Good morning from Hillcrest.
We’ve got some good stuff to report this morning.
- Leading off with a U-T story on rising costs for negotiating the potential new San Diego City Hall building. The city could pay $700,000 to $900,000 on top of the $1.7 million it’s already spent in the last two years to negotiate with Portland, Ore. developer Gerding Edlen. One interesting aside: There’s an optional $200,000 line item to study merging the downtown library project into the new City Hall. The new numbers come as part of a report in advance of a City Council decision on entering an exclusive negotiating agreement with Gerdling Edlen. City Council is expected to vote on the proposal next month and the report was prepared as part of the briefing process. A copy of the briefing is linked here.
CityBeat is reporting on a new “Civic Leadership Team” of San Diego business and community power players organized by Mayor Jerry Sanders. The team is meeting to discuss Sanders’ agenda, just don’t call them a “kitchen cabinet.”
City leaders are hoping to find new events to fill Petco Park in baseball’s off-season, especially since an annual rugby tournament left town for Las Vegas.
- District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has decided not to file charges against two women arrested at a June fundraiser for Democratic Congressional candidate Francine Busby or the arresting officer who used pepper spray to subdue the women. In a letter, Dumanis said she believed the women broke the law by delaying and obstructing a police officer, but couldn’t prove it in court. The police officer remains the subject of an internal affairs investigation. Read Dumanis’ letter here.
- Moving to the city of San Marcos, its city council voted yesterday to hire a consultant to study merging three redevelopment project areas into one as part of preparations to create a mixed-use development along San Marcos Creek.
- In opinion news, our own Scott Lewis writes his fifth piece on the city’s potential Convention Center expansion. What should be the city’s top priority?