Dear friends of inewsource,
If you’ve been wondering what caused the 2015 Balboa park party plan to fizzle, check the KPBS-inewsource collaboration that aired and published this week. We reached out to more than 30 people on the inside and outside of the process to figure out why the centennial planning group chose to go out of business.
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The crux of the matter:
“The committee and staff were downtown insiders, critics say, an insular group that lacked the leadership and fundraising skills to pull off an event of this scale.
“The committee spent too much time outsourcing a “vision,” they said, and not enough time building a coalition among those who could actually make the event happen.
“For the committee’s part, its members blame inadequate funding, turmoil at San Diego City Hall and an overbearing former Mayor Bob Filner for the failure.”
Get the full story here.
Shuffling papers
Emails we obtained under the California Public Records Act enabled us to determine that the North County Transit District changed some contract documents and attempted to backdate them when we started investigating the contract.
In the story we posted today, we explain that the contract in question was the one we filed suit over last week: A leadership assessment conducted by the UCSD Rady School of Management for more than $30,000.
Speaking of the lawsuit ….
The court initially scheduled a hearing in November for our suit challenging the North County Transit District’s decision to withhold a leadership study we believe the public is entitled to see. But our attorney, Guylyn Cummins, got it moved up to Aug. 15.
Yes, that’s a long way off. But the budget cuts in the courts are creating havoc. I’m assured we were very lucky to get that date.
Thanks for supporting us in these efforts to hold your government accountable. And forward this email to a friend.
— Lorie Hearn, executive director
loriehearn@inewsource.org
