Nathan Fletcher uses Trump as punching bag

San Diego police ranks grow

Urbn Leaf’s CannaCruiser “is our bus program that provides daily transportation to the dispensary to help alleviate traffic congestion and parking needs, to provide ADA transportation for seniors & special needs patients, and to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the business.”

President Nathan

County supervisor Nathan Fletcher continues to leverage the covid-19 crisis to benefit his campaign fundraising for a 2022 reelection bid. “Nathan’s campaign has been building momentum every day this year, we cannot let up in increasing our foundational support, which allows us to reach and influence even more potential voters and help us ensure a strong turnout in San Diego county,” says an email targeting potential donors. The San Diego Democrat is throwing in some presidential politics for good measure. “While most San Diegans are banding together, the forces of division — from Donald Trump to his supporters stoking unrest — are using this crisis to tear us apart,” says the solicitation’s landing page “Now those same forces are targeting San Diego — and they’re targeting us.”

Nathan Fletcher flashes the grin of a man unaffected by the covid restrictions he insists the rest of us must endure.

County disclosure records show that the fourth district supervisor’s 2022 fund hauled in $39,687 during the first six months of the year, making expenditures of $9932, and leaving total cash on hand, including 2019 contributions, of $90,926 as of June 30. “I won’t allow a reckless reopening to risk San Diegans’ safety. I’m not backing down. I’m going to stay the course and continue San Diego County’s all-hands-on-deck effort to slow the spread and recover from this crisis,” says a statement on his campaign website. As noted here in July, a separate committee ostensibly backing Fletcher’s reelection to the Democrats’ county central committee earlier this year transferred $10,000 to the California Democratic Party in May and $5000 to the San Diego County Democratic Party in July... Proponents of abolishing the thirty-foot height limit in San Diego’s Midway District are beginning to donate to the campaign for the November ballot measure. On August 11, Helmut Kiffman, proprietor of Kiffman Properties, came up with $10,000 for a campaign committee calling itself San Diegans for Midway Revitalization. Ex-port commissioner and Republican insider Steve Cushman gave $1000 the day before.

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Cop count

While the San Diego city council was debating whether to defund police this summer — and then voting 8-1 to hike the budget by $27 million — a few cops were voting with their feet. Personnel numbers unearthed from city hall under the California Public Records Act by the Boston-based MuckRock.com transparency non-profit portray a slow rise in police ranks. The number of sworn officers in San Diego stood at 1891 in May 2020, compared to a total officer count of 1828 the year before. Resignations, excluding retirements, saw slight gains, from eight in May 2019 through July of that year to six during the same period in 2020, per heavily redacted documents released by the city in August that offer no other detail.

Will Senn is elated over how lucrative it is to sell marijuana.

Cruising for pot

UL Holdings, Inc., of San Diego, donated $20,000 on August 14 to Citizens for Public Safety and Safe Access, a pro-cannabis political action committee. “Will Senn is the Founder of Urbn Leaf and one of the cannabis industry’s most prolific entrepreneurs,” according to its 2019 application for a Pasadena pot license. “Over the past 10 years, he has successfully built eight early-stage medical cannabis businesses, and his focus project Urbn Leaf is regarded as one of the most successful cannabis retail brands in California.”

The document adds that “CannaCruiser is our bus program that provides daily transportation to the dispensary to help alleviate traffic congestion and parking needs, to provide ADA transportation for seniors & special needs patients, and to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the business.”

Last month Urbn Leaf sued cannabis company NuVeda LLC “seeking the return of $5 million it paid for an ownership stake in a deal that hit snags when Nevada regulators suspended approvals,” according to an August 17 report by Bloomberg Law... State senate Democrat Ben Hueso’s campaign for San Diego county supervisor for the First District picked up $5000 from beverage giant PepsiCo, Inc. of Purchase, New York, on August 21, per a disclosure filing the same day with the California secretary of state’s office... the Building Industry Association of San Diego County PAC kicked in $15,000 on the same day to a committee calling itself the Santee General Plan Committee - No on N, battling against a ballot measure to require voter approval of development “that would increase residential density or intensify land use over that currently permitted by the General Plan.”... The San Diego County Electrical Contractors PAC came up with $7000 on August 12 in an independent expenditure on behalf of Republican ex-state Senator Joel Anderson’s bid for the board of supervisors.

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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