Corporations with business at city hall

Republican Chris Cate, who paid for a hundred free military Christmas trees last year with a quick $5000 from Walmart, isn’t the only member of the San Diego City Council whose causes are benefiting from behests by corporations with business at city hall.

John Kilroy and Phillip Tate of the Kilroy Realty Company of Los Angeles, whose latest proposal is a full-block office complex in Little Italy, coughed up a cool $103,000 on December 30 for a “state-of-the-art technology center for the new San Ysidro Library,” per a January 23 disclosure by council Democrat David Alvarez.

Meantime, political insiders say Cate has so far been raking in slightly fewer than expected campaign dollars for his reelection bid this year, ending 2017 with $191,091 of cash in the bank after raising a total of $329,975 during the previous 12 months. Major contributor groups included employees of Sempra Energy and its subsidiary SDG&E with $3848, and Alexandria Real Estate at $2473, campaign filings show. Kilroy Realty executives kicked in $2700, and lobbyists at Southwest Strategies, who worked for Kilroy foe Donahue Schriber in opposing Kilroy’s controversial One Paseo mall, came up with $2200.