In response to Councilwoman Lightner Ms. Lightner, thank you for your response to my letter (Aug. 16, Page 6). Although you stated the Neighborhood Code Compliance Department (NCCD) is under the direction and control of the Mayor’s Office, I chose to contact you as our community liaison and knowing Ms. Sherri Carr, former director of the NCCD, works part time in your office. For almost two years I have been getting conflicting answers and excuses from the overworked NCCD office regarding code violations at 2210 Avenida De La Playa and 2226 Avenida De La Playa (which can be accessed via the imbedded links for online readers). I personally discussed with one of your representitives the code violation issues and was told violations in La Jolla Shores are too numerous and therefore all code violations are being ignored by the NCCD. I brought this issue up to both the president and trustees of the La Jolla Community Planning Association (LJCPA). The LJCPA board then turned around and appointed the property owner of 2210, Myrna Naegle, to the La Jolla Shores Permit Review Committee! Now our community has a LJCPA subcommittee member in violation of the San Diego Municipal Code and the La Jolla Shores PDO (LJSPDO), who is authorized to vote as to whether or not an applicant’s project meets code? From your statement last week, I will assume you agree with the LJCPA decision that a candidate in violation of city code and our LJSPDO should not be restricted from serving on our community planning group. On a different note, Ms. Lightner, you have stated you will not comment on the One El Paseo Project in Carmel Valley because it is scheduled to come before you at a future public hearing. If re-elected, since you have already publicly proclaimed on your 2012 re-election website that one of your achievements was to require the Whitney Mixed-Use Building to conduct a full environmental impact report, will you be recusing yourself from the next vote on the Whitney Mixed Use Project because of your lack of impartiality? — Bob Whitney, La Jolla

In response to Whittemore, Naegle, et al Mr. Whittemore, Ms. DeJong, Mrs. Naegle, Mr. and Mrs. McCormack, it is refreshing for our community to see you have chosen to respond to my open letter to Sherri Lightner (Aug. 9, Page 6) as individuals, instead of hiding behind the names of small but vocal nonprofit groups. This strategy of preventing applicants and our community from knowing (i) the small enrollment numbers of your groups, (ii) the individual identities of your group’s members and (iii) if your members are affiliated with our La Jolla Community Planning Association and/or our councilperson, has been extremely effective in the past. Or did you choose to respond as individuals based on the advice of your attorney, given your current litigious groups, Save La Jolla and La Jolla Shores Tomorrow are in litigation with the city of San Diego? On the other hand, it is understandable you resort back to your old playbook when your groups or its members are accused of violating the regulations our community has put into place. This is when you launch into your campaign of personal attacks, misrepresentations and distortions of the facts, and when you attempt to direct the conversation away from the issue by discrediting your adversary with a list of allegations. This ploy was implemented in your recent letter in which you referred to the well-documented code violations against 2210 Avenida De La Playa and 2226 Avenida De La Playa (which can be accessed via the imbedded links for online readers) as “ludicrous, mean spirited and uniformed.” If I chose to use your strategy, I could simply describe you with the same language. But the facts are (i) it was you who “ludicrously” claimed I instigated the investigation of code violations on the property owner at 2222 Avenida De La Playa, (ii) it was you who dishonestly described 2222 as the personal residence of Ms. Sasaki, (iii) it was you who knew these allegations were absolutely false! This was just your “mean spirited” attempt to destroy my character with another wave of your distortions of the truth. As neighbors of 2222, you knew this building was not her personal residence but rented to San Diego Bike & Kayak for the past five years. The truth is Ms. Sasaki has been receiving approximately $8,000 a month in rent for her commercial building. Nevertheless, Ms. Sasaki or the current property owner promptly corrected their city-issued code violations. (iv) You also inaccurately alleged my properties are in violation of the community development codes. Now, who is “revealing their fundamental ignorance regarding how Neighborhood Code Compliance works?” So you understand, my mixed-use buildings are located in the Commercial Center of La Jolla Shores. However, unlike the above-mentioned newer and remodeled buildings located at 2210 and 2226, my buildings were built in the early 1950s and have never been remodeled. My current uses were previously conforming uses; therefore the San Diego Municipal Code and the La Jolla Shores PDO allow these current uses and parking to be grandfathered in. I am willing to make myself available 24/7 at your convenience to meet with you individually or as a group and a Neighborhood Code Compliance Officer to discuss your claims. If you choose not to meet with me, perhaps a retraction statement in next week’s paper would be appropriate. Mr. Whittemore, would you and your consultant, the president of LJCPA, Tony Cristfi, meet with me, my consultants and a Neighborhood Code Compliance Officer to discuss the code violations on your property and your neighbor’s property to the north? You described my letter as an inappropriate and politically motivated attack on Sherri Lightner. What comments in my previous letter to my councilperson were politically motivated? Was it the picture I found on Sherri’s Facebook page of our councilwoman embracing Myrna Naegle, the property owner of 2210, at the councilwoman’s campaign kickoff picnic? Nevertheless, thank you for coming forward and updating our community on the code violations at 2210 Avenida De La Playa (2210). Based on your response, the denial of a DS-18 exemption from the city of San Diego and after almost two years of delay, perhaps our community can now rest assured the violations are not being ignored and they will be corrected to code in a timely fashion. I am perplexed, however, as to why you failed to mention the status of the code violations of the president of La Jolla Shores Tomorrow’s building at 2226 Avenida De La Playa. Is it Mr. Woods’ intentions to also bring his building into compliance? — Bob Whitney, La Jolla