Johnny Brown’s out

Downtown Johnny Brown’s, whose location across the San Diego Concourse from City Hall made it a dingy watering hole for San Diego city hall politicos, folded earlier this year. Now the site is up for lease by the city, which appears to want to class up the joint. Primary use of the property, says an online solicitation, “shall be limited to the operation and maintenance of a destination restaurant or café.”

The city is seeking a piece of the action from a variety of sources, including 7 percent of the booze handle, 30 percent of all lottery-ticket revenue, and half of “all revenue received from any wireless telecommunication equipment installed and operated from the Property.”

Wealthy Democrat Pamela Morgan has kicked in $1050 to the campaign fund of Lori Saldaña, the onetime Democratic assemblywoman who left the party to become an independent, and is now running for San Diego mayor. Morgan, a Rancho Santa Fe denizen, made her contribution on May 20, according to city disclosure filings.

She made headlines back in October 2010 when the county agreed to pay her and two friends $1.2 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit arising from a melee at a June 2009 Cardiff fundraiser for then-congressional candidate Francine Busby. The trio alleged that sheriff’s deputies, called to the scene over a noise complaint, had roughed them up, used pepper spray, and arrested Morgan, though no charges were filed.