A mugshot is what they seek

So, your reading of the AG's website is that SDOG was not a registered charitable trust until 2014 and therefore did not need to file RFFs until then and how that five-year suspension might affect SDOG's standing in court during that time is a matter for a judge. You are right, you are not trying to help Cory.
— June 2, 2015 4:47 p.m.

A mugshot is what they seek

Dorian, I have a question. The AG's letter dated March 27, 2014 states that SDOG was operating as an "unregistered entity" during the years 2008 to 2012. Did the April 2014 filing of five RFF-1s retrospectively change this status to a "registered entity" for those years or merely clear its delinquent status? You seem to be telling Brad that SDOG did not need to file an RFF-1 during those years because it was not yet a registered charitable trust, that the filings were merely in response to the AG making her "final determination" in 2014 that it was. I believe you are trying to help out Cory here. But your position vis-à-vis Brad on this would constitute an admission that SDOG was an "unregistered entity" during years when it was filing lawsuits. The status of SDOG before the courts is at the heart of this whole affair. Your position would deny SDOG status. Are you sure that is what you want? It seems to me that SDOG would be better off fessing up that it failed to file RFF-1s for those five years hoping that being merely delinquent is better than being an "unregistered entity". Can an unregistered entity have status in filing a lawsuit? You see the problem.
— June 2, 2015 2:42 p.m.

Banks paid solons so they can gamble with our money

Don, as I understand it, derivative counterparties do not make margin calls nor value their exposure other than the face value of the derivative. As it is mostly banks, using depositor money, who both purchase and act as counterparties in derivatives for each other, there seems to be no brake on their trading, as is provided by margin calls in ordinary trading. Is there even a broker-lender account involved? If not there seems to be no limit on how big the derivative bubble could become.
— December 18, 2014 4:08 p.m.

Unconventional logic

At the risk of sounding as if I am in favor of spending scarce public money on unnecessary and uneconomical convention space or on a football stadium, which I am not, I wonder if the noncontiguous boosters have thought of building a tunnel. That would make lots of places contiguous provided the mini train ride was not too long. I hope I am not adding fuel to the flames of money-wasting boondoggles but I thought I would throw it out there. Hopefully they have already discarded it as too expensive and impractical. But it may be fun to explore. Perhaps it would "out" the hidden seismic genie. Wouldn't it be nice if they explored the idea only to discard it because their studies found that downtown is honeycombed with seismic faults. Which it is!
— August 12, 2014 10:49 a.m.

Death of a thousand cuts

The emails Goldsmith is hiding are his (ill-advised) conspiratorial leaks (probably concerning the Tom Story/Sunroad setup) to U-T’s Trent Seibert and Ricky Young in the first half of 2013. It was to protect himself against the legal consequences of leaking such confidential information about his client (Filner) to selective members of the media using his private email account that he MUST defeat Brigg’s lawsuit. It was fear that Donna Frye’s CalAware ballot measure might be helpful in Brigg’s case that Goldsmith put his best people like Kathy Bradley on the job of killing it. They succeeded on that but may not be so lucky with Briggs. Both Goldsmith and Briggs know that leaking client-privileged information about a client, in this case the City’s Mayor, Bob Filner, puts Goldsmith in revocation of license territory. Briggs may be many things but he is one excellent tactician. He knows that offering to settle a case and being refused impresses a judge. That is why he ALWAYS does it. I believe Cory is after Goldsmith’s license and may very well get it. Can you imagine what that would do for his reputation, for his bargaining power? I suspect Goldsmith is having some sleepless nights. He knows he may well be "hoisted on his own petard".
— August 5, 2014 10:43 a.m.

Death of a thousand cuts

I agree that Frye, Briggs and Gonzalez were unlikely to have been working with Goldsmith at the time they did their press conference. But they knew, everybody knew, that Goldsmith wanted to get rid of Filner at any cost. From Sunroad Cory would have gauged the depth of Goldsmith's commitment to oust Filner. He knew that there would be no legal opposition from the City on any attack, no matter how far fetched. He probably advised the sexual harassment planners accordingly. Cory understood the awesome power of the City Attorney's office. The moral of the story (which may explain the recent Council vote): if you can't be sure that Goldsmith will defend you, you are toast. It will be interesting to see what they will try on Alvarez. But David is squeaky clean and may be able to outfox them (and Gloria) in the long term. In the meantime, Cory must win this one. He is going up against the biggest law firm in town. It is High Noon for both he and Goldsmith.
— August 4, 2014 1:15 p.m.

Death of a thousand cuts

What is most interesting about this Goldsmith/Briggs email spat is that they were as thick as thieves in their efforts to get rid of Filner, but now it's legal briefs at dawn. What happened? I think the answer may lie buried in the Sunroad story. Goldsmith is very close to San Diego's "other" billionaire, Aaron Feldman, who is perhaps even more powerful and ruthless than Manchester or Jacobs. Feldman has a habit of hiring former City people like Tom Story, who from his days at Development Services knows the San Diego permitting process better than any other. Is he lining Goldsmith up for a top legal job with Sunroad? He has a big hotel project coming up on Harbor Drive that will require expert handling. It would be classic Feldman to be "working" Goldsmith with promises of after-office riches. Everybody underestimates Aaron and he likes it that way. He doesn't seek the limelight like Jacobs or Manchester. There is reason to believe that Goldsmith and Story tricked Briggs into helping Feldman by suing Filner over Sunroad in Kearney Mesa. The Sunroad setup was Goldsmith's grand plan to get rid of Filner. The sexual harassment plan only came later. Filner was told by Goldsmith that the applicable City Code was exactly the opposite of what it actually is. Now that took balls by Goldsmith! How much Briggs understood is uncertain. He was clearly led to believe by Goldsmith that Filner had breached the law and encouraged to wade in with a lawsuit. It is what Cory does. If Briggs only found out later that he was as much a victim of the Sunroad setup as Filner was, then we are in for a fight to the death between these two top-dog lawyers. It may well be that Briggs has reason to believe that Goldsmith is hiding email proof, perhaps involving Tom Story, that Sunroad was indeed a setup. There is lot of money and prestige riding on this one, perhaps even somebody's law license.
— August 4, 2014 7:42 a.m.

Yes, we will defend Jan Goldsmith

And he probably uses Todd Gloria to deliver the message: vote this way or the City Attorney will do a Filner on you.
— July 31, 2014 3:41 a.m.

Auditor, ethics director back plan to purge emails

Thanks HonestGovernment but I think the following link works better because it goes directly to the blog entry from which you quote that Stacey Fulhorst is a "Casey Gwinn-trained and establishment-compliant". That she is. http://www.blogofsandiego.com/BlogArchives/2008-2… I also like this quote: "San Diego City is a nice little "Ministerial" family". That it is. One other thought from that 2008 blog: Grant Thornton is the foremost fixer of government privatization contracts worldwide. Sadly I have encountered them in Ireland to my dismay. Their MO is readily apparent. They infiltrate national and local government departments (often through wives and relatives) and "influence" government contracts.
— March 11, 2014 9:55 a.m.

Auditor, ethics director back plan to purge emails

Don, I have today put in another PRA request for the last five Administrative Regulations so that we can all see who normally signs these things. Like most San Diegans I had never seen one before.
— March 11, 2014 9:21 a.m.