A courtroom battle is brewing over one of San Diego's ballot measures that would pave the way for a new downtown stadium.
The city attorney's office came up with the heading: "Tax and Facilities Initiative" for Proposition D.
Its author argues, that's not accurate.
Attorney Cory Briggs refuses to spell it out this way, but the word 'tax" in the title of a proposition can be ballot-box poison to a lot of voters.
So he'll be filing a Superior Court motion seeking a legal ruling on its validity.
"The public is entitled to know what the entire 101,000 people who signed it believed it to be,” Briggs said in an interview Tuesday. “The public's entitled to have a fair description of what it is."
Briggs questions branding Prop. D with the word “tax" when Prop. C, the Chargers' measure just above it on the Nov.8 ballot, is titled "Downtown Stadium Initiative" -- when it calls for a higher room tax increase on hotel guests.
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Briggs prefers "Citizens Plan for Tourism Reform ", because Prop. D would preclude an expansion of the Convention Center on the Bayfront, authorize a Chargers stadium and convention annex elsewhere downtown, and allow use of the Qualcomm Stadium site for educational and park purposes -- while ending the hotel industry's Tourism Marketing District.
"The politicians for a long time have let the tourism industry run City Hall,” Briggs said. “And the tourism industry, corporate interests and hotelier interests dictate how the public's money is spent. And we give tremendous subsidies to the hoteliers with no accountability – to the detriment of the public.”
Should the political playing field be leveled?
Longtime political consultant John Dadian says he’s troubled by the disparity in how Props. C and D were titled.
“This just doesn’t pass the smell test,” Dadian told NBC 7. “The fact that one has the word 'tax' in it and the other one doesn't … I think what a judge is going to do when he review it is -- hopefully -- use common sense."
Briggs also takes issue with City Attorney Goldsmith's legal opinion that his measure requires a two-thirds voter majority for passage.
But court protocols rule out bringing a lawsuit on the issue until after the election, assuming the measure fails.
A spokesman for Goldsmith emailed NBC 7 with the following observations: “The title and ballot question were approved by the City Council on July 18 during a publicly noticed council meeting. Initiative proponent Donna Frye spoke in favor of the council action that included adoption of the title.
“No speaker raised any objection to the title or ballot question. The title and ballot question for the Chargers’ initiative were heard at the same meeting.”
Now, upon further review, that oversight by Frye – and Briggs, apparently – has set the issue up for a judicial resolution.
