Don't take on Delaware North

Centerplate Corporation — which lost a lucrative deal to peddle food and booze at Qualcomm Stadium after the firm's CEO was caught on video kicking a puppy — is back in some more ethical soup, this time regarding its contract with the city-owned San Diego Convention Center Corporation.

In April 2015, Centerplate's Des Hauge was slapped with a $5000 fine by a Canadian judge for the infamous incident of August 2014 that resulted in Hauge's resignation. The five-month-old Doberman pup which Hauge was walking for a friend, managed to avoid injury.

Not so Centerplate, loser of a lucrative Qualcomm food-and-beverage contract during a heated 2015 procurement battle with rival vendor Delaware North, which had retained Jason Roe, campaign consultant to Mayor Kevin Faulconer, to lobby its deal through city hall.

"As you know, during the 90 minutes allotted to Centerplate for its presentation, not one member of the selection committee asked a single question regarding any one of the five different financial proposals put forth by Centerplate," wrote the firm’s Keith B.W. King to the city's Ronald Villa following the April 2015 award to Delaware North.

"Further troubling are the recent allegations raised about [Delaware North's] lobbyist and his apparent connection to the Mayor's office,” added King.

Now conflict-of-interest questions have arisen about Centerplate's ties to Elvin Lai, president of the Ocean Park Inn hotel in Pacific Beach, as well as chief financial officer and part-owner of Abnormal Company, Inc., a brewer, winemaker, and food provider. Faulconer named Lai to the board that runs the city-owned convention center downtown last October.

As it happens, the same year "Centerplate started using Abnormal Company, Inc. as one of its alcoholic beverage vendors for client/licensee events at the Convention Center," per a March 29 advice letter by state Fair Political Practices Commission senior counsel Zachary W. Norton to the center's general counsel Jennifer M. Lyon.

Norton’s letter describes a cozy history of Centerplate's arrangement to provide food and beverage services to the convention center. "The initial nine-year and eight-month term was extended for an additional five-year period, and the extended Contract term will terminate on June 30, 2021. The Contract allows for administrative memoranda to supplement the agreement."

As Centerplate's battle with Delaware North showed, the world of professional provisioning is rough and tumble, and players regularly test law and procedure in their efforts to influence local officials.

Norton's letter warns that "director Lai must recuse himself from any decisions involving contracts with Centerplate and refrain from providing any advice" to the convention center board, "regarding any such contracts."

"It is established that an official, who is also an officer, shareholder, and employee of a listed subcontractor, would clearly be 'financially interested' in the contract since the contract would result in earnings for the company of which the official is an officer and shareholder, as well as in the official's own salary as an employee of the company."

Other members of the center's board may continue to participate in Centerplate matters "so long as Director Lai discloses his interest in Abnormal, as a subcontractor of Centerplate, to the public agency, the interest is noted in the agency's official records, and Director Lai abstains from any participation in the making or approval of the contract."

Campaign disclosure filings show that since 2007, Lai and family members associated with the Ocean Park Inn have contributed a total of $38,368 to city campaign coffers, including $8050 to Faulconer's mayoral bids and $16,250 to the GOP Lincoln Club.

Abnormal CEO Matt DeLoach gave Republican councilman Chris Cate $550 in June of last year, and Centerplate's Convention Centers West executive vice president John Vingas came up with $1000 for Faulconer in 2014.