Toni Atkins and Jennifer Le Sar: Undue Influence November 23, 2014 at 8:01pm Toni Atkins San Diego City Council from 2000 to 2008, including a term as Acting Mayor at which time she illegally voted to increase her own pension while underfunding pension benefits. Federal investigations by the SEC, the U.S. attorney and the FBI stem from the citys handling of its pension fund, which has a deficit of at least $1.4 billion because of votes to underfund the system while increasing employee benefits in 1996 and 2002. legacy.utsandiego/news/metro/pension/20060201-9999-7m1fees.html Her attorneys blacked out ENORMOUS amounts of informtion Atkins and Maienschein said their lawyers had acted appropriately on their behalf by blacking out information that could jeopardize the investigations. They said they played no role in the redactions. Even the gay community did not like her. gaylesbiantimes/?id=8149 She was never popular as Council Rep, never had a real opponent and just keeps climbing the ladder all the way to the top. Note her priorities: From wikipedia While on the council, she represented the City of San Diego at the San Diego Chapter of the League of Cities as well as on the board and executive committee of the Metropolitan Transit System. She sat on the San Diego Association of Governments (SanDAG) Regional Housing Working Group, as an alternate to the Transportation Committee and the Regional Planning Committee, and the City/County Joint Homeless Task Force. She continues to serve on the San Diego River Conservancy as an appointee of former California State Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson. She lists among her priorities affordable housing, workers rights, neighborhood revitalization and redevelopment of San Diegos older urban neighborhoods. All of her priorities are what Jennifers for profit company (she claims to have 4 BILLION dollars in these development projects under her belt) is paid for and what the San Diego Foundation has invested their 612 million dollars isn. Jennifer Le Sar Jennifer LeSar was on the Board of Directors of the Centre City Development Corp. (CCDC) from 2002 to 2009. She started her development consulting business in 2005 consulting many of the same developers she was working with on CCDC. Started dating Toni Atkins in 2001. So notice per the timeline as of 2002 they had a serious conflict of interest because Toni was on Council and Le Sar was on CCDC. Prior to co-founding ELP Advisors and founding LDC, Ms. LeSar worked for nine years as an investment banker arranging equity investments on behalf of Edison Capital and Bank of America, and for twelve years as an affordable housing developer. Ms. LeSar has developed and /or financed over $4 billion in residential and commercial properties. Ms. LeSar currently serves on the San Diego Foundation Board of Directors and the Board of Governors for the California Housing Consortium (2010 – present). She has held a variety of leadership positions in the redevelopment and affordable housing arenas, including: United Way HomeAgain Co-Chair (2010 – 2011); Chair, Treasurer and Board Member of the Centre City Development Corporation (2002 – 2009); and Board Vice President, Director and Acting President of the San Diego Housing Federation (1996 – 1999). Ms. LeSar’s educational achievements include two advanced degrees from UCLA – an M.B.A. in real estate, finance and nonprofit management and an M.A. in Urban Planning, and she received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College in political science and economics. elpadvisors/team/jennifer-lesar/ legacy.utsandiego/news/metro/20080911-9999-1m11marry.html CCDC Center City Development Agency is where the conflicts of interest begin. sandiegoreader/news/2005/dec/15/ethical-conflicts-loom-ccdc/ Atkins was on City Council doling out money to LeSar after they began their relationship. Shapiro notes that other board members, such as real estate financier Jennifer LeSar and banker Robert McNeely, occasionally disqualify themselves from certain votes. But city attorney Mike Aguirre says, Disqualification is not enough if youre regularly handling business that is before CCDC. You should be resigning from the board. Atkins was working for LeSars development consulting firm AFTER she was elected to Assembly. How was this legal? sandiegoreader/news/2011/jan/27/blogs-toni-atkins-developer-dollars/ Why was State Assembly Majority WHIP Toni Atkins working for LeSar Development Consulting firm as the Senior Principal of Housing Policy and Planning even after she was elected to State Assembly? Toni was consulting with developers and helping them lobby to get these redevelopment tax dollars for their projects. So how in the world can she vote objectively as a State Assembly member let alone State Majority WHIP to freeze this redevelopment money and return it to schools and other state resources when she has a definite financial stake in seeing that the money remain in the pockets of developers like her wife and their clients. Homelessness LeSar was paid 500k and later a full 1 million dollars to do a useless study on homelessness. She got volunteers to do the work for her. Why was a private consultant paid to do what the Housing Commision is already paid to do? sandiegoreader/weblogs/ive-got-issues/2011/jun/07/ca-state-assembly-leader-atkins-heads-select-commi/ Toni Atkins who served 8 years as Council member for District 3 is now in Sacramento leading the California State Assembly on some very monumental issues facing California. She is Vice Chair of Housing and Community Development fighting to protect redevelopment dollars flowing to private developers like her wife. She also heads a committee on homelessness that will recommend solutions to fixing this extensive and complex problem. But her enthusiasm for solving this problem may be a bit suspect. Her wife just received a contract for nearly half a million dollars to do a study on homelessness, a study that the housing commission is already paid to do and a study that Atkins was working on as an employee of LeSar Development Consultants even after she was elected to State assembly. The solutions will undoubtedly maximize profits for her long list of private developer clients. What is particularly troubling is LeSar Development Consultants used 550 volunteers to do the count and collect the research. This was part of her contract that paid her half a million dollars. Free labor by benevolent well-intentioned citizens that translated into big money into Atkins and LeSars pockets. Redevelopment Atkins gave NTC to Corky McMillin for $1 McMillin is one of her wifes biggest clients. I dont know why the media has been so quiet on this issue for so long. After all Atkins was one of the Council members that gave the pristine and very valuable prime 17 acre NTC site to developer Corky McMillin for 1 dollar a year in an astounding Redevelopment deal that stunned and enraged citizens. Then Corky McMillin turned around and hired LeSar as a consultant....sound like quid pro quo? blogofsandiego/BlogArchives/2007-2nd-Quarter.htm#06/06/07 Here is the lease.. blogofsandiego/DSD/NTC/Memo_of_Lease.PDF ....and it is a Delaware LLC by the way that very conveniently hides who the actual investors are. That makes me wonder if the mayor or other city officials could actually be investors. sandiegoreader/weblogs/ive-got-issues/2011/mar/08/is-atkins-cashing-in-on-homelessness/ Water Democratic Assembly speaker–elect Toni Atkins hasn’t wasted time cashing in her newly won influence for campaign dollars to support the party’s roster of San Diego City Council candidates. Democrats are throwing a $125-a-head (up to $5000 for “co-chairs”) cocktail reception with Atkins this Thursday at the Mission Hills residence of gynecologist Dr. Philip Diamond and American Water external affairs chief Kevin Tilden, according to a recently emailed invite. (American Water’s website says that, “In California, we serve about 630,000 people in 50 communities in service areas in the Northern, Central and Southern parts of the state.”) sandiegoreader/news/2014/apr/23/radar-life-rich-and-political-lane/ Atkins tries to pass a bill that would recreate redevelopment and directly benefit her spouse. sandiegoreader/news/2014/apr/07/ticker-atkins-pulls-community-benefit-district/ I have always been interested in finding tools for community and economic development, both in the State Assembly and when I was on the City Council, read an April 4 statement from Atkins. The idea for the Community Benefits District legislation came to me from a respected member of the community and I agreed to explore the concept. I introduced [assembly bill] 2412 as a way to continue to work on the idea without running afoul of the bill introduction deadline of February 21st; however, I decided to drop the idea when I got negative feedback from San Diego [Business Improvement District].” Look who is w/ Atkins at her swearing in? Water Supper Lobbyist Ben Clay utsandiego/news/2014/mar/17/atkins-elected-assembly-speaker/ Mass was one of a handful of close supporters on hand during the nomination. Atkins’ spouse, Jennifer LeSar, was at her side. Well-known San Diegans Ben and Nikki Clay, as well as Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, were also there, Jennifer LeSar runs a private for profit company which consults developers on their projects, many/most of which are built with tax dollars in one form or another. lesardevelopment/about-us/ LeSar Development Consultants (“LDC”) provides a full range of consulting services primarily to clients creating physically and economically sustainable communities. Services are grouped into three core areas: Affordable Housing Policy and Planning; Real Estate Technical Services; and Portfolio Management and Administration. PRESENT Day Le Sar on Board of Directors of ICLEI member SD Foundation. Foundation manages 612 million dollars The San Diego Foundations Board of Governors is composed of up to 30 volunteers with diverse professional backgrounds, who are involved in many community and charitable activities. The Board oversees The Foundation by establishing policy, setting priorities, and making final decisions to approve awards and grants. She is awarding grants that promote her private for profit business of development of sustainable communities. sdfoundation.org/AboutUs/BoardofGovernors.aspx Jennifer LeSar President & CEO, LeSar Development Consultants and Managing Member, Estolano LeSar Perez Advisors LLC Jennifer is actively engaged in LeSar Development Consultants (LDC) and its affiliate Estolano LeSar Perez Advisors LLC. The two firms provide a complementary set of finance, policy, strategic leadership and program development services to government agencies, foundations, think tanks and private parties. Prior to founding LDC in 2005, Jennifer worked as an investment banker on behalf of Bank of America and Edison Capital and earlier as an affordable housing developer. Ms. LeSar has held the positions of Board of Governors - California Housing Consortium (2010 - present); Chair, Treasurer and Board Member of the Centre City Development Corporation; and Board Vice President, Director and Acting President of the San Diego Housing Federation and has served in leadership roles in regional community organizations. She holds both an MBA in real estate and finance and MA in Urban Planning from UCLA, and a BA from Bryn Mawr College in political science and economics. Here are the Financials. BIG money. who are these donors funneling in 54 million dollars a year? sdfoundation.org/AboutUs/FinancialsInvestments/FinancialStatementsDocuments.aspx Look at the grants. Is CARB funneling any money to the SD Foundation? If so does yachting count as a means of reducing carbon emissions? Here how she has voted. Notice she endorsed by a lot of the groups who Le Sar gives grants to via SD Foundation like Planned parenthood. Is this legal? Look at all of her endorsements and then look through the SD Foundation Financials and see which groups Le Sar is giving money to. https://votesmart.org/candidate/70372/toni-atkins#.VHKvqRH-vIU
Posted on: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 05:33:55 +0000
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