Former City Councilman Michael Zucchet was named head of the city's white-collar union, the Municipal Employees Association, today.
Zucchet had been acting general manager of the union since May, when longtime leader Judie Italiano resigned amid an investigation into personal use of union credit cards.
Zucchet and the union scored a big win last week when City Council rejected a Mayor's Office proposal to impose outsourcing rules on white-collar workers. Zucchet presented on the union's behalf.
Zucchet was elected to the City Council in 2002. He served three years and then resigned following a pay to play scandal involving strip club owners trading political contributions for council votes. Zucchet was acquitted of seven corruption counts and granted a new trial on two others. An appeals court upheld that ruling in September.
The Municipal Employees Association is the largest union representing city employees with more than 4,000 members.
To round out our Chargers coverage from the last two weeks, our media partners at NBC posted a video of yesterday's story on Wonder Bread building owner Bob Sinclair. Sinclair's building is part a downtown San Diego site being considered by the Mayor's Office and the Chargers for a new stadium. The video is below.
Also because it's Friday, here's a link to a five-second Wonder Bread commercial from the 1950s. Enjoy!
It's time for Public Comment, our weekly take on the upcoming San Diego City Council agenda. We link to all the agendas, briefly highlight an issue and invite readers to weigh in with their thoughts.
Issues of Interest: Monday will be the resumption of negotiations with two of the city's labor unions on its outsourcing program. In closed session, City Council will direct negotiators on how to proceed per labor impasse rules.
An interesting sidebar to this whole process also plays out on Monday. In open session, City Council is scheduled to approve the city's team for contract negotiations with its labor unions next year. That team is made up of Mayor's Office representatives, but for the first time will include members of the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst as "observers." The change could indicate that council wants to play a more direct role in labor negotiations.
What else is good to follow at the meetings? Questions? Comments? Derogatory remarks? Email me or tweet me.
We'll lead off this morning with a discussion on the pros and cons of the downtown schoobrary on KPBS yesterday. On the pro side, there was Mel Katz of the San Diego Public Library Foundation, on the con side, City Councilman Carl DeMaio.
The U-T is reporting that the South Bay Power Plant in Chula Vista could be closing next spring, citing from a San Diego Gas & Electric vice president. The power plant dominates Chula Vista's bayfront.
Under threat from credit rating agencies, Oceanside decided to raise its water and sewer rates. The typical monthly water and sewer bill will increase by $18. Also in Oceanside, there was a debate on the recall petition involving Councilman Jerry Kern.
I follow up my story about the Chargers stadium search with a few odds and ends. I break down how a former NBA executive calculated how the Chargers could make $40 million by moving to Los Angeles, discuss the power of the NFL team owners and link to a story by our NBC media partners on the possibility of a stadium in downtown San Diego.
The wife of National City's mayor accused him of abuse in separation papers , a charge he denies. Port Commissioner and former San Diego City Council President Scott Peters is back on the California Coastal Commission. And Escondido officials are discussing how to zone for more commercial and industrial development.
I spent much of the last two weeks talking with sports economists, consultants, professors and investment bankers related to the Chargers stadium search, particularly about what a proposal to build a stadium in Los Angeles could mean for the team.
The result was my story yesterday that shows some of the same financial problems the Chargers face in finding a stadium in San Diego also exist in Los Angeles.
(There was also the story about a new stadium proposal involving the Wonder Bread building in downtown San Diego. We're dubbing that effort "Wonderbread Stadium.")
My conversations with the sports economic experts focused on the deal that Los Angeles developer Ed Roski is proposing: Give me 40 percent of your team to move into my stadium. I wanted to know how that deal might pencil out for the Chargers. Among others, I spoke with Jim Kahler, executive director of Ohio University's Center for Sports Administration and a former senior vice president with the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers.
Kahler said I should focus on how much the Chargers revenues would increase by moving from San Diego, the 28th-largest television market, to Los Angeles, the second-largest market.
NFL teams share the league's television revenues so there's no more money to be made in television rights. But a larger television market means a larger audience and more money the team can charge for its stadium naming rights, signage within the stadium, local sponsorship revenues, etc.
Kahler thinks the Chargers could earn an additional $15 million a year in local sponsorship revenue, $10 million more a year with new luxury boxes and $12 million more a year from higher ticket prices. Kahler rounded down his estimate and said the Chargers could make $40 million more a year by moving to Los Angeles.
If Roski were willing to reduce the stake he wants in the team to 30 percent, Kahler called the decision a "no brainer."
One factor I only touched on in yesterday's story could make the financing question moot. The NFL's owners collectively will decide if a team returns to Los Angeles -- not any individual owner and certainly not a billionaire Los Angeles developer.
The league's bylaws say that a super-majority of the NFL's owners must approve a move if it's not considered in another owner's territory, explained Rodney Fort, a University of Michigan sports management professor. If it is considered in a team's territory, the vote must be unanimous.
"It is the league, not any individual owner, that decides where its teams are located," Fort said.
Last, I wanted to link to a story by our media partners at NBC, who followed up on our downtown stadium coverage. Let me point out the impressiveness of the red fedora worn by Bob Sinclair, owner of the Wonder Bread building.
Scott Peters, a Democrat and wearer of many local political hats, was appointed as an alternate today to the California Coastal Commission by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Peters is a current port commissioner, former San Diego City Council president and also former member of the Coastal Commission, the state agency that regulates land-use decisions affecting California's coastal region.
Could we have more San Diego political news today?
We'll lead off with the state Legislature's passage of a $11.1 billion package to revamp California's water policies. Our own Rob Davisbreaks down what it means for San Diego and explains how certain local projects will benefit. The U-T has reaction from all sides and praises the deal in an editorial.
Capitol Weekly has a pair of interesting stories on the water package. The first says the deal was done with billions in earmarks. The second talks about the cost of the biggest water project, a canal that would shuttle water from the California Delta to the south, that isn't included in the deal.
Yesterday, the California Supreme Court heard an appeal of one of the criminal cases involved in the city of San Diego's pension underfunding scandal. It doesn't look good for prosecutors, the U-T reports. Pension uber-blogger Ed Mendel was at the hearing, too and writes that the decision could have wide ranging impact around the state.
My story yesterday was on Chargers stadium news and how the new, chic Los Angeles option is facing the same financial hurdles that the team has had for seven years in San Diego County.
CityBeat adds more detail to last week's San Diego City Council votes on the downtown schoobrary and outsourcing. The alt-weekly also reports on local U.S. Rep. Brian Bilbray paying his wife to help with fundraising.
In our daily dose of medical marijuana news, CityBeat reports on the brief appearance of the San Diego Police Department to the city's medical marijuana task force. Conservative blog SDRostra.Comwrites that Encinitas' Chamber of Commerce has an advertisement for a medical marijuana dispensary in its official newsletter.
Continuing the avalanche of recent San Diego historic home preservation news, KPBS writes about efforts in Councilman Todd Gloria's district. CityBeat's Carl Luna reacts to the story by saying the city needs to balance public good with private property rights.
We'll start today with a departure. David Wescoe, who took over the city of San Diego's retirement system following the pension scandal, is taking a job as the pension administrator for the Motion Picture Industry. The U-T quotes Mayor Jerry Sanders praising Wescoe's transparency.
We've reported on a Chargers stadium target in downtown San Diego that includes the Wonder Bread building east of Petco Park. The owners of the building would like to remind the mayor and the Chargers that they exist.
A new Mayor's Office spokesman compared the Republican Party to an infamous San Diego County cult on his Twitter feed yesterday. He apologized and said his comments have nothing to do with his boss, who is a Republican. He's now deleted the post and subsequent apology from Twitter.
The Centre City Development Corp. is taking bids to clean up a city-owned property at 7th Avenue and Market Street. The site is where a $400 million-plus hotel was to be built before the redevelopment agency cancelled the project because of the conflict of interest issues surrounding its former president Nancy Graham.
A comparison of salaries shows that the city's independent auditor is well paid. A council committee will conduct a performance review of the auditor next week.
In other news around San Diego County, the County Board of Supervisors approved a building and land swap that would allow the state to build a 17-story courthouse in downtown San Diego. And the county is reforming a service program for the elderly.
Oceanside's council will again take up raising water and sewer rates after a credit agency put the city on watch.
Today's North County Times story on embattled Poway councilwoman Betty Rexford is about a fight between her and local Republican officials. Rexford left the party and the party called on her to resign as she faced recall.
Carlsbad received a key permit for a desalination plan aimed to help the area with its water woes. Environmental groups haven't given up fighting the project.
Vista's City Council is talking about eminent domain for a motel in the way of a redevelopment project.
Lisa Sanders, the daughter of San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, has started a group that promotes women in politics. The group will hold a meeting next Tuesday with San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore as its guest.
Finally, L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez brings us his second story about his time as a medical marijuana patient. And Capitol Weekly reports on a poll that shows most Californians want to keep marijuana against the law despite coming ballot measures that will push for its legalization.
David Wescoe, the administrator and chief executive officer of San Diego City Employees' Retirement System, is leaving the city to take the same job with the Motion Picture Industry's pension program.
Wescoe has been with SDCERS for more than three years and shepherded the system through the fallout from the city's pension accounting scandal. He also is known as not being shy to express his views.
Wescoe's resignation letter and two press releases are available on the SDCERS website. His last day with SDCERS will be Nov. 30.
We reported Friday that San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and San Diego Chargers president Dean Spanos met last week to discuss downtown stadium options, the most likely being a site east of Petco Park that includes the Wonder Bread building.
Today I received an e-mail from Bob and Gay Sinclair, the owners of the Wonder Bread building. They would like the city and the team, essentially, to step up or step off.
They gave me permission to publish their e-mail:
An open letter to Mayor Sanders, Dean Spanos and others
Welcome to the neighborhood! We have been property owners in this vicinity since way before the ballpark. We are currently the owners of the Wonder Bread building. Imagine our surprise to find out the plans for our property in the newspaper! We also own other parcels most likely in the possible footprint of the new stadium. While we believe this would be a great site for the stadium, we are not like Lindbergh Field which has been under study for the past many years. It is happily doing business as it is the only airport in town and flyers have no choice. Because tenants have many choices it is difficult for us to do the business of leasing while there is discussion of the disruption of condemnation looming in the future. We ask that this site be quickly evaluated and moved on or left alone.
Alex Roth, a new spokesman for city of San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders wrote: "I'm beginning to see more and more similarities between the Heaven's Gate cult and today's Republican Party."
Heaven's Gate is the cult that committed mass suicide in 1997 in San Diego. Sanders is a Republican.
I called Roth to ask him about the post.
"What I was referring to were the extreme elements of the national Republican Party and some of their behavior in the New York Congressional race," Roth said.
"This has absolutely nothing to do with the sensible, moderate policies of the correct elements of the Republican Party, which includes Mayor Sanders."
Here's a screenshot of Roth's tweet:
Update: Roth just e-mailed another statement: “I apologize for my Twitter post earlier today. It should go without saying that my comments represented my own personal observations, not the mayor’s. I would add that I was referring specifically to talk-radio comments related to a New York congressional election. Nonetheless, I apologize to those who were offended by the comment.”
A light day in San Diego political news, yesterday. Perhaps people were still recovering from sugar hangovers. We'll lead off with more Chargers stadium news. Elected officials from five North County cities gathered to develop a regional plan that puts the Chargers stadium in Escondido and has related development spread among Escondido, Oceanside, Carlsbad, Vista and San Marcos. Those who attended said the meeting went well.
The state Legislature is nearing a deal to reshape California's water policy. San Diego County officials, including city Mayor Jerry Sanders, are applauding. City estimates are that households will have to pay an additional $48 per year on their water utility bills to pay the local share of a $7 billion to $10 billion canal project.
Conservative blog, SDRostra.Com has two posts of note. A La Mesa City Councilman has changed his mind and is not going to run against Dianne Jacob for County Supervisor in 2012. It also reports that embattled Poway City Councilwoman Betty Rexford has left the Republican Party.
Some city of San Diego pension news. The city won a lawsuit yesterday that denies paramedics pension payments based on their overtime instead of their 40-hour-per-week wages. City Attorney Jan Goldsmith says the ruling closed the door on the potential of further lawsuits brought city workers on this issue.
And in Encinitas, the city ended a stalemate with its Chamber of Commerce.
We'll lead off with Chargers news from Friday. The city of San Diego and the team appear to be zeroing in on a downtown location for a possible stadium site. The spot is east of Petco Park and would include the Wonder Bread building. The biggest challenge facing the Chargers in San Diego, Escondido or should the team look north to Los Angeles would be private financing of the stadium.
The U-T has a story on the job cuts the city of San Diego has made over the last five years. They're almost exclusively in vacant positions, not layoffs.
The paper also reports on a California Supreme Court hearing this week in the conflict-of-interest cases against former San Diego pension board members charged in the city's pension fiasco.
The conservative SDRostra blog has news about a challenger for Dianne Jacob's San Diego County supervisors seat in 2012.
Lots of news in, uh, historic home preservation. The U-T starts with a piece on the city-funded $1 million in renovations to the 122-year-old Villa Montezuma. U-T columnist Michael Stetz writes about the need to preserve city landmarks. Not to be outdone, Chula Vista's City Council will discuss a historic homes ordinance this week.
Airport board chairman Bob Watkins has been correcting some of the problems with conflict-of-interest forms and business taxes reported in the last few months.
In news from other cities around San Diego County, the North County Times reviews the first year in office for outsider Escondido City Councilwoman Olga Diaz. The NCT also reports on fundraising in a recall attempt in Oceanside and on the possible closure of Encinitas' Chamber of Commerce should it no longer receive city funding. The U-T says a fight over ski park and restaurant in Santee isn't over despite City Council approval of the project.
In opinion news, the U-T comes out strong against the San Diego City Council decision last week to reject the mayor's offer to settle a labor dispute on outsourcing. The paper also weighs in on city street repair, a plan for a new $660 million county courthouse in downtown San Diego and breaks down the players in the coming debate on preserving or building on 16,000 untapped acres in North County.
We'll end with one of my favorite local columnists anywhere in the country, Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times, writing about his quest to become a medical marijuana patient.
The Chargers are looking at a new downtown San Diego stadium site a few blocks east of Petco Park, team special counsel Mark Fabiani told a Rotary Club gathering this morning, according to local PR pro Jan Percival who posted the information on her Twitter account.
Percival also relayed the following information:
Fabiani told the group that the site involves the city, county and private interests and would need to incorporate the Wonder Bread building at 147 14th Street.
The Chargers met with San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders on Tuesday evening and also discussed the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal site, which would require involvement from a reluctant Port District.
I have a call in to the Mayor's Office and an appointment to speak with Fabiani this afternoon. More coming and in the meantime here's some stadium background.
Interesting Chargers stadium news is coming this morning via Twitter. Mark Fabiani, the team's special counsel, is telling a local Rotary Club that Mayor Jerry Sanders is reengaging in stadium talks and the city of San Diego is looking for a new downtown stadium site east of Petco Park, according to tweets from Jan Percival, the president of Scribe Communications public relations firm. Fabiani also said if the team goes to Escondido, a site of a former swap meet won't be part of a potential stadium package. The swap meet site has been thought to be part of the land needed for the stadium.
In a twist from usual "The Agenda" style, we'll put San Diego County news ahead of the city. Organized labor says it has gathered the signatures it needs for a ballot measure that would subject county supervisors to term limits.
County government agencies, led by the San Diego Unified School District, have won more than $150 million in federal bond financing for government solar projects.
Also, more than 6,000 county taxpayers will be receiving rebates for overpaid property taxes.
Continuing our focus this week on outsourcing in the city of San Diego, we write that outsourcing could mean jobs outside the area, or outside the country. Meantime, think tank analyst Vince Vasquez says it might be time to rethink the city's outsourcing policy.
Our daily dose of medical marijuana news comes from CityBeat. It blogs about a proposed medical marijuana ordinance written by medical pot proponents.
In other news around San Diego County, Standard & Poor's credit rating agency put the city of Oceanside on a "credit watch" because of its failure to raise water and sewer rates. Santee's council approved a controversial cable ski park and restaurant.
Also, pension super-blogger Ed Mendel writes about a potential change in government accounting standards that could force public agencies to pay more each year.
We'll end this morning with two neat features. Twitter has a new, easier way to follow San Diego politics. And our visiting Azerbaijani journalist has some thoughts about spending a day with me at City Hall and his impressions of his first week here.
To continue my series of posts on city of San Diego outsourcing issues, I pose another question.
When we say "outsourcing" just how far "out" are we talking?
Councilwoman Sherri Lightner asked the question at Tuesday's City Council hearing on the outsourcing deadlock between the Mayor's Office and the city's white- and blue-collar labor unions.
"Is there a requirement here that the companies be local? The contractors be local? The jobs be local?" Lightner asked city staff.
Lightner was concerned about the loss of city revenue should companies and workers live, work and pay taxes, in say Texas.
Staff responded there was no restriction against companies from outside the area, but that jobs would require workers to live in or around the city. Garbage collectors, for one, couldn't commute from El Paso.
But, Lightner said, certain jobs could be performed from anywhere. Like data processing.
Funny Lightner should mention data processing. The city has put out for bid portions of its information technology services now performed by city-created nonprofit, Data Processing Corp.
In the city's request for proposals, there was no restriction against companies providing services outside the area, or even outside the country. In fact, the city expects each bidder to do so.
"I anticipate that each responder will intend to leverage their existing operations on-shore or off-shore to support their options and related costs for each option," said Naresh Lachmandas, the city's chief information officer and director of information technology. "I believe we have a requirement that the bidders must be incorporated within the U.S."
Lachmandas also said the city would account for local companies when evaluating the bids and expect each bid to have some part of its operations in San Diego. The city's focus, however, is to save money.
"We're always looking at what's best from a cost standpoint for taxpayers especially given the $179 million budget deficit," Lachmandas said.
Bidding for the IT services closed last Friday and the city is reviewing the nine proposals that were submitted.
One of those proposals came from the city's current provider, Data Processing Corp.
Board Chairman Reed Vickerman couldn't discuss Data Processing's bid, but he too expected the city would receive proposals with out of area workers. Currently, all of Data Processing Corp.'s employees are local.
"As a taxpayer, I just think the taxpayers ought to be thinking about whether this is a time to have people in the area losing jobs," Vickerman said.
I was clicking through Twitter this afternoon and discovered a new feature that I think will help everyone interested in following San Diego-area politics.
You can create lists to organize people you follow and make it public for the world to see. I've created a list called "S.D. pols." The web address is http://twitter.com/dillonliam/s-d-pols.
By following "S.D. pols" you will receive tweets from people who talk regularly about San Diego politics.
So far I've added 44 people that I follow to the list, and I'll keep adding in the future. If your name isn't there and you'd like to be, send me a Twitter direct message.
E-mailing me also works if you have no idea what Twitter is and want to learn more.
Leading off this morning with our own Adrian Florido, who writes about a tentative Superior Court ruling throwing into question a special tax district in Golden Hill. A judge ruled the services provided by the district do not directly benefit the property owners who are paying for them. It's unclear how the ruling could affect similar districts citywide.
I follow up on the San Diego City Council's vote to head back to the negotiating table on its outsourcing program. Union leaders, blamed by many for the three-year delay in implementing the program, had offered to accept policies like those at the county of San Diego more than a year ago, but Mayor Jerry Sanders' Office rejected the plan.
KPBS reports on two city budget issues. Council took its show on the road last night to seek community input on the coming budget cuts. Council's new commission that will audit city revenue sources is on hold after two nominees for the committee were rejected for questions about their lobbying.
Some quick hits. The U-T reports on residents making noise in Bankers Hill for a greater share of parking meter funds. San Diego County officials are looking at clearing a city block for a new 17-story courthouse. The leader of the San Diego Housing Commission writes a U-T op-ed about the need for affordable housing in difficult times. And the city of Carlsbad approved a Legoland-themed hotel project.
An FYI: No Public Comment this week. San Diego City Council is on recess.
City of San Diego outsourcing proponents are fond of fulminating against labor unions for stalling the plan's implementation for three years. (See: Sanders, Mayor Jerry)
But at yesterday's City Council labor impasse hearing -- which resulted in another return to the negotiating table -- one union said it could have ended the outsourcing problem years ago.
White-collar union head Michael Zucchet offered up the county of San Diego's outsourcing program as a solution. The county has allowed outsourcing and competition for public services for at least 10 years, and outsourced more than 150 jobs as recently as two weeks ago.
Zucchet told council that everyone could have saved time had the city adopted the county's policy, which his Municipal Employees Association had offered:
I have to bristle somewhat at the suggestion that MEA has stonewalled this process. I would remind everybody in the room, the council and the mayor's negotiating team that MEA came forward two years ago with the much ballyhooed county of San Diego model. They have a managed competition guide. We held it up at the beginning of negotiations and said, "You know what, this ain't bad. We'll take this." The city said, "No." The city said, "No."
This is the county of San Diego. Not exactly a socialist state over there. We were willing to adopt it lock, stock and barrel two years ago, and the city said, "No."
Today, I spoke with Scott Chadwick, a city negotiator and human resources director, about Zucchet's remark.
"It's true that they did offer that up and said, 'Look just take the county guide'," Chadwick said.
But MEA made that offer in the middle of prior negotiations, Chadwick said, when Mayor Jerry Sanders' Office was relying on labor advice from former City Attorney Mike Aguirre. The Mayor's Office also didn't want to throw out the work it had done previously.
"We followed [Aguirre's] advice and we felt the program we had in place was as good a tool or better than the county's model," Chadwick said.
I asked Chadwick if the Mayor's Office had reconsidered that position in light of last summer's labor law ruling that threw out prior agreements on the outsourcing program. The Mayor's Office has reconsidered prior agreements -- though ones not made during labor negotiations -- related to health care.
"That's certainly an interesting suggestion," Chadwick said, reiterating that the city believed it could do better.
Chadwick added he was unsure if the other labor union in the outsourcing deadlock, blue-collar Local 127, would have accepted the county plan.
"We've never received that indication from 127," he said.
I asked if the county-option is something under consideration in light of yesterday's council rejection of the mayor's plan. Chadwick said further negotiations are scheduled to resume at a closed-session of City Council in two weeks. Any decision on the county plan will be addressed then.
I'll lead off with my coverage of the deadlock between Mayor Jerry Sanders' Office and two labor unions over the city's outsourcing program. City Council sent the mayor back to the negotiating table after a three-hour session. Labor representatives appeared to convince council that issues like different health care benefits were non-starters in outsourcing discussions. The mayor now has to decide how, if at all, he'll continue to be involved with negotiations.
Much more can happen from here, and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith could continue to loom large.
The second major item at City Council yesterday was council's decision to seek new bids for the downtown schoobrary. The six council members voting in the majority said they were willing to spend more than $500,000 to see an updated cost estimate for a project that had an estimated price tag of $185 million four years ago.
Yesterday also saw testy back and forth memos between the Mayor's Office and Councilman Carl DeMaio, a schoobrary antagonist.
In other big building news, CityBeat editorializes on a potential public vote for a new City Hall building. The U-T interviews state Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego, about the exemption from California environmental law granted to a Los Angeles developer to build an NFL stadium. Fletcher opposed the exemption, saying it could lead to the Chargers leaving town.
Continuing on the big building theme, I write about the mayor's private "Civic Leadership Team." And surprise: The big buildings Sanders is pushing are labeled "legacy" projects with committees of powerful people involved to help move them forward.
Our own Rob Daviswrites about Friday's first public appearance in San Diego for former Centre City Development Corp. President Nancy Graham since she resigned amid conflict of interest revelations and a failure to disclose financial dealings.
Medical marijuana news continues at a steady clip. CityBeat reviewswhat's happened since a countywide raid of pot outlets last month and fact checks statements made by District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis at a press conference announcing the pot arrests. Meanwhile, a citywide poll funded by former mayoral candidate Steve Francis finds that San Diegans believe medical marijuana should be available but strongly regulated.
In other news around San Diego County, talks are beginning regarding the development -- and preservation -- of 22,000 rural county acres. These discussions are happening at the same time as a general countywide overhaul of growth management plans. Carlsbad's council approved a Lego-themed hotel project near the Legoland amusement park. La Mesa is extending its public alcohol ban. And San Marcos approved a public art grant program.
San Diego's political world constantly simmers with intrigue, tension and incredible tales.
How are you going to keep up with it all? In 'The Hall,' reporter Liam Dillon brings you all the latest insights, updates and analysis from a day on the political beat.
E-MAIL POST
Percival also relayed the following information:
San Diego's political world constantly simmers with intrigue, tension and incredible tales. 
