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Politics

Roundtable On Briggs Initiative, San Diego Democrats, SeaWorld's Battles

By Pat Finn / Producer ,  Mark Sauer / Host, The Roundtable,  Pat Finn / Producer ,  Mark Sauer / Host, The Roundtable
Published October 30, 2015 at 8:02 AM PDT
This story was published more than 9 years ago.
Roundtable On Briggs Initiative, San Diego Democrats, SeaWorld's Battles
Roundtable On Briggs Initiative, San Diego Democrats, SeaWorld's Battles
Primary Democrats, Cory Briggs' Initiative, SeaWorldHOST: Mark SauerGUESTS: Joshua Emerson Smith, staff writer, San Diego CityBeat Lori Weisberg, business reporter, The San Diego Union-Tribune Tony Perry, San Diego bureau chief, Los Angeles Times

Cory Briggs' initiative

Last week, Cory Briggs, the attorney for San Diegans for Open Government, launched an initiative planned for the June 2016 ballot. It will boost the city’s hotel tax from 10.5 to 15 percent.

This week he changed it dramatically.

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The hike is part of a plan to finance a non-contiguous annex to the convention center in the downtown area. Originally, it included a back-up plan to finance a downtown football stadium. This week, the measure would ban all public money for a stadium anywhere in the city.

Funds for tourism marketing and infrastructure remain.

The tax on San Diego hotel rooms today is actually 12.5 percent, not 10.5 percent. Hoteliers voted an additional 2 percent to be added to the room tax to support tourism marketing. Briggs contends this move was illegal because the tax-increase was not voted on by the public. SanDOG is suing over that tax.

Former Padres owner John Moores was mentioned as a likely source of some of the $250,000 to $500,000 required to get the 75,000 signatures needed to get the original measure on the ballot.

The state of San Diego's left

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For awhile there, it looked like no Democrat was going to run against Republican San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer in 2016.

But last Saturday, Gretchen Newsom, president of the Ocean Beach Town Council and former aspirant for Faulconer’s District Two City Council seat, decided to jump into the race on the spur of the moment.

Democrats currently have the edge in voter registration in the city, but the party tripped over itself in the race to replace ousted Mayor Bob Filner, opting for the arguably weaker David Alvarez over the more-moderate Nathan Fletcher in the primary. Alvarez lost.

San Diego Dems don't have a party-approved candidate for mayor at the moment, but that's not their only problem. Termed-out assembly Democrat Toni Atkins is now running for Democrat Marty Block’s state senate seat, which would be fine, except Block will not be termed-out of that seat until 2020.

Also causing angst is the city’s election rules. If any candidate gets a majority of the votes cast in the primary, he or she is automatically elected. This wrinkle could cause the Democrats to lose the city council District One seat where two Democrats are running against one Republican, and the city attorney race, where there are three Democrats versus one Republican.

SeaWorld and reproduction

The California Coastal Commission issued a surprising ruling this month. It said SeaWorld, which had asked to expand its Orca tanks, could do so — as long as the whales were prevented from breeding.

SeaWorld thought the commission had overstepped its authority, and the theme park announced this week it will fight the ruling. But some say that even should it win that fight, it will eventually lose.

The theme park has under-performed with audiences for years, but its troubles have worsened since the release of the 2013 film “Blackfish,” which slammed SeaWorld’s treatment of Orcas. Public opinion seems to be moving inexorably toward more freedom for wild animals.

Last year SeaWorld’s credit rating was downgraded from BB to BB-, or, essentially, junk bonds status.

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Politics San DiegoSan Diego Government
Pat Finn
Pat Finn previously served as a producer for KPBS Midday Edition and KPBS Evening Edition. Finn began her career in broadcasting at KTLA and KCET in Los Angeles. In 1979 she became KPBS’ Public Information Director, then Director of Advertising and Promotion, Program Director, and Director of Broadcasting. She oversaw the station’s local and national productions, including the one-hour documentary Los Romeros: The Royal Family of the Guitar, and Child Protective Services, a one-hour look inside the San Diego County agency responsible for the welfare of at risk children. Both programs also aired on public television stations nationwide. Finn has earned honors from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Pacific Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
See stories by Pat Finn
Mark Sauer
A newspaperman for more than 30 years, Mark Sauer joined KPBS in October 2010 and previously served as the host of the KPBS Roundtable. He spent 27 years as a reporter and editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune after stints at The Houston Post and at two papers in his native Michigan. A features/human-interest writer in the UT's Currents section for many years, Mark also spent about a third of his UT career as an editor and reporter on the Metro Desk. He has covered a wide range of events: Wild fires in Southern California and Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast; Super Bowls and the World Series; foster care and child-abuse issues; the Roman Catholic Diocese's sexual-abuse scandal and bankruptcy; royal visits of Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and Princess Diana; Republican and Democratic national conventions; high-profile criminal trials; and many other stories, from the silly to the sublime. Along the way, he interviewed everyone from presidents to pan-handlers. His work exposing the false accusations and prosecutions of several San Diegans for murder, rape and child abuse garnered Pulitzer Prize nominations and many regional and local journalism awards, including Best in the West, the Sol Price Award for Responsible Journalism and several San Diego and California bar-association awards. Mark has a degree in journalism from Michigan State University.
See stories by Mark Sauer
Pat Finn
Pat Finn previously served as a producer for KPBS Midday Edition and KPBS Evening Edition. Finn began her career in broadcasting at KTLA and KCET in Los Angeles. In 1979 she became KPBS’ Public Information Director, then Director of Advertising and Promotion, Program Director, and Director of Broadcasting. She oversaw the station’s local and national productions, including the one-hour documentary Los Romeros: The Royal Family of the Guitar, and Child Protective Services, a one-hour look inside the San Diego County agency responsible for the welfare of at risk children. Both programs also aired on public television stations nationwide. Finn has earned honors from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Pacific Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
See stories by Pat Finn
Mark Sauer
A newspaperman for more than 30 years, Mark Sauer joined KPBS in October 2010 and previously served as the host of the KPBS Roundtable. He spent 27 years as a reporter and editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune after stints at The Houston Post and at two papers in his native Michigan. A features/human-interest writer in the UT's Currents section for many years, Mark also spent about a third of his UT career as an editor and reporter on the Metro Desk. He has covered a wide range of events: Wild fires in Southern California and Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast; Super Bowls and the World Series; foster care and child-abuse issues; the Roman Catholic Diocese's sexual-abuse scandal and bankruptcy; royal visits of Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and Princess Diana; Republican and Democratic national conventions; high-profile criminal trials; and many other stories, from the silly to the sublime. Along the way, he interviewed everyone from presidents to pan-handlers. His work exposing the false accusations and prosecutions of several San Diegans for murder, rape and child abuse garnered Pulitzer Prize nominations and many regional and local journalism awards, including Best in the West, the Sol Price Award for Responsible Journalism and several San Diego and California bar-association awards. Mark has a degree in journalism from Michigan State University.
See stories by Mark Sauer
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