How do you define the soul of a city? While the people within the city play a large part in shaping the heart of the community, the elected officials set the tone and allocate the resources that end up defining the values of the city. What does the leadership of the Chula Vista City Council say about the values of our city?
Many people know that I am engaged in a lawsuit with the elected officials in Chula Vista over open government. They are fighting me for their right to operate behind closed doors and continue to protect a person they illegally appointed in a well-documented fit of rage. The city’s legal bills are mounting as they continue to stall this hearing since there is little defense for their illegal practice. Unfortunately, this specific person should never have even been considered for this appointment in the first place. Although it might not technically be defined as a conflict by law, most people, including many council members prior to voting for him, believe he has an inherit conflict of interest. We wouldn’t allow the person who trims the trees to serve on the city council so why would we allow the person who runs the city’s largest sole source contract? Are we a community that is fine violating open meeting laws and employing council members who have an obvious conflict of interest?
Our city leaders have also spent almost half a million dollars fighting to shut down the Eye Candy strip club while doing everything short of throwing a ticker tape parade for the expansion of the only casino in town. Tragically this casino recently had someone kill themselves in the parking lot after losing money inside the casino. Why is the casino so much better than the strip club? Is it because the casino owning family has so much history in Chula Vista or because they have spread so much money around to our elected officials, including thousands and thousands of dollars to many council members’ state assembly campaigns? Is that why we hate strip clubs but love a casino that has been raided by the FBI and is close to having their license pulled for engaging in deceptive activity? Are we a community that will spare no expense to shut down a strip club but bend over backwards to celebrate a casino?
Despite all of this many people were encouraged when the city council chose to have a conversation about the homeless issue within the city. Unfortunately, we found out rather quickly that the council only sees this as an enforcement issue. They want the homeless harassed, cited, and their property confiscated without notice. The council wanted everything short of putting them on a bus and dropping them off in the middle of the desert. The mayor asked why we should even bother citing them when they have no money and will just think it’s a game. When Jay-Z said,
“There ain’t no love in the heart of the city,” who knew he was talking about Chula Vista City Hall? Nothing meaningful was accomplished with this conversation. No citizen task force created. No Vulnerability Index was scheduled. The council asked the citizens to offer solutions but apparently they do not read Twitter where many were provided. Are we a community that has no heart for the homeless and only sees them as a nuisance instead of as people in need? Does our city have no compassion for the most vulnerable among us?
This same council has canceled more regularly scheduled city council meetings than any council in recent memory. They receive the same pay whether they meet or not.
Chula Vista has been highlighted nationally as one of the most boring cities and one of the worst places for a stay cation. We may not deserve those titles but what type of title is our city leadership earning for us now? Do they represent anyone other than their own self-interests, casino owners, and developers? Do we as a city even have a moral compass anymore? With what the actions of our city leaders say about our community maybe we shouldn’t worry about how you define the soul of a city. We might already be the city without a soul.
