Bart Miesfeld is running for Chula Vista city attorney in the upcoming special election on Nov. 7. Miesfeld earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering at SDSU and his juris doctor from Cal Western School of Law, graduating with highest honors, magna cum laude, and completed his postgraduate program of instruction at Harvard Law School.
Miesfeld said he is running for city attorney, one, for Simon Silva who ran for city attorney last year who unfortunately passed away shortly before the election.
“He was a friend, a colleague,” he said. “I hired him when I was the city attorney for Chula Vista and I would like to out of respect for him, and respect for the voters for him, to finish out his term.”
Miesfeld said secondly, he wants to revitalize the city attorney’s office.
“Since Simon has been gone the past year, the office has languished,” he said. “I want to build that office back up. I spent the last 20 years building that office into a good working machine and I want the opportunity to do that again. Finally, I want to have the projects like the bayfront, the UniverCity project, and the continued build out of our award-winning communities in the eastern territories to continue to run smoothly. To do that, we need someone at the helm of the leadership of the City Attorney’s Office that has the experience on how to do those things.”
Miesfeld said he began working for the city in 1998 to work in the city attorney’s office at the time when Chula Vista Attorney John Kahaney called him and said there were 20 outside firms doing the city’s litigations. This was before the city attorney was an elected position. He said Kahaney said the city was at about 140,000 people and was going to continue to grow and wanted Miesfeld to come down and build a litigation for the city to save the city money.
“I started to do that,” he said. “My plan was to stay there for awhile and build that office up,” he said. “But it was such a great job and opportunity in a great city, so I made my career there. It was many years of making good connections and gaining a wealth of knowledge.”
After practicing law for about nine years, Miesfeld said he loved teaching and ultimately would like to become a law professor, so he completed his post graduate at Harvard Law School, and became an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego teaching law classes.
“I worked as a city attorney during the day, then I would go teach law classes at night,” he said. “I did that from 1998 until I was appointed as Chula Vista city attorney in 2008. I really enjoyed it.”
Just before the COVID-19 pandemic, Miesfeld stepped away from the city attorney’s office for family reasons.
“I had my mother who lived here in Chula Vista at the Fredericka Manor retirement home and was sick,” he said. “I spent a year taking care of her until she passed away. After that, I opened my own private practice in municipal law. This past summer I started getting calls from business leaders and community leaders. People like [former mayor] Mary Salas, and [Mayor] John McCann, who said they had no potential candidates who are running with any qualified experience. Won’t you consider coming back. I thought about it. My wife was a district attorney in Chula Vista for 20 years and continues to now work at the South County Regional Center in Chula Vista. And it was good timing and I saw that we are finally making some of these projects happen. To see those cranes go up at the bayfront, something that I worked on for 20 years and envisioned happening 25 years ago, to see that now, I want to ensure that it is completed. So, I decided to come back and run for my old position.”
Miesfeld said one of the top priorities that the city attorney can have influence is making sure that city government is transparent and open.
“People have a right to know how their city is being run,” he said. “We have open meeting laws. We have things like the Brown Act and the Public Records Act that allow the public access and the knowledge of what is going on. But you must work on those things, and you must know those laws relate to the city, including the leaders. I have been doing that for 20 years. I want to make sure that people have full access through these laws because you want to make sure that the interests of the people, not just the city leaders, are represented.”
Miesfeld said he does not want back-room deals going on.
“There is a huge amount of law, particularly in the Brown Act, it specifies exactly how meetings are to be run,” he said. “Exactly how communications between community leaders are allowed to take according to the public so they know what is going on. I think it is super important that we make that transparent and open. Access to the public is important, not just politicians, council members, the mayors’ interests are being represented so that representation of the people takes place.”
Miesfeld said another large goal is that the city attorney’s office functions are fast and efficient.
“In going around town now, I hear that things get bogged down and that is what slows things down,” he said. “That is what makes people angry at bureaucracy. You must make the city attorney’s office a lean machine that is well-oiled and works efficiently. That ultimately saves taxpayers money and helps policy makers get things done. I am going to ensure that we keep enhancing public safety, that we make the city more effective, and we make sure working families have access to what they need in the community and what is going on with the government.”
Miesfeld filed a lawsuit to challenge opponent Marco Verdugo for using the title deputy city attorney on his filed candidate documents and campaign materials.
“I think the submission of the title he used was misleading the voters,” he said. “The only way I could have stopped him from that was through the courts, and Judge Bacal agreed that it was a misleading title and she ordered him not to use it. That is just part of the political process. I might not be a good politician, but I am a very good city attorney, and I was fortunate to have the court agree with me.
Judge Katherine A Bacal ruled that the San Diego County Registrar of Voters and the Chula Vista City Clerk could not print Verdugo’s ballot designation as “Deputy City Attorney” but should use “City’s Attorney” as his official title. The Chula Vista City Clerk’s office confirmed this change.
Miesfeld has been criticized by opponents from moving to Chula Vista only few months ago.
“You want candidates to have solid and longstanding connections to the community, and really to the office of the city attorney,” he said. “I came down here in 1998. That is a long time ago. I worked day after day, month after month, year after year in that office. During those 20 years I built longstanding connections to both members in the public and private industries, and with community members. As a result of me working so hard and long here in Chula Vista, I care deeply about the prosperity and well-being of the city and Chula Vista residents. That is why I am coming back. To work in the place that I put my whole heart and soul into.”
Miesfeld said he has other connections with his family living here, his wife working in Chula Vista.
“Don’t take my word for it. Look at my connections,” he said. “Look at my endorsements. Every single mayor in the past 25 years, including former mayors Sen. Steve Padilla, Mary Salas, Cheryl Cox, Greg Cox, Shirley Horton, all endorse me. Every single city manager in the past 25 years in the community endorsed me. Every single city attorney that actually did the job along with me in the last 25 years endorsed me. Those people know that I have my heart in the right place. I have longstanding connections within the community, and I am trying to do this for the right reasons. I want to make sure that this office runs, and that this city gets back on track. I take a little offense when people say that because I am the only one that worked here in the city of Chula Vista. The other candidates did not work for the city or the community by working as a public servant. I did. I believe in this community, and that is why I am running. To insinuate that I do not have connections here is just wrong.”
“The city attorney race should not be about politics,” Miesfeld continued. “It should be about who is most qualified and most suited to do the job well. Unlike my other opponents, I have done the job before. I have been city attorney and that is reflected in my bipartisan support that I have received. I am proud to have the endorsement of the Association of Chula Vista Employees. People in the community that know me, knows my character, and knows that I will step into this job on day one and make a difference.”
A previous version of this story incorrectly identified John Kaheny’s as John Maheny. The Star-News regrets the error.
