I was out last week but I was very pleased our Tigist Layne jumped on the bizarre story about the Republican Party of San Diego County.
That story, in short: The party had endorsed Andrew Hayes, for the 75th Assembly District. Carl DeMaio ended up running and trying to bury Hayes behind a Democrat in the primary. It didn’t work. Hayes made the runoff.
Then, Paula Whitsell, the leader of the Central Committee, at DeMaio’s request, tried to claim the endorsement for Hayes was only for the primary and she arranged to support DeMaio. It didn’t work but she ended up throwing former City Councilman Scott Sherman off the Central Committee’s leadership body, the executive committee.
Now Whitsell is out and Sherman is back in. The party has stood up to DeMaio. He was intricately involved in the party both as a member and as a provider of services and fundraiser. But the divide is extreme. On the one hand, he still has a big support network. On the other, now a larger group of influential Republicans than ever can’t stand him and want to keep him from becoming an elected official once again.
Two big questions remain.
One, will the money come? One concession DeMaio achieved was that the party would not aid Hayes’ election with resources or help him spend money. Often party endorsements are valuable because the candidate can send donors to the party where they can give much larger amounts. Then the candidate can help the party decide how to spend them.
But the party agreed not to do this for Hayes. So he will only benefit from the symbolism of being the party’s official choice. However, money in politics always finds a way. If someone wants to spend money to help Hayes, there are all kinds of other mechanisms and even the state party they can go through. It just may not be quite as convenient.
Two, how long will it last: DeMaio has his own supporters and he helped some of them get elected to the Central Committee. When they take their places, will he regain influence?
Mission Valley Arena: Dead? Yeah, But That Won’t Stop Me
I’m not sure there are any legs on the story of putting an arena on SDSU’s land in Mission Valley. Not one person connected to the university was willing to tell me they were going to try to push it. On the contrary, the university sent me a statement saying leaders had no interest at all in pursuing it regardless of the offers and the logic behind them.
However, I did have a question about whether putting an arena at the site would trigger a vote of the people. The city sold the land that used to house Qualcomm Stadium to the university after voters approved Measure G in 2018 and after negotiating a lengthy purchase agreement. Would a big change of SDSU’s plan mean any of this has to go back to the voters?
The university’s spokespeople told me the question was irrelevant. They are not putting an arena there, dummy, so you don’t need the answer to this question.
However, La Monica Everett-Haynes, a university spokeswoman wrote me this: “I can confirm that an arena is inconsistent with the site’s master plan, the environmental impact report, and the substantive provisions of Measure G.”
That matters because the purchase and sale agreement the city signed with the university includes that the master plan is the one the university would follow and it would deliver the substantive provisions of Measure G.
I reached out to San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott and she agreed to talk briefly about the question.
“If they wanted to pursue a sports arena on the site, they’d have to revise their campus master plan,” she said. The city would not have anything to do with that process as it’s a California State University issue and it could trigger a need for a new environmental impact report – an arena would ostensibly have a much different impact than a bunch of classrooms or labs.
The only concern the city would have is if the university altered any of its promises in the purchase and sale agreement and the Convenants, Conditions and Restrictions the city recorded with the university about the land. SDSU agreed to build public parks, trails, academic, administrative retail buildings and “facilities for educational, research, entrepreneurial and technology programs” at the site along with thousands of homes.
Only if they substantially changed their plans for these things would the city have a reason to get involved. “That’s the boundary of our oversight – ensuring they stick to the promises they made,” Elliott said.
In short, I don’t know: Putting in an arena would force the university to do a lot of paperwork. However, it probably would not clearly trigger a requirement for a new vote. It could trigger a lawsuit from detractors that may make university prove it doesn’t need a vote.
The Big Shelter
I take the week off and suddenly San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria has made a deal with a landlord to lease a big building near downtown for several decades?
We have a lot of work to do to understand the mayor’s plan for a new shelter north of Little Italy that would provide a space for 1,000 beds. A guy named Douglas Hamm bought the building and made a handshake deal with the mayor to rent it ot the city for $1.9 million per year, increasing by 3 percent for 35 (!) years. The city would also have to pay for $18 million of improvements to it.
Our Lisa Halverstadt broke the news Friday that the mayor is pumping the brakes on getting the lease reviewed and approved by the City Council until after they answer “significant questions” that Independent Budget Analyst Charles Modica raised.
Notes
Nathan’s defense: Nathan Fletcher has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending himself from accusations that he assaulted and harassed an MTS employee. That employee is also suing MTS saying it led to her unexpected termination. (MTS claims she was fired for unrelated performance reasons.) KPBS reported that Fletcher has used $323,000 from his remaining campaign funds to pay for his legal defense.
101 Ash isn’t going to be apartments: The Union Tribune reported that the city is no longer negotiating with Reven Capital on a plan to convert the tower to an apartment complex.
If you have any tips or feedback for me send them to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org.