San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer is taking his time in deciding whether or not he will support the Chargers Downtown San Diego stadium/convention center expansion plan and fans are rapidly losing patience.
On Monday at the team’s training complex in Murphy Canyon several fans, many of them who have been leading the signature-gathering process, got together to send a message to the Mayor and San Diego sports fans in general.
“If you’re passionate about this issue and you don’t know where the Mayor of the city stands on it how do you know what you’re getting?” said Jason Riggs, Chairman of the San Diego Stadium Coalition. “If you’re for it, or even against it, you have no idea what you’re getting unless he takes a stand on it.”
Riggs went a step further, saying it’s time to vote against Mayor Faulconer’s re-election bid unless we hear some kind of decision from City Hall.
“Absolutely,” said Riggs. “Anybody but Kevin if he doesn’t take a position on this issue.”
Riggs is among the many who feel the Mayor is simply stalling, waiting until after the June 7 election to see what kind of political footing he holds before coming down on one side of the issue. The list of fan groups, non-profits and businesses who signed on to support the message to City Hall is lengthy:
Save Our Bolts
Charger Backers
SD Stadium Coalition
Bolt Pride
Bolt Complex
Die Hard Bolt Club
Cali Comfort
Tilted Kilt
Evolution Lighthouse
Bars Society
You Know You’re A Chargers Fan When
Boltman
San Diego Sports Domination
That’s a lot of potential voters who may turn away from the incumbent Mayor and perhaps the play the fans are trying to make here: threatening Faulconer’s re-election bid by removing potential support on election day.
“Momentum is swinging, even if political figures in this community are dragging their feet the citizens are signing the petition,” said Thomas Powell of Save Our Bolts, one of the most influential of the fan groups. “Even if those in the ivory tower of city hall do not understand the importance of this legacy, the community does and they are taking action.”
Powell also praised the Mayor’s efforts to keep the team during 2015 when the Chargers were trying to move to a new stadium in Carson and asked Faulconer to show the same level of leadership now.
There is another large question left unanswered: Who would the fans turn to if they abandon the Mayor in this situation? Two of the main candidates to oppose Faulconer, Ed Harris and Lori Saldaña, have both said they are not in favor of the Chargers’ citizens’ initiative and no candidate has openly endorsed it. However, representatives from the Save Our Bolts group are meeting with Saldaña on Tuesday to discuss it.
On Monday the Mayor’s office responded to the criticisms, defending the time he is taking to parse the Chargers plan.
“It is Mayor Faluconer's obligation to make sure the public knows all about this measure,” said Matt Awbrey, the Mayor’s Deputy Chief of Staff. “That's why he's bringing people to the table to scrub this measure. The Mayor is committed to making sure the public has all the facts. There needs to be vetting of the financials behind it. It would lead to the largest bond offering in the city's history. We need to have it reviewed to make San Diego's fiscal health is protected.”
The Chargers made public their 110-page citizens’ initiative in late March. Since then Awbrey says the Mayor’s financial experts have been working to verify the details of the proposal.
“We only have one shot at this,” said Awbrey. “The city has a long history of leaders, over time, rushing in to decisions without vetting all the facts. We're taking this and viewing it through the prism of what's in the numbers? One of the big components is the land acquisition. That's a critical piece. We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Awbrey says there is no specific time table for the Mayor to make his decision on the Chargers’ citizens’ initiative, only that they’re trying to come to a conclusion “as soon as possible.”
The Mayor and the Chargers have meetings set up in the coming weeks where some of these issues will be discussed.
