The Morning Report
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OK, we’ve had some success calling around to nail down which businesses really are against the Miramar airport ballot initiative.
Remember, we’re assuming that all the businesses represented on the board of directors of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association oppose putting a new airport at Miramar as the airport authority envisions unless they tell us differently.
So far we’ve gotten a hold of a couple of them.
Steve Francis, the chairman of AMN Healthcare Inc., and one-time candidate for mayor said he did not support the taxpayers association’s decision to oppose the airport initiative.
But Francis did not go to the meeting to cast his vote.
“I think that Miramar is the only viable long term solution,” Francis said. “The members of the board who are opposing the Miramar idea need to come up with an alternative solution.”
OK, that’s one down.
On the other hand, Cox Communications is not happy about the airport authority’s ballot measure at all.
Again, though, the company’s representative on the board didn’t vote. Mary Ball, the vice president of government and community relations for Cox, said she missed the association’s meeting but would have voted to oppose the Miramar plan.
“I would support the taxpayers’ decision to vote against the Miramar idea,” Ball said. “I don’t think it is a viable option at this time.”
We also got a hold of Tom Shepard, the political consultant who also sits on the association’s board of directors. Shepard, who has a contract with the airport authority, declined to comment.
More updates to come (hopefully). Much thanks to my research assistant Valentine Moossa.