Annual jackpot will go to mayor Kevin Faulconer

As is traditional, San Diego taxpayers will be anteing up mightily in the coming year for fees paid to city councilmembers who sit through the board meetings of a bevy of local government agencies.

The most sizable estimated annual jackpot, $3600, will go to mayor Kevin Faulconer if he manages to make each of the board meetings of the San Diego Association of Governments. Should the mayor fail to attend, his first backup, city councilwoman Lorie Zapf, or his second backup, fellow Republican councilman Chris Cate, are available to step in to reap the reward of $150 for attending each meeting. The city’s other compensated position on the Sandag board is set to be occupied by councilwoman Myrtle Cole, with first and second backups by fellow Democrats Barbara Bry and Georgette Gomez, respectively.

Then there is a spot on Sandag’s Borders committee, which pays $100 per meeting, to be occupied by council Democrat David Alvarez, with the GOP’s Mark Kersey serving as backup. Sandag’s public safety committee seat, also worth $100 a meeting, will be filled by Democrat Chris Ward, whose alternate is Zapf. A raft of other lucrative board positions at Sandag and elsewhere, including the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System and the San Dieguito River Valley Regional Open Space Joint Powers Authority, are being similarly distributed among San Diego elected officials, per a December 11 list of proposed appointments posted online by the city clerk.