community Plan, fighting the minimum wage demanded by labor unions, and rounding up tax money to build expanded border crossings and trains into Mexico, policy analyst Alisa Reinhardt has all she can do just to keep track of what activities need to be legally disclosed to the public. “I filed amendments to our registration 4 times to add these municipal decisions,” says the chamber’s latest filing, signed by Reinhardt on June 6, “but on January 25, 2014, I accidentally amended the 2013 registration instead of the 2014 registration. “This was an accident on my part, as this is my first time doing our lobbying disclosures. This is my attempt to rectify that mistake, and all municipal decisions listed here are those listed on the previously (though incorrectly filed) amendments, with nothing new. I spoke with Steve Ross and Denise Jenkins about this, and Denise advised me to include this explanation. I am truly sorry for this mistake.” Ross and Jenkins work for the city.

Among other matters on the chamber’s wish list, besides beating up on the barrio: the Otay Mesa Community Plan update, the Metro Airpark Project at city-owned Brown Field, along with an unspecified “Infrastructure Initiative.”

Meanwhile, chamber chief executive and GOP ex-mayor Jerry Sanders has been spreading the political wealth to reinforce his influence-peddling clout, personally handing out $1000 to the campaign of mayor Kevin Faulconer and $550 to councilwoman Lorie Zapf, who won her June reelection race in Faulconer’s old district. Sanders also kicked in $1000 to a political action committee run by the Downtown Partnership, an allied lobbying group. The ex-mayor’s money was in addition to the political cash invested by the chamber’s own PAC, which through May 17 had raised $215,510 and had spent $96,915, $30,000 each for Zapf and lobbyist Chris Cate, running in Zapf’s old district, and $20,000 against the Barrio Logan plan.