Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties are among the state leaders in issuing gun restraining orders under a "red flag" law that allows police agencies to temporarily seize firearms from people they consider dangerous. President Biden is among those hoping the law will be used more frequently across the nation.
By Arturo Castañares
Editor-at-Large
A lawsuit seeking to undo the City of San Diego’s lease of a downtown building plagued by financial scandal and equipment failures was amended to claim the deal is illegal under the state’s constitution and is now seeking the return of over $23 million already paid by the City.
“The lawsuit was filed by a concerned taxpayer to do what the City isn’t doing – demanding the money back for a building that can’t be used. The lease purchase agreement was unconstitutional on its face and is void,” Maria Severson, one of the lawyers representing plaintiff John A. Gordon, a San Diego resident, told La Prensa San Diego immediately after the amended complaint was filed. Severson is a law partner of former City Attorney Michael J. Aguirre, and is also joined on the lawsuit by attorney Lawrence W. Shea.
Elliott has been criticized for not having reviewed the very lopsided deal that included language on its first page that completely shields the landlord from any liability for any known and unknown defects or problems. That language, which several real estate lawyers claim is not legal under state law, is the reason the City may be on the hook for more than $100 million in repairs needed to bring the building back to be operational, in addition to the $128 million in lease payments required by the agreement.
Attorney Cory Briggs, who is challenging Elliott in the upcoming election, charges that Elliott failed to properly review the agreement or alert the City Council to the potential liabilities before it was signed, and that Elliott did not attempt to address any problems with the deal for three years until this year when the building was unusable and the issues became public.
San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott recently filed a civil enforcement action to shut down a La Jolla Farms short-term vacation rental. The city Planning Commission, at the behest of City Council member Jennifer Campbell (who is also the new council president), recently voted for a proposed ordinance calling for licensing STVRs, capping their numbers and penalizing violators. This is good news. But it doesn’t go far enough.
Technically speaking, STVRs are illegal under the San Diego municipal code. I say “technically” because, in reality, they are allowed to flourish. One estimate puts the number of STVRs in San Diego at 16,000. And