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<p>An outside municipal law expert hired by San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott's office has confirmed that State Assemblyman Brian Maienschein meets the qualifications to run for City Attorney in next year's election after his opponent raised issues with the status of his law license.</p>
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<p>The lobbyist who has been working behind-the-scenes to broker a settlement on the 101 Ash Street building scandal hired the wife of Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s Chief of Staff during a critical time when the building’s owner was trying to convince the City to enter into a lease.</p>
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<p>A legal memo addressed to the San Diego City Attorney’s office regarding the 101 Ash Street building raised critical questions about the City’s true motives in approving a 20-year lease that the outside lawyers said City Attorney Mara Elliott signed despite being “disproportionately unfavorable to the City”, but the memo, along with a later version, were withheld from the City Council by the City Attorney’s office.</p>
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<p>One of San Diego’s largest laws firms amended its official disclosure forms with the City of San Diego in March after an article in La Prensa San Diego exposed that some of its lobbyists had failed to properly document campaign contributions given to City Attorney Mara Elliott.</p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The ownership makeup of the 101 Ash Street building before and after the City of San Diego entered into a 20-year lease-to-own agreement is now under renewed scrutiny.</span></p>
<h6>Pictured: City Attorney Mara Elliott<br>
Photo credit: Adriana Heldiz / Voice of San Diego</h6>
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<p>A local taxpayer advocacy group won its case and nearly $90,000 in legal fees against the City of San Diego related to the City Attorney’s failed attempt to amend state laws to make it more difficult for the public and media to access public records.</p>
<h6>Photo<i> Credit: Matt Hoffman – KPBS</i></h6>
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<p>San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott is misleading the public by refusing to release potentially damning parts of a forensic report that reviewed the 101 Ash Street building deal, even after the report was promised to be an independent and comprehensive analysis of what has now become one of the City’s worst financial debacles in its history.</p>