Photograph by Chris Woo

Last year, SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment came up with a free ticket worth $80 for Ninth District council man and council president Sean Elo-Rivera to attend a SeaWorld reception.

Vegas lawyer and a super gift giver

SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, currently welshing on paying $10 million in back rent to the city, last year came up with a free ticket worth $80 for Ninth District council man and council president Sean Elo-Rivera to attend a SeaWorld reception.

Raul Campillo: Viva Las Vegas super lawyers!

Even so, “SeaWorld will not be let off the hook,” Jay Goldstone, the city’s acting Chief Operating Officer, told the Union-Tribune last week regarding the company’s chronic bad debtor status. After months of non-payment, the city told SeaWorld in September that its lease was officially in default, per the paper’s account. In addition to Elo-Rivera, other members of the San Diego council took advantage of their official positions to chow down and enjoy a host of entertainment events, as revealed by their recently filed Statements of Economic Interest, required to be filed each March.

At the top of the 2021 recipient list was Raul Campillo of District Seven. He got gifts from a raft of donors, including a ticket worth $107 to “An Officer and A Gentleman” on October 20 from Las Vegas lawyer D. Lee Roberts, Jr. “In 2013 and again in 2018, Lee was voted Las Vegas’ ‘Lawyer of the Year’ for Construction Litigation by Best Lawyer, recognition from his peers as the top construction litigator in Las Vegas,” says his online profile. “He is also recognized as a Best Lawyer in Commercial Litigation and a ‘Super Lawyer’ – first in Georgia and now in Nevada and the Mountain States.” Additionally, Campillo got into the 2021 Globe Gala for free on September 25, thanks to two admissions worth $300 comped by the Old Globe itself. On September 26, the La Jolla Playhouse tossed in two free tickets, also worth $300, to see The Garden on opening night. Further, “Two meals at Holiday Dinner at the Clay Residence” on December 13 worth $133 were given to Campillo by longtime city hall lobbyists Ben and Nicky Clay.

Meanwhile, the Third District’s Steve Whitburn got an $84 admission to a Padres game on September 24 from UCSD. (The tax-financed public university’s UCSD Health subsidiary is an official sponsor of the team, paying more than a million dollars a year, as reported here in April 2017.) Whitburn attended the Hillcrest Business Association’s 100th-anniversary celebration on October 12, thanks to a $70 ticket from cell phone giant AT&T. District Two representative Jennifer Campbell got a jersey and white tee valued at $125 from the San Diego Loyal Soccer Club and a $175 access to an LGBTQ Victory Brunch on October 17 from state senate Democratic chief Toni Atkins. And District Eight councilwoman Vivian Moreno attended two free dinner events hosted by the San Diego Building Industry Association on August 14 and October 28, worth $262.

UCSD’s costly meh moment

What’s in a name change? A lot, per higher-ups at UCSD who have just adopted new designations for a formerly prosaic org chart. “Our four existing academic divisions will be retitled as the School of Arts and Humanities, School of Biological Sciences, School of Physical Sciences, and School of Social Sciences,” says a March 30 announcement by UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla.

What’s in a name change? Pradeep Khosla is hoping it’s clarity.

“This change will streamline and better organize the campus structure, providing clarity for prospective students, employers, donors, funding agencies, and competitors.” So, what’s the difference? Explains the note: “No curricular, organizational, programmatic or financial changes will be made. The change is in name only, as these four existing divisions are well-established major discipline-based academic units. This change should also make manifest the intellectual parity among schools on our campus, and provide an equalizing framework that benefits our university as a whole.”

No cost is given for the big switch, but the memo does indicate that the university’s small army of public affairs people will be busy in days to come. “This change officially goes into effect July 1, 2022, however we encourage the campus community to start transitioning over to these new names in communications now. Campus communications leadership will be providing revised branding materials and campus CMS templates to the renamed schools in the coming months and additional communications will be sent regarding these materials and their availability dates in spring quarter.”

AMR’s Medicare fraud

A Connecticut subsidiary of American Medical Response, the longtime city of San Diego ambulance contractor that finally lost the gig last year to Denmark-based Falck, is in hot water with the Feds. AMR of Connecticut has agreed to fork over $601,759 to the federal government “to resolve allegations it submitted improper claims to Medicare and Medicaid for ambulance services.” So says a March 29 Justice Department news release. “AMR also entered into a consent agreement the with the Connecticut Department of Public Health in which they agreed to cease and desist the prohibited conduct and to pay a $25,000 civil penalty to the State of Connecticut.” AMR’s San Diego successor Falck has encountered local criticism regarding a lack of ambulances and staff shortages, but says it’s been doing better of late.

— Matt Potter (@sdmattpotter)

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