City Council's Creative Financing

By Brian T. Peterson, San Diego

E-MAIL STORY

Wednesday, July 26, 2006 | After losing $176,000 through his district’s office, and after a brief absence from City Council meetings, Councilman Jim Madaffer is once again pursuing creative financing in the name of Grantville redevelopment.

Yesterday, Madaffer, with the help of six of his council colleagues, passed the $1 million Housing Enhancement Loan Program (HELP) to benefit homes in Tierrasanta and Navajo. The creative part of this is that the Grantville redevelopment project area itself does not contain any residences, and Tierrasanta and Navajo, obviously, are not in Grantville. In spite of this, HELP would use Grantville tax increment to finance home improvements in these outlying areas. This further ignores the fact that the Grantville redevelopment project technically does not exist and may never exist, because the county has brought suit to stop it.

Just like he ran his District 7 office into debt to promote Grantville redevelopment, Madaffer will now run Grantville into debt to promote his agenda in other areas. The best we can say about this is, at least if it does not work out, our fearless councilman has experience with bankruptcy.

7 Comments so far on this story...

When has Mike Aguirre ever pursued a case and won??

Posted by Jim | reply to this comment
March 2, 2007 3:28 am

It's up to the citizens to make sure the City Attorney pursues the case against Madaffer. Don't be afraid to write to him or call him if you feel strongly about losing $168,000 of gas tax funds (which could have been used for street repairs)to fix what Madaffer broke this year. Hopefully Aguirre will follow through on his "threat" to have his Public Integrity folks investigate and the pursue a criminal charge against Madaffer. It's time to end the charade. And if Aguirre can't do it, the DA's new Public Integrity Unit should pick up the case.

Posted by Buddy in Mission Valley | reply to this comment
March 2, 2007 4:29 am

Sorry, it isn't about Aguirre. It is about Madaffer and his continual saga of playing "fast and loose" with other peoples money. Mr. Madaffer has a legacy/history of manipulating and cajoling city workers in to awkward positions. And, when something blows up, he runs for the nearest exit and denies his complicity. Mr. Madaffer also has a history of cloaking community improvements, such as parks and traffic mitigation, as a method for developement. See Fox Cyn. and Grantville. That might be OK if he was honest about it, unfortunately he isn't.

Posted by Dale Peterson | reply to this comment
March 2, 2007 5:36 am

Residents need to remember that Madaffer had his water shut off because he didn't pays his bills and then had a neighbor illegally remove the lock on the meter. He has also failed to take care of his personal finances and declared bankruptcy more than once. Do we see a pattern here ? And this person is in charge of a council district. Shameful.

Posted by susan | reply to this comment
March 2, 2007 6:12 am

Could the "Jim" who writes that Michael Aguirre has never won a case be Jim Madaffer ? If so, why doesn't use his entire name ? A funny co-incidence in my humble opinion. At least he could have staffers write in his defense and use their names. Perhaps that is too clever for "Jim" ?

Posted by Susan | reply to this comment
March 2, 2007 6:19 am

Two bankruptcies and now a job that you cannot be fired from until the next election. Sooner or later, Mikey is going to win one of those cases he files. Could this be the one?

Posted by The Roaming Gnome | reply to this comment
March 3, 2007 1:57 am

This might be the straw that breaks the camel's back in terms of starting a recall campaign. I know that a BUNCH of people in Tierrasanta are upset with his actions and failure to address many of their community needs; this might provide the spark needed to fan the blaze-- God knows Madaffer has provided enough fuel.

Posted by Scott McLachlan | reply to this comment
March 4, 2007 6:34 am

Reader feedback

Users may post more than one comment, but should not pose as multiple users. Multiple posts from the same IP address but with a different user name on each will be reviewed to determine whether abuse has occurred.
Posts with overly personal attacks or unsubstantiated allegations may be edited or deleted.
Please be patient with the posts -- there may be a delay before they appear on the site -- and make sure to enter the code in the "image verification" box.