Good afternoon.

Welcome to the economic development and intergovernmental relations committee meeting of July 8th, 2026.

Our committee liaison Sarah Jordan will provide information and instruction for the public to participate in today's meeting.

Thank you.

We will now call the meeting of the economic development and intergovernmental relations committee to order and call the role.

Dr.

Campbell.

Council Member Foster.

And I am also present and present with us, Noah Fleischmann, Senior Fiscal Policy Analyst from the Office of the IBA, Senior Deputy City Attorney Kate Malcolm from the Office of the City Attorney.

Let's please continue with public comment instruction.

Thank you, Chair Campio.

If you are in person, please complete a speaker slip located at the entrance of chambers and place it in the tray indicated at the front of the room.

Please do so in a timely manner to ensure proper meeting management.

Once organized presentations have concluded, no further organized presentations will be taken, and in-person testimony will conclude before virtual testimony begins.

And no further in-person testimony will be taken once committee begins virtual testimony.

Members of the public can join the webinar by computer tablet or smartphone by accessing the link which is listed online in the preamble language of the agenda on the city's web page to join the Zoom webinar by telephone.

Please dial 1669-2545252.

Inputting webinar ID 160-340-6084 pound.

This information is also available on the agenda and it will appear on the screen during the public comment period for each agenda item.

Please note that if you're watching via City TV 24 or online, there may be delay.

Please participate via the audio on your phone and meet your TV or computer when it is your turn to speak.

If you wish to speak to a particular item, please wait for that item and be called.

And if you raise your hand during a non-comment period, your hand will be lowered.

Chair.

Thank you, Sarah, for reviewing those instructions for the benefit of the public.

A quorum now being present.

Let's take up non-agenda public comment.

The council members respect and appreciate the public's input and are fully committed to protecting every participant's free speech rights at council and committee meetings.

Sarah, let's proceed with non-agenda public comment.

Thank you, Chair Campia.

Per rule 2.7 on agenda public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to comment on items that are not on the agenda but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of this committee.

Each speaker will have two minutes and will be in testimony with in-person speakers.

Maximilian Schmidt, you've submitted a slip to provide non-agenda public comment.

Please approach the lecture, and at this time you will have two minutes.

Hi, um, I wanted to talk about how architecture and and build architecture and buildings in San Diego and every city across the world are using um architecture to um depopulate people.

Basically, um, what they do is they'll have a um noise come from a building maybe every three seconds or high pitch frequency.

And a lot a lot of what I'm about to say gets brushed under the rug as conspiracies or even mental illness.

And um they'll have like, and what they'll try and do is they'll try and make someone's eyes dart back and forth.

And if you think of a pocket watch, someone swinging a pocket watch in front of your face, um, it will make what um some people call space out, um, go into a trance or disassociate.

And then once this person's eyes are moving back and forth from the um synchronized noises in the city, and they start to do this, um, you could even say the person's thoughts out loud, and they would think that it's normal because they're in a trance and they could hear it all the time and be driven to madness or become crazy.

And also the the on brutalist architecture building design in city hall is the perfect example of brutalist architecture, is actually used to um one look kind of uh make people uncomfortable intentionally when they look at it and as well as look two-dimensional to help to make the person space out even more or go into a trance or disassociate even more because a two-dimensional building uh messes with your deaf perception, and when you're in a trance, um it's almost like when you intentionally make your eyes blurry is what it's like to have your eyes constantly made to go back and forth.

You're it's like um you go in you space out, go into a trance, and then once you're in this trance in this urban environment in the city, um, you can be driven people are being driven to drugs and suicide and madness intentionally by um Freemasons' uh architecture.

Thank you for your concluding remark.

That concludes testimony here in the committee room.

So I'll begin the five minute timer for those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide non-agenda public comment at this time.

We currently have six hands raised.

We will begin with Terry and Skelly.

Please unmute and begin.

Good afternoon, economic development and intergovernment intergovernmental relations committee.

My name is Terry Anscelly.

I'm a parent, a planning group attendee, and a public health educator in our local elementary schools.

AI is most interesting.

I recently Googled the question, and I quote, how does the sale of marijuana affect public health and safety?

The answer I got was I quote, the sale of marijuana increases its availability and normalizes its use, leading to increased negative health consequences, particularly among young people, and increases economic disadvantages to society.

And what are these economic disadvantages?

First, a less productive workforce and less available city residents prepared to work.

As the Journal of American Medical Association reports, marijuana use, particularly among adolescents and college students, is generally associated with lower academic achievement, including lower GPAs, higher rates of absentism, and increased risks of dropping out.

Frequent use impairs cognitive functions, essential for learning, such as memory, attention, and motivation, often leading to reduced educational attainment and delayed graduation.

A second disadvantage?

The cost to society, or in our case, the city for city resources like first responders who respond to marijuana induced erotic behaviors or marijuana impaired car crashes.

The city budget seems dictated to keep public safety agencies fully funded.

So many of the programs that contribute to economic development have been reduced.

It would be in the best economic interest of this city to reduce the influence and impacts of marijuana businesses in the city.

Starting with the removal of marijuana billboards around town.

Thank you for hearing my concerns this afternoon.

Thank you for your testimony.

Our next speaker is Kathleen Lippett.

Please unmute and begin.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, committee.

About the Futures Foundation that provides accessible community-based digital skills training through digital literacy.

The difference between providing this kind of assistance is the equivalent of teaching someone to fish instead of handing them fishes.

The economic scarcity and stability and sense of accomplishment for helping individuals get back into the workforce cannot be underestimated.

Productive work builds self-efficacy, purpose, and an opportunity to be a productive member of their communities.

Compare this strategy with the misguided efforts to raise minimum wage to levels only big businesses can afford.

But result often is closing small businesses that will decide to automate instead of paying those high wages.

They rely on low income, low costs, but these are supposed to be entry level jobs.

The city's efforts to support a local marijuana industry are also equally misguided.

We do not need bud tenders.

That is not a long-term job that is going to provide satisfaction and pride in your work, and you're not giving back to a community, you're exploiting the community.

There are thousands of skills and technical trades that are in demand now.

We need to get away from the idea that we all have to go to designer colleges and end up with a large amounts of debt that we often are not able to pay off.

Thank you for thank you for your pursuing these kinds of constructive and productive strategies rather than the cannabis social equity and maintaining the support for that industry.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Francine Maxwell.

Please unmute and begin.

Afternoon, Francine Maxwell, Southeastern San Diego resident.

As we get ready for legislative break, I'm hoping that somebody will have the courage to ask the staff to hold a webinar with over 250 people on there, teaching them how to do reports when they receive money from the city of San Diego.

Many areas of concern, nonprofits are absolutely being blessed.

Rather, it's county money, city money grants that the city is going after to help the constituents and residents.

But the problem is the KPIs are not being turned in on time.

Some people are getting extensions and they're getting more taxpayer dollars without being taught how to make sure that they align with how reports, data, and everything is collected, distributed, and again, so that they can apply for bigger and better.

This is an opportunity for the city to really take hold of an educational component while the city council is out in legislative break or even when you're there.

Somebody should have an educational assignment from every department to share when they're getting taxpayer dollars.

We are excited that they get it, but nobody knows what they don't know.

And accountability is not the enemy.

So let's meet people where they are and let's teach.

You guys have the capacity.

You have a lot of staff on every floor.

So somebody can hold a 250 person webinar to teach people how to do KPIs.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

Thank you for your testimony.

The five minute timer has concluded with five hands remaining in the queue.

We'll take no other callers beyond these five hands left.

Blair Beekman, please unmute and begin.

Hi, Blair Beekman.

Thanks for the words of Max.

I'm better learning what he's uh speaking to, and it's pretty uh interesting.

Um, I think in the long term, uh what he's describing, maybe kind of accurate, but I think when architects build things, they do want a sense of beauty and love and care, and it's how to bring people together in those concepts, and um, it takes time to learn those sort of lessons.

I don't think everything in life is overly competitive and meant to harm, but to learn from and grow from and to share and cooperate, and I think that's a part of architecture and living in a city and a culture.

Good luck.

Uh it takes time to learn those lessons, good luck and learning those lessons.

I wanted to be able to comment on that um, uh, you know, I'm trying to learn that we're really in a concept of uh trying to practice.

By the way, there's no timer available.

Can I have a timer if that's possible?

Um, I I um I'm trying to learn concepts of how to talk about peace in these final few weeks before break.

That we can work on uh a new uh ALPR vendor besides block good luck in those efforts, good luck in all of our efforts um uh that we can uh reduce our technology while still maintaining technology in local neighborhoods.

Um, there's a way to do all of that.

Um, I'm hopeful in how we can be working on things, and it's part of this I'm offering ideas as part of a process that we're all learning that we can we're working towards our best practices that just peace not work, and I think it's possible.

Um, so I'm hopeful how to do that, even in this election year.

That if we just talk in those simple terms, we can be clear how it can be working in 2027.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Our next speaker is phone number ending in 8700.

You can unmute by pressing star six.

You will have two minutes.

Uh chair, this is not about sales and marketing.

Uh, this is from Google, and regarding these six million dollars that was redirected to arts and culture, uh, instead of for expansion and modernization of the San Diego Convention Center.

So using measure C funds to cover operational deficits of SDCC remains controversial as the funds are being applied to ongoing operational and maintenance expenses rather than the new structural expansion.

The measure C fund, which collects higher excuse me, skip that, um, dewatering expenses and operating support for the San Diego tourism uh market uh tourist authority.

That one I just don't get at all.

I didn't have a chance to look at that.

But anyway, getting back to dewatering, this is my point.

Dewatering cost, process of pumping, testing, and discharging built up groundwater for the facility, for the facility subterranean foundation into the city shore system to prevent flooding.

Managing the groundwater is a significant and ongoing operational expense.

The SDCC sits near the water table.

We're sitting in constant water intrusion underneath the building.

Annual costs historically about 1.2 million dollars.

So here's my red flag on this.

We want our SDCC to stay alive and thrive, but we need we need this.

We need we need to do what CEQA does.

We need to do mitigation, monitoring, and reporting to this.

I really, really want you to do that.

We've got the homelessness oversight committee.

We've got to show the public what's happening with these funds.

Thank you.

This does conclude your time.

Thank you for your comment.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Judy Strang.

Please unmute and begin.

Good afternoon, economic development and intergovernmental relations.

Apologies to City Council members Lee and Foster.

I began a conversation this morning at their committee.

And I wanted to continue with it because I've been trying to explore it.

It was based on an article I had read in the Wall Street Journal called How Government Spending Enriches the Wealthy.

The point really is not accusatory so much as to understand how the money doesn't get to the people that programs had meant it for.

And because this city has always made it very clear that it cares about communities of need, and when they're making decisions, that's foremost in their minds, equity and how to reach those communities with their programming.

And yet the money seems to get stuck somewhere.

It seems like lately the accusation is that it gets stuck at middle management, which I don't know if that's fair, but it is interesting to think that when we put together for our budgets a certain amount of money that it will benefit our communities, and then that doesn't happen.

So when I was researching why that happens and where it's particularly notable, one of the items, there were several, but that I, but I only want to mention a couple that kept popping up that has to do with public health and safety that seemed to be a concern.

Was for example, that marijuana storefronts seem to cluster, and this is also true for smoke shops and vape shops, tend to cluster in economically disadvantaged and low-income neighborhoods, which are also generally under resourced areas, frequently lacking the funds they need to counter the problems, in this case, public health and safety problems that fall to their community.

I also found that there was a concern how much programs that have to be.

Thank you.

This does conclude your time.

Thank you for your comment.

And the final hand remaining in the queue is Becky Rapp.

Please unmute and begin.

Good afternoon, Chair and Committee members.

My name is Becky Roth, and I want to begin by um thanking the policy and innovation center and everyone involved in producing the child and youth success report.

It's impressive, providing insight into how young people in our city are doing, while also pointing out where we need to focus our attention.

One section in particular I'd like to point out should concern all of us, and that's the youth mental health situation.

The report tells us that 28% of San Diego unified high school students reported poor mental health in 2023.

For girls, that number rose to 38%.

Nearly 40% of students reported feeling isolated from their peers, and 21% seriously considered suicide, and 10% reported attempting suicide.

These statistics should frighten all of us as they represent thousands of young people in our communities who are struggling.

The report also highlights an important public health success.

That is of um cigarette smoking among youth, and that it has fallen dramatically from 15% in 2005 to approximately 2% in 2021.

So that's something uh worth celebrating, and it shows that prevention efforts do work.

However, I was surprised that the report does not include any data on youth marijuana use.

While tobacco use is reported down, marijuana consumption is not included.

Marijuana consumption is an important piece of the youth mental health picture.

Given the undeniable research leaking adolescent marijuana use to poor mental health outcomes and increased risk for depression, anxiety, and suicidality suicidality.

The OCYS is key to providing accurate local data, and it would be helpful for marijuana consumption to be included in this does conclude your time.

Thank you for your comment.

And chair, this concludes non-agenda public comment for this afternoon.

Thank you to the members of the public for their participation.

We'll now move to committee members, mayoral staff, city attorney, and IBA comments.

Seeing none do we have any requests for continuance.

Hearing none, we'll dispense with the approval of the consent agenda.

Any request to pull items.

Hearing none, let's go to public comment.

Thank you, Chair.

The public comment period for the consent agenda is now open.

The consent agenda includes items number one and two.

Item one is the approval of the committee minutes of June 10th, 2026, and item number two is studio 15 apartments assignment, assumption, and amendment to loan documents.

We have received one speaker slip here in the committee room.

Maximilian Schmidt, you have indicated you wish to speak to both consent items.

Each item will have one minute, so I'll put two minutes on the clock for you to manage.

Um can depopulate people by making their eyes dart back and forth like in a hypnotist trance.

And until we find out if, and then go crazy and um even turn to madness.

And until we find out if anyone on city council is a Freemason and knows about this, I think that um we need to in the approval of the committee minutes put a special asterisk next to anyone who could be a Freemason, uh for safety reasons.

And as for the um studio 15 apartments, I just wanted to say that um I stay at the homeless uh bridge shelter, so I walk past these apartments uh pretty frequently, and um they seem like uh they're affordable housing apartments so that this they seem like a nice uh place to live.

I think it's only a thousand dollars for a studio apartment, and um I personally am against all um taxes.

However, if we do have to allocate taxes to housing, I think that can be helpful.

Um I wish there were more apart apartments that were as cheap as this one because I think this one could even be hard to get into.

And um, as far as uh Studio 15 in the East Village, I think that um the sidewalks could get uh pressure washed, maybe uh with maybe twice the frequency, um, as well as near city college.

So I consent to item uh two, and I uh do not consent to item one, um, until we find out what's going on with this uh Freemason uh try Freemasons trying to depopulate people thing.

Thank you.

I'll begin the five-minute timer for those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment on the consent agenda.

We will begin with phone number ending in 870.

You can unmute by pressing star six, and if you can please indicate which item or items you wish to speak to.

Just number two, all right.

One minute, please begin.

Thank you.

Joy Sanyata.

Wow, this this is really a complicated item.

I really looked at it because I started at CCDC, where I started.

So um here's what confuses me.

The number of years on the restricted covenant.

Originally it was 55 years, that's amazing.

And then this sentence in there that uh the restriction affordability restrictions will be uh changed from five years to five years by five years to 2069.

So the math doesn't work there it was completed in 2009.

And now after only 17 years in a brand new building they're renovating it for millions of dollars.

So I don't get the the what the real covenant uh how it was protected and what it is now and why that brand brand new beautiful building I remember when it over thank you this does conclude your time thank you for your comments sorry.

Our next speaker is Blair Beekman please indicate which item or items you wish to speak to um the consent calendar uh for the minutes and for studio 15 apartments very sorry yeah the meeting minutes on the consent calendar the meeting minutes okay one minute please begin okay thank you yeah uh again I don't have a timer uh for my agenda uh so can you tell me when I'm at like 30 seconds and 10 seconds if possible sure thing I can see I can thank you uh I can see on the magnified version I'm at 49 seconds now so uh I can look on your vision screen.

Uh I wanted to quickly comment that uh we worked last time on uh the feature of uh civic center area pedestrian area there's gonna be important tech involved with that uh good luck on that issue and how to address this thing um thirty seconds thank you it's important for ourselves to be uh mindful uh as always uh and what I'm trying to address right now um with the we had a second item on the future of a civic uh uh community uh energy uh equity energy park or something you call it it was a really interesting project that um I hope um gets credit on how we can be considering our community energy before SDGME thanks a lot thank you laurie Saldania please unmute and indicate which item or items you wish to speak to hi thank you yes good afternoon uh excuse me um actually I I will pass I will hold my comments until the information agenda thank you all right thank you with no other hands in the queue this concludes testimony on consent agenda items one and two thank you to the members of the public for their participation we'll now turn over to committee meeting uh committee members for questions and comments entertain a motion do we have a motion I have a motion from council member foster and a second from Dr.

Campbell any comments or questions hearing none I'll call the role vice chair lee yes Councilmember Campbell yes Councilmember Foster yes and I am a yes that passes for zero we'll now take up our information agenda please introduce item number three.

Thank you Chair Campio item number three is the sales and marketing update from San Diego Convention Center Corporation and if you're watching on City TV or the live stream online and you'd like to dial in to speak please call 1669 2545252 and when prompted input webinar ID 1603406084 pound chair.

Very good uh we will now have a presentation from Martin Maddox our newly installed president and CEO of the San Diego Convention Center Corporation and Daniel Cooper Schmidt President CEO of the San Diego Tourism Authority as well as Mr Will Rodriguez Kennedy chair of the board of the convention center board of directors uh please let us know how much time you'll need and begin we'll need 12 minutes very good uh thank you chair campio and committee members council member foster councilmember campbell council member lee um we're here today pro to provide this committee with an update on our sales and marketing activity uh the competition in our industry and the importance of protecting tax revenues and economic activity for uh that conven that conventions generate for our city I'm joined with our newly appointed president and CEO Martin Maddox as well as Daniel Cooper Smith, the president and CEO of the San Diego Tourism Authority.

And if there is something that we would like uh or at least that I would like that for you to take away from this um this presentation, it is that it is absolutely essential that we we protect, well boy first that we use TOT in order to reinvest into this economic engine.

It is a pathway to a more revenue towards the city um but also to make sure that we protect its future and other revenues associated with measure C and things like that.

So I'm gonna pass it on to our president and CEO, Martin Maddox.

Hi, thank you, Will.

Today we want to focus on the convention center as a revenue generating civic asset.

But we also will be highlighting our business outlook for this year, and then focus on funding decisions needed to protect this important revenue generating engine.

Our message today is simple.

If we want a stronger general fund, we need to protect and grow the visitor tax revenues generated by conventions that come to town.

The convention center is not just a building, it's a demand generator that drives revenue for the region, but this revenue engine is under pressure.

We are competing against cities that are heavily investing in their convention assets, while San Diego continues to have an aging building, deferred maintenance, and an unfunded annual need of about 15 million a year.

The good news is that demand for San Diego remains incredibly strong.

This slide shows the quality of the business we're hosting in 2026, major medical, technology shows, and life sciences.

July is a signature month for San Diego.

We welcome two events that are city that puts our city on the map, ESRI and Comic-Con.

The concern is not whether San Diego is attractive.

The concern is whether we have the capacity reinvestment strategy and funding tools to keep winning this business over time.

We've shown this slide before.

It's about protecting the city's most important economic engine.

Every time we bring a convention to San Diego, we generate hotel and sales taxes, jobs, and business for neighborhoods throughout the city.

That's why we need to keep investing in what makes it possible.

Protect the engine, and it keeps paying off for decades to come.

We're always working to quantify San Diego's impact on the regional economy.

The key to maintaining high TOT is not just by counting room nights, it's protecting the demand that keeps hotel occupancy and room rate room rates strong.

Conventions increase hotel revenue in two ways.

It fills rooms during slow periods and it helps raise room rates during the stronger periods.

Both of those things increase TOT.

As a city works through difficult but budget decisions, preserving the integrity of the funding sources is critical.

Existing TOT was created to tax visitors and reinvest those revenues back into promoting San Diego.

This slide shows that after the first expansion, TOT grew significantly, while reinvestment in the convention center declined over time.

This peer comparison shows the challenge very clearly.

Other destinations provide substantially higher operating support per square foot.

Each city funds this differently, but all competitors reinvest visitor-generated revenues back into the asset that produces them.

San Diego competes with far less reliable investment.

When we talk about protecting the convention center, we're talking about protecting good jobs, both inside and outside the center and the economic opportunity for San Diegans.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Daniel.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for your time today.

I'm here, San Diego Tourism Authority has a contract with the convention center to sell and market for citywide groups that come to town 18 months and beyond.

So all the way out into 2035 and beyond.

Today I'm going to just share.

I see the landscape and my team sees the landscape of what our competitors are doing and how we're falling behind.

So I'm today I'll talk through what we're seeing uh across the industry.

The first is the center is one of the busiest centers in the United States.

Due to the size and configuration, there are low demand periods between groups that have move in and move-out challenges, and we're not able to capitalize on all the demand that is here.

We focus uh we are forced to use the exhibit hall as a ballroom, which then prevents us from a from taking larger exhibit shows.

We need larger ballroom space to accommodate bigger shows.

Additionally, our room rates, our food and beverage, our costs around audio visual are making it very difficult to attract business to San Diego where many of our competitors have lower cost structures.

There are many cities now that have an incentive fund.

Scottsdale, Newport Beach, Tucson.

In addition, there's some specific numbers here.

Anaheim spends 1.5 million dollars a year attracting citywide business and hotel meetings with an incentive fund.

Philadelphia has $8 million per year that they spend to attract events like MLB, uh All-Star Game, the World Cup, and WrestleMania.

Dallas approximately spends 20 million dollars per year on citywides and hotel meetings, and while their convention center is down, they're giving each hotel $300,000 during the period of time where the center is closed to incentivize business into individual hotels.

This slide shows you the demand that San Diego enjoys.

We are the fourth highest occupancy in the top 25 markets.

We are in the middle of the pack as it relates to average rate.

San Francisco is nearly $50 above us in rate.

We are the fourth highest demand in the top 25 markets and outperform based on our size.

Orlando and Chicago are three times the size of our convention center.

Can you imagine if we had a center the size of Orlando or Chicago, how much demand we could capitalize on?

There's high demand for San Diego, however, we do not have enough space to accommodate it.

We're leaving money on the table that's going to other cities.

This is just a chart that shows you the size of us compared to our competition.

The stars that you see on the left side of the screen are convention centers that have renovated or expanded in the last 10 years or moving forward over the next 10 year period of time.

You can see we sit very low in the pack at 814,000 total square feet of exhibit space.

This illustrates how many hotels and convention centers have been added to our competitive set while they try to catch up to what San Diego is has been has benefited from for many years, and now we're losing uh our command over the market.

Fourteen major expansions between 2020 and 2030 are taking place or have taken place.

Four out of eighteen are adding hotels during the same timeframe, and 10 out of 18 are either have a headquarter hotel or are adding a headquarter hotel.

They're trying to be like us and they're getting there and eating our lunch moving forward.

Talking a little bit about lost business.

Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Anaheim, and Boston are the biggest cities that we lose business to Las Vegas alone has three separate places that are the size of our convention center.

Their convention center is the same is bigger than ours, the Venetian complex is larger than ours, and Mandalay Bay is.

So if you have a major convention like Cisco or Google or ESRI, they're able to go to Las Vegas to sign three contracts, where in this city you'd have to sign upwards of 60 contracts to host a meeting like that.

So it's easier to do business in Las Vegas and it's cheaper.

As we talk about some of these markets, San Francisco has grown their revenue per available room in the first five months of this year by 25%.

Los Angeles has grown it by 18%.

And San Diego's only grown by 9%.

The point here is that San Francisco and Los Angeles have both expanded their convention centers or are expanding their convention centers to stay up with uh the demand.

Lastly, I thought uh that the Gaylord Pacific was a good example.

The the size and scale of the Gaylord Pacific is very similar to the size and scale of what we want to do to our convention center expansion-wise.

They are doing incredibly well.

They're running 70% occupancy.

There's plenty of demand in Chula Vista to fill this building, which means we have enough demand to do that in San Diego because it's a far better package in San Diego, but we need the space to capitalize on what the Gay Lord has.

San Diego has built one of the strongest convention markets in the country.

We have to protect the civic asset that brings people here.

Every lost major convention is lost room nights, lost visitor spending, lost jobs, and lost tax revenue.

Our request today is pretty straightforward.

Protect the city's revenue engine by adopting a sustainable operating funding strategy and funding capital projects separately from expansion funds.

Given the urgent needs today, we want to work with the city to find practical solutions.

This concludes our report and we're open for questions.

Thank you very much.

Let's go to public comment.

Thank you, Chair.

We'll begin with in-person testimony.

Maximilian Schmidt, if you would please approach the elector, and you will have two minutes to speak to item number three.

You will be followed by Fernando Flores, Michael Cole, and Christopher O Gomez.

If those individuals can please move to the reserve seats at the front of the room.

The um venue hosts major theology events, such as the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion.

And a lot of uh these conventions help drive hotel demands.

And um, I know Ezri ComicCon, uh TwitchCon distribution conventions are um some of the uh more popular ones, but I hope that we can encourage and try to attract more religious conventions.

Um, I think even the Catholic religion is one of the more popular religions in San Diego.

I think maybe we could try to have more Catholic um conventions at the uh convention center.

And the whole reason I want to also support more uh religion conventions, um, is because San Diego's also uh 30% atheist where a lot of these people are coming from out of town, but maybe a local would like to um go to um a religious event and because I think there are 30% atheist.

A lot of people say that is not a problem.

I think that's a problem.

And supporting religious conventions to drive hotel demands, I hope one day can also drive awareness, and I don't think that this can be brushed under the rug, and I hope that city council just touches on it a little bit.

If Freemasons can, like a hypnotist pocket watch, make someone's eyes dart back and forth, go into a trance, disassociate, and go into madness if they're trying to intentionally do that or not, to depopulate people.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Fernanda Flores.

Hi, good afternoon.

My little shorter.

Good afternoon, uh Chair Campillo and a theme council members.

My name is Fernanda Flores, political director with IATC Local 122.

Uh, since 1905, local 122 has provided highly trained professional stage crews for live events and production throughout Southern California.

Uh, proudly representing 1500 stagehands across San Diego and Cochella Valley.

Uh, today we are here in support of the San Diego Convention Center's strategic plan, particularly the long-awaited renovation and expansion of the convention center.

The center is a cornerstone of our region's tourism and hospitality industry, creating thousands of careers, generating more than 300 million dollars in annual revenue for our region.

Um, and that help keep San Diego recognized as a world-class destination.

The expansion and projects of this magnitude are direct investments in our workforce, local economy, and the future of our city.

While no action is being taken today, we thank you for your leadership and look forward to continuing our partnership to build a more prosperous San Diego for generations to come.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Michelle Cole.

So good.

You guys hear me okay?

Great.

Good afternoon, Chair Compillo, members of the committee.

My name is Michelle Cole, and I am the head of events and experiential marketing for ESRI, the largest provider of geospatial software in the world.

We have held our annual user conference every year since 1997 here in San Diego.

Additionally, we host up to 20 additional conferences around the world.

We choose our destinations carefully.

This is a large investment.

We look at infrastructure, safety and security carefully when choosing our locations.

I continue to be the largest supporter of San Diego, but I'd also like to express my concerns around some of the recent happenings that my staff and I have experienced here in San Diego just this week alone.

We have been harassed, followed and yelled at by members of the unhoused communities, both around the San Diego Convention Center as well as in the gas land.

At some point, I'm almost afraid to walk out by myself, even in the day.

Additionally, I have experienced numerous capital and service improvements in many cities around the country.

I work in Washington, D.C.

every year.

I work in Houston every year, as well as in several global cities, and including actually Palm Springs, which is putting a lot of money into their little convention center right now.

What we see in these convention centers is modernization, basic modern, whether it's infrastructure, whether it's bathrooms, whether it's their physical plant, as well as in services provided.

I want San Diego to be able to keep up with the other cities.

You have the most beautiful location, and the building needs to follow this and match it.

So thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Christopher Gomez.

Many of whom are employed by the Convention Center and the businesses who support it.

From hospitality workers and food service employees to electricians, truck drivers, the stage hands who make the event so incredible, maintenance workers, and many, many others.

And that's why organized labor pays close attention to the long-term success of this facility because we understand that that investments in the convention center are investments in working families and the success of our beautiful city.

We appreciate the convention center for highlighting the challenges it faces, and we encourage the city to seriously examine the long-term strategies that will help keep this important economic engine competitive for future generations.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And finally, Chris Law has submitted a speaker slip in um favor, but does not wish to speak.

So I will begin the five-minute timer for all those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment on item number three.

Each speaker will have two minutes, and we currently have three hands raised.

We will begin testimony with Lori Saldania.

Please unmute and begin.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Regarding the convention center, I attended their board meeting a short time ago.

So this is nothing new for the participants to hear, but the convention center is not just old, it is sinking, and it cannot pump its way out of this problem.

It was built on land with groundwater levels that may have been considered safe 40 years ago, but in 2026, the building is literally as well as financially underwater.

And thanks to STGE's consistent rate increases, the utility bills to pay for the HVAC, the lighting, and the pumping around the clock of water out of its substructure have increased well beyond budget projections for many years.

So even with Measure C, which is intended to and we were told would expand the existing center.

I ask them what identified ongoing funding source will pay for the increasing cost of pumping more and more water out of its substructure.

And what additional source of money will pay for the higher HVAC costs to cool the facility during hotter, more humid weather.

San Diego is already allocating hundreds of millions citywide for change orders to projects and emergency repairs to water sewage and other underground infrastructure all along the coast.

This includes Mission Beach, another area where you're counting on that area for TOT funds.

30% of the homes are now short-term vacation rentals, but Mission Beach is flooding just like the convention center.

During high tides, the water is pushing up through storm drains, entering streets, undermining the pavement, and a massive El Nino is being forecast, putting more homes and lives at risk in the months ahead.

So my question is, what money is going to pay for the repairs that are needed?

What funding, aside from measure C is going to go towards the repairs and the operational costs that are increasing due to climate change and doing due to a rising sea.

Otherwise, this convention center just doesn't have the funding to keep operating.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Phone number ending in 870.

Please press star six and begin.

You will have two minutes.

We can hear you, please begin.

Blair Beekman, please unmute and begin.

You will have two minutes.

Blair Beekman, I've given you permission to speak.

All right.

And returning once more to phone number ending in 870.

Thank you.

Do I have two minutes?

You have two minutes.

Please begin.

Thank you, Sarah.

Sorry about that.

Joy Sanyata.

Okay, I'll save from me in a minute.

Uh develop and adopt a sustainable funding strategy to address the unfunded 15 million dollar annual need.

Deferred maintenance.

And the third one point is use of special promotional programs fund.

TOT includes measure C and then 31 million in taxes money to the city.

Great, great, great thank you.

1.6 billion economic impact and even bigger thank you.

So for me, yes, the magic of San Diego, we all know and feel that.

Now a question: where is the magic of the San Diego Convention Center?

How did we get here?

For years, I have heard negative things said, and they go unresolved.

Now it could be on its last legs.

How did we get here?

Was it deferred maintenance?

Deferred collaboration, deferred structural budget deficit.

How did we get here?

I'm still not sure we know the how.

And even more importantly the now.

Please help our San Diego Convention Center to survive and thrive.

I love it.

I would not want to see it go anywhere or dissolve or whatever.

Then stay right here.

We love you.

We support you, and we're gonna figure this out, but let's get it done now.

Everybody loved you all.

Thank you for your testimony.

And returning one final time to Blair Beekman, please unmute and begin.

Thank you very much for coming back to me.

Uh my Zoom cut out the same time that um Joyce did.

So sorry about that.

Thank you.

Joy's been trying to report on uh problems with the convention center for a few years now.

And Lori Saldano put into place uh exactly that there are sea level rise issues.

And I'm um this is new to me.

I'm connecting dots better right now, and it's pretty uh good luck on how to work on this issue and when it needs to do when it needs to take.

Um, I I really would like San Diego to continue to be uh a source, uh and a resource where tourists can feel comfortable and safe and they want to visit and see, you know, uh its best friend potential, uh how it can work as a city.

So um good luck in that.

Um I can't I always stress these type of items that you know the importance of what tech accountability can offer the process of of uh, you know, if we do our tech accountability well, people will want to come to San Diego to see that.

They'll want to be a part of that sort of future, and we don't have to be uh uh inviting about it.

It it should be a cooperative process and and when it does become a cooperative process.

I think you can see something truly beautiful in it.

And we're not just doing data for its collection possibilities or for its law enforcement and public safety services.

We're also doing best practices of responsibility and accountability.

And man, when you get people onto that, they people just love it.

I mean, uh all across the board.

And um, how do we bring that home?

Um, we're in a new era of how to talk about our tech policies.

I think we're beginning.

We've had some difficulties the past few years.

There's a PAB meeting tomorrow, by the way, tomorrow evening.

Um, it's really time that we it's okay to look at our our tech and and want our best practices for it to look how we can be doing that in up in the coming months.

And with this item, thank you.

Thank you.

And this concludes public testimony on item number three.

Thank you to members of the public for your participation.

This is an information item only.

No motion is required, and I'll start us off with comments.

I want to thank staff for their presentation today and their years of good work to support the San Diego economy.

Convention center is one of the city's strongest economic engines, and it doesn't just generate hotel taxes, it supports thousands of jobs and businesses across San Diego.

And when conventions come to our town, our hotels fill up, restaurants are busy, taxis and rideshare and drivers and other transportation providers see more customers, and our downtown small businesses benefit from the increased foot traffic.

And a thriving convention center benefits far more than the tourism industry.

That hotel tax generated by the visitors, helps fund the important city services and programs that residents rely on every day, and that we just passed a month ago tomorrow.

That's why I've consistently advocated for maintenance and investments in the facility.

We must avoid becoming less competitive and risk losing conventions, which we've heard from a conventier is a potential, and in fact, it has happened, though it might not be publicized, and the economic activity and tax revenue that comes with that is lost as well.

Our competitors don't stand still in this regard.

They invest in their convention centers because they understand the facilities are economic assets, and they invest at a higher percentage per capita than we do.

If this facility is one of our largest revenue generators, we should protect that funding to keep it competitive.

And we must remember that the convention center doesn't just draw people here, it is a workplace itself for thousands of people.

And though they are not necessarily city employees, they are in my eyes part of the city team.

We owe it to them to provide a functional and safe and well maintained workplace.

The city can't continue kicking that can down the road on maintaining one of our biggest economic engines in the businesses and workers and city programs that rely on convention center generated tourism and hotel tax revenue.

They all depend on us making smart investments today to protect that revenue tomorrow.

And whether you're a San Diego resident or a San Diego worker or a tourist visiting, the convention center must be a welcoming, safe, and beautiful venue because when it is a world-class venue, it will pay dividends for the budget of the city and the checking accounts of the workers and vendors who operate out of it and work within it.

And I'll reiterate a point that often goes unsaid or unnoticed.

And it's a message from both our labor organizations and our business organizations.

Folks who philosophically disagree about many policies.

They adamantly agree about this.

Supporting the convention center is good for all San Diegans.

And as chair of the economic development and intergovernmental relations committee for the sixth year running now, I've repeated this budget, this message, every budget cycle, and I'm going to continue to do that.

So with that, I will turn to my colleagues for their comments and questions for the presenters.

I see Dr.

Campbell jumping on the lights.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you so much for the presentation.

Congratulations.

Our new CEO and president, thank you for taking that position.

I know you're well qualified for it.

Um I just wanted to ask how it's coming along.

I know in this budget season, our uh budget chair is here with us, committee member Foster.

And of course, you know, they were able to figure out a way to help the convention center with our problems with HVAC and the roof leaking.

And I just wondered uh have you been able to get a start on that yet, or how is that coming?

We've been working very closely with ECP uh over at the city.

They were actually just there yesterday uh touring the facilities and looking at the four big projects so that they can start getting some action out publicly soon.

Did I did I list only two of four?

We're gonna start with those two.

Okay, all right.

Well, they're big ones, and I'm sure the other two are as well.

And um I you you probably have some ideas as to how much would it take on an annual basis, do you think to uh make it possible for us to keep up with things so that we can then go ahead with our measure C and expand and continue to make the uh convention center even more available for others to rent.

Are you asking for the cost of the expansion or annually?

How much it is?

Annually, how much you would need extra than what you think you're gonna have.

You know, what are we looking at?

It sounds like there might be a little deficit situation in your budget.

So operationally, for the most part, this current year that we're in is an exception, but for the most part, operationally, we always break even, if not make a little bit more.

The struggle is that we pay a debt payment that normally would have been funding funded out of the CIP program.

We pay for capital needs, which normally would be funded out of city CIP.

We've been carrying those extra obligations that are different and beyond what our competitor sets do.

So when we're comparing ourselves to other cities and destinations, we carry about $15 million extra than what anyone else normally carries.

Those are usually funded and reinvested out of TOT funds.

So about 15 million more is what I'm hearing.

And maybe if we can work on our CIP a little bit, capital improvement projects, uh to see if we can't squeeze a little more out of there for you so that uh you wouldn't have to worry about that from a different source than CIP.

Seems to me that those should be capital improvement projects.

So thank you for that, and thank you for everything you guys do.

And uh you know that we're here, we we love you, and we're behind you thousand percent.

So thank you so much for everything you all do.

Thank you, Councilmember Campbell.

Seeing nobody else on the lights, I will thank our presenters for their good work and uh continued success.

And with that, that brings us to the end of our agenda today.

We'll now adjourn the Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee to our next regular schedule meeting, Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026 at 2 p.m.

Thank you.

Have a great rest of your day.