nadin has uncovered the scandal behind the scandal that plagues the fair city of San Diego.
nadinbrzezinski (125,163 posts) Wed Aug 21, 2013, 12:42 PM
What Do Michael Aguirre and Bob Filner have in Common?
Last edited Wed Aug 21, 2013, 12:49 PM USA/ET - Edit history (6)
So I started to look into the story from another angle. That is after I heard an interesting comment from a couple of Mayor Bob Filner’s supporters. And that angle was Sunroad. I admit, back in 2007 I was not paying that close attention, but what was City Attorney Mike Aguirre’s great transgression? He filed a nuisance lawsuit against Sunroad.
The lawsuit filed on December 15, 2006 attempted specifically to stop Sunroad from building the Centrum Center in Kearny Mesa. This is straight from the lawsuit, which actually asked the Court to stop Sunroad
from continuing to construct a twelve(12) story commercial office building.
So you might ask, where is this building, especially if you are new to this town. That is the Kearny Mesa Centrum Center, the one that was forced in the end by the FAA to lose a few floors. Why? The first building was approved by City Staff, not City Council. The Developer was supposed to file with the FAA and meet certain legal requirements. They never did that. They continued to go forwards, regardless of what government official told them.
They were also in violation of California law, and the Department of Transportation told them they were in violation of the law, Also from the original civil lawsuit.
They were also in violation of California law, and the Department of Transportation told them they were in violation of the law, Also from the original civil lawsuit.
The developer ignored the FAA and pressed on. They issued a second notice to the FAA, stating the above height was now 160 feet, but never filed paperwork with the city, which never processed an amendment to the permit. (To call this brash is to be nice)
“Based ion the erroneous information that the building had been modified to a maximum height of 160 feet AGL, the Second FAA Determination found the building would no longer exceed obstruction standards and would not be a hazard to air navigation, provided the building was marked and lighted in accordance with FAA regulations.†They were also required to inform the FAA ten days before actual construction (which was already under way) and five days after it reached it’s final height of 160 feet.
The maximum height included the construction equipment. The company ignored all these conditions and when it reached 180 feet, even that height was exceeded by the equipment.
A third FAA determination, which became final on Sept 20, 2006, declared the development a hazard to navigation by the FAA. The FAA used the final height for this. This is also a if we knew about the initial hazard determination, they would not have approved the project to begin with.
On September 14, 2006 DOT informed Sunroad that the project
was in violation of California Public Utilities Code.â€Moreover, “The DOT advised Sunroad that unless they received a permit from the DOT, it would be unlawful to proceed with construction of the Sunroad Centrum I Building.â€
“On October or about October 19, 2006, after the City received noticed from the DOT that Sunroad had failed to apply for the required DOT permit, and in light of Sunroad’s adamant refusas to halt construction on the Sunroad Centrum I Buildiung, the City Attorney’s office advised the City DSD to issue a Stop Work Order to halt construction of the Sunroad Centrum I Building.â€
Is the name Sunroad familiar to you? It should. It is the exact same company that is in the sights over the $100,000 donation, quid pro quo allegation for Mayor Filner. Could all this be the same developer setting up a trap? After all, Aguirre took on the powerful developers and lost. Here we have a case of a Mayor who also took on the powerful developers and is also getting driven out of office.
Filner in particular is known for stopping the projects in Balboa Park.
In the end Sunroad managed to get the City Attorney’s office disqualified, and Aguirre is alleged, cost the city millions in unsuccessful lawsuits. To me, the more I look into that sordid period, it raises issues in my mind also about the legal system. After all, the building was a danger to the air space around the airport in Kearny Mesa.
So where are the parallels here?
City Beat‘s reporting on this is fascinating.
On May 16, Filner vetoed an April 30 decision by the City Council to waive one of its own policies and give real-estate developer Sunroad Enterprises two 9-foot easements on either side of a public park that Sunroad was required to create as part of a commercial-residential project in Kearny Mesa. His reason was that the council didn’t follow proper administrative procedure. Filner has said that he also didn’t think the city should give away easements on public property without getting anything in return
http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-11948-a-broader-view-of-filners-%E2%80%98shakedown-of-sunroad.html
Ironically the first case with Sunroad Centrum also started by City Staff going though the permitting process without going to City Council. Council Member Lorie Zapft did not rely on staff to get any opinions on the easements, She just did what developers told her, it so looks.
The moneys were a way to get a payment for the public city property, and the Mayor gave the money back after he realized the problem. It was not the money, it was how it was donated.
Filner said that as soon as he read the memo, he gave Sunroad back the money. He said Jones signed the memo in violation of what the mayor believed to be the arrangement—a donation. It’s an important distinction: A donation might be legal, but a payment in exchange for an easement might not be.
Jones has said that Filner was on board with favorable action on the park issue in exchange for money—and he doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with that. In any case, either Filner or Jones isn’t telling the truth.
On the surface what this looks like is two very independent progressive politicians who went against the developers, and mind you, there is more to this,
But, but, I can hear this now, what about the complaints of sexual harassment? And given what I have said on this blog in the past, those allegations are serious, and if they prove to be true they should be dealt with. But, for the moment, here we have an interesting pattern starting to emerge. As I delve into the 2007 Sunroad Scandal parallels are emerging.. They also point to one claim I have heard repeatedly, but in snippets, that the oligarchy is in charge, and will not give up control of downtown.
Mind you, the city, and many other cities in the County, are trending Democrat. Progressive Democrats are not friendly to developers, but tend to be friendly to the people and put the interests of the people ahead of the developers. I am not ready to say that this is exactly a lynching to get rid of a Democrat that is independent minded, but some of this gives room for thought.
I will add, this is not just a Republican versus Democratic fight, but also an internal fight between the Blue Dog, business friendly Democrats and the Progressive faction.
Oh and finally, want more strangeness? Look into Mayor Jack Murphy and his effort to develop the neighborhoods in mixed use areas. Care to tell me what happened to Major Murphy?Oh yes, he was driven out of office. For the record, he was a moderate Republican. But like Filner, he started to pay attention to other neighborhoods outside the core of San Diego.
It makes one wonder.
Oh and I will add this for those who think, obviously, that I do not believe the women. I do, but the reason of why now goes far beyond them. It is power politics going back forty years. If he was a good puppet, you'd hear nothing. More to dig on this. And yes, a lot is the 2007 Centrum scandal. The 2013 version is a continuation
(Since I am recreating my post somewhere else will require several edits, an iOS thing)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023505181What The ****, you may be asking? Well, What The **** Indeed!
Just kidding, I read it twice and it just doesn't make any sense so I thought I would share.
