The woman who’s run the Convention Center for 20 years, Carol Wallace, is resigning, saying leadership appears to want her gone. The general counsel is also quitting, as is a prominent vice president whose job will be eliminated.
The City Council recently stripped Wallace’s team of the duty to sell and market the Convention Center. Hotel owners demanded the change in exchange for their support for a tax hike to fund the facility’s expansion.
Wallace also hired an employment attorney. Here’s her letter.
I asked reporter Liam Dillon to put Wallace in perspective. “She was widely hailed here as one of the best Convention Center executives in the country,” he says. “Only recently, when Mayor Jerry Sanders and other backers of the expansion wanted to give hoteliers more control over the center, did any public criticism of Wallace seep out.”
Our story has more details and background. To learn more about Wallace, read our Q&A interview from 2009.
Also, tune in to the latest edition of VOSD Radio, which focuses on the contortions the hotel-room tax increase — which would fund the convention center expansion — has had to go through to avoid a public vote.
Live in Tierrasanta/San Carlos/Allied Gardens? Check This
Our journalists are visiting each City Council and soaking up the issues.
Last week, we went to District 9. This week, reporter Will Carless is on the case in District 7, which includes the neighborhoods of Tierrasanta, San Carlos, Allied Gardens and Mission Valley.
He spent yesterday meeting community activists at Starbucks and learning what’s on people’s minds. Among the big issues: Growth and new homes, public safety (particularly protection from brush fires), new military housing and those perennial potholes.
You can reach Carless via email at will.carless@voiceofsandiego.org or send him a text on his cell phone at 760-576-8615. Feel free to nag him about not having a 619 area code like all the cool people.
Speaking of potholes: Like most of the VOSD news team, I live in Mid City. Lately, a barrage of potholes has distracted me from my usual pasttime of silently scoffing at the would-be hipsters (such as VOSD colleagues) in North Park. It seems like an army of potholes popped up after the rains last month, and now more wet stuff is on the way this week.
Am I crazy (quite possible) or are you seeing a plethora of new potholes where you live too? Drop me a line, and we can compare the best deals on new shock absorbers. And check our reader’s guides (here and here) for details about why our streets are such a mess and likely to drive us crazy for a good long while.
• In related news, the city is borrowing another $75 million to fund repairs to its streets and other facilities, U-T San Diego reports.
On TV, Bilbray’s Sailing Claim Hits an Iceberg
Sink, sank, sunk! Rep. Brian Bilbray says it took “an act of congress just to hold a sailboat race in San Diego.” But the claim — apparently not meant in the sense that many of us use the phrase “act of congress” — deserves a “Huckster Propaganda” verdict, our Fact Check department recently concluded. Bilbray did work on legislation to smooth the way for the America’s Cup race to be held here. The race was held, but the bill never passed; a similar bill did, but after the race.
Fact Check TV is also on the case. You can watch our analysis here.
New editions of Fact Check TV appear on NBC 7 San Diego every Friday during the 6 p.m. newscast and on our website the following Monday.
In Letters: Butt Out, Mayor!
In letters, Joan Larsen urges the school district to focus and adds this: “please dear gawd keep the new mayor out of the schools.” The mayoral rivals have jumped into the wrangle over the quality of schools.
Also in letters, James Wilson says “the solution to saving our youth and reducing crime is the new concept of career academies.”
Poe Is You
The Big Read: Shades of Poe, the local ongoing celebration of Edgar Allen Poe is continuing, and we’ve posted a new article by the city’s civic organist about the similarities between Poe and composers. She’ll be accompanying readings of Poe’s work at the Organ Pavilion.
Quick News Hits
• The Associated Press profiled the San Diego County Water Authority’s new digital campaign against the Metropolitan Water District. “The site offers a trove of internal documents obtained under California’s public records law, including references to a ‘Secret Society’ and an ‘anti-San Diego coalition.’”
• A free-speech battle is brewing in Encinitas (of all places) over (of all things) the content of a bunch of banners designed to fly from city-owned light poles above Highway 101, the NC Times reports. The banners, designed by artists, included images of a late environmentalist councilwoman. But the city said that was a no-no, and the artists had to cover the images with vinyl stickers.
• Thanks to everyone who read yesterday’s Morning Report and emailed me to say that I am funny, no matter what a grumpy commenter thinks.
Your checks are in the mail. Are you sure your names are all “Cash”?
Please contact Randy Dotinga directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.