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How SEDC proves we don't really have a strong mayor

A little while back, San Diegans were invited to vote on charter revisions to allow us to have a strong mayor.

I don't think we've gotten one yet.

Maybe it was just me having high expectations, but I more or less thought that "strong mayor" meant that everything worth anything would cross the mayor's desk for her or his approval or veto.

After all, doesn't every message that goes out from the City of San Diego to the public and the media first have to be approved by the mayor's office? Maybe that's not the policy now, but "mayor's approval of all public messages" was generally the way it was put to me awhile back...

The reason I bring this up is because the mayor and the council in general are against getting rid of the Southeastern Economic Redevelopment Corporation (SEDC) because it acts as a final word on development in Southeast San Diego. This, of course, is not why I voted for a strong mayor who might be more interested in having non-elected presidents-for-life-or-until-found-fraudulent dictate who would develop within the city limits.

The only way I can interpret the mayor and council's position on keeping SEDC is to conclude that San Diego has become too big for our council and mayor to run, no matter how strong any one of them thinks he or she might be.

Maybe we did just get rid of SEDC, but neither we nor even SEDC realize that yet. You see, both the audit and the Voice of San Diego discovered that SEDC was just something in Carolyn Smiths's mind... and now she's gone, just another would-be $49,999 consultant for whoever the next president-for-life of SEDC happens to be.

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A little while back, San Diegans were invited to vote on charter revisions to allow us to have a strong mayor.

I don't think we've gotten one yet.

Maybe it was just me having high expectations, but I more or less thought that "strong mayor" meant that everything worth anything would cross the mayor's desk for her or his approval or veto.

After all, doesn't every message that goes out from the City of San Diego to the public and the media first have to be approved by the mayor's office? Maybe that's not the policy now, but "mayor's approval of all public messages" was generally the way it was put to me awhile back...

The reason I bring this up is because the mayor and the council in general are against getting rid of the Southeastern Economic Redevelopment Corporation (SEDC) because it acts as a final word on development in Southeast San Diego. This, of course, is not why I voted for a strong mayor who might be more interested in having non-elected presidents-for-life-or-until-found-fraudulent dictate who would develop within the city limits.

The only way I can interpret the mayor and council's position on keeping SEDC is to conclude that San Diego has become too big for our council and mayor to run, no matter how strong any one of them thinks he or she might be.

Maybe we did just get rid of SEDC, but neither we nor even SEDC realize that yet. You see, both the audit and the Voice of San Diego discovered that SEDC was just something in Carolyn Smiths's mind... and now she's gone, just another would-be $49,999 consultant for whoever the next president-for-life of SEDC happens to be.

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Redevelopment Agency Block Grant Scandal: the Carolyn Smith Legacy

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