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San Diegans for Open Government challenges legality of assessment districts in a June 12 lawsuit
The SDOG lawsuit filed on 6/12/2013 is about business improvement districts; a previous SDOG suit concerning maintenance assessment (property-tax-based) districts was filed on 8/29/2012. This latest suit concerns the recent annual renewal of BID assessments that "*are collected by the City Treasurer at the same time and in the same manner as the City's business tax; approximately $1.4 million annually from 12,000 businesses.*" (From Item-S500, Council docket 4/23/2013, Supporting Materials, Request for Council Action). The recipients of this tax imposed on all business owners in "their" districts are 18 business associations, one for each of the 18 districts. These associations are nonprofit organizations that have solicited the City to form the districts and go through the formation process. A vote of all business owners in the proposed district (the boundaries of which are determined by the associations) determines whether a BID is formed. Big businesses are assessed more than little businesses. If businesses representing 50% of the total assessment dollars vote "yes" then all businesses must pay. The big businesses control the outcome. The City then imposes, collects, and distributes the money to the associations, which are typically controlled by boards consisting of the big business owners. Every registered business at any address within the defined district area must pay an extra tax that goes to the business association, at the time of renewal of their annual business license with the City.— June 14, 2013 11:08 a.m.
Suspected Spider-Man bandit arrested
If convicted they will be the Comic-Cons.— June 12, 2013 7:31 a.m.
FBI raid draws spotlight to San Diego donors and legislators
Sorry for denigrating the language and municipio de Compostela. Even though I haven't yet gone to Spain, I could have traveled there via Wikipedia. I'm just an ugly American! Or at least a stupid or lazy one. Maybe I'm electable to the Cali lege?— June 5, 2013 7:52 p.m.
FBI raid draws spotlight to San Diego donors and legislators
OK. Some say the name derives from the Latin campus stellae, for "field of the star"; I like that better than what the English near-homophone first brings to mind.— June 5, 2013 12:51 p.m.
FBI raid draws spotlight to San Diego donors and legislators
And with the handsome Lara (recieving award), Ben's longtime friend. Always smiling. For now. Caption from Diario Critica, Jan 2012: "*Los Asambleístas del Estado de California; Ricardo Lara, Roger Hernández y Ben Hueso son hijos de padres emigrantes; Ricardo Lara, nayarita originario de Carrillo Puerto, municipio de Compostela.*" Photo from the Internet, credit: Javier Guardado/Crítica. Sorry my Spanish isn't trustworth enough to translate, and anyway, I don't want to know what "*municipio de Compostela*" means. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jun/0…— June 5, 2013 10:13 a.m.
FBI raid draws spotlight to San Diego donors and legislators
Hueso loves the camera. Maybe not this time. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jun/0…— June 5, 2013 9:43 a.m.
Grantville Action Group loses at appeals court level
I feel sad for the Grantville property owners. They gave it a good try and worked tirelessly to obtain a fair solution. The legal decision hinged in part on their supposed failure to "exhaust" every administrative remedy, although the group spoke before the City Council and appealed to the County Board of Supervisors. Given the stumbling blocks the City and County can put in the way of citizens, I'd say the Grantville group did everything they could. I hope justice is done in some other fashion, as Peterson suggest may happen.— May 31, 2013 11:05 a.m.
Downtown San Diego Partnership to spend $110,000 of PBID funds on Director of Homeless Outreach
The DSDP's business plan is bigger than you might think. Since April 2, DSDP has held 18 "[town hall][1]" meetings, reaching out beyond downtown to expand their influence in communities from North County to South Bay. There's another one tonight in City Heights and five more to follow. Why is DSDP promoting itself all over the county?? Their website presents their "planning" vision as if DSDP is an interlocutor for the City, although I'm sure you wouldn't want an organization with this [board][2] planning your future. Nor is the presentation of the DSDP website as professional as an official government website. It is creepily amateurish, given the money they spend on staff. For example, on the Town Hall page, the opening paragraph reads > Over the next 40 years, the San Diego region is expected to grow exponentially. We’ll need to accommodate an additional 1.3 million residents, 400,000 housing units, and 500,000 jobs—and all of the basic services that come with a growing economy. To do this, we must focus on innovative solutions and an urban core that will allow us to accommodate this expected growth, and house and employ thousands of San Diegans. Because there are no more land tracks for which we can expand, we must go vertical. Our very own Downtown San Diego has the ability to do just that. Oddly, two other links on the Town Hall page open with the identical paragraph. Is creating a variety of propaganda all that hard for an organization whose entire board consists of people who have become wealthy creating propaganda? And *"no more land **tracks** for which we can expand*??? Assuming they mean **tracts** and moving on, "*we must go vertical*"!!! And then we are told that "*Our very own Downtown San Diego has the ability to do just that*." That doesn't make a lot of sense, given that they are buzzing about the county selling the vertical solution. So what are they doing in PB, OB, Point Loma, Rancho Bernardo, ... everywhere? You decide. [1]: http://www.downtownsandiego.org/our-downtown-visi… [2]: http://www.downtownsandiego.org/about-dsdp/board-…— May 29, 2013 3:02 p.m.
Downtown San Diego Partnership to spend $110,000 of PBID funds on Director of Homeless Outreach
It is laughable that DSDP picks and chooses among the illegal uses for the special assessment it collects. The board members seem to think that the more obvious and news-catchy issue of assessment money use on public bathrooms is a good illegal expenditure to avoid, but the dull issue of personnel and staff and salaries, no matter how illegal and beyond the mandate of the laws governing use of special assessments, is one that no one will fight or notice. The forgot about The Reader and dogged reporting by Mr. Hargrove. And hats off to Kathy Casey, for not giving up in the face of the powerful and rich downtown business interests.— May 29, 2013 9:07 a.m.
City accused of not releasing public documents, sued for violating public records act
It is wonderful that the city is being sued for noncompliance with the PRA law: Over the years that people in South Park and Golden Hill sued over the illegal assessment district formation, many were tooled around or ignored when they requested documents through the PRA. As much as I disrespected SCI for they way they made their money, by doing whatever illegal thing the San Diego Economic Development department heads and staff told them to do, I applaud them for this legal action. Thanks, Reader, for providing a copy of the suit filed. Very interesting stuff. Note the PRA requests for documents related to Golden Hill MAD and Community Development Block Grant funds. The city (Economic Development department) indeed violated Federal law by paying CDBG funds to lobbyist Mitch Berner to promote the GGH MAD. It was great when that illegality was reported to HUD and resulted in a much larger investigation and penalties. Note the discomfort of SCI with the unprofessional communication of Carmen Brock. Well, a lot of people involved in the GGH MAD suit have a LOT of unprofessional communiques from Carmen. Nothing new about that! She is really a terrible lawyer, completely out of her league with even the simplest of legalities. She is consistently wrong, insulting, and demeaning in all of her invective-filled communications and proceedings. She was the DCA in the Our Lady of Peace suit, too, another loser. One commenter in Reader wrote, about that, in part: *"how inept our City Attorney's office is, for which I was a firsthand witness when called down to meet with them only to find -- just a few weeks before trial -- that they were completely unprepared, befuddled and, frankly, uninspired. ...San Diego taxpayers should be outraged as this extraordinarily poor use of our money."* Maybe cutting the budget for the City Atty's office will affect DCA Brock. We can hope.— April 17, 2013 1:38 p.m.