With three city council members up for reelection, and Jim Compton mysteriously missing in action, a strangely rejuvenated Council Member Peter Steinbrueck took charge last week, rolling out a defiant resolution challenging the mayor and raising sharp questions about a department's use of city dollars.
On Monday, Steinbrueck was fuming at the mayor's dramatic rollout of his "grandiose scheme" to allow high-rise buildings in SoDo. Steinbrueck had reason to be agitated: Last year, the council prohibited the mayor from spending a dime to study the SoDo changes unless he persuaded the council that the "private interests" co-funding the study (most of them SoDo property owners with a vested interest in its results) would not have an "inappropriate influence" on its outcome. According to Steinbrueck, the mayor went ahead with the study anyway, using "discretionary funds" to move forward without the council's approval. Later this year, the council will consider the mayor's request to release another $200,000 to complete the study; but given that the mayor spent money "in defiance of the earlier budget" restriction, Steinbrueck says he's "not prepared to lift it at this time."
Also Monday, pissed at the mayor's predilection to use "refusal, denial, and other forms of manipulation to control the flow of information" to the council, Steinbrueck proposed a measure validating the council's right to compel testimony from employees in city departments. The measure, sponsored by every member of the council, passed unanimously on Monday.
Rumors were circulating last week that Bob Burkheimer, a developer whose plans to redevelop the QFC site at Mercer Street and Broadway helped persuade council members to raise building heights on Broadway, has decided not to build there after all. Steinbrueck, who dropped an affordable-housing requirement for Broadway largely under pressure from Burkheimer, said he found the news "hugely disappointing." Burkheimer was unavailable for comment.
Finally, what election season would be complete without at least one bizarre instance of apparent intercampaign plagiarism? For that we can thank fringe city council candidate Ăngel Bolaños, whose entire candidate statementâavailable on his website at www.electbolanos.orgâappears to have been lifted virtually word for word from that of onetime San Diego City Council candidate Kathryn Burtonâright down to a call for "truly mixed use... development at Rhodes Crossing," a controversial San Diego project, and opposition to "throwing away taxpayer funds to the [San Diego] Chargers and other wealthy corporations."
Burton, contacted at her home on Monday, let out a howl of laughter when she looked at Bolaños's statement. "I'm flattered, but honestly, I have no clue who this guy is or what this is all about," Burton said. Bolaños did not return my call for comment.
