Written by Miguel Palacios
An ongoing scandal with city officials and the 101 Ash Street property has reared its head again. In September 2020, San Diego NBC7 reported that mayoral candidate and Council-member Todd Gloria had been aware of potential issues with the property before the lease was signed and misrepresented the information to City Council members to secure the deal.
According to Ken Stone with the Times of San Diego, Gloria denied any foreknowledge of the problems with the building and declared that the NBC7 article, written by Dorian Hargrove and Tom Jones, was based on fabricated information. The allegation of a fabricated source led to an internal investigation at NBC, which resulted in the suspension of Hargrove and Jones and a retraction of their report.
Hargrove stood by his reporting and a month later filed a complaint against the city for an unspecified amount, claiming that he had, “suffered damage to his reputation as a journalist, loss of income and likely the loss of his career as a journalist and severe emotional distress.” In addition to the aftermath of the allegation of fabricating the source for his report, Hargrove claims that he was unjustly threatened by the Assistant City Attorney John Hemmerling with criminal prosecution.
In an attempt to verify the claims being made by Gloria and other city officials, Arturo Castañares, publisher of La Prensa San Diego, filed a Public Records Act request for the documents tied to the report on the Ash Street property, but was denied access.
“Per City Attorney’s Office, the actual memo/report provided by Burke Williams Sorenson is privileged in its original or edited version” — meaning it couldn’t be made public, the city’s public records administrator said to staff.
Dissatisfied with the city’s response, former City Attorney candidate Cory Briggs filed suit on behalf of Castañares in the San Diego Superior Court. Briggs claimed that he has received evidence from the city which shows Gloria’s and other city officials’ accusations against Hargrove and Jones were in fact false. The lawsuit is requesting that the city release more information, including the original report on the Ash Street property.
On two separate occasions, Briggs has filed requests for information relating to the Ash Street property and to date has still heard nothing from the city. Todd Gloria has been in the mayoral office for more than two months now and has not only maintained his silence on this issue, but has actively avoided addressing it and what the city will do about the multi-million dollar problem on their hands.
Photo via Google Maps
