Pat Flannery on the Web

by Pat Flannery top^

Wednesday's CCDC Board hearing of the Gran Havana redevelopment case was more interesting for what it did not say than for what it did.

Starting with the Agenda. The Gaslamp Renaissance Hotel, formerly the Gran Havana Cigar Shop, was Item 17. Note that it made no mention of the alternative action available to the Board, viz. to sign this draft Notice of Default (pages 15-16) specially prepared for this CCDC Board meeting but hidden deep in the 57 page staff report. The actual Agenda only offered the Board action recommended by the staff, viz. to extend Ramin Samimi's development agreement for another two years. That is dirty pool by the staff.

Nancy Graham and Eli Sanchez tried to hoodwink the Board into doing what staff wanted. The unmistakable impression was intentionally given that the only action available to the Board was to extend the developer's contract. That contract is now in default for over six months - since December 15, 2006. Putting Samimi in default was not an option.

Well, the Board didn't go for it. They voted unanimously to send the matter back to the Real Estate sub-Committee on July 11, 2007. Here is a link to that Agenda. It is not published yet but try it again next week. In the meantime, for a look at what the Real Estate Committee does, here is a link to its Agenda for its last meeting on June 13, 2007.

Not getting their way on Wednesday put Nancy and Eli's plan to help Samimi out of kilter. No matter what the Real Estate Committee decides on July 11, it has to come back to the full CCDC Board on July 25 as a recommendation only. Here is the link to the July meeting agenda. Click on it during July when the Agenda will be published.

Again, no matter what the CCDC Board decides on July 25, the item has to come before the Redevelopment Agency Board (8 Member City Council sitting as the Redevelopment Agency). There is no RDA board meeting in August, therefore the earliest Samimi can get his extension is September 11, 2007. By then he will be 9 months in default.

What was obvious from watching Wednesday's meeting is that the Gran Havana case is not about whether eminent domain is a good thing or a bad thing (although that is what they want us to think) it is about favoritism. It is clear that the CCDC staff, for whatever reason, favors Samimi over Mesdaq. They have done so from the very beginning.

Did somebody get paid off? Staff members stuck their necks out a long way, for themselves or somebody higher up, by issuing a false Polanco Notice (alleging the presence of a toxic waste dump) on the 5,000 square feet lot owned by Mesdaq but not on the adjacent 35,000 square feet owned by Samimi. That smells of corruption.

In the interest of fairness, here is the real picture. 06/28/07

by Pat Flannery top^

I think the handshake picture in the U-T this morning was a little unfair to both men, so here is my picture of the same moment yesterday.

The U-T picture gave the false impression that Sanders and Aguirre avoided looking at each other as they shook hands. As you can see, that is not correct.

In the interest of fairness I just thought I would clear that up.

The purpose of the press conference was to hand out this letter, the Mayor's response to Sunroad's letter, which was the subject of the 9:00 PM press conference the night before and Mr. Aguirre response to both the Mayor and Sunroad. Enjoy.

At the risk of being accused of puckering up to Mike (Mike knows I don't "pucker up" very well) we should all be grateful to him for personally taking the time to write a full four page letter of careful explanation to Sunroad. It is pure Aguirre. This is not just showmanship for Mike, he really does care. He takes the time. I think even Sanders will admit that.

CCDC used a false allegation of toxic waste to seize Gran Havana. 06/25/07

by Pat Flannery top^

Mayor Sanders must deal with the emerging Gran Havana scandal before he has another Sunroad on his hands, maybe even worse.

Eli Sanchez, the CCDC project manager for Ramin Samimi's hotel project, admitted under oath at trial that he knew there was no contamination on the Gran Havana site and that he knew Samimi was using CCDC's false charge of toxic waste as a negotiating tool against Gran Havana. Isn't that corruption? A City employee lying for a developer?

Here's the unfolding story:

According to Cynthia Eldred's letter (pages 17-26) to CCDC (she is the lawyer for the developer who seized Gran Havana) the developer, Ramin Samimi, has to date spent $23 million on this project. Now he is in default on his contract with the City. Read the draft Notice of Default (pages 15-16) prepared for the CCDC Board meeting tomorrow. They must decide between extending and changing his contract or pulling the rug on him.

Samimi was contracted to close escrow (on the purchase from the now City-condemned Gran Havana property) by December 15, 2006 and to commence construction of a hotel by January 16, 2006. He has done neither. That escrow was due to close over 6 months ago! Try that one in the real world of private real estate.

Mr. Samimi now has $23 million riding on the toss of a coin at tomorrow's CCDC meeting. He is truly a risk-taker. Or is he? Somehow I don't think so. I suspect the fix has been in for a long time. We know he has friends in high places.

Remember the Iranian immigrant, Kourosh Hangafarin, Dick Murphy controversially appointed to the Port Commission, widely believed to be because of his extraordinary ability to raise big bucks for Republican Party causes from the deep-pocketed San Diego Iranian-American community? I am told Hangafarin is Samimi's cousin. Read this CityBeat article about Hangafarin's bizarre trip to Cuba that got him fired from the Port.

So, Simimi has $10,165,000 on deposit with CCDC for the acquisition of the 5,000 square feet Gran Havana lot (which the City now owns) and according to Cynthia Eldred, he spent $8 million on consulting and legal fees. This means that he spent only $4,835,000 to acquire the other 35,000 square feet. He offered Mesdaq a mere pittance for the Gran Havana property, boasting that he would use CCDC to get it for him.

In her letter to CCDC (page 25), Ms. Eldred cites as evidence of Mr. Samimi's "good faith effort to develop the project" the fact that he has spent $23 million to date. To expend such money without a guarantee of success, she points out, would be "folly". I agree. Who then is Mr. Samimi's friend at CCDC? The Project Manager Eli Sanchez? His boss Mr. Allsbrook? Both? The whole CCDC Board?

Why did CCDC appeal Mr. Mesdaq's successful court case? The Agency had nothing to gain. Samimi had contracted with CCDC to pay all the expenses, including acquisition costs and litigation expenses. CCDC is not at risk for a penny. And Samimi had already put the $10,165,000 on deposit with CCDC. There must be a reason why CCDC appealed.

I suspect that CCDC knew all along that Samimi was no hotel developer, that he needed to find somebody to do what he was contracted to do. He needed time. Did they cover for him until he finally located such a hotel developer? Read the email (page 33) everybody was waiting for. It didn't take Eli Sanchez long to get things rolling after that.

This vital June 5, 2007 email confirmed for Eli Sanchez and CCDC that Samimi's proposed lessee, Hansji Hotels Inc., had finally secured its contract with Marriott and everything was a go. Sanchez got it docketed for the CCDC Real Estate Committee June 13. They passed the buck to a full CCDC Board meeting tomorrow.

Why would CCDC spend public money to help a private developer when they had no monetary interest in the case? It screams to high heaven of corruption!

Project Manager Eli Sanchez's staff report to the CCDC Board tomorrow is taken almost word for word from Cynthia Eldred's letter. Sanchez is a City-paid advocate for Samimi.

David Allsbrook, Eli Sanchez' boss, is a long time staffer with CCDC. He was CCDC's manager of contracting and acquisitions and managed the agency's "land assembly" efforts in the East Village. He knows all the tricks. He is an expert on the use of eminent domain and the use (and abuse?) of the Polanco Act, the legal tool used by Redevelopment Agencies to clean up toxic waste sites. His wife is a real estate agent with Prudential Realty (Neuman & Neuman) and works in the downtown office.

This extract from Gran Havana's attorney Vince Bartolotta's court brief makes it very clear that CCDC, acting on behalf of a private developer, forced Ahmed Mesdaq, owner of Gran Havana, to spend $100,000 to defend himself against a trumped up charge of toxic waste. Read the whole brief.

Who is going to stop this corruption from being validated by the CCDC Board tomorrow? It is not too late. Nancy Graham, President of CCDC, should intervene and at least ask for a continuance until the matter can be investigated. If not, the false toxic waste charge is enough to launch an FBI investigation. The Feds don't like their laws being abused.

If Nancy Graham does not act in time, Mayor Jerry Sanders should intervene. Does he want another Sunroad, maybe worse, on his hands?

The smell of corruption is already sticking to this city. If Sanders does not act on Gran Havana he may never be able to convince the credit agencies to reinstate our credit rating, this side of a Chapter 9 Municipal bankruptcy.

We owe Ahmad Mesdaq (Gran Havana coffee shop) our support. 06/25/07

by Pat Flannery top^

This is a video

interview with Ahmad Mesdaq, former owner of the Gran Havana cigar and coffee shop downtown. Ahmad had his property taken from him by the City of San Diego using eminent domain. The City gave it to Ramin Samimi. The case has attracted national attention.

He asks for your support at Wednesday's CCDC meeting where he hopes they will not give an extension to Samimi who has done nothing with the property. It is now a parking lot. We owe him our support, it could happen to any of us.

For those of you who really want to help and who really care, read this brief. It tells it all.

Why is the City helping this developer? He has already lost his case, but the City is appealing it. Is this another Sunroad?

Pandering to developers is not corruption? 06/25/07

by Pat Flannery top^

The top 20 feet of the too-tall Sunroad office building may not be the only thing discussed at that infamous December 19, 2006 meeting in the Mayor's office. There may also have been the matter of an SDG&E substation Sunroad was supposed to move to a new location.

Here is the SDG&E letter to the PUC advising them of the proposed move. It never happened. Sunroad reneged.

Why has the City allowed Sunroad to get away with it?

Here is a short video

I took last week. You can see why this thing needs to be moved. It is a left-over from the General Dynamics days and is now right in the middle of the residential section of the redevelopment.

I talked to a number of residents and they are outraged at the City for allowing such a dangerous eyesore, and possible health hazard, to remain in their midst. It is a clear danger to their children. You can almost reach out and touch it through the very flimsy fence at the recreation area. It is a dreadful accident waiting to happen.

Sunroad became obligated to move this SDG&E transformer through a Mitigated Negative Declaration (LDR 41-0101) adopted by the City Council on November 12, 2002, Resolution 297294. The substation was supposed to be relocated to location B on the map below. It is still at location A. Unbelievable! What happens when you or I perpetrate the slightest code violation on our house? A City inspector is out with his citation book within the hour.

Below is what Sanders is letting Sunroad get away with. They are being allowed to put a parking structure where the SDG&E substation is supposed to be.

I am not a crook - Jerry Sanders. 06/21/07

by Pat Flannery top^

The deepening Sunroad scandal is following a familiar course: Sanders gave his "I am not a crook" speech today. Here is the video

Unlike Nixon, who was largely isolated in the White House back in 1972, Sanders was able to muster almost the entire law enforcement establishment behind him today.

What does that say about San Diego in 2007? That it is far more corrupt than Washington was in 1972, that's what. Look at them, Police Chief Lansdowne, Sherriff Kolender and District Attorney Dumanis.

Chief Lansdowne seems to actually admire corrupt politicians. Back on July 1, 2005 he shocked his own officers by going to court, without being asked, to testify in favor of somebody he hardly knew, disgraced City Councilmember Michael Zucchet, at Zucchet's corruption trial. Even Sanders, running for Mayor at the time, condemned that one.

Then Sanders said this

. Wow! What a city. Flanked by the Establishment-appointed District Attorney, Bonnie Dumanis he said "I am confident that this evaluation will conclude that I acted properly". Was there ever a more disgraceful line-up of public officials? It represents a complete breakdown of law enforcement in this County. Of course they will exonerate Sanders. He is one of them.

So now what? Well, I say start the recall right away. What else can we do? Look at the above picture. It is like they are defying us. The entire law enforcement establishment of this County! They know Sanders is corrupt and they are going to protect him!

Look at the evidence. Look at the key email I published on this blog (for the first time anywhere) on June 8, 2007.

It proved (Sanders has since admitted it on the Roger Hedgecock Show) that a crucial meeting took place on December 19, 2006. What happened at that meeting?
Here's what happened

. Aaron Feldman, President of Sunroad, came to the Mayor's office and succeeded in getting Mayor Sanders to overrule the City's building inspector by instructing the Director of Development Services, Marcella Escobar-Eck, (long time City colleague of Tom Story, who is now a VP with Sunroad) to personally sign the letter to Sunroad lifting the City's Stop Work Order. The City's duly appointed building inspector had refused to do it. He is no longer with the City.

Now if that is not corrupt, what is? And the above disgraceful line-up of top law enforcement officials defend Mayor Sanders and blame the City Attorney for not being as corrupt as they are! Sometimes I think this is all just a bad dream.

Sunroad called a news conference yesterday and admitted that it called it to warn off the City and Aguirre

. Obviously it didn't work. Thank goodness for Mr. Aguirre. I don't know how he keeps going under such a relentless onslaught of sleaze - condoned, aided and abetted by the very law enforcement officials who should be on his side.

And Sunroad "is disappointed in the Mayor". He hasn't done enough for them! It reminds me of all Dick Murphy did for John Moores who then hung him out to dry. Here is Sunroad's attorney yesterday expressing that disappointment

. Can you believe it?

Then watch Sunroad's attorney insist that Montgomery Field is safe

.

The only thing we can do is recall the Mayor. The above line-up has left us no choice. They have deprived us of all legal recourse. It is nothing short of a legal coup d'é·tat.

No good will come until we are rid of Sanders. He has corrupted everything he touches. The law enforcement officials who (purely for Party loyalty?) stood up with him today, should hang their heads in shame for the rest of their lives. What an ignominious end to the long career of Sheriff Bill Kolender. What a sad spectacle to see such a longtime public servant stray so far from the path of decency. It truly was a sad day for San Diego.

Did Tony Atkins sell her vote to Sanders? 06/17/07

by Pat Flannery top^

Will this be called the "Toni Atkins Park"?. Will it be Toni's monument to her "public service"? If so, then it should have the word "shame" inscribed below her name.

Here is a video clip

from Sanders 2008 Budget signing publicity gig on June 13, 2007. Note how Atkins can hardly keep her hands off her idol, Sanders. I thought she was going to kiss him. What had he done to make her so fawning and obsequious? Her name on a park in return for closing a winter homeless shelter and for her vote on June 11th depriving the City Attorney of 14 city attorneys?

Following her June 11th vote to cut 14 city attorneys and following her much publicized promise to uphold Sanders' disgraceful veto on the funding of a $465,000 homeless shelter, this "Toni Atkins Park" item was rushed onto the City Council agenda with unseemly haste. It received all the necessary signatures on June 12th. It is now on the Docket for June 19th. That is unheard of.

Here is part of the Staff Summary:

"Fiscal Considerations: These actions will appropriate a total of $411,200 to CIP-29-002.0, Central Avenue Mini Park-Acquisition ..... contingent upon receipt of a fully executed grant agreement, and authorize an expenditure of a total of $520,000 from CIP-29-002.0, Central Avenue Mini Park-Acquisition, for the acquisition of the 0.37 acre Caltrans excess property for future park purposes."

Here is the Form 1472 that was expedited on June 12th. Notice the date of all the Mayor's office signers - June 12th. Even the City Comptroller obliged by signing a form certifying that the money was available.

Once my suspicions were aroused I went back over the video of the Council meeting on June 11, 2006. I wanted to see if Atkins had anything to say about cutting Aguirre's 14 attorneys. She had said nothing. It reminded me of Tony Young on January 9, 2007 when he cast the deciding vote in favor of Manchester's Navy Broadway. He never said a word all that long fateful day. He just voted to uphold a 15 year old EIR. Guilt?

Nor did Atkins have anything to say about the winter homeless shelter as she voted for Sanders' budget. Donna Frye on the other hand could not hold back the tears as she witnessed the callousness of those around her on the bench. Here is a short video clip of her pain, for caring about other human beings.

After several of her colleagues had spoken about the budget and after she had recovered herself, Donna made a final valiant effort to rescue the winter homeless shelter. Her extraordinary passion moved Madaffer, against Madaffer's better judgment as he explained, to second her motion. It was a separate motion from the main budget item.

Here is the video of Donna laying out her motion and the subsequent vote.

The idea was to make every effort to raise the $465,000 elsewhere and pay back the reserve. Peters, Hueso and Faulconer voted "no" but the other five passed it. Sanders has vetoed it. Atkins has told the press she will support the Sanders veto. Why is she pledged to reverse her June 11th vote? I am sure she will deny any connection with the mini park. How will she explain how her sweetheart park deal got expedited in one day?

Or was it payback for going along with the Mayor in gutting Aguirre's department?

City's building inspector fired for not repealing Sunroad's Stop Work order? 06/15/07

by Pat Flannery top^

Here is a transcript of Roger Hedgecock's interview with Jerry Sanders yesterday. I have provided links to relevant documents and written some comments of my own.

Today, Mr. Aguirre released this News Release. In it he says:

The Mayor recently confirmed on KOGO radio that a City building inspector refused to sign a December 21, 2006, modified stop work order that allowed weather-proofing of the Centrum building ..... today the City Attorney spoke with the inspector and he confirmed to Aguirre that he refused to sign the proposed modified stop work notice because it went far beyond weatherizing the building. The inspector no longer works at the City and is employed in San Francisco.

This feels more and more like Watergate. The lies keep tumbling out.

Was a City building inspector fired for not repealing the Sunroad stop work order? Where is Ted Sexton? Why did Ronne Froman suddenly quit?

Gran Havana eminent domain: it's not over yet. 06/15/07

by Pat Flannery top^

So now we know what the taking by eminent domain of the Gran Havana building at 5th & J downtown (by CCDC) was all about. For a relatively small campaign contribution an aggressive developer can get to use government's police power to intimidate owners and acquire valuable developable properties. It sure beats paying market value.

La Jolla based developer Ramin Samimi (a prominent member of the San Diego Iranian community) through his 5th and J Limited Partnership, gave $10,000 to the local GOP central committee in 2004. That committee then gave $7,800 to Jim Madaffer's City Council re-election campaign. That is how you buy the police power of government. Doug Manchester gave $50,000 to the Lincoln Club in 2006, which immediately gave $50,000 to Sanders' Prop C campaign (Prop C was the "outsourcing" initiative that meant a lot to Sanders).

Jim Madaffer is chairman of the City's Land Use and Housing Committee and a big supporter of "redevelopment". His influence over the CCDC is legendary. So Samimi got the Gran Havana site and Doug Manchester got five City Councilors to ignore the seismic fault under Navy Broadway. I will never forgive Tony Young for that immoral vote. I pick on him because he knew better and better was expected of him.

Now it turns out that Ramin Samimi never intended to build a hotel on the site. And CCDC knew it. He is in the business of acquiring ownership of valuable land and renting it out to real developers. He is doing exactly the same as McMillin, who is leasing valuable land he acquired from the City for $1, to the “Nickelodeon Resorts by Marriott”.

Having got CCDC (and Madaffer?) to acquire the Gran Havana property for him (using the City's police power of eminent domain), Samimi will now be the ground landlord to Hansji Hotels.

Hansji Hotels intend to build and operate a 350 room Marriott hotel (see the rendering opposite). That should bring in a nice rent check to Samimi.

BUT it will require a "bait-and-switch" action by CCDC to the original Disposition and Development Agreement (DDA). That action was deferred from the CCDC Real Estate Sub-Committee meeting on June 13, 2007 (they got cold feet) to a full CCDC board on June 27, 2007. I shall be there with my trusty YouTube camera.

If the CCDC board does not amend the DDA, Samimi will be in default of his agreement with the City. HE was supposed to build the hotel, not rent the deal to a third party.

You will remember Ahmad Mesdaq's spirited fight against the City's eminent domain taking of his 5th and J Gran Havana property. Ahmed is a great guy. His father was a general in the Afghan air force who fought to repel the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Threatened with death if he remained in Afghanistan, General Mesdaq sought and obtained political asylum in the United States for himself and his family in 1983.

I have no doubt that Ahmad will put up a spirited fight at CCDC on June 27th, just as his father did with the Ruskies. But I'm sure he would appreciate some support. The CCDC board must not be allowed to approve this "bait-and-switch" change to the original DDA.

If they do, I will be convinced they were complicit in this misuse of the power of eminent domain from the beginning. They took property from a hard-working citizen and gave it to a campaign contributor of a powerful and unscrupulous City Councilor, Jim Madaffer.

Here is the supporting documentation for that aborted CCDC Real Estate Committee meeting on June 13, 2007. It will probably be substantially the same for June 27th. Here also is the Trial Brief for Mesdaq's 2005 suit against the Redevelopment Agency. It provides an excellent summary of this whole nasty business.

Sanders hasn't got a shred of credibility left. 06/13/07

by Pat Flannery top^

I went to Mike Aguirre's press conference on the 13th floor of City Hall yesterday. It promised to be a big one, and it was. As I set up my little home video camera I joked with the big boys to move over that YouTube was here. Gene Cubbison (NBC 7/39) quipped "oh, oh, we're going global". Seriously though, the Internet is a beautiful thing and is doing wonderful things for democracy.

Mike started out by telling us that he discovered Sunroad documents in Ted Sexton's airport office. These documents had been illegally moved from Sexton's city office to his airport office (Sexton is on loan to the City from the Airport Authority).

He went on to tell us that he has been told, apparently by the airport authority's legal counsel, that there are more Sunroad documents in Sexton's airport office, but they will not be turned over to the City Attorney and that Ted Sexton has left town. Wow!

I have posted below the various documents Aguirre has obtained, as they become appropriate in my narrative. They really do make a liar out of Sanders.

First Mike held up a thick wad of architect's drawings, the entire plans for Sunroad 12, discovered in the office of a guy Sanders said had nothing to do with Sunroad.

Then Mike dealt with a previously withheld March 2, 2007 letter from Sanders to Alan Bersin, Chairman of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. In this letter Sanders pretended that he knew nothing about the Notice of Hazard to Aviation issued by the FAA on August 11, 2006. He said that he had been "unable to get a clear analysis of whether or not the building is a safety risk to aviation". What a whopper. I guess he thought that letter was safely beyond Aguirre's reach in Sexton's airport office. No wonder Sexton left town in a hurry, Sanders must be livid at him.

The big lie to the people of San Diego is Sanders' repeated statements that Sexton was not brought in to help with Sunroad, when the entire letter is all about the Sunroad. Sanders' was requesting help in solving Sunroad and wanting "changes to operations or notices that would eliminate the risk". Here is Bersin's reply thanking Sanders for his letter "in which you request assistance from the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority to help resolve issues surrounding the Sunroad Enterprises building near Montgomery Field".

Nowhere does Bersin mention the "wider issues" Sanders is now peddling.

He could have solved the safety problem in a heartbeat by simply revoking the illegal permit he issued on July 7, 2006. But he could hardly do that when it was he himself who issued it. Nobody else could have, not even Escobar-Eck. Nor did anybody else authorize the "winterizing" nonsense on December 21, 2006, two days after Feldman's visit to his office. Again, Escobar-Eck would never have signed without Sanders' authority. Otherwise he would have fired her long ago. And Froman knew that!

What particularly galled Aguirre was that on the very day they stood together on the same platform, there on the 13th floor, May 18, 2007, the day Sanders told the people that he took full responsibility and would conduct an investigation, his hireling from the Airport Authority, Ted Sexton, was busy finalizing arrangements for a secret meeting with the FAA in Fort Worth, Texas. Now that is devious and dishonest.

Here is the PowerPoint presentation this Ted Sexton, Vice President, Regulated Operations, San Diego County Regional Airport Authority and Jim Barwick, Director, Real Estate Assets, City of San Diego, had prepared for a presentation to the FAA for four days later on May 22, 2007. Notice that the proposal said nothing about lowering the building height to 160 feet, only to "Modify Flight Procedures to restrict circling approaches north of Runway 5/23", exactly where the Sunroad building is located.

Why else was Sexton hired? As VP for "Regulated Operations" he knows this stuff backwards. Sanders hired him as a lobbyist for Sunroad, on City money.

Here is the rest of the PowerPoint presentations, one segment offered a spurious "City's Flight Safety Proposal" and another offered an even more spurious "Sunroad Hazard Elimination Proposal". All requested the same thing, "changes to operations or notices that would eliminate the risk", exactly what Sanders had requested in his letter to Alan Bersin on March 2, 2007. Now Sanders is denying the whole thing.

This would be a good time to view the 9 minute video

of Mike's lawyerly presentation of the above evidence. Between the video and the above documents you will have a very clear idea of what actually happened.

Mike then leads us through the meeting with the FAA in Texas. He notes the email that ties Ted Sexton to Tom Story and the "data" Sexton shared with Sunroad, but which was not shared with the City Attorney. Sanders has been telling the media that he is fully supportive of Aguirre's civil lawsuit against Sunroad, while all the while withholding documents and "data' from him. Is our Mayor actually working against the City in a civil lawsuit by helping a defendant who happens to be a developer? It seems that way.

At the very moment that Sanders was vehemently denying that he had borrowed Ted Sexton from the Airport Authority to lobby the FAA on behalf of Sunroad, and at the very moment he was telling the people who live south of Montgomery Field that "nothing could be further from the truth" (a favorite expression of Sainz, which gives you some idea of who writes this stuff) Ted Sexton was writing this email to the FAA.

Note the date, May 30, long after Sanders' May 18 press conference. Note that Sanders only wanted to eliminate "any public perception of a hazard" not the hazard itself.

At that press conference Sanders said that he had merely sent a letter to the FAA proposing, among other things, that Sunroad should reduce the building height to 163 feet. But here is Sexton's proposal, scheduled to be presented to the FAA only 4 days later, complete with the above PowerPoint presentation.

It never even mentions reducing the building height to 163 feet!

It is clear therefore that up until just a few days ago, until he got caught by Aguirre, Sanders was using a borrowed top ranking Airport Authority official, to get the FAA to change its rules in order to accommodate the illegal Sunroad building. At the same time he was telling the people of San Diego the exact opposite. It was his promise never to tell such lies that got him elected.

Aguirre then summarizes the situation, starting with Lansdowne's refusal to serve the warrant on Tom Story, Sanders' failure to disclose what the FAA told them in Texas, whether Sanders authorized the July 7, 2006 permit and the sudden resignation Monday of the person who was supposed to get to the bottom of it all, Ronne Froman.

Mike admitted that the establishment, the Mayor, Police Chief and District Attorney, have tied the hands of the City Attorney and are refusing to take action against their establishment friends. It made for sobering listening. This city is in deep political trouble.

Watch the video

as Aguirre explains the present situation.

One of the documents that intrigued me was this one. In it, Airport staff confirm that "the City was obligated by State law to send all proposed projects affected by the ALUCPs within their jurisdiction to the ALUC for a Consistency Determination". Not only was the July 7, 2006 permit illegal but the Substantial Conformance Review was illegal.

Mike finished up by appealing to the media to "dig deep". He pointed out that we have a prosecutorial problem in San Diego and that "corruption, at least right now, has won out".

This the final portion of his press conference

. It should give any San Diegan cause for concern.

Donna Frye thought Aguirre's press conference was so important that she actually left her City Council seat and came upstairs to support Mike and make some points of her own, particularly about the public's right to know and the lack of information from the Mayor. She was particularly appalled at the Mayor's lack of response to her numerous inquiries over many months concerning Sunroad and the known safety issue over there.

Here is the video

of her passionate presentation.

Fred Sainz, the Mayor's PR man, took the podium after Aguirre left, to take advantage of the five cameras present (not counting mine). He tried to play the whole thing down and suggested that Aguirre was hyping it to get back at Sanders for firing 14 City Attorney's.

I think it goes much deeper than that. There is no doubt the Mayor lied to the people of San Diego. And Fred Sainz will have a tough time spinning the Mayor out of this one.

Lying is an unforgivable sin in politics. Ask Richard Nixon.

The airport landfill remediation will greatly increase airport costs. 06/08/07

by Pat Flannery top^

Here is the CEQA Process Flow Chart and here is the Notice of Preparation (NOP) for the proposed Landfill Remediation EIR. Notice that it says "Excavation of the solid waste and burn ash will remove a potential source of groundwater contaminants and reduce exposure to environmental and human receptors".

Now look at the airport site and the McMillin/SpongeBob sites together..

The McMillin site is essentially worthless with a toxic dump so close by. The airport authority is estimating $67 million to clean up its site. Who is it cleaning it for? The $67 million cleanup will benefit McMillin. It will make their hotel lease possible, especially if it involves a water park and children. It seems McMillin's lobbyists have been busy.

In a U-T article today staff writer Steve Schmidt "forgot" to mention the $67 million for cleanup. So I got the airport budget and took a look for myself. It is on page 30 of 36.

(Note: because public agencies, such as the airport authority and the redevelopment agency, have more money than sense, the budget file takes forever to download due to unnecessary background colors. It is not your computer. It is the way they have configured the file - almost as if they don't want you to download it.)

NTC Landfill Remediation
FY - 2007	$2,630,255	It accounts for almost the entire "Airside" capital budget for 2008 and 2009 and is by far the biggest capital item on the airport's five year capital plan. The Airport plans to pay for the $67 million remediation from $70,535,925 Airport Revenue Bonds to be issued in 2008 and $45,662,240 to be issued in 2009.
FY - 2008	$38,621,787
FY - 2009	$25,747,858
Total:	$67,000,000

There should be a public discussion about who should pay for this cleanup and how it will affect neighboring properties. This landfill and toxic dump was a product of the Naval Training Center as a whole. It seems to me that its cleanup should be spread over the NTC property as a whole. The economic impact on the airport should be considered by the Airport Authority before accepting responsibility for the total cost of the cleanup.

The $67 million must inevitably come from the revenues of the airport. It will mean increased fees to the public and a squeezing of other areas of airport service.

No private company would have accepted ownership of this site and the accompanying liability for its toxic remediation, especially not McMillin & Co. So the City literally dumped it on a public agency. Now the traveling public will have to pay.

The City should have determined the cost of all remediation associated with the redevelopment project before deeding a single parcel to anybody. The cost of toxic remediation for the entire original NTC land should have been determined and made to "run with the land" i.e. it should have been written into the grant deed of every parcel as a monetary encumbrance on each parcel, according to its percentage of the total.

The fact that this was not done is another example of how the city's Redevelopment Agency is operated for the benefit of developers. This should be addressed by the public in next year's Council elections. The four new 2008 Councilors must be clearly tasked with correcting this particular area of city misgovernment - the Redevelopment Agency.

Sunroad's top executives meet in the Mayor's office. 06/08/07

by Pat Flannery top^

According to innumerable press conferences and media interviews by Jerry Sanders he and Jim Waring were strictly neutral on Sunroad. Campaign money never played a part in the permit process.

However, here are the headings of three emails referring to meetings between Mayor Sanders and Sunroad's President, Aaron Feldman and its Vice President Tom Story, in the Mayor's office and a meeting between Jim Waring and Aaron Feldman in Jim Waring's office. Whatever could they have been talking about, the weather?

The December 19, 2006 meeting in the Mayor's office is particularly significant. December 19th was a Tuesday. The following Thursday, December 21, 2006, Marcella Escobar-Eck issued this response to Sunroad's request to lift the stop work order. She duly lifted it. Her boss, Mayor Sanders, told her to.

It is safe to assume that the December 19th meeting in the Mayor's office was a direct approach from Sunroad to the Mayor to lift the stop work order. He did exactly as requested. Developers such as Sunroad own this Mayor. How many other big developers have this kind of access? Probably all of them. They put him there.

In an attempt to preempt Mike Aguirre's press conference today, Sanders sent an email circular to the media around 3:00 P.M. Here is an extract:

"In tonight's story, Mike Aguirre will allege that I was trying to fashion a new landing pattern to the south of the airport in order to accommodate the building's developer. Nothing can be further from the truth. Let me state emphatically that there won't be any alternative landing approaches at Montgomery Field. No one that broke the law should be accommodated. The status quo will remain in place until the building is reduced in size."

Now read Sanders' letter to the FAA dated May 18, 2007. How quickly he forgets. He said in that letter: "my staff has put forward a proposal ..." for "... aircraft to circle to the south". Now he denies saying that. He says "Nothing can be further from the truth". It would appear that "the truth" is not something Jerry Sanders is very familiar with.

In summary: it is clear that Mayor Sanders has been an advocate for the illegal Sunroad building from the beginning. It is clear that he instructed Ms. Escobar-Eck, Director of Development Services, to lift the October 27, 2006 Stop Work Order. It is clear that he brought over Ted Sexton on loan from the Airport Authority on April 1st to craft the proposal he put forward in his letter to the FAA on May 18, 2007.

This is the worst Mayor in San Diego's history. He says one thing and does another. He is only interested in corporate welfare for his campaign backers. Thank goodness for Mike Aguirre. The truth will eventually out, despite the Sanders lying machine.

It's now full steam ahead at Navy Broadway - and damn the torpedoes. 06/07/07

by Pat Flannery top^

Manchester has written to the California Coastal Commission withdrawing his application for a Coastal Development Permit. Here is his attorney's recent letter.

This is similar to Sunroad's attorney, Barbara Lichman's strident defiance of the FAA. In Manchester's case his attorney, Michael Levinson, is defying the Coastal Commission and even threatening to sue them if they try to enforce the State's coastal jurisdiction.

Levinson is quoting the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act's (CZMA) definition of the Coastal Zone: "excluded from the coastal zone are lands the use of which is by law subject solely to the discretion of, or which is held in trust by, the Federal Government its officers or agents". This pits Federal Law against State law.

So the developers' gloves are off at both Navy Broadway and Sunroad. Manchester will now start construction and damn the regulatory torpedoes.

This super-aggressiveness of the San Diego developers is intimately related to the super-permissiveness of the Sanders' administration.

The $1 per year 18 acre McMillin ground lease. 06/06/07

by Pat Flannery top^

How would you like to own a 66 year ground lease for $1 per year on this choice 17 acre Harbor Drive waterfront parcel and rent it out to the operators of a 650-room resort hotel with a 100,000 square-foot water park? Is your name McMillin?

San Diego's answer to Mickey Mouse is going to be SpongeBob SquarePants.

"The first “Nickelodeon Resorts by Marriott” property is expected to be a 650-room resort at Liberty Station in San Diego, which will incorporate a 100,000 square-foot water park and activity deck complex featuring a variety of pools and interactive attractions. Designed by Gensler, the well-known international architectural firm, the resort is expected to break ground in January 2008 and open in early 2010."

Miller Global Properties will build the above on the ($1 per year McMillan) site below.

Here is the official Parcel Map for the site, showing 6 parcels totaling a net of 17.12 acres. Not bad for $1 per year.

Here is the Memorandum of Lease between the City's Redevelopment Agency and McMillin, filed on April 30, 2002.

You will notice that on page 2, par. 5 it says that a copy of the full lease is on file at the Redevelopment Agency. So I went downtown today and read the full Lease. I paid 75 cents (almost as much as McMillan pays for a year's rent) to copy three pages, particularly the page showing the rent at $1 per year.

Most of the other pages describe the terrible things that will happen in the event McMillan fails to make his rent payment on time and how the City will recover the property in the event of his default. Normal stuff in an abnormal lease.

Here is the Redevelopment Agency's map of the entire NTC Project. It shows this site zoned as "Hotel District".

Finally here is an article in the U-T last Saturday. It tells a lot about the developers and the hotel business, but it "forgot" to mention the thing of most interest to its San Diego readers: "how much does the long-suffering San Diego tax-payer get out of this?" Zilch. And this is only a very small part of the infamous NTC giveaway, throughout which the Union-Tribune, remained mostly silent.

The taxpayers of no city should have to endure the billions of dollars in giveaways the politicians and staff of this city perpetrated on its citizens. The people of this city must find a way to bind all future candidates for elected office, with a legally enforceable contract, that they will protect and defend the public purse and not pander to developers and unions, as their predecessors have so shamelessly done over the last two decades.

Surely, of all the charter changes we think we need, this is the most important.

Another blow to Sunroad. 06/03/07

by Pat Flannery top^

Community Airfields Association of San Diego (CAASD) filed a complaint with the FAA last week requesting the imposition of civil penalties on Sunroad.

Attorney's for CAASD told me that "Federal law requires that a builder send a formal notice (Form 7461-1) to the FAA 30 days before applying for a building permit. The purpose, of course, is to trigger FAA reviews early enough to re-design. It is the BUILDER’S responsibility – not the City’s."

The CAASD complaint points out that Sunroad could be liable for $25,000 per day in penalties, up to a maximum of $400,000. Sunroad may already be facing that maximum fine as $400,00 represents only 16 days. I wonder if their hyper-aggressive aviation attorney, Barbara Lichman, will cough up the $400,000. After all it is she who has been advising them that they have nothing to fear from the FAA, that it is a toothless tiger.

Reading the CAASD complaint is useful because it highlights the important facts in this case. It also has very good Exhibits. Here, for example, is Sunroad's original application for the Substantial Conformance Review (SCR) and here is their application for the grading permit. This is the first time I have seen the actual applications. I notice however, that CAASD failed to locate the application for the July 7, 2006 building permit. That could be informative. It would show what the City knew and when it knew it.

These applications are important because they define the land Sunroad intended to develop, by showing the Parcel Number, the Parcel Map and the Assessor's Parcels Numbers. The base zoning of the identified land is thus confirmed as CC-1-3. Below is an excerpt from the City's Official Zoning Map. The orange areas are zoned CC-1-3.

According to the zoning regulations, zone CC-1-3 "is intended to accommodate development with an auto orientation". Here is a list of the actual uses allowed. But the most important restriction is: "The maximum building height for the CC-1-3 zone is 45 feet tall".

That restriction has been illegally waived by Mayor Sanders' staff. That cannot stand.