From the pen of Intrepid Blogger Aaron Park:

While the Corrupt CAGOP is Rigging an Endorsement – Faulconer’s Corrupt Deal with Ash Street is Being Ripped Open

I thought the Republican Party was the party of law and order? I guess the CAGOP is the party of consultants and paychecks. That is the only conclusion you could draw from the underhanded tactics that were exposed by your intrepid blogger and Stephen Frank. While the legislators closed ranks to re-elect the scandal-marred and corrupt puppet of the establishment Jessica Patterson, one of the expected payoffs of rigging the convention and the process was to be the Kevin Faulconer Payday. I can draw no other conclusion based on what I’ve seen and learned.

Corruption begat Corruption?

San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott filed suit Tuesday to void the city’s lease-to-own agreements for both the 101 Ash Street and Civic Center Plaza properties. The action came hours after the Union-Tribune reported that real estate broker Jason Hughes was paid almost $10 million by a middleman company while advising former Mayor Kevin Faulconer on the two transactions.

Jason Hughes was purported to be a volunteer by Kevin Faulconer. Whoops.

Since 2016, the city has paid tens of millions of dollars to lease and renovate the former Sempra Energy building on Ash Street, which has been vacant for all but a few weeks since the Fortune 500 company moved out in 2015.

The building is full of asbestos and has other issues preventing the city from using it.

Debris covers a patio area at the former Sempra Energy building at 101 Ash Street in downtown San Diego on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.

(K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The Union-Tribune reported late Monday that Hughes, who advised the city on the deal, was paid $4.4 million for securing the Ash Street deal in early 2017 and just over $5 million for his work on a similar deal for the city’s lease of the nearby Civic Center Plaza in 2015.

The nearly $10 million collected by Hughes came from Cisterra Development, a San Diego company that acted as a middleman in both the Civic Center Plaza and Ash Street leases.

What a visual. The Democrats are going to (literally) burn Kevin Faulconer down with this. Meantime, the CAGOP is on a suicide mission to anoint this guy.

The City Council agreed to the 20-year lease-to-own arrangement in 2016 on Faulconer’s recommendation. The former mayor said the deal would save the city more than $40 million in future office space expenses.

But after Elliott signed off on the lease, city officials learned that the property could not be safely occupied.

The lease was $535,000 a month for a building loaded with Asbestos. The main consultant on the project raked in $10 Million and then there is this:

The $535,000 monthly lease payments that were to be paid over 20 years translate to the city spending approximately $128 million for the Ash Street building. Combined with operational costs, maintenance and renovations, the city committed some $200 million for the 19-story high rise.

The building appraised for $67 million before the council approved the deal at Faulconer’s recommendation. The year before, former majority owner Shapery sold 49 percent of the property to financier Douglas Manchester.

It’s not yet clear how the city’s amended complaint might affect the spate of lawsuits already pending over the Ash Street transaction — or whether or how either Ash Street or the Civic Center Plaza deals may be unwound.

The city could always renegotiate the deal for the Civic Center Plaza, which has housed the City Attorney’s Office and other city departments for years.

But the Ash Street building needs wholesale repairs, remediation and upgrades estimated by one consultant to cost $115 million.

Either Kevin Faulconer is a blithering idiot (see also incompetent) or he is completely corrupt. You can’t explain this scandal any other way and now you have a key cog in the deal who was on the take (allegedly) who is now named in the lawsuit by the city.

Now let’s say for a second that Faulconer was an innocent victim (aka just incompetent vs corrupt). Take a look at this from another article about the City’s Lawsuit against the players in the project:

In 2016, the city agreed to borrow just under $92 million to acquire the Ash Street high rise. Faulconer recommended the deal to the City Council even though the building had been appraised for $67 million.

Wait — the savior of the California Republican Party got the City of San Diego to pay $92 Million for a building worth $67 Million??? (That’s before the asbestos and the busted fire suppression system were discovered)

So, when Faulconer was mayor, he led the effort to get the City to Overpay for an Asbestos-Riddled Building with a broken Fire Suppression System. Then we find out one of the main players in the deal raked in a cool $9.4 Million from a middleman while attempting to avoid disclosure?

The Ash Street property has been uninhabitable for all but a few weeks since Sempra moved out in 2015 due to asbestos contamination, a broken fire-suppression system and other issues. A consultant hired by the city issued a report last year estimating that repairs would cost approximately $115 million.

Gavin Newsom has the best that the democrat party has to offer  advising him and helping his campaign. I’d bet he is drooling over facing Kevin Faulconer…

… and Faulconer?

Pro-Choice
Anti-Family
Open Borders
Tax Raiser
Gun Grabber

Last I checked, we already had one of those in the Governor’s Office. #EPICFAIL

P.S. AS detailed on this blog, there are over 50 delegates to the CAGOP that we appointed in violation of the CAGOP’s By-Laws. If a candidate for the recall does not sue over this issue alone, they deserve to watch them rig the endorsement of Faulconer.