So, wow, if you like city politics and haven't listened to the Roger Hedgecock interview with Marti Emerald, the 7th District City Council candidate, you might want to check it out.
Most people, especially coming from the right, have focused on her lack of complete clarity on whether she wants the city to raise taxes or fees. On the one hand, she's on the record talking about how the city is desperately underfunded and should, like its peers, charge a fee for trash collection.
On the other hand, she doesn't think it's viable to ask residents right now to do that. They aren't completely contradictory stances, to be honest. Though we do need to keep pressing her on it.
But enough of that for now. That's not what I found most interesting in the interview. I called Marti today to ask about another revelation from the interview. Let's just jump into the transcript of the relevant part of the interview:
Roger Hedgecock: You have been a highly paid member of our fraternity of media people for a long time and obviously the City Council's salary is on your mind. Are you going to be able to live with that? $75 grand?
Marti Emerald: Yeah. You know it's not. I think that the salary is a little above the average salary of people living in the 7th District
RH: Yes it is.
Emerald: So I have no complaints and it's how much we spend not so much how much we make and I am economizing and looking forward to serving the people of San Diego and I think we'll do just fine.
RH: You going to have outside employment?
Emerald: Umm. I don't know yet. I've got a feeling that it's (the City Council) going to be a big job in and of itself.
RH: There's no question about that.
Emerald: It will be a huge job so I'm not sure that I would have time for any of that. And we'll just see how it goes. When and if elected I intend to throw myself totally into this job and work toward getting our city going in the right direction.
RH: Again at USD last week you were alluding to doing some consulting and just so we know what we're talking about here let's play a little bit of that:
(Plays tape recording of Emerald speaking) The salary that the City Council is pulling down is really kind of a nothing salary for what you're doing. It's a $2 billion, $2 and a half billion corporation here and city councilmembers are basically board members and they're pulling down $75,000 a year. This is not a job you take to get rich it's a job you take to do public service and $75,000, if it doesn't cover your expenses then, I'll tell you what I'm going to do, I'm doing consulting work and I may keep a client on and then may also teach, quite frankly. I was a journalist for 30 years and there are schools here in town who are interested in talking about these classes. So I'm going to have to suffer financially in order to serve the public but that's OK and I accept it going in.
RH: So you were talking about doing consulting work there, which is why I asked. Whether or not --
Emerald: So that is a possibility down the road and we're just going to see where it goes but my first priority will be serving the people of San Diego.
RH: Do you have a consulting company now?
Emerald: Yeah, Emerald Group.
RH: So you're doing work now, obviously, campaign time when you're not working for Channel 10 and you've kind of left that and sort of jumped out into this thing
Emerald: Yeah, still have to pay the rent.
RH: Still have to pay the rent. So you're doing consulting now?
Emerald: Yes I am.
RH: You going to disclose who the clients are?
Emerald: Oh sure I disclosed and it's public record at the City Clerk's Office
RH: Yeah, there was a financial form but I looked at that and it didn't have anything on it.
Emerald: It didn't? Oh it should be there.
Stop for a second. Roger was incorrect. The California Form 700, Statement of Economic Interests, being discussed for Emerald did list one client of her consulting firm. We pulled the papers last week.
Now, continue:
RH: Yeah the one you had to file when you went to be a candidate
Emerald: Yeah
RH: Yeah, you're supposed to put stuff down there but we didn't find anything on there.
Emerald:Well, I typed it in. I've got a couple of law firms that I'm working with. One is an attorney who does elder law work. And one is a large consumer law firm called Coughlin Stoia.
Roger then breaks for a commercial and comes back to the issue. But let's take another breather for a minute. Coughlin Stoia is Coughlin Stoia Geller & Rudman. It used to be better known as Lerach, Coughlin. That's William Lerach to be clear. Lerach, of course, separated from the firm in August of last year while under investigation by federal prosecutors. Lerach was sentenced to two years in prison several weeks ago for actions involving the firm he served before Coughlin -- Milberg Weiss:
Authorities said Lerach's former firm, now known as Milberg Weiss, made an estimated $250 million in two decades by filing legal actions on behalf of professional plaintiffs who received kickbacks. ...
The kickback scheme allowed the firm's attorneys to be among the first to file litigation and secure the lucrative position as lead plaintiffs' counsel, according to court documents.
Anyway, of course I asked Emerald about all of this, but, again, more on that later. For now, back to the transcript. Hedgecock asked Emerald about a poll her campaign had done that asked residents some interesting questions.
RH ... You were mentioning about the consulting firm and law firms that you represent. In your poll, you asked the question. ... Marti Emerald says she will stand up to special interests but she is working for one of the biggest special interests in the state, the trial lawyers, in fact she is helping them by giving kickbacks to the plaintiffs in class action suits. That's a question from your poll. Why would you ask a question like that?
Emerald: (Pauses) Because it -- it may have come up as an accusation about me. It's not true but it may come up and we wanted to test it.
RH: So if someone said that you were giving kickbacks to plaintiffs in class action suits or your attorneys you were representing in the consulting firm that would not be true?
Emerald: No.
Like I said, Emerald did disclose Coughlin Stoia's business on her Form 700. I called her today to get a little more. She said she signed with the firm to help them with public relations efforts in September, a couple of weeks after Lerach left the firm. She began working, she said, in late September, early October.
She said the firm paid her $28,000 for work she did from that point until the end of the year. She said she's been working with them about 20 hours a month.
And what did she do? She said she didn't do anything related to work helping the firm deal with the fallout from Lerach's legal troubles. She said she helps the firm's San Francisco-based spokesman, Dan Newman, with efforts in San Diego.
"He doesn't have good media connections in San Diego and I fill in the gaps working with number of lawyers spreading information about issues they work on in community or cases they're litigating where they'd like to have little more local exposure," Emerald said.
I asked again to be sure: Emerald said clearly she did not work with the firm to help it deal with the Lerach controversy.
I had the same question then: Why in the world would she ask voters what they would think about her being involved in some kind of kickback scheme for plaintiff's attorneys?
"We were covering our bases in the sense of accusations that might be made. We didn't do a push poll. We asked positive and negative questions about myself and Ms. (April) Boling. We were laying out issues that aren't true, necessarily, but might be raised to attack me," she said.
OK, finally, the other big issue with this: Is she seriously considering holding outside jobs while being a city councilmember? I mean, it's one thing to complain about "suffering financially" to serve the public. It's another to serve notice that you're going to be getting a second job or even two other side jobs.
I asked about her comments that she would be holding a consulting gig while on the City Council.
She said she didn't say that. I read her comments back and she clarified:
"If it works into my schedule doesn't take time away from my main job representing the 7th District, I might do some work. Right now the contracts I have expire in the fall and I don't have plans to continue them," she said.
She said the other client she mentioned, who does "elder law" was Scott Stewart.
Some of Emerald's critics have alleged that working a second job while being a city official would be illegal. I'll have to check on that.
For her part, Emerald isn't worried.
"If say I was a consultant, who wanted to do business with the city, that would get me into trouble. That's my understanding," she said.
We'll follow up on that and on her points about taxes.
I don't begrudge her keeping consulting work while she campaigns, but she shouldn't even be considering outside work while on the council. That's absurd. The pay is low, yes, but if you can't deal with that, then the job's not for you. Find some other way to serve the public and leave the council job for someone willing to basically devote their life to it for several years, because that's what we really need. Also, how shifty were her responses? I bet Ms. Emerald is finding it lot tougher to be on the other side of the media equation!
First off, Couglin is NOT A CONSUMER LAW FIRM, they are a class action law firm, the biggest in the nation when it was Milberg Weiss. They broke very serious laws and violated just about every ethical responsibility there is as a lawyer. The head honchos have all pleaded guilty to various charges and are doing serious prison time in addition to being disbarred. So I think Marti better start telling the truth about her consulting clients, and not some candy coated baloney about Coughlin being a "consumer law firm", like they are a public interest law firm out to help the little guy. Total baloney. But I still like Marti-and think she will make a good member of the Clowncil, but she has to be honest with the public.
It is tough to hold it against Marti that she doesn't really want to take a 50% reduction in her pay. The City Council should get paid more. We want the best and brightest to be running our City, people who presumably could easily be getting 6 figure salaries in the private sector. While there should be some 'public service' discount, if that discount is too great it discourages capable people from running for office. I think a City councilmember should make at least $125K. Then maybe Marti wouldn't have to threaten to moonlight if she gets elected.
4. Ronald wrote on April 11, 2008 6:29 PM: "Well, BBH supports Marti . . . that seals it for most of the readers of the Voice. April it is."....LOL=OK Ron. I guess what your saying is no one here has their own opinion or can pick their own person in a race without me! I'm in Marti's corner-and that is one powerful endorsement.......
her stance on revenues for the city is the exact same as Mayor Sanders and Steve Francis. If you do not know this you are not paying attention. Every single one of them says: "San Diego needs more revenues...It's just I don't want to ask the taxpayers just yet because they don't trust us." If Marti is guilty so are they all. But I would venture to guess they are all being depressingly realistic while showing their own personal limits of leadership and courage.
Boy - what a bunch of baloney - Roger was a victum of the Boling campaign but isn't man enough to confess. this is a great example of the problem with proxy fighting in a campaign - your proxies aren't smart enough to question the "documentation" that they are given before the Battle - Roger never checked to see if the information he was sppon fed was accurate - so much for his credibility. marti filed her economic interest report and reported her income - the Boling Campaign didn't furnish him with that information - it would have looked bad for her. then they supplied only a portion of the audio tape - editing out the portions that didn't suit them. I gotta ask - WHERE IS APRIL???
i got a call from a guy who said his name was John and he was with the Boling campaign. He told me i was voting for April - when I told him that I was voting for my neighbor, Marti Emerald, he started yelling at me - you can't vote for her you are a Republican. yes, I am a Republican, but I have worked with Marti on issues in Tierrasanta for the past 12 years and she worked with us and got results! After literally screaming at me for a good two minutes, I told him I don't have to take this from him and hung up the phone. I'm not political, but to me this is the kind of stuff that shows me what;s wrong with Aptil Boling's campaign. When I told my neighbors what happened, they told me that this wasn't unusual
Too bad that RH has missed the fact that despite the low pay of a city council member, Marti has no qualms about serving her community. It's so difficult to get highly qualified individuals to run for any office when they could be renumerated twice the public office pay on the outside. So, actually it's a good thing RH asked the questions about her potential pay cut. It only underscores the fact that Marti Emerald is truly serious to serve her community, as she did so well before with high pay as the "Trouble Shooter".
Scott, what about Jim Madaffer's Tierasanta Times? Sure he may have put it in his wife's name, but it's 100% his paper. Is that not outside employment? The difference is that he uses this rag to shill for his positions and political campaigns. April Boling has been a fixture in the San Diego Republican campaign establishment for decades and knows Roger Hedgecock quite well. This attack was fixed up in advance and was no mere mistake. Again, Scott, you need to dig a little deeper...
Ah men to that, Fred. Afterall RH's station is the epitomy of conservative talk rant, which I hope most folks are aware of by now. It's very clubby over there. The attack on Marti Emerald is very transparent and may actually bring up more questions about her opponent's outside work. Will Ms 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
How soon he forgets-Rodger Hedgecock the perenially misrepresenting radio host accused Marti Enerald of failing to report consulting fees to the Coughlin Stoia law firm and yet it's right on the reporting form that he had reviewed. Then he implies that there is something wrong with assisting consumer attorneys like Coughlin Stoia who represent ordinary citizens who have been screwed by large corporations. Remember Enron? Coughlin Stoia represents the victims of that scam. Then Rodger the dodger (his nickname when he was Mayor of San Diego)implies that there's something wrong if you hold down a part time job while on the City Council. Not only is that untrue but it reflects the problem that only rich people can hold public office. And then there is the irony of Rodger being run out of public life after he was indicted. Maybe he has a slanted version of that to share.
ok lets actually see what Marti said: "I am with you I think we should be paying for trash pickup. Especially now but as a politician I recognize that it is political suicide to go out and say elect me and I will raise your taxes." In other words, she wants to raise taxes but will lie to get elected. This is disgusting, no matter what you might think of April Boling. This is EXACTLY the kind of behavior that put the city in the position we are now.
As a former "trouble shooter" consumer reporter, who worked in the interest of "the folks", Marti sure seems to be changing a LOT now that she's a starving political candidate. Marti "needs" the money, so she consults for scoundrels from a former law firm that deliberately broke the law and demonstrated horrendous ethics, and obfuscates about the business practices of the remnants of the "new" firm. Then, she'll raise taxes and fees, except when she won't (remember that logic from John Kerry?)! Yet, Roger Hedgecock is the issue??? April Boling is the issue??? Voters in District 7 need to stop, think all of this through, and decide whether duplicity and opportunism are something you're willing to support in the race, from Marti Emerald.
Scott and readers: What an unfair accusation! This law firm has not been accused of any crime or any unethical practice. None of the partners or employees have been charged with any crime or any unethical practice. There were other lawyers in other law firms that have paid a price for their unethical conduct, as they should. To even suggest that attorneys who were not involved in such practices, and were never charged with such conduct, are somehow complicit by virtue of their past association is reprehensible. Marti Emerald has disclosed her association with this new firm and has not done ANYTHING wrong. The level of discourse on the Voice of San Diego blog, and Scott's comments on this matter, are unfair and disgraceful politics at its worst.
Hey Fred, Madaffer's paper isn't in Tierrasanta, it's over in the Navajo area. Like a lot of things with Madaffer, it is a pretend independent community oriented source. Also, I don't care for the arrogant Republican operatives expecting automatic support for Boling. These are the same hacks that have supported Sanders, Murphy, Golding, Madaffer, etc. You know, the we love conservatives that are willing to provide special favors for the wealthy connected types. They aren't responsible fiscal Republicans. I believe that Boling can stand on her own merits. Ms. Emerald has been dissing numerous public activists. That is very dumb and very telling. Last point, District 7 has become fractured into seperate divisions-Tierrasant and everybody else. Emerald wins Tierrasanta. Boling wins Navajo. And, the Democrat/Republican idealogue honks could cause a fatal election backlash if they push too hard.
Marti Emerald = Another really fat cat in the making. I like April Boling; she seems like a no-nonsense, practical person and her CPA background can only be a plus. She also took on the City's pension and budget issues and didn't bow to what I'm guessing was lots of pressure. With that stated, still I'm interested to see how far she can disassociate herself from Jim "Let 'em sue" Madaffer and "Felony Stupid" Judy McCarty. And what does she intend to do with her CPA business? April also appears to have the view that her service would be for all San Diegans not JUST District 7.
Wait a minute there Robert. If you think that Ms Boling won't raise taxes if she were elected, think again. She can add and subtract and when and if she were elected and the city needed money to pay for police, parks, street repair and such, she'd be the first to recommend "balancing the budget", including raising taxes. So don't try to pin the usual conservative "raise taxes" rant on Marti Emerald. Please think in terms of each candidate being asked the same questions and you will then have a better comparison and know which candidate to support.
10. Jennifer Spencer wrote on April 12, 2008 6:53 AM: "Too bad that RH has missed the fact that despite the low pay of a city council member, Marti has no qualms about serving her community. It's so difficult to get highly qualified individuals to run for any office when they could be renumerated twice the public office pay on the outside.....WHAT??? There are TONS of qualified people that could sit on the Clowncil (if they had the $$ to run), it has NOTHING to do with the pay. $75K is excellent income, in the top 20% in the nation. And for the record, there is NO ONE currently on the clowncil that could make twice that in the private sector, NO ONE. Get serious Jennifer. PS. I am still with Marti!
Jennifer: Nowhere have I seen or read that April has done what Ms. Emerald did, in telling one group that taxes and fees should be raised, then telling another person, just days later, she would not raise them. Most reasonable persons would call that duplicitous and "talking out both sides of her mouth." That kind of behavior is precisely what has gotten the City into the financial woes it faces now. Emerald is NOT being transparent and open when she tells one group one thing, and then hopes and prays nobody finds out what she said. That's exactly the kind of thing she fought against as the "Trouble Shooter." Voters and taxpayers in District 7 (and citywide, for that matter) need to know about Emerald's seemingly intentional, opportunistic flip-flops. As for doing side work while sitting on Council, that's fine if there's no conflict of interest with City business.
I don't know April Boling from Adam but since I grow up watching Marti Emerald on TV, I have to ask this to the voters of this district: Really? You want Marti Emerald as your council member? She's like the biggest Prima Donna on local TV. Turco wasn't available? "It ain't right!"
BBH, in your post number 6 above you indicate your endorsement of a candidate is "powerful". Again, three words for you, Narcissistic personality disorder. Look it up!
As said above, Marti is a duplicitous phony who will say whatever she thinks someone wants to hear. People need to focus on are the things she says to her partisans because it's these statements (e.g., at USD) that tell us what she really thinks: that San Diegans are under taxed, and that taxes should be raised starting with a fee for trash collection. People should not focus on the many red herrings raised above: it's not about how much people make, it's not about side jobs, it's not about a campaign acting stupid on the phone, it's not about Hedgecock. It's about Marti's campaign being funded by the same unions that got us in this situation, her slavish devotion to these special interests that have controlled city hall for too long, and her belief that we should pay higher taxes to support bigger and more intrusive government.
Fact: Marti will be a lap dog to the unions because the unions are paying for her campaign. Fact: April has NO union support because they know they won't own her once she's elected. Fact for Larry: Madaffer and Murphy voted for the obscene union benefits because they were owned by the unions, so it's laughable to compare them to April. (The real equivalence is Madaffer = Murphy = Marti.) Fact for Fred: the TierraTimes is owned by Deanna Spehn, Madaffer's opponent 8 years ago, and Deanna supports April. Torrey Pines, I believe Tierrasanta won’t support Marti once people realize she's a closet socialist who panders to the unions and who considers raising taxes as the only solution to the budget crisis. To all: Tierrasanta is holding a candidate forum on April 30, see: link
Like him or not, Peters will make 3, 4, maybe 5 times his council salary by going back into private practice (heck, 3 times that just by becoming city attorney - is your buddy overpaid as a public servant Billy?). Brian M. will make twice his pay, easy, in private practice.
Billy Bob, You should know the difference. To serve the public means to meet them in the street. The only time Marti has shown up in the college area is to give the old “bait and switch” speech at a meeting where someone else held her seat for over 30 minutes. She made it her political agenda not the communities. April Boling has been on the street for the last nine months listening and looking for positive solutions to our problems. She has attended and spoke at City Council meetings, City Planning commission meetings and Community Council meetings on our behalf. My acquaintances say that April answers all her emails from the community. I know she answers mine. We are still waiting to hear from Marti on many issues. It is clear to us in the college area that Marti is for Marti. April is concerned about the 7th district and the city as a whole.
Hey Eric-yes, I know what she said. When was the last time you talked off the top of your head and garbled your message...huh?Not to make excuses for Marti, but I do believe she meant that no one wants to hear about taxes being raised...no one....except those who indeed understand that for a city to function, it's citizens need to pay for services rendered. We do pay for services from other businesses. So why shun paying taxes when they are warranted? Granted the City has gotten itself in financial trouble and were all #@* about it and feeling pretty testy at the mention of any potential tax increases. As we can see, it's pretty easy then to glomb onto that subject and then beat Marti over the head with it. Think she recognizes that taxes may be a part of a realistic solution.
Hey Liberal from El Cerrito: Marti Emerald has been in my neighborhood several times now. But, I still haven't seen April. Hum.... In March when she was in my neighborhood, I complained about the condition of some of our sidewalks. The next week, the sidewalk in front of my house was repaired! And I didn't even have to call the City! How's that for action? Coincidence? Maybe.
24. Citizen X wrote on April 12, 2008 8:40 PM: "BBH, in your post number 6 above you indicate your endorsement of a candidate is "powerful". Again, three words for you, Narcissistic personality disorder......One word for you Citizen D (for dork)-Sarcastic!!
27. Really, BBH? wrote on April 12, 2008 10:46 PM: "Like him or not, Peters will make 3, 4, maybe 5 times his council salary by going back into private practice. Brian M. will make twice his pay, easy, in private practice.. . . .. Oh brother, once again time to shoot down someone who is living in Fantasyland. #1-Brian Kurt Maienschein - Bar #171988-graduated from California Western SOL, in the legal field this school is known as a Third Tier Toilet (TTT) law school. The vast majority of CW grads do not even make $75K, so the notion that Maienschein could make $150K is a flat our joke. As for Scott Peters, I have said it before-name ONE MAJOR CASE he has litigated. Not out there.
Henry: You definitely want people to think that you are "in the know" about the local legal community. If you are a lawyer, you are probably the kind that tells everyone he meets that he is a lawyer; such as the clerk at the store who isn't honoring your coupons. I don't know where you went to school, what kind of law you practice, and how experienced you are, but I suspect that you are now a lonely solo practitioner who is getting up there in age and running out of clients. That explains why you are trolling the internet all day because at least here someone is listening. I started off angry at you but now I just feel sorry for you. Have a great day.
33. KS wrote on April 13, 2008 10:12 AM: "Henry: You definitely want people to think that you are "in the know" about the local legal community......I started off angry at you but now I just feel sorry for you. Have a great day....Thanks for your support KS, don't tell me, you're a CW grad-right? And you're angry at me because you have $150K in student loans and only make $45K working 50 hours a week in ID work-am I right???? Hey, hate your law school, not me.
Henry: Actually, I think I am off base about your age. Your obsession with status indicates an immaturity that should have mellowed with time. But you come accross like a swell guy. Maybe some time I can come over and you can tell me stories about what a great lawyer you are. Have a nice day.
You've been predicting things incorrectly for 2 years now, most of them having to do with Mike Aguirre's always-around-the-co court victory. You've predicted his trouncing his opponents at the polls, and of course that is about to be proven more than a little wrong; even Aguirre seems to know that. I know a thing or two about the local legal scene, and Cal Western may be considered a third tier school nationally, I don't know. But I do know that some of San Diego's finest lawyers and judges are from Cal Western. You're simply wrong. Again. I'll remind you of that when they get their high paying jobs upon leaving office - although you'll be nowhere to be found, I'm certain. So, answer the question - is your boy overpaid at $220K or not? Shouldn't he be willing to do this great public service at half the price?
So Marti wants to go from show business to one where people actually care about whether what you say s BS or not. She got away with a lot of posturing, trumped up allegations and cheapshots in her years entertaining folks as the Channel 10 troubleshooter, so it's kind of nice seeing her having to be accountable for the first time. It's clear that she realizes this new need for integrity and has chosen clients who can guide her along that path.
36. Say, BBH wrote on April 13, 2008 8:30 PM: I know a thing or two about the local legal scene, and Cal Western may be considered a third tier school nationally, I do know that some of San Diego's finest lawyers and judges are from Cal Western. . .. First off-I NEVER said that CW did not have some great lawyers come out of it, it does- like Western State does. My comment was that Brian Maienschein would NEVER in a million years be making $150K in the private sector. Then KS jumped in with a slam on me-and so I just spanked him with the truth, CA is a 4th tier law school, bottom 25th percentile. Nothing more. The average pay coming out of CW is anout $50K per year. Maienschein has no legal experience. He would NOT make over $50K. Simple.
35. KS wrote on April 13, 2008 7:57 PM: "Henry: Actually, I think I am off base about your age. Your obsession with status indicates an immaturity that should have mellowed with time. But you come accross like a swell guy.....WELL THE- Thank you Mr. Maturity!
This woman is a total fraud. Think Heraldo Rivera on steriods. She's going to be another labor union puppet allowing the most powerful special interest group in the city to continue to run roughshod over the best interests of the taxpayers.
So Scott M says: " This woman is a total fraud. She's going to be another labor union puppet allowing the most powerful special interest group in the city to continue to run roughshod over the best interests of the taxpayers." Well, if that's what you think, then be assured that Ms Boling will be a Big Business puppet and "Yes gal", caving in when Big Buz comes calling on city hall. Your debate cuts both ways. Marti Emerald was so successful as the "Trouble Shooter" because she didn't come off as a mouse in the face of some pretty nasty folks out there who've been ripping us off...bad businesses basically. She's already cut her teeth on the bad guys. She's not a push-over. Sure you're not just a bit intimidated by a strong female?
My apologies, Torrey. It is the Mission Times Courier that is owned by Madaffer, using his wife as a front. See (http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2006/07/25/government/947madaffer.txt) to read VOSD reporter Evan McLaughlin's 2006 story. Yet the question remains, Scott...why don't you mention this in the original post or your follow up?. It's certainly germane to the story and provides important context. Also, Boling's decades of lucrative work as campaign treasurer for the same politicos who got us all into this mess should be mentioned, huh?
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Scott Lewis on Politics
The Scott Lewis on Politics blog, abbreviated cleverly as SLOP, is a collection of observations, insights and the occasional scoop on public affairs in San Diego. Please feel free to e-mail Scott at scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org.
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