The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
You might have noticed the Union-Tribune editorial board swoop in today with an opinion about the burgeoning scandal over the Southeastern Economic Development Corp.
As president of the Southeastern Economic Development Corp., a redevelopment entity overseen by the City Council, Carolyn Smith has an annual salary of $158,000, as approved by the City Council. But what Mayor Sanders and the City Council didn’t know until this week was that Smith actually was collecting a paycheck of $206,328 — a whopping 31 percent more than her City Council-approved salary.
Smith doesn’t have, currently, a budgeted annual salary of $158,000. It’s actually much higher now. That was the 2005-2006 figure. The editorial board cribbed the numbers so fast they didn’t realize they were old.
Just a little thing, I suppose. Then the paper stumbled over itself to make the mayor look as good as possible in this situation:
To his credit, Mayor Sanders now is demanding straightforward salary disclosures from SEDC’s board chairman, Chip Owen.
Yes, the mayor does deserve credit for reacting so swiftly to the news broken this week by Will Carless that revealed all of this information. He and the City Council members who spoke out about it in Carless’ report — Kevin Faulconer, Donna Frye and Ben Hueso — all immediately recognized the significance of the facts his investigation revealed. Their colleagues, on the other hand, weren’t so perceptive. Or they have long since checked out.
But the mayor and council were reacting. As the U- T stumbled through a recounting of the facts that so incensed Mayor Jerry Sanders, they also pushed away the uncomfortable reality about how this information got to him.
It was neither the mayor’s staff nor the Union-Tribune that uncovered the troubling facts.
The mayor’s memo made it clear in its first line:
I have followed the Voice of San Diego’s coverage of SEDC and am very concerned about this morning’s report regarding possible irregularities in compensation practices.
The mayor didn’t mind admitting how the information came to light. Why does the U-T?
Ahh, it doesn’t matter. The U-T‘s editorials were never meant to shed light on reality. They are meant to create alternative realities.
For some more revelations on the state of things as they are, not how that secluded little group wants them to be, you should check out Carless and Andrew Donohue‘s latest revelation today.
It’s powerful stuff.