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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>The leader of the City of San Diego’s largest employee union, responsible for protecting City employees’ best interests, remains silent even after documents prove City officials knowingly put hundreds of his members at risk of asbestos exposure and fire danger in the 101 Ash Street building. </p>
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<p>Emails and documents confirm that Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s administration worked to cover up the fact that the 101 Ash Street building was an unsafe fire hazard before they forced nearly 1,000 employees to move into the building in December 2019.</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><sup>Photo credit: Zoë Meyers/inewsource</sup><br>
<sup>Pictured: Councilmembers Barbara Bry, Jen Campbell, Chris Ward, Monica Montgomery Steppe,<br>
Mark Kersey, Chris Cate, Scott Sherman, Vivian Moreno in 2019</sup></h6>
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<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>
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<em>Editor-at-Large</em></p>
<p>The current San Diego City Attorney and her two immediate predecessors have differing views on who is responsible for the approval of the 101 Ash St building deal, but the City Charter points to only one ultimate legal authority that was empowered to approve the deal: the current City Attorney, Mara Elliott.</p>