Mayor lays down expectations for new civic center, says San Diegans should vote on it
San Diegans should get a chance to vote on whether to build a new city hall, Mayor Jerry Sanders said this morning. Sanders added his voice to a chorus first sung by City Councilmember Carl DeMaio, and reinforced by the City Council’s Independent Budget Analyst’s office on Friday.
“My understanding all along was that we need to take it to the voters,” Sanders said at a press conference this morning.
The mayor also said he hopes the City Council will enable the city to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement (ENA) with developer Gerding Edlen. Doing so would not commit the city to building a project, but it would allow the city to work out the exact parameters of the project.
“We need to get the information for the City Council to make an informed decision,” said City Council President Ben Hueso, who was also at the press conference.
The mayor used the event to lay down several expectations for the project, the most dramatic of which was that Sanders wants the project to “save money every year, beginning in year one.” Gerding Edlen’s seven proposals offer different combinations of buying or leasing city-owned land needed for the project, and raises different possibilities of ownership for the city’s parking structure. If the city sells two acres of land to Gerding Edlen and/or allows the developer to operate the parking structure, it will sacrifice greater long-term savings for immediate savings. Sanders seemed fine with that, saying the city just needs to get “consistent savings.”
Sanders said an ENA could take six months to a year, and the proposal could be on the ballot as soon as June 2010.
“If it makes sense, San Diego will pass it,” Sanders said.
Since when have San Diegans voted for or against anything based on whether or not it made sense?
Good for Jerry. Now put the taxpayer boondoggle proposal to further expand the convention center on the ballot as well. And don’t allow Tom Sheppard or his firm to run either campaign, since he works for the Mayor.