By Mat Wahlstrom
This Tuesday, September 17, at 10:00, the City Council — the nine electeds who are each paid over six figures of your tax dollars — will once again be asked to take time from more important decisions to clean up another mess created by our six-figure paid city employees.
On the agenda is to legalize after the fact the violation of the terms of its decision to disestablish the Uptown Planners as an official community planning group. Those terms stated without ambiguity that any new group it appointed must conduct and conclude elections within 90 days of its appointment — or else that new group disqualified itself as incompetent.
Much like the council’s attempt to say the expired lease agreement for Tailgate Park could be extended and that the Measure C agreement they put on the ballot only required a simple majority, it’s just the latest example of San Diego’s ‘strong-arm mayor’ form of government going ex post facto to paper over what they know was wrong in the first place.
Don’t believe me? Here is Tuesday’s resolution in its entirety to read for yourself:
“Resolution recognizing the Uptown Community Planning Group notwithstanding the [sic] failure to comply with the requirement in Section II.D of Council Policy 600-24 for a newly formed community planning group to complete their voting member election within 90-calendar days of the date of final passage of the initial council resolution recognizing that community planning group.”
But of course with everything lately with the city, it’s much worse.
Although the City of San Diego’s Planning Director, Heidi Vonblum admitted, “The City Planning Department does not have authority to disallow an election of an independent body to move forward, so my staff’s communication is consistent with that,” then neither should they have had the authority to tell Vibrant Uptown that they could blow past the deadline — nor should they be advocating for allowing them to have done so.
In asking the council to retroactively disavow its decision on a timeline, the Planning Department would also free the new group from city oversight to handle the credible election challenges that have been lodged by Uptown Planners and by independently affected members of the community.
These include:
- The new group (Vibrant Uptown) officiating an election while also campaigning on behalf of its preferred candidates;
- Allowing candidates not legally qualified to run for election;
- Vibrant Uptown’s failure to also follow Council Policy 600-24 Section II.A and Section 2.4 that requires “at least two hours of in-person voting” actually be conducted in person by paper ballot;
- Failure to release the official and readily available Election Buddy election software audited final results rather than a cobbled together Excel spreadsheet, and
- Violating the City of San Diego Strategic Plan.
This last point deserves special attention, as it reads in the city’s Staff Report as follows:
“This item focuses the Strategic Plan’s priority area: Protect & Enrich Every Neighborhood by ensuring that planning groups are transparent to the public, accessible to and inclusive of all community members and reflect the diversity of the communities where they operate.”
Many of us are aware that for several years, the City of San Diego has been engaged in claiming the dubious title of American’s Foulest City. But few could imagine the depths of pettiness and blatant disregard of black-letter law to which our municipal government would sink in its efforts to silence even so small a voice as a community planning group — which while enshrined by the City Charter as independent, are still only advisory.
Barring a crisis of conscience on behalf of our beholden council members on Tuesday, our “Big City” will continue to resemble nothing other than a podunk PTA.
“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
? Victor Hugo
What idea would that be, Carl? The rule of the powerful over the powerless, privilege over democracy, feudalism over free association? Those ideas had their time and that time has gone. Strongly suggest you’d look less ridiculous if you saved your medieval cosplay for Renaissance faires.
Sorry Matt, I didn’t see until now you asked me a question.
The idea that I had in mind is the upgrade of housing stock and in-fill of vacant lots sorely needed in Hillcrest similar to that which took place in Little Italy. More housing is needed and Gloria’s plan addresses that need for better or worse. I would have liked a more equitable development of housing including more low cost and affordable units. But the hard reality is those who oppose his plan have failed to win any election or put forward any candidate with a better plan. By that I mean any candidate who has actually won elections with an alternative policy. I, for one, am unwilling to put on hold any bad needed plan in Hillcrest in order to wait for any white knight to ever appear and win at the ballot box. It’s one thing to have good ideas and it’s quite another to have enough public support for those ideas to win elections.
This is another job for land use attorney Craig Sherman!
Feel free to ask him; I don’t have his information.
In addition, here is the public comment I submitted for today’s meeting:
“In addition to the published article I submitted in opposition to Item S5050, I would be remiss not to point out these others.
In their May 14 staff report, the Planning Department stated that all of the incumbent and challenger community planning groups met the *existing* requirements for Council Policy 600-24 recognition.
On May 21, you approved four amendments to Council Policy 600-24. The Planning Department today is asking you to waive the requirements of Amendment #1. However, the group you appointed in Uptown also violated the terms of Amendment #2 and Amendment #4.
Amendment #2 changed Sections II.A and 2.4 to exempt community planning groups from the Brown Act by holding their meetings virtually, but to also conduct elections virtually — with a two-hour, in-person minimum requirement. There never would have been a need to cancel the August 20 election and come to you today to clean up their mess if they had followed this rule.
Amendment #4 changed Section II and Terms and Conditions, Section 2.5 that — so long as they had voted as a whole to amend their Bylaws accordingly.
Similarly, you had adopted the Community Planning Committee amendment that no appointed group could conduct any order of business other than organizing an election within the mandatory timeframe. Yet Vibrant Uptown only held one in-person meeting and conducted its elections entirely online without holding public meetings to amend their Bylaws to allow them to do so.
Further, “This will require that proposed amendments are submitted to the Mayor and City Attorney for review and approval.” I can find no record of this having been done, even if it had been legal for them to amend their Bylaws before a elected board had been seated.
The effect of the Planning Department’s seemingly innocent request today for you to “recognize notwithstanding” the new group not only asks you to be complicit with it in allowing Vibrant Uptown to violate these other two amendments to Council Policy 600-24, but to grant the Planning Department amnesty for going behind your back.
In other words, the Planning Department has set you a trap. And I would strongly suggest you get the official opinion of the City Attorney’s Office on the facts of these matters before walking into it.”
Excellent comment, Mat. If they do certify this new group, it will only confirm that the actual law does not matter to this administration.
Thank you, Geoff — you’re absolutely right. In proof of that, I called in to comment on this item over an hour ago, pressed *9 to raise my hand at the right time, but then was never called! They concluded without my being able to speak.
It might have been possible to chalk this up as a technical glitch, except that the correspondence I submitted yesterday was included in the supporting documents on the agenda this morning, but then removed once the meeting started. I saved the link, so you can see for yourselves it was there, https://tinyurl.com/240917-Deleted-Correspondence
When the feds come in to clean up the Tijuana River, they’re also going to need to take care of the sewer flowing out of City Hall!