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WORST DAMN SPORTS SHOW in Oceanside
NEWS,VIEWS & OPINIONS ON THE CHARGERS & OCEANSIDE
(Caution:Mild adult language)
Tell your council that the stadium is bad news for Oceanside and is fiscally irresponsible!
It will be the Worst Damn Sports Show in town!
Commentary: Well, they are at it again!
The City Council has been holding secret talks with the developer for the drive in property and the Chargers organization. What part of 'there is no transportation hub' to handle the traffic don't they understand? Now they are talking a smoke 'n mirrors partnership with another City: one City gives land for office buildings and another gives land for stadium. What part of this crazy bastard idea that won't make money don't they get? With today's economy in shambles there is no financing for office buildings particularly in Oceanside with an extremely high vacancy rate. There is no money in the City coffers to fund the extensive infrastructure (water & sewer, etc.) for a stadium either.
It's the same old mentality of the council majority: How can we screw the nearby neighborhoods any more
than we already do? How can we stroke our, uh...egos and look like bigger men than we are?
Be aware people: these secret talks with developers go on EVERYDAY in the City of Oceanside.
Isn't it time to develop a real lobbyist ordinance with some bite in it like San Diego has: Developers with pending projects or likely pending projects can't donate to campaigns in our city!?? Then we would know WHO is talking to our council and trying to cut secret deals. They would have to register and every councilperson would have to disclose these talks.
That would sure cool off Jerry Kern's war chest wouldn't it?
Kern will need that war chest to augment the loss of his paycheck when he get recalled! For more info see RecallKernVoteYes: www.recallkernvoteyes.com
The people have had enough of Kern's giveaway of our town and his overt lack of vision for the future!
COMMENTARY: Is the Oceanside City Council selling its citizens a bill of goods?
The Council voted earlier this year to fund a study for 'alternative uses' of the Center City Golf Course land. There has been no study and no solicitation of bids to perform a study to date.
But does that matter anyway? Apparently the use has already been decided prior to any study being done.
Rocky and numerous others connected to the city have either said, hinted or made broad 'wink-wink' statements that the Chargers aren't coming to Oceanside. Rocky flat out said at a recent community meeting that a stadium would not be built on the golf course land.
When the city attorney was queried about Rocky's statements that letters were going out to developers, which would imply solicitation letters to develop the site, Mr. Mullen said that Rocky had 'misunderstood' the process.
Heck, he didn't misunderstand, he was talking out of turn again about a decision that was seemingly been discussed behind closed doors or perhaps during the ever-famous 'breaking of bread with his friends Feller & Kern that Rocky is so fond of talking about? Councilman Feller also said that "the best use of the the property could be offices because it is so close to the freeway." http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/08/26/news/coastal/20_56_308_25_06.txt
So we have two councilmen who have already come out in favor of offices on Center City Golf Course. Is there any doubt that Councilman Kern will follow the two and cement a vote for the 'we-pave-over-everything' KFC troika?
Was office space the objective in the first place? "Oh citizens look how lucky you are? The Chargers won't build their big-bad stadium in your neighborhoods. Instead we can put big-bad office buildings in your neighborhoods along with the same amount of problems that a stadium would generate. These huge buildings will block your views, ruin your enjoyment of your open space and vehicles going to them will clog the local streets. Aren't you lucky we are watching out for you?"
How does one hold the Troika accountable? How does one ensure the public has a voice in this debate? One must know the facts to speak to power. What are the facts? Have secret decisions already been made thereby depriving the public of an open debate?
Aren't the Chargers Greedy Enough? Now San Diego has to pay for seats when they are filled!
Commentary: It seems the more seats that are sold, the more the City of San Diego has to fork over to the Chargers. The original agreement had a 'seat guarantee'. If not enough tickets were sold, then the City owed the Chargers money. Not a bad deal for the Chargers when the team wasn't winning. But now the geniuses at the City have gone in reverse- the more seats that are filled, the bigger the check to the Chargers' organization. When does the greed stop? What city in their right mind wants to get involved with this organization? Mike Aguirre, the City's attorney, nailed it, “Somehow, I think they're a little smarter at what they do than we are.” We know the City of Oceanside is backtracking on touting what a great thing the stadium would be for Oceanside. But is the City smart enough to say no to a land giveaway for office buildings and a 'shared revenue' scheme? Let's hope so.
The City of San Diego Showed Fabiani & Chargers the Door after Requests for 66 acres of Free Land - Aren't they asking Oceanside for even more free land in our town? http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051014/news_1n14chargers.html
Commentary: Way back in 2006, the City of San Diego quit negotiating with the Chargers for a new stadium when it became apparent that the Chargers wanted the gift of 66 acres for speculative development. Oceanside needs to do the same.
The Chargers are asking for a gift of at least 72 acres with the possible addition of 20-40 more acres that now are the home to our senior center, Boys & Girls Club, including the Seau fitness center and the Ron Ortega Recreation Area baseball  fields.
Land is the jewel of city assets and should never be given away and frankly this land shouldn't be sold either. It is a resource that can never be replaced.
OCEANSIDE TROIKA & THE CITY ATTORNEY: Will they sell out the neighborhoods?
Do we really think Oceanside won't get caught up in this type of thing? John Mullen, the City's attorney, has proved himself to be a gentleman and an intelligent city attorney but he is well aware of the shenanigans the Chargers play when the negotiating whistle blows! He worked for the City of San Diego and Chula Vista and should be throwiing down a huge red flag warning about how this team 'negotiates' a deal.
Unlike the City's Mike Aguirre who is elected and answers to the taxpayers, Mullen is not elected and answers to the council, including the pro-development troika of K(ern) F(eller) and C(havez): the infamous KFC
Mullen has tried to get this council back in line on issues from the Coastal Act to CEQA to the Brown Act. Can he make them see the folly in this so-called deal too?
One might predict a huge challenge to this project via the environmental process. After all to make this site usable will  require removal of millions upon millions of cubic yards of soil, necessitate mitigation for sensitive habitat removal, geotechnical studies on this sandy base to see if it will even support a stadium or office buildings among a few items.
This troika has shown an extreme willingness to vote for every development project that comes their way in spite of the damage and impacts to the neighborhoods. Will Chavez use his clever political strategy and turn this deal away? We all know he is maneuvering for higher office. Perhaps keeping the Chargers in San Diego County would be good for that 5th District run? But if you don't get Oceanside voters to support you, and you won't if you put this stadium and/or office buildings in our neighborhoods, you just won't make the cut.
And Feller even has more on the line now that his political guru Jack Orr has passed on to greener pastures. Allegedly Mary I-can't-make-a-logical-argument Azevedo is now running with the reins on Jack's campaign.
Hell, Jack can't even stay awake on the dais and thinks city business consists of telling us about his very fertile yet diverse family and his 39 year-old underwear! Does it occur to anyone that this guy can't and shouldn't win the Mayor's seat? He is a cowboy whose time has passed.
Taxpayers should resent the wasted money filming his bizarre and incomprehensible questions and council reports from the dais for the live and reruns of the council meetings on KOCT.
Uh...uh...uh...".I think I'm going to have to rethink my thinking." Are these words of a leader?
OCEANSIDE: SHOW THESE GUYS THE DOOR!
We all know the economy was in much better shape even a year ago. Giving away the Goat Hill property for speculative Class A office development is not close to realistic in today's market. As Aguirre said back in 2006, why buy 'a pig in a poke?' That's what we would have: Spanos speculating with our free land to see if he could build office buildings and fill them up in today's market.
City Attorney Mullen might want to hire some very astute outside attorneys with the economic background necessary that will show out city that this 'deal' will not benefit the city and indeed will cost the city tons of money and result in lost services throughout the city. And it would be nice if they aren't the same attorneys that the City or County has already hired.
Rosemary Jones, the ever fearless elected City Treasurer, who saved our city from buying worthless junk bonds, should speak up as well. She has quite a handle on our city's finances. We all know that even the very popular Petco Park costs that city $5million in general funds per year. Can Oceanside afford something like that when this speculative land/office space deal flops? Speak up Rosemary and just say NO to this field of schemes! Hell NO!
The City has already taken well over $100,000 from the general fund to pay for sports consultants are the same who also billed the County and City of San Diego trying to negotiate with the Chargers . Who in the world hires the same lawyers and consultants when you are trying to negotiate with one team? http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2007/02/01/news/02chargers020107.txt
That's your and my money folks. It doesn't even inlude countless hours of staff time dedicated to working on this proposal.
One hundred grand..one hundred smackers...how many senior lunches would that buy? How many potholes could that fill? How much gang prevention or homeless work could be done with that money? Hire another cop or two maybe?
Chargers SUE to get $1.9 million from City of San Diego-
Commentary: Another folly by the City of San Diego agreeing to compensate the Chargers for 'lost revenue' because of American with Disabilities Act work that needed to be performed on Qualcomm. Isn't $70Million a year profit enough for Alex Spanos? Even with a team of lawyers for the city, they were still out maneuvered by Fabiani, special counsel for the Charger. Remember the ticket guarantee? And the special skybox ticket deal for certain city council members?
Commentary: A Chargers season ticket holder filed a class-action suit accusing the Chargers of unjust enrichment for not automatically giving refunds to those who bought tickets to a second playoff game that was never played. Once again the Chargers make it clear that they don't care about the fans, otherwise they would have promptly refunded these tickets when asked without having this ticket holder jump through unnecessary hoops.
Link to Fabiani's interview on KOCT:
COMMENTARY: This was undoubtedly one of his finest moments I'm sure, right behind working for Bill Clinton's White House, then as Al Gore's Communication Director and lately during his firm's defense of Michael Moore's films Fahrenheit 911 and Sicko.
When asked by Alison St. John what the benefit of the stadium would be to the average fan Fabiani replied, "Well the bathroom lines would be shorter."
A few of Fabiani's other gems: Teams need new stadiums to stay competitive. That's interesting considering the Chargers made about $70 million last year although they won't show you their financials. That sounds pretty competitive doesn't it?
Fabiani says the team needs better mid-field skyboxes, more amenities like special seating, parking and food for the premium ticketholders, and of course, increases to the more and more extremely lucrative media contracts.
Do you see anything in there for the City of Oceanside? Well, not really. But you can be assured that the shorter bathroom lines for the poorer fans will certainly put our fine town on the map. Hell, I thought it was already on the map. 180,000 people live here so someone must know where it is.
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The opinions stated herein are not the official opinions of the newspapers cited herein or their staff or ownership, the City of Oceanside, City Council or City staff, KOCT and its board, staff, reporters or guests. They are the opinions of Ms. Barre only, a political commentator. |
