From San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith…
In a KUSI interview yesterday morning, Mayor Bob Filner crossed the line, alleging that members of the City Council and I had been “bought off” by hoteliers in the TMD matter. This is a very serious allegation of criminal conduct, and it is baseless and defamatory.
KUSI also carried a segment at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. yesterday which reiterated the Mayor’s accusations and included my response, which you can see here.
Accusations such as this against the City Council and the City Attorney should have no place in a civilized, public-policy discussion. I will have more to say about it in the future.
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Follow-up from Goldsmith, later in the day…
KPBS did a work-up of hotel related contributions:
“Jan Goldsmith, who has made rulings in this, has got tens of thousands of dollars from people who are on the TMD board and the major hoteliers who passed this thing,” Filner said. “He didn’t have a campaign for election, so what are they giving him money for? It’s simple, they want his rulings on their behalf.”
inewsource
Hotelier donations to the city attorney and city councilmembers.
But inewsource, KPBS’ partner on the investigations desk, examined the campaign contributions to these candidates from hoteliers and TMD board members since 2007 and found no individual candidate received “tens of thousands of dollars.” Councilmembers Sherri Lightner, Kevin Faulconer and Lorie Zapf each received more than $10,000 and Goldsmith received at least $12,000 between his two campaigns. (See table for numbers.)
Goldsmith and council President Todd Gloria were reelected in November without opposition.
“Todd Gloria did not have a campaign, and he got thousands of dollars from the people who are responsible for this contract today,” Filner continued. “Half of the council — I’m sure, I have not looked at those figures, but I bet it’s tens of thousands of dollars and up. What are they doing? Why are they giving this money? So they can get this kind of shady deal approved.”
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/mar/28/mayor-city-attorney-dispute-expands-criminal-accus/
Comments 5
The guy working hardest on the recall of Bob Filner is
. . .
BOB FILNER!
News Release
Mayor Bob Filner
Statement regarding the Tourism Marketing District Agreement:
“I have said from the outset that I believe the TMD tax is illegal because it violates Prop 26’s requirement that all new taxes be approved by a vote of the people. That was not done in the case of the TMD, and as a result, that is for the courts to decide now.
The City Council directed me to enter into an agreement with the TMD, and I set out to negotiate a better deal for the taxpayers of San Diego — one that promotes our economic growth through a robust tourism marketing program, while protecting taxpayers from what could be millions of dollars in damages.
With the help of the last-minute negotiating skills of Councilman David Alvarez, I am pleased to announce that the TMD Corporation today agreed to fully protect San Diego taxpayers if the courts rule that their funding source is illegal. Councilman Alvarez would not take no for an answer and worked diligently last night and today to get the deal that I had been working on done.
Under this agreement, hotels will guarantee to protect the taxpayers, or the city will withhold TMD funds to cover potential liability for hotels who don’t protect us. Either way, the taxpayers win.
I look forward to working with the City Attorney’s office, the Council President’s office and with TMD representatives to get this deal finalized and voted on very soon.
There is more accountability and more transparency in this agreement and it ensures that taxpayers will have more information than ever about how these public funds are being used to pay the salaries of the top executives in the publically funded organizations.
I am also proud to announce that the agreement guarantees upwards of $3 million per year, depending on the funds available, in funding for the 2015 Balboa Park Centennial Celebration.
Finally, Council President Gloria has agreed to hold a hearing on the city’s Living Wage Ordinance – including desperately needed protections for hotel workers, who are the backbone of the hospitality industry. We ought to be talking about this in the city of San Diego. It’s important.
I want to thank Councilmember Alvarez for his leadership, in helping to conclude these negotiations. His commitment and my commitment were to protect the taxpayers while ensuring the growth of our tourist economy.
I also want to thank Council President Pro Tem Sherri Lightner and Councilmember Marti Emerald for their support and for pushing to include appropriate indemnification in the agreement.
Last Tuesday, when I came to this Council, I said that this was a sad day for San Diego.
Well today is a good day for San Diego. We came together driven by how much we love San Diego. We need the tourism industry to thrive. And we need to protect taxpayers. That’s why it’s a good day.”
###
Of course, I’ve been asked about my views on the legal challenge to the hotel tax — the fact that the tax was imposed without a vote of the electorate. I SUPPORT that (well, those) lawsuit(s) — to the extent that these lawsuits challenge the legality of this whole business tax ruse to avoid electorate approval.
I hope the tax is overturned by the courts. It’s a terrible idea that we start allowing businesses to impose taxes. Another slippery slope.
Filner’s concerns about the city’s LIABILITY if the tax is overturned is well founded. The hotels should bear that court risk, not the taxpayers.
But ultimately Filner’s REAL concern seems to be the USE of the tax. It appears that he has worked towards two goals:
1. Redirect some/much/all of the tax proceeds for city uses.
2. Use his opposition to extort “living wage” concessions (and perhaps mandatory unionization) from hotel owners.
Those two goals should be opposed. The legality of the tax itself is rightly challenged, but (for me) not the use of the proceeds — or Filner’s blackmail efforts.
http://www.10news.com/news/mayor-bob-filner-city-attorney-jan-goldsmith-exchange-words-during-news-conference-022013
Please watch the video of Goldsmith’s Press Conference, where City Attorney Goldsmith refuses to answer a media question on his claim that Mayor Filner was holding up tourism funds for his own private political benefit.
Thank goodness our Strong Mayor Bob Filner was at Goldsmith’s Press Conference on Filner’s supposed illegal actions on the TMD issue. If Mayor Filner was not in attendance at the scheduled press Conference, two floors above his 11th Floor Offices, Goldsmith would have gotten away with his snow job and media spin.
City Attorney Goldsmith approved the City Council decision to move booking and sales of the Convention Center to the private Tourism Authority through a Quid Pro Quo arrangement. The No-Bid Contract did not follow Managed Competition guidelines. The deal included that the Hoteliers would not vote against the new 2 percent TMD or 3 percent Special tax in exchange for moving Convention Center Booking to the private Tourism Authority. Plus any incremental Tax revenue from the existing 10.5 percent TOT would also be fully controlled by private interests, and would pay the remaining debt on the Convention Center. Just by requiring negotiations, Mayor Filner protected a minimum of $3.2 Billion in taxpayer dollars.
The Hoteliers have stated they wanted to move the lucrative smaller medical convention from our public Convention Center (that pays down our annual $14 million public debt for Phase 2) to private Hotels owned by Tourism Authority Board Members. Major Conflict of Interest.
http://www.tinyurl.com/20121126b
For the new Tourist Market District (TMD) vote, the City mailed out 1,379 Ballots.
127 Ballots Voted Yes.
218 Ballots Voted No.
1,034 Ballots did not vote on the TMD issue.
The votes are Weighted according to an unknown formula developed by the Hoteliers, supposedly based on rooms and revenue. For one ballot-one vote, the TMD failing with only 37 percent ballots approving the new tax. However the Weighted Vote approving the new San Diego TMD was 94 percent. One ballot from the San Diego Marriot Marina with 1,362 hotels rooms would almost be enough to allow the new 2 percent TMD tax to pass.
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/news-ticker/2013/mar/28/council-president-todd-gloria-once-served-as-a-boa/
In other news, Council President Todd Gloria is/was an ex-official non-voting Member of the private Tourism Authority, the former CONVIS. Conflict?
La Playa, do you mean “ex-officio”?
As for your “Conflct?” — That would be somewhat dependent in most cases on whether one IS or WAS part of the entity in question. You say Gloria “is/was” — with all due respect, that’s pretty weak. Either he IS or he WAS, not both. So, which is it?
But, even if he still IS, you are saying he’s a non-voting member, likely you meant to write “ex-officio non-voting member.”
No vote, no fiduciary duty or responsibility — Typically means no conflict.