San Diegans for Open Government is pleased to announce that it has settled several disputes with the Downtown San Diego Partnership over its management and renewal of the downtown Property and Business Improvement District (PBID).
SDOG has filed two lawsuits against the City of San Diego over its imposition of taxes on downtown property owners to pay for DSDP’s Clean & Safe Program without a vote of the electorate; and a separate lawsuit against the DSDP, the City, and others over DSDP’s past spending of the collected PBID taxes.
As a result of the settlement, DSDP will be incorporating into its 2015-2025 PBID renewal a number of transparency, kaccountability, and taxpayer-protection measures that will become legally binding and cannot be modified by the City. In exchange, SDOG will drop its lawsuit over the past PBID spending; will no longer challenge the past imposition of PBID taxes without a vote of the electorate; and will not challenge the renewal if approved by property owners and the City. (SDOG’s legal challenges against the City over the constitutionality of maintenance assessment districts and business improvement districts will continue.)
You can read the settlement agreement here: SDOG-DSDP_Settlement_Agrt.
You can read the settlement agreement’s Exhibit “A” (2015-2025 Management District Plan) here: SDOG-DSDP_Settlement_Agrt_ExA_MDP.
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