With the Chargers downtown stadium search continuing to move quickly, I wanted to address a couple of issues that readers and commenters are raising.
Last Friday, team special counsel and stadium point man Mark Fabiani told me the stadium's capacity would be 64,000. Commenters and readers noted that the NFL requires 70,000 seats for a stadium to host the Super Bowl.
I asked Fabiani about that issue this week and he said stadium plans include expandable temporary seating to reach the Super Bowl threshold.
"It's designed to be expanded," Fabiani said. "It's not like you're setting up a bunch of folding chairs."
Expandable seating is also part of the San Francisco 49ers plan for a new stadium in Santa Clara. Its capacity is 68,500 seats with potential expansion to 75,000.
Another reason for the Chargers to build 64,000-seat stadium, Fabiani said, would be to keep construction costs down.
"It's pretty much a direct and proportional reduction in cost the fewer seats that you have," he said.
In last Friday's post, I mentioned briefly a geological fault line that's located in the Tailgate Park portion of the stadium site. Fabiani said he was unconcerned.
But the fault line was part of the reason the task force that examined the city's Convention Center rejected Tailgate Park as a potential expansion site.
A task force consultant, Tucker Sadler, explained the problem at a June meeting.
The one thing we found in looking at this is there is a fault that goes right through the site. It actually severs the site. While we thought we had a contiguous site, what we have is a site that's divided in half. There's also some very large culverts that run right through Tailgate Park making it a little more difficult to work through.
A slide showing the fault line is on page 13 of this document.
I brought up the matter to Fabiani again and he said the team has been aware of the fault line since it began looking at the site in January.
"It's the first thing we checked," he said.
The team's architects are convinced they could design a stadium around it, he added.
Tuesday we reported that the San Diego Convention Center Corp. purchased the land needed for a potential expansion for $13.5 million from a private developer. I should have been clearer about what the nonprofit city-run corporation actually bought.
The Convention Center acquired a lease -- not the land -- from the developer, Fifth Avenue Landing LLC. The developer leased the land from the Port Commission, which controls 2,500 acres of land along San Diego Bay on behalf of the state. That's a reason, as I noted in my blog post, the Port needs to sign off on the Convention Center deal before it's final.
The Port is also involved is because it receives money each year from the leaseholders. That's the main difference between buying a lease and buying the land outright. Port spokesman Ron Powell said Fifth Avenue Landing was paying the Port $470,000 annually for the rights it transferred to the Convention Center.
Now the Convention Center will be paying the Port for that land on top of the $13.5 million it used to buy the lease.
"There will be terms that will be worked out," Powell said.
The Port will address the item at its Dec. 1 meeting.
My apologies for the lack of an Agenda yesterday. I've doubled up to catch you up on news from the last two days.
We'll lead off with the budget. Our own Keegan Kyle writes about what police and fire cuts mean for the city of San Diego. I have a piece on a financial report that's coming from a private task force of dozen of Mayor Jerry Sanders' business backers. The task force's chairman says it's not going away until the deficit is solved. The U-T's opinion page has an interview with Councilman Todd Gloria where it's all budget talk, all the time.
Other big news this week continues to be the Chargers stadium search. The city's downtown redevelopment arm hired a financial consultant yesterday to evaluate a site in East Village. CityBeat reports that East Village's character could be changed for the worse with a new stadium.
Meantime, the L.A. contender for the Chargers has interesting developments, too. The Los Angeles District Attorney is investigating conflict of interest allegations involving the business connections of the city of Industry's mayor. The Minnesota Vikings, another possible L.A. target, are beyond angry at their stadium situation in Minneapolis.
Another major building project in San Diego, the Convention Center expansion, received a boost this week with the $13.5 million purchase of a lease to the land the city needs. CityBeat blogs that San Diego could use more Comic-Con conventions.
In water news, City Council hiked rates another 7.75 percent this week. Our own Rob Davisbreaksdown how the city's water use continues to drop.
Some quick city of San Diego hits. City Council is backing a bid for soccer's World Cup in 2018 and 2022. The mayor will testify in a federal case seeking to overturn the state's ban against gay marriage. More community activists are upset at Councilwoman Marti Emerald's advisory board.
The U-T is staying on the case of state Rep. Joel Anderson, R-La Mesa. A GOP official has resigned over questionable campaign contributions that have led to an investigation.
Union leaders have turned in petitions for a term limits initiative for San Diego County Supervisors. Also in the county, a contractor for the public works department faces federal charges of falsifying his inspection work.
In news from other cities around San Diego county, Poway Councilwoman Betty Rexford weathered another maelstrom at a meeting this week. Signatures on a petition for her recall are gaining steam. San Marcos' mayor announced that he plans to seek re-election. A private contractor is offering more cost savings for Oceanside's trash pickup in exchange for a contract extension. Also in Oceanside, the city voted against allowing rowhouses in a city neighborhood. El Cajon's redevelopment saw some boosts this week.
Last, this week we came across the KUSI interview with Councilman Carl DeMaio that prompted Sanders to compare the first-term councilman to former nemesis City Attorney Mike Aguirre. Comments are welcome in The Hall.
Remember the Convention Center expansion? The $1 billion project that caused lots of hubbub at the end of the summer? It received a long lease on its life today.
The Convention Center Corp., the city-created nonprofit that operates the center, agreed to pay $13.5 million to purchase the waterfront land needed for the expansion. The decision beats a Dec. 2 deadline when the option agreement between the corporation and its owners, Fifth Avenue Landing, LLC, would have expired.
"This is the successful conclusion of a due diligence process begun a year ago which has resulted in the preservation of the site for a second expansion of the Convention Center," Board Chairman Chris Cramer said in a statement.
The above raises the obvious question: What happens if the city decides not to expand the Convention Center?
The deal's terms take non-expansion into account. The corporation owes Fifth Avenue Landing $1 million now and then $500,000 annually over the next four years. At the end of the following year, the remaining $10.5 million will be due. If the city decides not to expand, the corporation stops making payments and the parcel reverts back to Fifth Avenue Landing.
No financing plans from Mayor Jerry Sanders' Office have emerged since a task force recommended expansion in August. These issues remain at the heart of the project's viability, and the task force faced both internal and external criticism for not addressing them. Contributions from hoteliers and other tourism-based interest groups are expected.
The Port Commission also has to sign off on the land deal. It is expected to be placed on the commission's Dec. 1 agenda, a Convention Center spokesman said.
We'll lead off today with my story on the politics of making budget cuts. Four San Diego City Council members potentially are facing elections in the summer, one week before final decisions on the budget are due. That could delay the desire to make deep reductions to fix the city's $200 million deficit early on.
Blink and you might miss the abundance of news coming out of the Chargers downtown stadium search. Our own Rob Davisreports that the city's downtown redevelopment arm is looking to hire a financing consultant to evaluate the 15-acre site east of Petco Park. The U-T talks to the Chargers' stadium point man, who is pleased with the pace of things.
Also, I missed this amusing piece from over the weekend by U-T columnist Logan Jenkins on the death of the Escondido Chargers.
In further budget news, there was a bit of a testy exchange at City Council yesterday about the mayor's failure to deliver a financial report. A mayoral rep said he'll have a report ready by the end of today. Within that piece, we explain why we're going with $200 million as the city's budget deficit for now.
The U-T's editorial page rips City Council for not providing more cuts to their budgets in response to a Mayor's Office request. We wrote about that issue last week.
Though the Chargers are getting most of the attention these days, a different sort of football received top billing from city leaders yesterday. San Diego wants to be part of the United States' bid to host the World Cup soccer tournament in 2018 or 2022. We report that the city is lagging behind others in online support.
Last, the U-T writes about four people fined by the San Diego Ethics Commission.
Remember the Kumbaya on the city's budget we reported last week between City Council and the Mayor's Office? It took a hit Monday afternoon.
Council had set aside a couple hours to review new budget projections based on the first quarter of this year. These figures, which include both revenue and expenditure assumptions, would be the most recent official budget data. It needs the numbers to determine how to plug the gaping hole in next year's budget.
The Mayor's Office wasn't ready. Financial Management Director Nader Tirandazi said he was reviewing the numbers and would have a report ready by the end of the day Tuesday.
Council wasn't pleased. It led to this exchange between Tirandazi and Councilwoman Donna Frye:
Frye: I mean I guess you can't force someone to do a report. But it's real unfortunate that we've set aside all this time and now I don't know when we're going to be able to spend the time we need to review it. It just seems there's more to the story than meets the eye.
Tirandazi: There's absolutely nothing behind the story. The story is that just we have a lot to do in (financial management). We were just not able to look at the department budget reductions and get the first quarter out. It was all coinciding with each other. We needed to make sure all the information the departments were using for one matches the other. It just takes us another week to vet through that process to make sure we have the right information to present to council. There's nothing else behind that story.
Frye: Well, I guess I just don't believe you.
Council expects to hear the item next Monday.
Meantime, Councilman Tony Young told me Monday that the Mayor's Office might not participate in a new commission Young developed to examine city revenue sources. The council rejected the mayor's nominee to the commission, Phil Blair, late last month along with one other candidate because of concerns about their lobbying. Young said the commission will move ahead with or without a mayoral nominee.
"We have to keep this going forward and that's what we're going to do," Young said. "People will start to understand that this is the exact thing that this city should be doing. It's looking at how we can be more competitive and looking for new ideas."
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A couple more budget-related tidbits.
We're going to start referring to the budget deficit as $200 million until further notice. In Tirandazi's conversation with Frye today, he mentioned that revenues were off about $10 million since the last projection. That puts the working deficit at $190 million, he told me afterwards. Since the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst has already projected the deficit to be $200 million, and the Mayor's Office close is now close, we figured that's the best number to use for now. Previously, we've been going with $179 million, the mayor's estimate in October.
To provide some closure on my coverage of city vacant positions last week, I also spoke with Tirandazi about the mayor's comments that eliminating 800 positions would result in a $20 million savings. Tirandazi estimated cutting all those positions would free up $30 million toward this year's budget gap. He emphasized that although cutting 800 positions would wipe out the city's current stock of vacancies, more will come as the city doesn't hire replacements for workers who leave. His $30 million estimate takes that fact into account.
Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly said Council expected to hear the financial report on Tuesday. We regret the error.
As San Diego's City Council prepares to vote on a water rate increase at this week's meetings, our own Rob Davisreports that water rates likely are the lowest they will be for a while. And that's after a 58 percent increase in the last three years. Meantime, protests are not coming in to contest that rate increase.
When I first arrived in San Diego a few months ago, I heard that there was this big, complicated fight over seals in La Jolla. The legal battle, apparently, ended on Friday, though you never can be sure with this legal back-and-forth. I took a quick look through our archives and found that our own Sam Hodgson took plenty of photos. For what it's worth, I think the baby panda is cuter.
San Diego's nonprofit I.T. head is resigning amid a city decision to seek outside bids for some of its services. And there's the matter of a contractor suing the nonprofit and the city for $5.6 million.
That suit is related to an important, expensive software project, which our own Scott Lewiswrote about extensively last year. Lewis puts the issue in context.
I wrap up my coverage last week of city vacancies by talking to someone who fills one of those vacant positions.
The North County Times editorializes that term limits for county supervisors are a bad idea. KPBS' Editors Roundtable addressed the issue on Friday, too.
A new poll shows former sheriff's Lt. James Duffy has a double-digit lead in the race for county sheriff.
In U.S. congressional news, the U-T looks at how demographic shifts will reshape local districts. Columnist Logan Jenkins breaks down the three Democratic challengers for Rep. Brian Bilbray in North County. We report on Democratic Rep. Bob Filner's statements on biotech, which look like they were written by lobbyists.
With Oceanside's council recall election nearing, the U-T and the North County Times ask if the city's conservative majority is over. A councilman delaying his resignation before taking a state position could help Oceanside save more than $400,000 in election costs.
In news from other cities around San Diego County, San Marcos leaders are looking at a new drought-inspired landscape ordinance and will contribute $62,400 for a winter shelter program. Encinitas is considering expanding areas to walk dogs without leashes. Five recreation projects in Imperial Beach will be built with $2 million in redevelopment funds. Change could be coming to a 100-year-old neighborhood in National City. Escondido has a packed council agenda including money for a downtown library project of its own. Maintenance workers in Vista have filed a complaint against the city over whether Vista officials can write a four-day work week into their labor contracts. The U-T praises a Poway councilman who has opened his office to hear opponents of expanding a Wal-Mart.
We've got our weekly roundup of the San Diego City Council agenda, "Public Comment," here.
The U-T updates a story we did last week on City Council not complying with Mayor Jerry Sanders request to cut their budgets.
Last we'll end with Chargers stadium news. I have some updates -- drawings for the downtown proposal are on the way -- from team special counsel Mark Fabiani. Here's my interview with KPBS' Joanne Faryon on "San Diego Week:"
Carolyn Demaray retired in June, after 41 years in the city of San Diego's Library Department. She has returned to the city, working as a librarian or branch manager when needed. The city is paying her as a provisional employee, a classification that doesn't exist in the budget. The money comes from a budget vacancy.
So try to follow me here. Demaray is working for the city of San Diego. According to the budget, her job doesn't exist. But she's paid because the budget includes money for a permanent position that hasn't been filled.
You wouldn't be the only one confused by this arrangement.
"I'm a vacant position?" Demaray asked.
Demaray's situation is one of the more mystifying connected to the idea of a "vacant position." It was one of the reasons I decided to address it this week in our continuing coverage of the city's budget crisis. Vacancies take on more significance because eliminating them has been Mayor Jerry Sanders' primary vehicle to reduce employee expenditures in the short term. After his most recent proposal, there's none left to cut.
I got in touch with Demaray because of her unusual status with the city. Before her retirement, she was a branch manager for Carmel Valley's library. Now she's working about 12 hours a week.
"I go wherever," said Demaray, 60. "I go wherever they need the coverage."
She's concerned about the city's budget situation and how it could affect libraries. She already notices shortages.
"A lot of people have been around a long time, not necessarily 41 years, but a long time," Demaray said. "People have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into the libraries and they want to see it do well."
Because the situation is so dire, she hopes that provisional employees are the first to go. Full-time employees need their jobs, Demaray said. She doesn't.
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I mentioned in my story that if Sanders' proposal to cut 800 vacancies goes through City Council, then the city will have fewer employees per capita than in it did 2000. That ratio will grow smaller, especially in the city's day-to-day operating budget.
San Diego Association of Governments estimated the city's population at 1,353,993 for Jan. 1, 2009. If Sanders proposal passes, the city will have 4.9 general fund-supported employees per 1,000 city residents and 7.2 employees citywide per 1,000 residents, assuming flat population growth.
The city's annual budget lists these ratios going back to 2000 and then every 10 years going back to 1970. In those statistics, the city has never had fewer than five general-fund supported employees per 1,000 residents. Only once, in 1980, has the city had fewer than 7.2 employees citywide per 1,000 residents.
Remember these figures assume the city eliminates only its vacancies. Every city politician has said layoffs are coming, too.
It's time for Public Comment, our weekly take on the 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: The city's Redevelopment Agency is looking at extending the term of Mayor Jerry Sanders as its executive director until next December.
First some background on redevelopment agencies. The City Council also oversees the city's Redevelopment Agency, which is responsible for making improvements to areas of the city like Grantville, North Park and City Heights through redevelopment tax revenue. The mayor is the executive director of the agency.
The city is considering structural reforms to the redevelopment process that includes two subsets, city-run nonprofits Center City Development Corp. and Southeastern Economic Development Corp. See background on the struggles that led to the reforms here and here.
Part of the discussion involves whether it's better to have the mayor serve as Redevelopment Agency head or install a bureaucrat in that position. See some background here.
Tuesday's decision before the agency will keep Sanders in his role until further action is taken.
What else is good to follow at the meetings? Questions? Comments? Derogatory remarks? Email me or tweet me.
To prepare for my interview on the Chargers stadium search today on KPBS' "San Diego Week," I called team special counsel and stadium point man Mark Fabiani. He ran down what's been a busy couple of weeks for the team and downtown San Diego site. The site is about 15 acres, located east of Petco Park and is the current home to the Wonder Bread building.
Here's what he had to say:
Fabiani met this week with Mayor's Office policy man Phil Rath and downtown redevelopment agency head Fred Maas. Maas, the chairman of the city-run Centre City Development Corp., is the team's main contact with the city, Fabiani said.
"It was important to us because Fred has pulled off big projects like this," Fabiani said.
Maas' participation also is significant because his agency could be involved in the stadium's financing through redevelopment tax revenue.
Fabiani pegged the cost of the project as $750 million to $1 billion. He has long touted that a site downtown saves money because transportation infrastructure, such as roads and parking, are already in place.
The team is having its environmental consultants examine the site. There's likely to be some level of contamination because of the San Diego Transit Corp.'s bus yard included in the site. The team isn't concerned about a geological fault line that runs through the western portion of Tailgate Park, also included in the site plans.
Fabiani also met this week with the team's Kansas City-based stadium architects, Populous (formerly HOK). The plans are for 64,000 seats. Preliminary designs put all the luxury boxes on one side of the stadium. Shops, bars and restaurants will be on the first floor. Unlike other football stadiums, this one would be right along the city street.
"We're not that far away from releasing drawings," Fabiani said.
The team hopes to complete a preliminary financial analysis in two months, Fabiani said. For context's sake, that's around the time, L.A. developer Ed Roski plans to shop financial plans to the Chargers and other team for his stadium project in the city of Industry.
We'll start with my piece on vacant positions in San Diego. Cutting vacancies has been the most consistent method Mayor Jerry Sanders has used to reduce employee expenditures in the short term. The story examines the similarities and differences between a vacancy and a full-time employee and explains why this cost-cutting plan is finished.
My colleague Keegan Kyle highlights a section of new Fire Chief Javier Mainer's interview with KPBS radio yesterday. Beach closures could be in the offing because of budget cuts. Read the transcript of the interview here.
The U-T reports that state Assemblyman Joel Anderson, R-La Mesa, has returned more than $100,000 in campaign contributions after the newspaper's investigation into whether he tried to evade campaign finance rules. A state investigation continues.
The Ethics Commission has fined three supporters of City Councilman Todd Gloria who backed a mailer critical of Gloria's opponent, but didn't report their expenditures until after last year's election.
San Diego could face a fine of more than $600,000 for a 2007 sewage spill into a Lake Hodges tributary. The city will challenge the fine, levied by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, next week.
In news from other cities in San Diego County, Vista officials say medical marijuana dispensaries are outlawed in their city. Oceanside approved water and sewer rate increases after threats from credit rating agencies that not doing so could affect the city's rating.
We'll start today with news that Mayor Jerry Sanders will propose cutting at least 800 vacant positions out of the city's budget to deal with the $179 million deficit. He spoke to reporters outside City Hall yesterday, also touching on the need for mid-year cuts, the four big building projects and how Councilman Carl DeMaio reminds him of former City Attorney Mike Aguirre.
A North County Times columnist reminisces about the "Escondido Chargers" as that city's stadium plan is put on hold amid talks between the football team and the city of San Diego on a downtown site.
CityBeat is reporting that San Diego's medical marijuana task force has made decisions on zoning proposals for marijuana dispensaries, which will go before City Council next month. Among the highlights: no dispensaries 1,000 feet from schools, playgrounds and child care centers.
Some quick hits. Embattled Poway Councilwoman Betty Rexford has a two-hour interview with a local newspaper and contends city staff pushed other members of council to ask for her resignation. A San Diego police officer offers his thoughts on the department's looming cuts. A former Marine announced plans to run as a Republican for Congress in the 51st District, now Democratic Rep. Bob Filner's seat. The North County Times says an Oceanside City Councilman leaving for a state post also is leaving the city in a lurch. The Reader has two stories on financial contributions, one on City Council President Ben Hueso's state campaign and the other on lobbying by Republican consultant Ben Haddad's California Strategies.
Last, the U-T has a new political blog called, "All in Favor." The link is here.
Just returned from Mayor Jerry Sanders press conference outside City Hall to talk the state of the city's $179 million budget deficit. I wanted to share some tidbits.
Sanders says he'll recommend cutting 800 of the 832 vacant positions out of the city's general fund budget. Normally, this decision would save $70 million to $80 million, Sanders said, but this move only will save about $20 million.
Why is that? The city builds in budget savings each year based on the assumption that some jobs will be empty because of regular turnover, retirements, etc. Cutting 800 positions eats into the savings the city had already removed from the budget.
Look for more on vacancies from me soon.
Sanders reiterated his push for mid-year budget cuts. The mayor said if the city cuts $60 million by the end of the year, then the savings realized between now and July allows the city only to have to cut $60 million more.
For context, last year's mid-year cuts were $37.3 million.
This week, Sanders is meeting with city departments to discuss budget reduction proposals they submitted two weeks ago. Sanders had asked each department to suggest cuts of more than a quarter of its discretionary budget. From there, Sanders will make his recommendations to City Council. Yesterday, Sanders met with the police and fire departments, which make up a combined 52 percent of the budget.
The mayor's party line on selling the four citywide big building projects is shifting. Nearly every press conference, a reporter asks how the city can pay for an expanded Convention Center, new City Hall, new Chargers stadium and downtown schoobrary in the face of a budget deficit.
The answer traditionally has been that private, grant and/or non-general fund money will be used for their construction. Sanders repeated that line today, too, but also added that shovels won't be in the ground on any of those projects for some time. The implication is that potentially the budget and economic situation could be better than now.
I asked the mayor about two potential revenue sources, a stormwater fee and the independent budget analyst recommendation to use reserve funds to help plug this year's budget gap. Like other questions he faced about revenue he repeated that the city was looking at all options, but hadn't made any decisions.
Someone asked about Councilman Carl DeMaio's appearance on television this morning where DeMaio reportedly criticized the mayor over pension obligations. (I haven't seen the comments yet). Sanders called DeMaio's statements "absolutely ridiculous" and then compared DeMaio to an old Sanders whipping boy.
"I wasn't sure if that was (former City Attorney) Mike Aguirre on that or Carl DeMaio," Sanders said.
This press conference was more casual than most. Mayoral spokesman Darren Pudgil sent an e-mail to reporters this morning saying the mayor would be available to chat about the budget outside City Hall. There was no podium, no microphone and both Sanders and Pudgil wore open-collared shirts. Following the press conference, Sanders sped off to a parade.
After all, it is a holiday.
Update: Received a call from Independent Budget Analyst Andrea Tevlin. She emphasized that her office hasn’t recommended the city spend down its reserves to address this year’s deficit, but rather delay contributions to reserves. You can read more about the IBA’s take on the city’s financial situation here.
News that San Diego is looking at a downtown Chargers stadium has made Escondido pause on its plans to cobble together a site. Escondido officials and the Chargers say they'll consider reviving talks if San Diego's efforts fail. Meantime, the U-T praises San Diego's decision to talk again with the team.
Union leaders say they have gathered the required signatures for a term limits initiative for San Diego County supervisors. The ballot measure would place two four-year terms on supervisor positions. CityBeat editorializes that term limits aren't a good thing ... except for the county supervisors.
Remember when former City Council President Scott Peters was appointed to the California Coastal Commission last week? KPBS reports that his Port Commission seat likely excludes him from the job. Peters says he'd probably stick with the Port.
City Council has decided that unpaid lobbyists no longer have to register with the city. Councilwoman Sherri Lightner said that doing so could violate the First Amendment, and got choked up when discussing the issue in this KPBS report.
Councilman Carl DeMaio argues against labor-backed project labor agreements as anti-growth in the Daily Transcript.
In other news around San Diego County, county supervisors are fighting fraud in the in-home support services program and finalized a land swap with the state for a new courthouse in downtown San Diego. San Marcos officials approved plans for a 194-acre mixed-use development. Vista will spend $5.7 million to buy a property that it will lease to a luxury car dealer. An Oceanside City Councilman is delaying his resignation to save the costs of a special election. And CityBeat says the Civil Grand Jury is looking into the county's medical marijuana practices again.
We'll lead off with the U-T picking up the story on the Chargers and the city of San Diego working on a new downtown stadium site, something we wrote about at the end of last month.
The U-T's piece discusses funding options, has reaction from local business and details on meetings between the team and the city. Recommended.
The latest in San Diego's budget saga is that there is no saga, I report. The mayor asked City Council to make budget cuts in each council office, council members refused and the mayor backed off. It's a far cry from battles this time last year, but we'll see if tactics change once cuts are proposed.
San Diego County is considering using eminent domain for a 2,700-home development north of Escondido. Meantime, the North County Times editorializes against eminent domain for a project in Vista.
A state initiative to cut pensions for new state and local government employees grew out of talks in San Diego County, the CalPensions blog reports.
There could be a new private prison in Otay Mesa as soon as next year, CityBeat blogs.
Our own Sam Hodgson reports on a San Diego City Council rule that regulates when photographers take pictures on the council floor of City Hall. Oil companies will pay the city $700,000 to settle a lawsuit over petroleum contamination in Barrio Logan. The city's white-collar union is saying "no" to an outsourcing plan it had endorsed a couple years ago.
In news from other cities around San Diego County, Escondido is seeking further cuts from its employees. A longtime Poway resident is running for City Council possibly for the seat now held by embattled Betty Rexford. Oceanside Councilman Rocky Chavez is leaving the city to take a state post.
And finally because I love coming full circle, here's a letter to us from a Malibu resident on our Chargers stadium coverage. The letter-writer calls San Diego an "inferiority-beset" city.
A talking point is no longer a selling point for the city's white collar labor union.
Accused of stalling in negotiations to develop an outsourcing plan, Michael Zucchet, head of the Municipal Employees Association, recently told the City Council that his union had years ago proposed using the outsourcing guide developed by the county of San Diego. The Mayor's Office rejected that overture back then, saying it didn't want to waste the time and effort it had put into crafting its own plan.
Now with labor negotiations deadlocked again, several city officials had asked Zucchet if the county plan was still good for the outsourcing program known as "managed competition."
It isn't, Zucchet told the mayor and City Council in an e-mail last week. Zucchet gave the same reasons the Mayor's Office used before: they've put too much work into the program that remains stalled.
He wrote:
MEA is NOT proposing (nor is MEA willing to agree) to simply "go with the County guide" today. As was discussed at the impasse hearing, MEA did offer up the County guide TWO YEARS AGO as a negotiating position. We did that not because we thought it was perfect, but because we thought it was adequate and we knew that its adoption would save us from years of costly negotiations that would probably result in about the same caliber of product ...
My point in bringing up our previous offer of the County guide at Tuesday’s impasse hearing was simply to respond to those City officials and certain media outlets trying to portray MEA as stonewalling "the will of the voters" as it relates to managed competition for the last several years. That is demonstrably false in many ways, but we think the most compelling fact debunking that rhetoric is our previous offer to essentially end this process with the County guide two years ago, only to be rebuffed by the City.
We'll lead off with a U-T weekender on spending in San Diego's government. The paper reports that spending grew by $101 million in 10 departments since July 2005. The Mayor's Office replies that most of the increases were out of its control.
Lots of news about the recall campaign in Oceanside against City Councilman Jerry Kern. The city's Mayor Jim Wood made his support of the recall official, though his campaign contributions already indicated his stance. The U-T opines that if Kern loses, the control of the city will shift to labor unions. Another Oceanside councilman might be on his way out, too. The North County Times reports that Councilman Rocky Chavez is the front runner for a state Veteran's Affairs position.
More progress in talks over the fate of the last untouched Mexican land grant in San Diego area. The owner of the 22,000-acre Rancho Guejito in North County wants to build up to 10,000 homes in the area and open a large part to the public.
On the opinion front, the U-T says "yes" to desalination and a court ruling against counting overtime pay in pension benefits. Columnist Michael Stetz says "no" to fire pits.
Some final quick hits. I report on the familiar face of the new boss of San Diego's white-collar union and wrap up some Chargers stadium coverage. Since historic home preservation continues to be in the news, here's a piece about Coronado homeowners needing to do an environmental study before tearing a historic home down.
Last, we have our weekly "Public Comment" feature that previews the San Diego City Council meeting.
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.
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.
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San Diego's political world constantly simmers with intrigue, tension and incredible tales. 
