The Chula Vista City Council voted Tuesday to temporarily suspend the enforcement portion of its campaign finance ordinance.

Contribution limits and other regulations will remain in place, but complaints submitted to the city attorney’s office alleging violations of those restrictions will no longer trigger an outside investigation, as had been the case. The suspension will go into effect in 30 days, and the enforcement ordinance will be temporarily inactive for 90 days after that.

Councilman Rudy Ramirez first proposed the elimination of the city’s enforcement ordinance in late June, saying the law had become a costly tool used primarily by political operatives to unfairly tar their opponents.

“It’s been abused and it’s costing the city money, and for no good reason except for political motives,” said Ramirez.

Under the ordinance, any complaint alleging campaign-related impropriety – from contributions over the city’s $300 limit to failure to file disclosure documents in a timely manner – was automatically handed over to a private attorney. Referred to as a “prosecutor” in the language of the statute and acting independently from the Chula Vista City Attorney’s office, the prosecutor was tasked with assessing the relevant charges and determining if they had merit. The now-inactive ordinance also required the maintenance of a permanent $100,000 reserve fund to pay for legal bills associated with the outside prosecutor.

Ramirez and others contend that the law has often been abused for political purposes. Since anyone can file a complaint triggering a formal “investigation,” often dutifully reported by the media, the law can be manipulated by those seeking to create a cloud of suspicion over a political rival, Ramirez argued.

The law sets up what is essentially a duplicate enforcement structure, Ramirez said, making it redundant. Violations of the city’s campaign finance regulations can already be investigated by both the San Diego County District Attorney’s office and the Fair Political Practices Commission.

                                        

Councilman John McCann, a Lieutenant in the Naval Reserves, took his seat on Tuesday after returning from active military duty in Iraq.

Although city council offices are officially non-partisan, McCann has run for state assembly as a Republican and received support from conservative groups in past elections. Thompson, who has made his career in commercial real estate, was appointed by a majority of the Council, excluding Mayor Cheryl Cox, all of whom are aligned with the Democratic Party.

Councilman Steve Castaneda said he was confident the Council would be able to work together moving forward, but acknowledged that the replacement of Thompson, with whom he often saw eye-to-eye, may lead to more divided votes.

“I was able to work with Mitch on a number of things, some successful, some not successful,” said Castaneda, who said he looks forward to working with McCann again.

“Mitch is a little bit of a liberal Democrat and John is more of a conservative Republican, so I think the dynamic could change.”

                                        

In one of the largest redevelopment ventures of its kind in the nation, the city of Chula Vista is piloting a new way of executing government business. This spring, Chula Vista combined efforts with the Port of San Diego, developers, environmentalists, businesses and the community to move forward with the Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan (CVBMP), ushering the city from the Industrial Era into the Green Age.

The Port of San Diego and Chula Vista City Council’s adoption of the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) paves the way for top-notch redevelopment of 556 acres of bayfront land. Nestled between the Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge and J Street Marsh, these plans have been nearly four decades in the making, and include a 2,000-room resort, conference center, fire station, hotels, businesses supporting community and tourism, and 238 acres for parks, buffers and open spaces.

Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan Animation from Port of San Diego.

According to Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox, the city now waits to go through two more regulatory agencies for final approval: The California State Lands Commission and California Coastal Commission. Crucial for approval is an even land exchange of 96.8 acres of private land adjacent to the refuge, owned by Pacifica Companies, with 35 acres at the harbor.

                                        

On June 8, Mayor Cheryl Cox was reelected by a nearly 60 percent vote in the city of Chula Vista. After the election dust settled, Mayor Cox talked with SDNR about a monumental primary election, the accomplishments she's seen in office and her big plans for the next four years.

SDNR: What do you think the June 8 election reveals about what Chula Vista voters want, and how will its results impact Chula Vista?

COX: It’s hard to predict what the people are saying. I’m certainly gratified to have received almost 57 percent of the vote cast in my race. Prop G ended PLAs and from my viewpoint balances out chances for companies to bid on publicly-funded projects, whether they’re union or non-union. That was gratifying.

I think we’ve gotten some progress underway in the last three and a half years that certainly bodes well for the coming years, starting with the unanimous approval by the Port district of the Environmental Impact Report [EIR] document for the bay front. That’s a tremendous step forward, to have environmental agencies and advocates on board with the bay front master plan. So having the EIR completed and having the master plan approved unanimously by the Port and the city of Chula Vista well-positions the Port to go to the state in November and swap, and positions the city to go to the California Coastal Commission [CCC] in May next year.

We have 248 acres of open space out of 556 total; that’s a tremendous amount of open space for parks, wide sidewalks and pathways for bicyclists or walkers, and it sets the table to go out and recruit a master developer who would respond then to the Port’s request for proposal for a resort and conference center or a hotel and convention center as part of the bay front master plan. The conversations with Gaylord -- the off-and-on over the past several years – were good and decent conversations. And once the state lands commission approves the land swap – which I don’t see why they would want to oppose – it’d be taking sensitive land into Port grasp and turning previously disturbed land over to a private property owner to build 1500 condominiums. This is a 24 year build-out; we aren’t even getting to the CCC until May of 2012, at the earliest. Any earlier would be gratifying.

The city of Chula Vista has talked for years about a four-year college or university. They did so with aspirations and not in land ownership, and we’re now one year through a two-year negotiation timeline with the Otay Land Company and Otay Ranch Company for the city to acquire 340 acres. That’s supposed to take place on June 23, 2011. So you’ve now got two major accomplishments: One on our waterfront, which is a regional accomplishment as well as city, as well as the accomplishment on the university park and research center as well. This property is adjacent to [the South Bay Expressway], which at some point will be extended to the new border crossing at Otay, in essence freeing up lots of quick access to a four-year college or university. Once we have that land, then we can proceed with an economic study; we’re not going to do one today because things are pretty much in the tank. But in another year an economic study should make a lot more sense. We’re pursuing a demographic study now.