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Nancy Graham, who recently resigned as head of Centre City Development Corp., has left the state, supposedly to be with her ill mother. The city attorney's office has been investigating her for a month, and now CCDC will hold its own investigation, supposedly by an outside lawyer. Questions abound on whether she was at all influential in a developer named the Related Group getting the nod on a planned CCDC project at Seventh and Market. Before CCDC hired her, it should have asked questions. On Nov. 23 of 2005, I reported in a Reader column that Graham's successor as mayor of West Palm Beach, Florida, had charged that she was too cozy with Related Group. She didn't arrive in San Diego until the following month. While she was mayor, her signature project was done by Related. Then she went into the private sector with her husband (from whom she is now divorced), and did a project with Related. I have subsequently learned that her ex-husband is still owed money by Related. On April 23 of this year, I wrote a column on the Seventh and Market project; Karen-Huff-Willis, head of the Black Historical Society of San Diego, and activist Ian Trowbridge, questioned whether she had been involved in Related negotiations. Graham told me she had been in some meetings in which an agreement had not been reached reached, but she did not negotiate the deal. The CCDC backed up her claim. Huff-Willis this week threatened to sue CCDC. She says that under Section 1090 of state law, public officials must be guided by the public interest, not personal interest. Graham "continues to be less than candid" about her influence on the deal, charged Huff-Willis in a letter to CCDC this week. When I interviewed Graham for the April 23 article, she said San Diegans were hyper-critical about such relationships. The critical question would seem to be whether she was involved with Related in the Seventh and Market matter before July of 2007, when the divorce from her ex-husband was finalized.
Nancy Graham, who recently resigned as head of Centre City Development Corp., has left the state, supposedly to be with her ill mother. The city attorney's office has been investigating her for a month, and now CCDC will hold its own investigation, supposedly by an outside lawyer. Questions abound on whether she was at all influential in a developer named the Related Group getting the nod on a planned CCDC project at Seventh and Market. Before CCDC hired her, it should have asked questions. On Nov. 23 of 2005, I reported in a Reader column that Graham's successor as mayor of West Palm Beach, Florida, had charged that she was too cozy with Related Group. She didn't arrive in San Diego until the following month. While she was mayor, her signature project was done by Related. Then she went into the private sector with her husband (from whom she is now divorced), and did a project with Related. I have subsequently learned that her ex-husband is still owed money by Related. On April 23 of this year, I wrote a column on the Seventh and Market project; Karen-Huff-Willis, head of the Black Historical Society of San Diego, and activist Ian Trowbridge, questioned whether she had been involved in Related negotiations. Graham told me she had been in some meetings in which an agreement had not been reached reached, but she did not negotiate the deal. The CCDC backed up her claim. Huff-Willis this week threatened to sue CCDC. She says that under Section 1090 of state law, public officials must be guided by the public interest, not personal interest. Graham "continues to be less than candid" about her influence on the deal, charged Huff-Willis in a letter to CCDC this week. When I interviewed Graham for the April 23 article, she said San Diegans were hyper-critical about such relationships. The critical question would seem to be whether she was involved with Related in the Seventh and Market matter before July of 2007, when the divorce from her ex-husband was finalized.