Report: San Diego Mayor Met Privately With SoccerCity Investors

Our top story on midday edition deciding what to do with the QUALCOMM Stadium site is arguably the biggest decision the city faces this year. There are all kinds of wine interest on -- this piece of time real estate. Voters may only get to vote on one option if the plan proposed kids on the ballot. UT investigative reporter Jeff McDonald has an article today revealing that Mayor Kevin Faulconer had more than two dozen meetings with investors between January of last year and February of this year for the plan was made public. Thank you so much for joining us. Happy to be here. How did you get the information about the meetings. We requested from the mayor's office all the contact and communications between the developers and the mayor and his senior staff two months ago. Late last week they provided a list of the meetings and attendees. They still have yet to provide the communications from themselves but we got a sense of how often and who was at the table during these meetings. Telus who was at the table and what you know about what was discussed. The mayor and investors were the chief attendees. They were also delegated the Chief of Staff to most of the medians. There were about 25 medians with the investors and some third parties like San Diego state officials. There were another nine meetings just between the mayor's office and the soccer league and the University. They have a meeting almost three dozen times in the last 15 or 16 months. Did you get a sense of the content of the discussions? Know the did not provide any information about the content. Presumably was the initiative and using the arena. The mayor's argument was that there were thinking ahead of the -- about options should the charges leave. One might ask what should the mayor have done. Refused to meet anybody? That's a very fair point. A lot of people think it is the mayor's job to entertain proposals for high profile property especially when that has been vacated. The critics say he could have made the opportunity more widely available to other developers so that there would be a more competitive process and more than just one option presented to the voters or the citizens. Do you know if the mayor's staff did meet with any other developers. He says he has been meeting with people for the last 2+ years for the update project. The developers he did meet with that were not investors those meetings did not come until February of this year which of course was after they unveiled the soccer plan and more than a year after the initial medians. It is interesting that SDSU was involved in some of these meetings. Does this help explain why they are pretty clear that they will not be able to get on board with this them now? I don't think they're beating -- being at the meeting or not at the meeting explains their negotiating position because although we don't know what was talked about I think the University has pretty clear about why it no longer supports the project. That they want more control over the final development and the interest -- the investors are willing to provide. I understand the project manager for the goal is to the committee behind the proposals said that nobody else was offering any alternatives. Do you think that there was enough publicity that anybody would have thought it was time to offer an alternative at that point last year? They are entitled to their opinion and that makes perfect sense. They saw an opportunity and they ran with it. They took the lead and contacted the Mayor's office. They listened and accommodated the discussion and moved forward like any good community still it would. On the other hand the mayor's office could have made it more clear that the property was in play and invited other developers specifically those that were already [Indiscernible] we are going to have an opportunity and move forward with the best of what is submitted to You had a story earlier about one of the staff advisors who got a sweet deal on a venue for a wedding. How does this play into the whole picture. We are not sure. Dean all over is a principal at Alden McMillan has a lot of history in San Diego they have described Dean Oliver as a mentor and friend but they got married about two summers ago. Right when they were formalizing the soccer city initiative and by the end of 2015 and rescheduling meetings with the mayor the The reason we thought that was newsworthy is because it establishes that the mayor's office was friendly with one of the developers of soccer city in 2015. We thought it was newsworthy that they went to the developers private estate for a pretty reasonable price. Under the deal that is now embodied in the proposed initiative the investors could end up paying just about $10,000 to lease about 80 acres for 99 years. Some observers claim that a huge giveaway by the city. It is probably one of the most valuable land assets in the city of San Diego right now correct? It is among the chief criticism of the plan is that it is a giveaway of public property. The city will say the community will get a new stadium. New house in retail and River Park all without any taxpayer investment. The investment on the part of the taxpayer will be [Indiscernible]. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. That is Jeff McDonald investigative reporter for the San Diego Union Tribune.