Quote of the day, from the Union-Tribune (emphasis mine):
A former president of Theta Chi, the San Diego State University fraternity singled out by authorities as a hub of drug dealing, said a few people are ruining a good organization. ...
Being identified as the lead fraternity in a major drug operation is contrary to Theta Chi's mission to “serve young men of character, principles and ideals,” (Hoon) Kang said.
Are there some fraternities whose mission is to be identified with as the "lead" of a major drug operation?
Meanwhile, did you see this? Would the district attorney overstate the effects of her special "Operation Sudden Fall" just to make a big splash on the anniversary of a tragic drug-related death?
Never.
Or maybe the university got a little uncomfortable with the image the world received Tuesday?
John Nienstedt, the president of Competitive Edge Research and Communication, has responded to my post yesterday about the poll in detail.
Nienstedt, in my opinion, is one of the best numbers guys in town. I'll never forget his spot-on extrapolations of the excruciatingly long count of the ballots after the 2004 mayor's race. For a long time, he worked for free with KPBS polling the trends and feelings of the community and a wide variety of issues. The news they produced was interesting.
We haven't highlighted any of his polls recently on the city attorney's race because we decided we would pass on partisan polls and his were commissioned by the Republican Party. Given Nienstedt's track record, I'm sure they're good numbers. But I just don't want to have to deal with all the polls candidates and their campaigns try to flog.
Anyway, if you missed it here was one of his comments on yesterday's post:
Scott, regarding your insight that you can't see [Judge Jan] Goldsmith, [Council President Scott] Peters or [City Councilman Brian] Maienschein voters moving to Aguirre in November, keep in mind that there will be twice as many voters casting ballots on 11/4 as there will be on 6/3. That gives [City Attorney] Mike Aguirre a window of opportunity which I'm sure he will try to exploit. He won't need voters to switch. His fate, and the fate of San Diego, will be in the hands of the less interested portion of the electorate.
This is an excellent point. Thanks to the infinite wisdom of the Legislature, the June 3 primary election was not tied to the presidential race. In the San Diego region, only the 52nd Congressional District will have a primary worth any major attention for those concerned with the federal government. Turnout will be extremely low.
Nienstedt's point is that all of the people interested in voting for Barack Obama or John McCain (or Hillary Clinton?) in the November election will perhaps not have paid much attention to city politics or will remember they support Aguirre even though they weren't motivated to come out to vote in June. And, this will be quite a force.
An interesting point. We'll see if it plays out. Do you think it will?
This is what I've been waiting for -- someone independent locally to do a poll on the mayoral and city attorney's race. We have deliberately held off on publicizing the polls that partisans have commissioned and tried to pass along.
KGTV Channel 10 appears to have commissioned SurveyUSA, which has a pretty good record so far on the national presidential elections, to poll the two local races.
Mayor Jerry Sanders is up 40 percent to Steve Francis' 36 percent in SUSA's mayoral poll. There is 17 percent undecided. Check it out here.
In the city attorney's race, the poll has incumbent Mike Aguirre leading the pack with 29 percent but City Council President Scott Peters got 17 percent of the poll and the two Republicans -- Councilman Brian Maienschein and Judge Jan Goldsmith -- each polled at 15 percent. That's 47 percent going for one of Aguirre's chief rivals. Undecideds make up 18 percent of the poll. Here's the poll.
If that's true, Aguirre will need to get all the undecideds, plus some, to stay city attorney. I'm having trouble picturing the kind of voter who would be for Peters or either of the Republicans but then willing to switch to Aguirre if their dog lost the primary race.
MonDiego Tube makes it two weeks in a row. We might be on a permanent roll. In this clip, Lani Lutar from the San Diego County Taxpayers Association debates City Councilwoman Donna Frye about Proposition C, the measure that would realign the auditor's position at City Hall.
So the first one took the jump, huh? The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees local union endorsed Steve Francis for mayor today. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that hotelier Doug Manchester and the hotel employees union would join together behind someone for mayor.
I suppose wilder things have happened. But let's do something first. I've been asked recently why I was so interested in unions' support of Francis over the incumbent. Why does the endorsement of the hotel workers or the Labor Council matter so much?
Labor unions can give three major things to a candidate and only one of them matters in this case. A union can give monetary support in the form of independent expenditures in favor of a candidate. The firefighters union was once a prolific force in this effort, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on behalf of people like former Mayor Dick Murphy.
Unions can also, of course, provide countless volunteer hours on behalf of a campaign. Their members can walk districts, man telephones and hand out fliers.
Finally, they can just endorse and the power of the message might be enough to resonate with people who look to them for guidance.
This last one is usually the least valuable to a candidate -- and, conversely, it's the easiest for the union to give.
But it's the most valuable part of the endorsement for Francis. Why? He doesn't need money and his dollars should do enough work for thousands of volunteers.
He needs the nod. He needs the nod because his list of endorsements is still rather bleak.
Now, I do not believe that endorsements matter all that much in the effort to attract voters. To unseat an incumbent, however, Steve Francis will need to create the impression that a major movement is underway -- that diverse interests are uniting in a coalition against a common enemy. I'm not saying that's happening. What I'm saying is that it's vital for Francis to make it seem like it is.
Endorsements help make that happen. And that's why it's such a big deal to imagine unions giving them to him.
I heard from City Councilwoman Donna Frye on Friday. Signaling a widening chasm between her and labor leaders in town, she said she was upset by a recent mailer sent out by the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, which she said implies that she endorses Scott Peters' bid for city attorney.
I got a fax copy of the mailer but it didn't come through very well. It's touted as a four-page pat on the bum and thank you to the Democratic members of the City Council. But Peters, the council's president, is featured big on the front page and the Labor Council obviously is using it to pump up his campaign.
He's the one we're meant to thank.
Frye isn't flattered.
"It gives the false impression that I am endorsing Scott Peters for city attorney and that's absolutely false and extremely offensive," Frye said. "I'm getting phone calls from people asking about it and I don't appreciate it."
Frye said she doesn't plan to endorse any candidate in the city attorney or mayor's race.
Evan McLaughlin, the Labor Council's political director and a former colleague of ours here at voiceofsandiego.org, said he doesn't see how it gives the impression Frye backs Peters.
"The piece is centered on the update of the city's General Plan and the purpose was to point out that the City Council does positive things for the city and we don't think that message gets out. It was meant to congratulate them on dealing with the environment and dealing with jobs," he said.
You might remember the debate the city had about language that would be included in the finalized growth plan for the city. The City Council faced down the mayor and forced language in the document with which unions and left-leaning activists were happy.
"It's a policy wonk issue and it didn't get as much attention as it should have," McLaughlin said.
Hence the mailer.
But Frye wasn't happy. Nobody called to let her know she'd be part of the campaign mailer.
"It just shows me that Scott Peters can't stand on his own legitimately," Frye said.
Update 9:11 a.m.: Here's the mailer for your review and Lorena Gonzalez, the secretary treasurer of the Labor Council, already responded with a letter here.
This is an important and moving series. Take the time to read it if you can. Randy Dotinga is a talented writer and it's an honor to have him publish it here.
The wife has been on fire lately with these cartoons. Check them out -- some of her smartest work yet. She did just get a job though. We'll see if the volunteer drawing continues. I'll sharpen up on my guilt-trip skills.
I was remiss not to point out that the well-organized and good debate I moderated last night for the District 7 candidates was put on by the Tierrasanta Community Council. There were 150 people there. Nice.
I tried listening to the Union-Tribune's Bob Kittle, today on SignOnRadio where he hosted City Attorney Mike Aguirre. But I got pulled away. Any thoughts or reports? The topic was Aguirre's obstruction of an infrastructure bond. I haven't followed that as well as I should but it's worth noting that it's rather unfortunate that the city should have to borrow money to pay for routine maintenance of city streets. I remember my father telling me never to put groceries on my credit card. He said the debt would always stick around in some form and I would always be behind.
I never did. Though that's probably more luck than anything.
So last night I moderated a well-attended and well-organized debate between the candidates for City Council District 7.
After asking a question about how the perspective council members viewed the role of the city attorney, I decided it would be interesting to see who each of them supported in the tense race to be the city's top lawyer.
Here's how they responded:
April Boling, the certified public accountant and Republican standard-bearer in the race, said she was now comfortable announcing that she endorsed Jan Goldsmith, the superior court judge in the race.
Bill Daniel, the teacher, said he was unwilling to say -- though, he had spoken in very complimentary terms about incumbent City Attorney Mike Aguirre.
David Tos, the police officer, said he too would support Goldsmith. But he was reluctant to talk too much about it because, as a cop, Aguirre was in his "chain of command."
Finally, Marti Emerald, the former television reporter/consumer advocate turned politician, said she was unwilling to say as yet who she supported -- she hasn't decided.
But she did indicate she didn't support Aguirre and, in the past, she has, reportedly, expressed some degree of affinity with Goldsmith as well. Emerald's husband -- attorney S. Myron Klarfeld -- has worked with Goldsmith before.
In a Q&A with San Diego Magazine's Tom Blair a couple of years ago, "San Diego's most visible consumer advocate" touched on the connection:
[Tom Blair]: You married an attorney a couple of years ago.
[Marti Emerald]: Michael Klarfeld. He’s an amazing man. We’re celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary. And he has been my rock.
TB: It has to be helpful in your work to have an attorney at home. Does he ever give you advice?
ME: When does he not? But yes, absolutely, the discussions around our house are very interesting. We met when I was doing a story about a consumer issue. He helped write the law that took expiration dates off gift certificates in California. He sued dozens of major national retailers. Some friends were the lead plaintiffs. And he won the suit. Then he went to his assemblyman at the time, Jan Goldsmith, and said there ought to be a law. And so the two of them sat down and wrote it, and it passed unanimously.
If she does support Goldsmith, that might be a bit interesting. After all, Emerald's friends in the labor community have thrown their lot in with City Councilman Scott Peters and she has already broken with them, passionately, with the question of Proposition C -- the restructuring of the city auditor function (she opposes it, and the Labor Council adamantly supports it).
Yesterday, in a This Just In post, voiceofsandiego.org intern Bethany Leach reported something interesting about official projections from the San Diego Association of Governments:
Despite rapid growth in the next few decades, San Diego expects to decrease congestion on freeways. Only two other cities in the report expect lower congestion: Seattle and Milwaukee.
That's a pretty bold claim: Traffic is going to get better?
NBC San Diego's Gene Cubbison found reactions to that Tuesday.
This is a good back and forth on the proposal we wrote about a while ago to somehow put an upper deck on the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal. It is, as I wrote then, a kind of party on the top, business on the bottom proposal. The idea is that you could put some kind roof on the importing and exporting operations taking place there and then put roller coasters, stadiums, conventions, dancers, whatever on top.
Anyway, there's big money on both sides of this debate. So we'll keep on it.
Thanks to NBC San Diego for providing the video. Our partnership has gone to a new level and should make a lot of collaboration possible. And most importantly, of course, it should mean I can always find something for Monday morning.
I. The Scourge of the Flip Flopper Label: I've said it before and I'm saying it again: It takes great courage for politicians to admit they've changed their mind about something. But if they do change their mind they should champion it and just be proud of the reasons why.
If Steve Francis wants to be the friend of labor unions and environmentalists in town, he should just admit that this is a new thing for him. In response to questions about this, he should have just said "Yes, 20 years ago I was a real champion of property rights. Sometimes I believed development interests took precedence over the environment. Now, I realize our natural resources need to be better protected and I'm committed to it."
Bam.
It is not a sign of weakness to change your mind. What's weak is to change your mind and to exhibit discomfort with the reasons why.
II. The Mayor's F-Bomb: So the mayor decided his rival Steve Francis deserved something other than a handshake after their debate this weekend. The mayor says he dropped the f-bomb on Steve Francis after their debate this week because he was tired of his rival questioning his integrity.
Whether the mayor inappropriately insulted Francis is one thing. But he shouldn't get so easily upset by this campaigning. I distinctly remember Sanders telling a group of gathered press about the lies Donna Frye had supposedly told during their 2005 campaign. Integrity is sometimes up for debate in these things.
Wow. So, remember that condo in North Park that was being offered at a price less than the government subsidized "affordable" homes nearby? My colleague, Kelly Bennett, reports that it was sold but the sale was blocked by the bank. Check it out.
It could even go for less than it was offered before.
So the local umbrella branch of the AFL-CIO, the San Diego Imperial - Counties Labor Council, is considering endorsing Steve Francis for mayor.
A friend just pointed me to this passage in a 2005 story in Union-Tribune written by Phil LaVelle, the former ace political reporter. It was a story largely about Francis' past and his record as a Nevada state legislator. He served in the Nevada Assembly from 1982 until 1987.
Like most legislators of the day, Francis, then a manager at Caesars Palace, supported the Nevada Resort Association, the lobbying arm of the hotel-gaming industry, by far the state's leading employer. His votes earned the enduring enmity of the Nevada AFL-CIO. "Steve had a poor record for working people, to say the least," said Danny Thompson, who served with Francis in the Assembly and is now executive secretary-treasurer of the Nevada AFL-CIO. "He was a vigorous opponent of working people. You name it, he was against it."
Francis said in response: "Labor unions in San Diego are mild and soft in comparison to labor unions in Nevada. . . . When the unions go too far you have to have the guts to say no."
Here's a link to Friday's Editor's Roundtable, on KPBS, if you missed me, Chris Reed from the Union-Tribune and J.W. August from KGTV.
Reed was pretty hard on San Diego City Council President Scott Peters -- wondering how he could have gotten to be the council president without a very "agile" political mind. It was a product of our discussion on the City Council's recent awkward decision to award its members, in coming years, a 24 percent raise.
And I think Peters was bizarrely unprepared for the political fallout of that move.
I've often been surprised by his seeming surprise at the way people react to his decisions and actions.
I was at a meeting of Progressive San Diego the other night where Peters was mildly heckled during his short speech. He had a bit more trouble connecting with the left than he should. After all, he's supposed to be the alternative choice for those left-leaning voters who are disillusioned with City Attorney Mike Aguirre but not interested in supporting the conservative options.
He would do better with succinct speeches like this little talk that is available on YouTube:
It's very good. It's short, to the point, and yet it's able to communicate so much: That he's a good lawyer, that he will fight for environmental laws, and that he's sympathetic to business needs and jobs. If he can figure out how to talk like that more often, and somehow drive the conversation away from the City Council's past misdeeds, he might have a chance.
I would have never believed this news four months ago but get this: The San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council is seriously considering endorsing businessman and Republican Steve Francis for mayor after meeting with the candidates this weekend, two sources confirmed for me.
The coalition of local unions apparently did a poll that shows Francis very competitive against incumbent Mayor Jerry Sanders. We instituted a policy of not publicizing the results of polls done on behalf of campaigns and others where the whole poll, and its questions, are not shared. So we are not releasing the figures or details. But it appears that the poll itself is being used internally to help guide union bosses toward the once-wild idea that an endorsement of Francis is palatable.
Francis' hard turn to the political left is also helping along with one other factor: Francis, of course, isn't looking for money to be part of a deal with the Labor Council. He's got all that covered. It's a lot easier, I would think, to give an endorsement when you don't have to worry about putting money behind your words.
If the endorsement comes, we might have to stop saying that Francis is marching to the left. He'll have arrived.
I'm sure the former staunch conservative never said anything about unions that could prove awkward as these discussions progress.
This is just ridiculous. The U-T quotes this guy every month when the housing prices numbers come out. Every month he makes something of a hedged prediction. This one's a classic.
"The market needs to get its footing and it's not going to get its footing until a bottom has been determined," Karevoll said.
He predicted that San Diego's overall median may slip another $45,000 and bottom out at around $350,000.
"If that happens between now and summer, I think there is also an equal chance that the median could go back over $500,000 by the end of the year," he said. "That's how crazy it is out there."
But that prediction assumes San Diego is not in a recession, even if the rest of country is. If a serious economic downturn develops, Karevoll said, many homeowners may lose their jobs, default on their homes and extend the real estate woes well into 2009.
Really?
Inspired by that performance, I'm going to try my hand at this prediction thing. But here I'm going to put on my weather expert hat:
I’m pretty sure that if there’s significant high pressure systems in the region, we’ll have warm weather over coming days. But if a storm front comes, it’ll depend on whether it hits us directly or not, if it hits us directly, we’ll get rain. If not, we might have partly cloudy skies.
All around, I know I said it would be sunny not long ago, but it looks like it will either be sunny, partly cloudy, or rainy going forward. Unless, of course, it’s just overcast -- which is a possibility as well.
What did you think? Totally nailed it, right. I wish I could put money on that one.
So here's a challenge to my snarkiest readers. Please post your equally incisive and risky predictions -- send me an e-mail if you'd like. I want the best examples of really going out on a limb based on your diligent research.
The City Council built up some credit -- just some -- over the past few years by eschewing what were mostly reasonable recommendations to raise its members' salaries. It was a simple gesture of restraint during a time of fiscal troubles.
I have always believed that members of the City Council should be paid higher salaries. Members of the county Board of Supervisors across town make twice as much to make much easier decisions. I'm not saying that's the standard to go by, I'm just saying that $75,000 is not enough for the City Council.
I thought that over time, if they accomplished some fiscal stability, they could gradually boost their earnings to a higher level.
That's just crazy. Yes, boost your salary but how about 5 percent this year, 4 percent next year and so on? Doing it all like this just completely ruins any good will the council built up in the last couple of years with restraint. Plus, it draws unnecessary attention to the issue. A 5 percent raise would have still angered those who really hate the council. But it would have skated by.
Boosting City Council pay by nearly a quarter in one year is an invitation to critics. The City Council should have thought better before sending it out.
I hadn't realized it but City Attorney Mike Aguirre's appeals to continue to try to prosecute Sunroad executive Tom Story have been completely exhausted.
I must have been sleeping but yeah, that whole brouhaha that exploded when he charged Story a long time ago and then was blockaded by local judges is over. He is officially unable to take the case and there are no more appeals.
But now, Mayor Jerry Sanders is proposing that the City Council appoint a special prosecutor to look into the matter.
Jay Goldstone, the mayor's chief operating officer, sent a memo to the City Council last week pointing out that because the district attorney and attorney general have declined to take up the prosecution, the only way this thing could be looked into is by a special prosecutor.
The mayor's spokesman, Fred Sainz, elaborated a bit for me.
The city attorney surprised some when he appeared with Mayor Sanders to release the mayor's staff report on the Sunroad debacle.
"Our consideration right now is that absent some other means, a special prosecutor may well be the only way to determine whether these charges have any validity whatsoever," Sainz said.
Just a bit of background: Aguirre charged Story with 11 misdemeanor violations of the lobbying laws that prohibit former city officials from contacting their former colleagues on business issues for a set period of time.
Judge Michael Wellington, however, slammed Aguirre in perhaps the most brutal rebuke of the city attorney yet recorded in an official ruling. Wellington ruled that Aguirre couldn't prosecute Story because he had unethically allowed the lines to blur between his criminal investigation into Story and his civil lawsuit against Sunroad.
If the city attorney can't prosecute it, and the district attorney and attorney general say thanks, but no thanks, then it's hard to imagine how this thing could continue.
The mayor, however, seems to think that letting it die could be a political liability for him.
But that brings up the other point: The mayor and City Council can just appoint a special prosecutor if the unspecial prosecutors either can't or won't investigate something?
That's a bit scary. Makes you think twice about getting on their bad side.
"We would only do this in an extraordinary circumstance and it was recommended by the district attorney," Sainz said.
Now, how worried should Story have to be?
Well, the mayor's own staff found that city employees had violated administrative regulations by speaking with Story.
Here's the rule they were accused of breaking:
City employees shall not communicate with former City employees on any issue or matter in which that former employee had official responsibility or participation for a period of one year from the former employee's final date of active employment.
If city employees broke it because they talked to Story, did Story break the rules by talking to them?
I called the City Attorney's Office to ask him about it. I can imagine Aguirre either having an exotic theory about what the mayor is trying to do with this special prosecutor or, on the other hand, being happy about the mayor trying to find out if Story really is guilty of a crime in this mess.
"Since this is a criminal matter still under consideration, we can't comment on it," said Chris Morris, the head of the city attorney's criminal division.
There was a lingering question Friday about whether Marti Emerald could legally take a second (or third) job if she becomes a member of the San Diego City Council.
She has said she will suffer financially with the $75,000 salary council members earn and she may keep doing consulting work or teach at a college to make up for it.
It looks like she would be in charge of deciding whether that's OK or not.
The city charter says this (emphasis mine):
Council members, including the Mayor, shall devote full time to the duties of their office and not engage in any outside employment, trade, business or profession which interferes or conflicts with those duties.
How in the world would you ever be able to prove that an outside job interfered or conflicted with an official's duties? You'd have to ask them. I bet I can predict how they would answer if asked whether they were letting their private enterprise efforts interfere with their official duties.
Reader Jennifer asked me to go a bit further with this in feedback on the last post.
Here was Jennifer's question:
The attack on Marti Emerald is very transparent and may actually bring up more questions about her opponent's outside work. Will Ms [April] Boling continue her current accounting career outside of council work if elected? And, will she actually be making more money...or less.... than she does now, if elected? I await answers, Scott. Thanks
OK, answers. I asked April Boling if the council salary would be less than her current earnings. She said "definitely."
I asked if she'd keep active in her accounting business. She said the council salary is enough.
"I believe it is impossible for a councilmember to represent his or her district well with a side job," she said. "Once elected, I will shut down my accounting practice and take no new clients or employment during my term in office."
EHC members want to see Barrio Logan redeveloped and improved, but to the benefit of its residents, local businesses and historic cultural heritage. Big developers and speculators have other interests.
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