Art Castañeres Endorses Larry Turner for Mayor : Presidio Sentinel
A very well-known resident and businessman of San Diego has come public this past month to endorse Larry Turner for mayor of San Diego. Art Castañeres, publisher and editor-at-large of "La Prensa SanDiego," who also has more than 30 years of governmental and business experience, gave a scathing report of the current mayor, Todd Gloria, and his reasoning to support Larry Turner.
"Voters have given Todd Gloria several chances to lead but he has failed to deliver on his promises and, worse, has abused his power to benefit campaign donors and special interests.
"Todd Gloria has served eight years on the San Diego City Council, four years in the California State Assembly, and now nearly four years as Mayor of what used to be America's Finest City, but can he honestly say the city is better off after his 18 years in office?
"Gloria is again making rosy promises he says he'll accomplish in another term but let's judge him instead on what he has already said but failed to deliver.
"When Gloria was running for re-election to his City Council seat in 2012, he pledged to end homelessness in downtown by the end of his term, an audacious promise he felt confident he could deliver on.
"Now, 12 years later, homelessness obviously didn't end and is worse than ever, even after Todd Gloria promised again as Mayor to make ending chronic homelessness one of his top priorities, but he has mainly put people in tents in fenced parking lots and now wants to launch an ambitious 1,000 bed, billion-dollar shelter project that's never been done before.
"Of course, the existence of and even worsening of homelessness is not solely Todd Gloria's fault, but the arrogance of his promises to fix problems far beyond his control is a symptom of the problem; Todd Gloria is either hopelessly incompetent in managing real-world problems, or deceivingly dishonest with the public as he jumps from one political rung to another hoping to stay just ahead of his failures.
"Take for example the disastrous 101 Ash St building acquisition that Gloria championed in 2016 that has now left taxpayers more than $200 million into an empty building that is not only worthless but so toxic Gloria had to wear a hazmat suit just to tour it.
"In 2016, Gloria praised the deal as "a very smart financial transaction" and "it's something I want to be a part of today so I'm happy to make that motion" to acquire the building through a 20-year lease-to-own agreement.
"The building ended up being contaminated with dangerous asbestos, the City's broker was discovered (by La Prensa San Diego by the way) to have received a $4.4 million hidden kickback, and the City sued its landlord and financiers to rescind the fraudulent transaction.
"But then, in the middle of the lawsuits that City Attorney Mara Elliott —a Gloria ally— believed would undo the deal and return millions of dollars to taxpayers, Gloria and his cronies on the City Council rushed to settle the lawsuits by buying the toxic building from the very people who had swindled us.
"The settlement was such a bad idea that Elliott wrote into the agreement that she had advised the Council not to approve it and she spoke out publicly at the Council meeting to urge them to stop.
"But the City Council, blindly loyal to King Gloria, voted to buy 101 Ash for more than it was ever appraised after already having paid tens of millions of dollars in lease payments toward the purchase.
"Why would Gloria go against the advice of the independently elected City Attorney who endorsed him and who he had endorsed?
"Because ending the lawsuits stopped legal depositions before key witnesses testified and the truth behind the insider deal never came to light.
"But did Gloria learn any lessons from the costly 101 Ash debacle when it comes to making decisions for the good of the public?
"Apparently not.
"Gloria later pushed the City Council to select inexperienced developer Brad Termini —who gave over $100,000 to Gloria's 2020 election— to redevelop the Sports Arena site. Termini then flipped the deal to the billionaire LA Rams owner, then cut out 250 affordable units and a 200-room unionized hotel —all with the help of the biggest union leader in town because Termini paid her husband over $200,000.
"Gloria also pushed the City to sell Tailgate Park to the Padres at a $44 million discount in a sweetheart deal that is being challenged in court as illegal.
"And we've recently learned that Gloria told SDSU not to pursue an offer for a free sports arena in Mission Valley because it would have conflicted with his push to reward Termini for his campaign donations by giving him the taxpayer-subsidized Midway arena project.
"After all of these colossal mistakes and misuse of taxpayer money, Gloria now dares to ask voters to approve a doubling of the City's sales tax revenues —to the tune of $400 million a year— to bail him out of the financial hole he dug for himself.
"San Diego needs a change to end the culture of political corruption where all the powerful players think it's acceptable to take campaign contributions from people with interest before the city and have a mutual understanding that pay-to-play is just the way the system works.
"They operate the city like a slot machine where donors drop in money and expect a prize.
"Larry Turner, who is running against Gloria, is not a politician and with no ambitions to run for higher office, Turner has stepped forward in San Diego's time of need. Turner's lack of political experience shouldn't be a negative in a community where career politicians have led us to this unsustainable situation where drastic change is urgently needed. We could use a fresh look at problems and real-world decision-making.
"Turner says, as a Marine and police officer, he runs toward danger not away from it, and that is what he has pledged to do as Mayor.
"San Diego needs a mayor who tackles the tough problems with honesty and transparency to find the solutions that are best for taxpayers, not for special interests and campaign donors.
"Turner has a lifelong track record of putting his life on the line in service of others, and San Diegans should give him a chance to lead us toward a better tomorrow and turn San Diego around."
