San Diego Mayors on Parade----part two

COUNCILMEMBER GLORIA BOUNDS TO THE RESCUE (2013--2014) 

According to the City Charter, the presiding officer of the city council has limited authority to act as mayor in the event of an unplanned vacancy in the mayor’s seat.  

With a wink and a nod from City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, Councilmember Todd Gloria put his feet up on the mayor’s desk and immediately got to work reorganizing city government in his own image.   

He hired an efficiency maven from Indiana, touted as an expert in privatizing city government (supplementing our in-house expert in  privatization matters--former councilmember Carl DeMaio).  Far exceeding his limited authority, Interim Mayor Gloria hired, fired, rearranged, undid, proclaimed, reversed, and erased all traces of ex-Mayor Filner's popular reforms and political direction, saddling the next “strong mayor” administration with his own hand-picked officials, appointees, directors, restructured lines of authority, policies, decisions, and hidden alliances.

(The city has resorted to temporary mayors in the past: Bill Cleator held the honor for 4 months... Ed Struiksma for 6 months... Mike Zucchet for 3 days (a whole other story)... Toni Atkins for 5 months.  None had abused the position as Todd Gloria did for 6 months.)  

🐘 Our parade of mayors resumes with Kevin Faulconer (2014-2020) 

Kevin Faulconer passed himself off as a moderate Republican.  As Mayor, he was one of the most airbrushed, remote-controlled officials our city has yet produced.

⇢ He was already on record--alongside Mayor Sanders, Carl DeMaio, the SD Taxpayers Association, and the Republican Lincoln Club--as a promoter of the shrink government ploy on the 2012 ballot to wipe out reliable retirements for incoming city employees (excluding police).

 

⇢ A few years later, Mayor Faulconer was on the speaker's list at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) conference held in San Diego (reminder: ALEC is a Koch brothers/tobacco industry-funded/ conservative conglomerate of legislators and corporate lobbyists who create and promote model bills and resolutions that advance "free-enterprise" objectives like minimizing corporate regulation, reducing taxation, loosening environmental regulations, tightening voter ID rules, weakening labor unions, and promoting gun rights).  

 

⇢ Despite his sun-kissed smile and ingratiating persona (what a contrast to Bob Filner!), Mayor Faulconer managed to back away from nearly every municipal challenge that crossed his path and substitute wishes for action.

• as the city’s homelessness count worsened and complaints from downtown businesses and residents grew, he responded with a list of empty wishes--but no action 
• he wished that unhoused people would be dispersed from downtown.  Jagged rocks were installed beneath sheltering overpasses to discourage and disgorge them
• he wished for the deadly hepatitis A epidemic to magically disappear.  His unconscionable incompetence as a manager contributed to 20 deaths and over 400 hospitalizations as disease swept through downtown streets 
• he wished for voters to endorse an increase in hotel taxes (TOT) to finance his #1 priority --the expansion of the downtown Convention Center.  As a cynical campaign sales pitch, some funds for homeless services were tacked on to the proposal
• he wished for an overall plan for temporary housing and emergency shelter.  His newly-hired “senior advisor for housing solutions” resigned after a few months on the job... no explanation... no replacement... no plan forthcoming

But wait!  Though Mayor Faulconer’s inactions were bad enough, it got worse whenever he did take action: 

• in his early days in office, Mayor Faulconer created a charity called One San Diego to finance events and various furnishings inside the Mayor’s office.  He distributed some turkeys on Thanksgiving for impoverished residents in a few city neighborhoods 
• contributions to his charity (slush fund?) were solicited by Mayor Faulconer from individual and corporate donors, many of whom had business before the city.  The ins-and-outs of these “behested” payments to his charity-- reaching $1.6 million by the end of Faulconer’s term in office—teetered on the edge of corruption.  One San Diego was dissolved shortly after Mayor Faulconer left office
• Mayor Faulconer, as the city's chief executive officer, accepted an offer to purchase the former Sempra headquarters office building at 101 Ash Street  
• the deal was handled by Cisterra Development (a generous donor to Mayor Faulconer’s One San Diego charity) and involved an elaborately choreographed handoff 
• first, Cisterra arranged to purchase the abandoned building from owners Sandor Shapery and Doug Manchester
• then, in a creative arabesque, Cisterra sold the property to the city, erasing evidence that Mayor Faulconer and ex-council president Todd Gloria were engaged in doing business with Papa Doug Manchester (another generous benefactor of the Mayor's)
• Mayor Faulconer was the ultimate decision maker in the 101 Ash St. affair.  His brainless action--enabled by then-Councilmember Todd Gloria-- to purchase the building AS-IS, without first obtaining a building appraisal and assessment of its condition, planted a ticking time bomb in the bowels of City Hall.  The entire transaction was an unmitigated catastrophe for San Diegans

 But wait again…there were more real estate fiascos:

• Mayor Faulconer engineered the purchase of a Kearny Mesa operations yard used for maintaining the city’s fire trucks.  The costs of needed improvements to the property rose from an initial estimate of $6.5 million to an actual $14.8 million 
• Mayor Faulconer squandered millions of dollars above appraised values to acquire motel property for use as transitional housing for former drug offenders.  Here again, he skipped performing basic assessments of building conditions.  Improvement costs came in at $2 million more than the original estimate
• The Mayor engineered and fast-tracked a $7 million purchase--once more without a prior city appraisal--of a defunct indoor skydiving building for use as a one-stop homeless “navigation” center.  Mayor Faulconer ignored dissenting voices.  The voice he did heed was that of influential political financier and hustling dealmaker David Malcolm--whose personal finances were intertwined with the city’s purchase of the skydiving lead balloon 
• Mayor Faulconer paid out untold millions on a contract to outfit the city with “smart street lights.” Plagued by mismanagement, cost overruns, maintenance problems, and deceptive practices, the project had to be rescinded and completely overhauled
• Mayor Faulconer’s last ditch efforts at legacy projects still clog the city’s agenda: the Midway Sports Arena… loose construction deals with San Diego State University at Qualcomm Stadium… non-standard city parks…defective and deceptive zoning overhauls entitled Complete Communities  

🦄 Bringing up the rear in our parade of mayors is our current chief executive Todd Gloria (2020-??). 

Existing evidence reveals that Mayor Gloria is as ruinously incompetent at running and managing city government as was his immediate predecessor.  He is proving to be as devious... irresponsible... reckless... dishonest... over his head...and yes, corrupt as those who paraded behind him.   

This may sound peculiar, but--in a city like ours where truth is stranger than fiction--have you noticed that Mayor Gloria is really  a doppelgänger--a 21^st century reincarnation of former Mayor Susan Golding?  

He is (as she was) laser-focused on his personal political future.  He has (as she had) abused his contract with the San Diego public by prioritizing his personal welfare over and above the welfare of 1.4 million San Diegans.  And coming full circle, Todd Gloria’s unbridled political ambitions (coupled with defective judgement) are digging the city’s financial hole (first dynamited by Mayor Golding) wider and deeper than ever before, accelerating the city’s descent into financial crisis.  

To illustrate, let’s take an independent tour around our present-day mayor:

→ As of today, the city is over $5 billion in the red.  This is the gap between the city's projected infrastructure needs over the next five years and the funding available to pay for them.  Right now, the city is unable to pay for normal municipal services like paving the streets, upkeep of city parks, repairing streetlights, adequately staffing city departments, or creating alternatives for people who camp out on our sidewalks and alleys…unable to pay for crucial repairs to roads, flood prevention, bridges, upgrading our sewage system and storm drains…unable to provide new infrastructure needed to keep up with persistent demands to increase housing densities and construction….

→ Consider this: it was Todd Gloria as then-president of the city council, who promoted the most disastrous real estate deal in our city’s history: the acquisition of the derelict office building known as 101 Ash Street.   It’s still a puzzle--did he do it out of ignorance? stupidity? carelessness? or simply as a favor to some cronies?

⇢ And once he became Mayor, Todd Gloria compounded the fraud.  Amid lawsuits and general chaos over what to do with an unusable, abandoned, valueless, high-rent, 19-story office building across the street from City Hall, Mayor Gloria foisted a sleazy (possibly illegal) “settlement agreement” on San Diego taxpayers.  It’s called borrowing from Peter to pay Paul...at public expense.

• here’s how Mayor Gloria’s "settlement" deal works: the city buys--with cash--the offending property for $132 million.  
• the cash comes from raiding public funds that have already been earmarked for street paving, flood control, and city parks (public projects) 
• after purchasing the property, the city goes to the Wall Street bond market and borrows around $175 million to backfill the budget and pay for designated on-hold public projects.
• of course, the city will pay interest on this borrowed money   
• this means that Mayor Gloria’s initial role in the AS-IS purchase of a building that was asbestos-ridden and electrical and plumbing-delinquent, when added to Mayor Gloria’s “settlement agreement,” will cost San Diegans $11.6 million each and every year for the next 30 years.  That’s $348 million of public money
• with leadership schemes like this, is it any surprise that the city’s existing funding gap has tripled in the past four years? 

⇢ The Mayor’s judgement was already suspect when he (alongside then-councilmember Kevin Faulconer) used his influence as Interim Mayor to award a flimsy sole-source contract to an inexperienced organization (Balboa Park Celebration Inc.) to organize what was to be a gala celebration of San Diego’s Centennial anniversary.  Through failed leadership and lack of oversight the venture collapsed, stiffing the public for $3 million in the bargain.

⇢ Years earlier, then-councilmember Gloria engineered the establishment of the Balboa Park Conservancy, whose mission was to raise funds to maintain and improve the park (Balboa Park was in his council district).  The Conservancy stumbled, sputtered, and languished under his negligent supervision.  Today, under Mayor Gloria’s indifferent eye, Balboa Park is on life support.

⇢ It was not the last time that San Diego taxpayers had to pick up the pieces following Todd Gloria’s ineptitude.  A jury found that councilmember Gloria improperly pressured city staff at the Planning Department to fudge a report about a disputed expansion of the Academy of our Lady of Peace, a private religious school in North Park.  The city was originally slapped with a $1.1 million fine for this unethical interference (but managed to settle the matter for half that amount).  

 

⇢  Unfortunately, Mayor Gloria’s judgement or devotion to the public welfare have not improved over the years.  His recent “settlement” of the 101 Ash Street scandal is--for him-- a crude but crafty get-out-of-jail card that sweeps under the rug the central role he played from the start.  And it lets off the hook his fellow-perps (past, present, and future campaign donors).  Apparently, the District Attorney can’t prosecute a politician for bad judgement ...or stupidity.

⇢ Then there's the Mayor’s curious decision to cherry-pick the ”Midway Rising” multi-billion dollar master plan proposal for massive redevelopment in San Diego’s Sports Arena community.  The business record of his anointed firm-- Zephyr Development-- is pockmarked with tax liens, breach of contract, lack of experience with large projects, civil complaints, partnership disputes, and more.  Yet, Mayor Gloria disregarded these red flags when he chose Zephyr over competitive bids.  

⇢ Surely, the Mayor's decision can’t be chalked up to bad judgement... or stupidity.  Is it possible that that Mayor Gloria was influenced by the $100,000 campaign check written by the company’s chief official to help get him elected mayor?  The city's Ethic Commission seems to be asleep at the wheel.

⇢ Also menacing for the San Diego public is the fact that Mayor Gloria is a consenting captive of a formidable pileup of San Diego’s entrenched power brokers whose mission is to drive and accelerate economic and residential growth and development in the region--with scant regard to issues of equity, justice, quality of life, or negative environmental impacts.  

Our home-grown "growth machine" members range from bankers, to big business owners, to consultants, to convention center purveyors, to developers, to financiers, to building trades unions, to hoteliers, to law firms, to lobbyists, to newspaper owners, to the real estate establishment, to land speculators.  

⇢ On any day of the week, you’ll find Mayor Gloria sitting at the feet of local lobbyist Colin Parent (regional avatar of San Diego’s YIMBY cult and opportunistic executive director of Circulate San Diego).  Colin Parent's land development mission is Mayor Gloria's mission.

⇢ You'll find the Mayor issuing directives to rewrite the city’s zoning codes, eliminate neighborhood voices, and reduce environmental standards.  With his gift of hyperactive happy talk, our Mayor delivers deceptive promises of “affordable housing” as a pretext for generously gifting his campaign donors free rein to overdevelop San Diego with high-rise apartment buildings and dense backyard units in residential areas throughout the city--without analyzing or evaluating long-term consequences.

It's not very different from the city purchase of property without appraisals or assessments--except for the massive scale differential and predictably devastating outcome.

⇢ And in an ominous throwback to his Interim-Mayor days when he hired an out-of-town “efficiency expert” who specialized in privatizing government services and selling city functions to the private sector, Mayor Gloria just signed contracts with two private companies to replace city staff and take over decision-making functions in our city's Planning /Development Services Departments.

⇢ And while Mayor Gloria announces almost daily: “Addressing homelessness is my top priority as your Mayor,” some may remember when Interim-Mayor Gloria reversed a program--previously funded by then-Mayor Filner-- to keep shelters open year-round.   Closing cold weather shelters eventually led to a deadly outbreak of Hepatitis A just a few years later.  You might think he had learned something from that tragedy.  

⇢ But the acts of addressing and accomplishing are not synonymous.   Mayor Gloria has been unable to accomplish even the limited task of providing and maintaining desperately needed public toilet facilities in downtown locations.  He shifts the blame for his inability to ameliorate the problem and sputters incoherent excuses: "I don’t have enough park maintenance people to keep this thing clean, right?  So just for God’s sake, if you see someone messing this up…this is getting crazy…. I think my staff’s gonna have a heart attack... be a decent human being for God’s sakes. And flush when you’re done if it’s not too much…”  This is our Mayor talking.

⇢ A couple of years ago there was an editorial headline published in the San Diego Union-Tribune that warned: "Keep Faulconer Away From City Real Estate."  It came too late.  

⇢ We're overdue for a follow-up warning from our daily newspaper: "Keep Gloria Away From City Real Estate... Away From the Planning Department... and Away From All Important City Business."  But it may already be too late.

******************************

Our Parade of Mayors leaves us with many questions.  We can start with this one: 

 what can explain the degree of incompetence, insubstantiality, indifference, shortsightedness, and inadequacy that has defined San Diego's political figures? 

Incidents of low level corruption are unavoidable but they're not necessarily fatal.   What is fatal to the public good is the lack of fervor, integrity, intelligent conviction, stability, and dedication to public-oriented service from the people we elect to city government.  The reasons aren't obvious but they're worth debating.

We need to ask ourselves: Are the people of San Diego better off since we switched to a “Strong Mayor” form of government?  Was it a wise decision for San Diego to throw out our City Manager system?  

To be more blunt: were we fu*ked over?  Are we being screwed?  Have we had it with political bullsh*t from unworthy city leaders?  

If so, let's unzip our collective lips-- not to fool around with language niceties... not to indulge in salacious gossip... not to be the most correct person in the room -- but to demand the initiation of a formal process to reevaluate the city's governance system and reform our City Charter.  This time, we must insist that neighborhood voices dominate the process.  It sounds mundane, but self-preservation and the future of our city are at stake.

San Diego's dance fetish

 

Did you know that San Diego has a dance fetish?  Our obsessive routine goes something like this: We take one step forward, then two steps back… one step forward, two steps back...  one forward, two back…. 

Year in and year out, the city makes a bit of progress toward the common good and then pulls back--undermining and diminishing the quality of life in our communities.  To jog your memory, here are some random past examples of how we step on our own toes:

 

Once (circa 1980s), the city had a deal with SDG&E: we permitted them to exact surcharges on customer bills.  In exchange, they were to bury the overhead power lines that crisscross our city.

 

Somehow, millions of dollars of customer fees mysteriously evaporated.  Nevertheless, former Mayor Susan Golding (and her City Council cohorts) did a switchback step: SDG&E handed over a one-time $3.4 million cash payment to the city…a bandaid on the profligate mayor's overburdened city budget.  In exchange, the city freed SDG&E from its previous undergrounding obligations.

 

Once (ante 2000), we had a stable pension system and a functioning, well-staffed city government.  Then (following the lead of City Manager Jack McGrory) our elected officials took backward steps that crippled the city’s pension system, tripped up San Diego’s financial stability, and hollowed out City Hall.  Today, around 2,000 essential city positions are rattling around City Hall…unfilled.  Might that explain why current San Diegans experience chronic gaps in basic public services?

 

Once (ten years ago), Mayor Jerry Sanders got the blessings of then-City Attorney Jan Goldsmith to pretend he was participating as an ordinary joe blow and not as the Mayor of San Diego when he actively promoted a “pension reform” ballot proposition (Prop B).  The State Supreme Court said: "NO WAY."  

 

Although this subterfuge is currently costing the city at least $100 million to unravel the resultant mess, you’ll notice that these two dance mates have waltzed away, scot free. 

 

But no need to look to the past for deleterious examples of our dance fetish.  It’s happening right before your very eyes.

 

Once, an independent Redistricting Commission was added to our City Charter by San Diego voters.  Its purpose was to ensure that Redistricting activities would be conducted independent of and separate from the Mayor and City Council.  It was a forward step for our city. 

 

But Councilmember Chris Cate recently attempted to influence the mapping outcome 0f our independent Redistricting Commission, claiming he was participating as an ordinary citizen, not as a duly-elected Councilmember.  Wasn't the Court's "NO WAY" injunction loud enough when Jerry Sanders tried that ploy?  Cate's fancy footwork may or may not pay off for him personally, but the eventual cost to the public is yet to be seen.

 

Once, our city codified a system of Developer Impact Fees (DIFs).  The rationale was that new development should pay its own way...or at least that developers should facilitate the provision of community benefits and public facilities (roads, utility hookups, public spaces, etc.) made necessary by denser neighborhood development. 

 

But with a hop, skip, and jump backwards, Mayor Todd Gloria now proposes to redirect these DIFs away from the neighborhoods that are directly impacted by new development.  He wants to funnel DIFs into the city's General Fund... under his personal control... to be doled out as it suits his political agenda... never mind neighborhood impacts....  Is this legal? A judge may have another "No Way" to say about this maneuver.

 

Once, the city had a system for permanent retention of "official business" emails.  Undaunted, political consultant Stephen Puetz (chief of staff to former Mayor Kevin Faulconer) admitted he destroyed electronic messages integral to current legal investigations of the botched acquisition of 101 Ash Street.  

 

But Mayor Todd Gloria has a fix for this issue, as well.  He'll change the retention limit for important city emails/texts to a maximum of five years before they're destroyed.  Compared to his previous decision to delete and destroy city emails each and every year (he was interim-mayor at the time, following Mayor Bob Filner’s resignation), today's proposal looks like a baby-step forward.  But at a time when permanent storage is cheaper and more feasible than ever before, this signals a significant step backward for open government, transparency, and the public good.

 

So whoa, Nelly!  We're beginning to see how today’s dance moves by our current elected leadership threaten to take the city not just steps--but a GIANT LEAP BACKWARDS.

 

Our Mayor and individual City Council members may have reasonable personal convictions about what constitutes civic progress.  But collectively, they've espoused the myth that urban super-growth will be San Diego's savior to rescue us from the dire straits of housing unaffordability and the perils of climate change.

 

Abandoning principles of sensible zoning, they’ve taken a reckless dive into the YIMBY mosh pit to join assorted Growth Machine proselytizers and politically opportunistic lobbyists like Colin Parent (and his Circulate San Diego think tank).

Their rallying cry is Affordability! and their voices are well-nourished by financial infusions from the building industry and corporate real estate investors.   Whatever their motivation, they seem intent on leading San Diego backwards to an era of haphazard growth and environmental carelessness.  

 

But the evidence mounts daily that “supply and demand” in the housing market does not increase affordability.  High levels of density haven't made Hong Kong, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Miami, Tokyo affordable places to live.  It won’t be the magic bullet for San Diego, either. 

 

This bears repeating: growth is not a dirty word.  But growth--the quantity, quality, rate, impacts, losers, and beneficiaries--comes laden with enormous challenges for which there are no quick and easy answers.  

 

In the ongoing challenge to manage our growth and to continue efforts to make San Diego a more livable, well-run, environmentally sustainable, across-the-board affordable city, with social justice and fairness as our signature dance routine, one thing is certain: the role of and support for San Diego’s Community Planning Groups should be strengthened--not truncated--by our Mayor and City Council.  

 

Current proposals to promote super-growth--combined with plans to lobotomize Community Planning Groups and muffle rational neighborhood voices--are backward leaps that corrupt the public process to benefit private and corporate interests of the Growth Machine.  We should all be saying: NO WAY!

Who gets the last laugh? It's time to decide

Well, what do. you know? The Union Tribune announced that Todd Gloria is their choice for mayor.  No surprise here!

San Diego's growth machine—the entrenched coalition of influential players who profit handsomely from urban growth and development (our banks, hotels, convention center, newspapers, shopping centers, sports stadiums, building trades unions, realtor associations, builders and developers)--continues to exercise outsized control over local political decisions.  

The U-T acknowledges that Barbara Bry would be a superior mayor/manager of San Diego at a time when we are in desperate need of professional and ethical management.  

But… Barbara Bry is not a member of San Diego's old-boy network.  And Todd Gloria is. 

 

He's a tried and true pinch hitter, adept at scoring the deals and policies that typically enrich our city's lobbyists, campaign donors, unions, and business elites--usually at public expense.

You can count on him to work hand in glove with the entrenched brotherhood of San Diego's growth machine.  His record makes that clear.

 

Here's are some observations* I made in the past.  They are even more relevant and applicable today:

 

There's a short video you should watch.  It showcases our city’s top politicians strutting their stuff as hotshot Top Gun naval aviators.  

It’s a droll skit.  You’ll chuckle watching the honorable men I recently wrote about as they bond in a boys-will-be-boys ritual. 

 

But most of all, this doozy of a video spotlights why -- in the hands of our current politicians and the people who prop them up -- San Diego is destined to stagnate as an underachieving, plodding, also-ran kind of city.

 

The video was produced by the San Diego Taxpayers Association for its Golden Watchdog and Fleece Awards Dinner.  

 

For example, notice who’s in charge.  It’s none other than the honorable Jerry Sanders, cast as the swearing officer barking marching orders to a pair of compliant underlings.  

 Yup, our city’s rogue top cop -- the same aw-shucks guy who spent close to eight years as mayor overseeing the deterioration of San Diego’s public infrastructure, planning, municipal departments, workplace security, city finances, truth in government, and workers’ morale – is still running the show.  

 

And who are those minions kowtowing “Yessir!” to big boss Sanders as they vie with one another for his favor?  They sure look a lot like our top political leaders, the newly-elected honorable mayor Kevin Faulconer and our honorable city council president Todd Gloria.  How cute and winsome they are as they deliver their lines on cue.

Okay, we know it’s a spoof.  The trouble is, the joke’s on us.  While we’re giggling, the guys who write the script, the ones who call the shots in our city are laughing … all the way to the bank. 

 

Picture our developers and their anti-regulation growth machine, our hotel moguls and their oversized “hospitality” industry, our sports team conmen luxuriating in taxpayer subsidies, our swarm of banker/ lawyer/ investor middlemen drinking lustily from the trough of public bond debt, our taxpayers association, Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Partnership, special financing district mafiosi… slicing, dicing, and dividing the spoils.

 

In contrast, picture San Diego’s usual supply of political "leaders" --sunkissed, puckish, avuncular, lightweight, uninspired, shortsighted, chicken-hearted individuals, handpicked by the guys who’ve been writing the script for decades as they "yessir!" their sponsors. 

Sure, we've got a sense of humor.  But check the end of the video where the short guy says to the tall one, “You can be my wingman anytime.”  It’s an ambiguous buddy term involving support, protection, and the password to the exclusive old boy network.

 

But tell me, is it really a laughing matter when conflicted city officials work hand in glove to keep one another in business?  Is it really humorous when San Diego’s elite private establishment assumes ownership of city officials and writes the scripts and agendas and laws that control the city’s future?

On the other hand, wouldn’t it be a blast if San Diego citizens commissioned our own pack of wingmen to help hook us up with dedicated, public-minded, smart, and courageous political figures?  Just the thought of it brings genuine joy to the heart, doesn’t it?  For starters, we could raise our standards several notches and demand a lot more integrity and intelligent action from the people we elect to serve us.  Maybe then, the public would finally get the last laugh.

 

(*The original commentary can be found at http://numbersrunner.blogspot.com/2014/04/who-gets-last-laugh.html)

 

The 2020 Race for San Diego Mayor (cont'd):

ACT II: A Cautionary Tale About What a Council Member's Negligence, Lack of Independence, Inept Management, and Behind-the-Scenes Manipulation Can Do to a City

Scene One: Setting the stage for the winners… and losers

There's no denying it--life feels out of control nowadays.  Upended.  Throw in the national political scene and it's enough to push you over the edge.

But gird yourself for some good news.  Here at home we're blessed with the extraordinary opportunity to seize control of San Diego's political destiny.  It’s no exaggeration.   

The person we choose as our next mayor (Barbara Bry? Todd Gloria?) will shape the quality of daily life for more than 1½ million San Diegans for years to come.   Which one can we trust with the power to control who gets what in our city… who benefits from the policies, decisions, contracts, appointments, agreements, awards, favors, negotiations, and other goodies originating in City Hall… and who gets left with the crumbs? 

Based on Todd Gloria's history and campaign contributors, the answer is clear: Mr. Gloria is the wrong choice for the mayor's job.   

Yes, he seems likable… a winsome kind of guy who packages himself as a gay person of color from an economically disadvantaged background and ethnic mix: 50% Alaskan tribal/native American, 25% Filipino, a tad Dutch, and a touch Latino/ Puerto Rican... in other words, a politician for the underdog, a man for all seasons and occasions. 

If all things were equal between Barbara Bry and Todd Gloria, it's tempting to think that San Diego might score a few points by electing the city's first gay mayor—a guy who talks a lot about sexy streets and transforming San Diego into a world-class city. 

But all things... ability, integrity, management skills... are not equal between these two candidates.  Todd Gloria's political record, associates, and financial backers paint an explicit picture of a politician who's been co-opted by our city's pack of alpha dogs.  Identity labels notwithsatanding--Todd Gloria is the wrong choice for San Diego mayor. 

Scene Two: Who owns Todd Gloria? 

Behind the curtains are  San Diego's alpha dogs,  sniffing the air expectantly and straining to run onstage.  Who are they? The bankers, lobbyists, real estate industry, developers, sports team owners, convention center purveyors, land speculators, consultants, building trades organizations, Chamber of Commerce, Port District--the power brokers who exercise a disproportionate amount of leverage in our city's abundant and lucrative transactions.   

If you want to know what to expect from a candidate who's been embraced and groomed by the alpha dogs of San Diego, just follow the money.  Mr. Gloria's list of campaign contributors reads like a who's- who of our city's entrenched guard: 

SeaWorld/ Sempra Energy/ Hoteliers Bill Evans, C. Terry Brown, Richard Bartell/ Ace Parking/ Cox Communications/ Cush Enterprises/ CA Association of Realtors, CA Building Industry Association, CA State Building & Construction Trades Council/ private prison contractors doing business with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)/ Oliver McMillan 

Yes, money talks.  It repeats loud and clear that Todd Gloria is the wrong choice for mayor.  The volume gets turned up even louder by contributions from "independent expenditure" PACS like these 

San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce super PAC ($62,500)/ Laborers’ International Union of North America local 89 PAC ($50,000)/ Southern California District Council of Laborers PAC ($50,000)/ Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation ($75,000)/ Laborers Pacific Southwest Regional Organizing Coalition PAC ($25,000)/ Mel Katz ($10,000)/ LGBT Caucus Leadership Fund ($75,000)/ California Apartment Association PAC/ San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council PAC…  

 Scene Three: Todd Gloria's performance at the City Council 

Not yet convinced that Todd Gloria is the wrong choice for the mayor's job?  Then consider his eight-year stint on the city council (2008-2016) and the decisions he made that were pockmarked by bad judgement, incompetence, pandering, abuse of power, behind-the-scenes manipulation, and overreach:  

➽ re. Sempra Energy headquarters (101 Ash Street): At this very moment Mr. Gloria is on the hot seat, struggling to justify his starring role as council cheerleader for the disastrous, maybe corrupt plan spearheaded by Mayor Faulconer (with complicit thumbs-up from City Attorney Jan Goldsmith) to purchase this property: bad judgement? incompetence?

 ➽ re. Balboa Park: As councilmember for that district, Mr. Gloria a) played cheerleader for a community-reviled plan to construct a bypass bridge and city-financed paid parking lot in the Park; b) negligently withdrew supervision of the newly-created Balboa Park Conservancy, leaving it to sputter and languish; c) wasted $3 million of public funds on a sole-source contract for the Balboa Park Centennial Celebration.  Despite promoting it as a spectacular citywide festival, he never got it off the ground: just plain incompetence? 

 ➽ re. Mr. Gloria's hearty support of an unprecedentedly long 40-year lease extension for Mission Bay Bahia Hotel, which carried the day for hotel owner Bill Evans--a dependable financial backer of the councilmember: pandering? behind-the-scenes manipulation? 

 ➽ re. Mr. Gloria's unethical pressure (according to court documents) on a city planner to doctor findings on a hotly-disputed expansion of a private religious school Academy of our Lady of Peace, which cost the city more than half a million dollars in legal settlement fees: more behind-the-scenes manipulation? 

 ➽ re. full-throated support for the city to fund a third phase of the Convention Center expansion, even though the city was still financially on the hook, still paying for the previous expansion: bad judgement? pandering?   

Now consider his record during the six-months he performed the role of interim mayor: 

 ➽ re. his attempt to reorganize city government by hiring an "efficiency expert" (Stephen Goldsmith) who specialized in the privatization of public services and the sale of city business functions to the private sector: abuse of power? behind-the-scenes manipulation? overreach? 

 ➽ re. his peculiar decision to rehire two recently fired lobbying firms­­--one involved in an influence peddling scheme, the other aligned with Jerry Sanders and Doug Manchester: pandering? bad judgement? incompetence? overreach? 

 ➽ re. his unwarranted action to eliminate a stop-use order slapped on a North Park Jack in the Box for zoning code violations, rejecting a community outcry: pandering? abuse of power? overreach? 

 ➽ re. his decision to defund a program to keep emergency shelters open year-round, impeding the city's ability to provide emergency shelters as needed (and contributing to the death toll taken by a Hepatitis A outbreak among the homeless population just a few years later): bad judgment? incompetence? 

 ➽ re. his (self-protective?) decree to automatically delete and destroy city emails older than one year (a new administration reversed this order): bad judgment? abuse of power? behind-the-scenes manipulation? overreach? 

These examples of political bad judgement, incompetence, pandering, abuse of power, behind-the-scenes manipulation, and overreach tell a tangled tale--one that does not deserve an encore. 

Curtain Call:  

Not long ago I made a practical suggestion: forget the fancy stuff... the bells and whistles... the silly-talk about sexy streets and world-class status. 

With the right mayor in office we could see real progress toward meeting the needs of our neighborhoods and residents and securing a stable future for the city.  

Barbara Bry is the candidate who meets the criteria for:  competence✔  stability✔  independence✔  trustworthiness✔ responsibility✔  knowledgeability✔ honorability✔  integrity✔  and a dependable moral compass✔

There's no getting around it: Barbara Bry is the best choice for San Diego's next mayor.

The 2020 race for San Diego mayor: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts

ACT I: A Cautionary Tale About What a Mayor's Negligence, Lack of Independence, Inept Management, and Behind-the-Scenes Manipulation Can Do to a City

Scene One: Let's talk politics

We can start by noticing that "politics" is simply the exercise of power that determines who gets what, when, and how.

It means that on election day, either Barbara Bry or Todd Gloria will be handed the power to determine which beneficiaries will prosper (for decades to come) from the policies, decisions, contracts, agreements, awards, favors, negotiations, and other goodies originating in City Hall.   

So before we decide which candidate deserves the political power to determine who gets what, when, and how, we might want to know which one can be trusted to take the interests of the public seriously enough to place it ahead of all others.   

And of course we need to be sure about which candidate has the ability and integrity to successfully oversee and manage our deteriorating, problem-plagued city.

These are not frivolous questions.  Ever since San Diego traded in its flawed "city manager" form of government for an equally problematic "strong mayor" system, we've seen a steady decline in government oversight, services, maintenance, management, accountability, and problem-solving.

Furthermore, our recent strong mayors have used their upgraded status to replace scores of knowledgeable, professional city employees with unqualified political appointees.

But let's not jump to conclusions.  The devil doesn't necessarily dwell in the system but in the capabilities, integrity, and trustworthiness of the people we elect.  

Scene Two: Goodbye America's Finest City.  Hello Enron-by-the-Sea

A bit of history: The city's strong mayor system went into effect in 2004, the year Dick Murphy was reelected mayor.  San Diego was on the brink of bankruptcy as a result of a notorious scheme concocted a few years earlier to grossly underfund our municipal employee pension system (and simultaneously boost salaries and pension benefits).  To give the illusion of a balanced budget, city officials cooked the books.

  

Another historic note: this disastrous imbroglio was set in motion under the old city manager system.  It was designed and implemented with the blessings of San Diego's wizard city manager Jack McGrory... and christened by then-city attorney John Witt, and after him, Casey Gwinn.

Mayor Murphy resigned within a year of his reelection and was replaced in a special election by Jerry Sanders. 

Ex-police chief Sanders originally opposed the strong mayor option.  He characterized it as "a power grab by inside players who would drain public services…to subsidize powerful developers."  He predicted it "would reduce accountability of your elected officials."

But Jerry Sanders--a man of flexible principles--changed his tune once San Diego's "inside players" and "powerful developers" joined forces to make him mayor.  Mayor Sanders became the mouthpiece for retaining the strong mayor system, declaring it was the best way to bring accountability and checks and balances to city government and prevent future financial debacles. 

Scene Three: So long America's Finest City. So long Enron-by-the-Sea.  Hello YIMBY Paradise

History lesson is over.  The story resumes with Kevin Faulconer, past councilmember (2006-2014) and our city's fourth stong mayor.  

Despite his sterling credentials as a public relations professional, this mayor created a new image for San Diego--a poster child for bad planning and incompetent (... corrupt?) city governance.

Kevin Faulconer leaves a load of nasty baggage for his successor mayor to clean up, no matter which one it will be.  

Here's a sample of what it looks like:

·   ➽ Over the past decade more than $220 million of public funds were paid out for claims and lawsuits (over 20,000 of them) against the city due to broken sidewalks, water main breaks, police misconduct,  poorly trained employees using city vehicles… 

· ➽ Unspeakable incompetence in managing the hepatitis epidemic that swept through the city's homeless population, leaving over 400 hospitalized and 20 dead 

·  ➽  A city budget on the hook for an annual payment to the municipal employee pension plan of $365.5 million--up from $280 million the year Faulconer took over the city

· ➽  Untold millions squandered on failed attempts to offset budget deficits and deep cuts in city services by selling off city assets to for-profit developers 

· ➽  More untold millions squandered on botched attempts to acquire motel properties for drug rehab centers… a fire engine maintenance yard… a shuttered indoor skydiving facility for a homeless service center…

·  ➽ Greater untold millions paid out on a contract to outfit the city with  smart street lights , so plague-ridden by mismanagement, cost overruns, maintenance problems, and deceptive practices that it had to be rescinded and completely overhauled

·  ➽  Greatest untold millions wasted on shady dealing to purchase the now-notorious downtown Sempra Energy building at 101 Ash Street

·  ➽  Last ditch efforts by the mayor to cement his legacy via construction deals for Qualcomm Stadium, the Midway Sports Arena, non-standard city parks, Complete Communities zoning overhauls--despite a warning from the San Diego Union Tribune to "Keep Faulconer Away From City Real Estate" 

*****************************

As the curtain falls on Act I of this municipal tragicomedy, keep in mind that the outcome of a mayor's negligence, lack of independence, inept management, and behind-the-scenes manipulation is bad... very bad... for all of us.  

Will the next mayor we elect be smart and independent enough to break the mold?

The curtain goes up on Act II after a short intermission.