It’s been a see-saw battle with the La Jolla maintenance assessment district (MAD).
It was legal — then it wasn’t. 
Now it might be again.
Passed by a 56 percent to 44 percent margin by mail ballot of residents and businesses within La Jolla’s downtown Village in November 2016, the MAD was supposed to have taken effect Jan. 1, 2018. 
Enhance La Jolla, nonprofit, was formed to lobby for the proposed MAD, and was sanctioned by La Jolla voters to administer the new MAD should it become operative. 
But a landlord group known as La Jolla Benefits Association (LJBA) filed a lawsuit to block the formation of the La Jolla MAD on Dec. 28, 2016, in San Diego Superior Court.
Attorney Maria Severson of the law firm of Aguirre & Severson LLP, representing LJBA, said landlords were arguing the proposed MAD “does not provide special benefits, but rather, only dresses up the City Charter’s mandated duty to provide special benefits. … The [MAD] is really just a second tax on services the City is supposed to already be providing.”
In a Nov. 30, 2017 judgment, San Diego Judge Randa Trapp ruled the La Jolla MAD was unconstitutional.
 “The general public should not be required to pay for special benefits for the few, and the few specially benefited should not be subsidized by the general public,” Trapp stated.
So the business improvement district, La Jolla Village Merchants Association, stepped in to continue basic Village maintenance functions, like watering hanging flower baskets. 
“LJVMA requested to the City back in March from our budget funds to move $9,000 from the design/landscape category to personnel to cover the part-time person we re-hired to water the plants, sweep and pick-up trash,” said Sheila Fortune, LJVMA’s former executive director. “This person was previously in our budget under the Sparkle & Shine campaign for almost three years, prior to this past December when we closed the program anticipating the start-up of the MAD in January 2018.”
Fortune noted the BID “also had to incur expenses of $3,500 for replanting the hanging flower pots, as they had all died.That was pulled from our contingency category. These expenses were covered due to the MAD not moving forward as anticipated, but had to be done in order to try and save the baskets and keep the cleaning services.”
However, the situation with the MAD’s legality flip-flopped recently on June 27, after Judge Trapp revisited her previous ruling on the MAD’s unconstitutionality. The second time around, Trapp determined the benefits association “had no standing in the case.”
In law, standing refers to the ability of a party to demonstrate to the court sufficient connection to, and harm from, the law or action challenged to support that party’s participation in the case.
“The judge did not overturn her ruling on the merits of our complaint, where we prevailed in her prior ruling,” said Lincoln Foster of LJBA. “However, she believed there was a technical flaw in the structure of the plaintiff’s entity, and therefore ruled that the plaintiff’s structure did not permit her to revisit the merits. We believe the judge is in error, and do plan the appropriate appeal process.”
Commented plaintiff’s attorney Maria Severson: “The court decided in a six-page ruling that the maintenance assessment district was unlawful. We respectfully believe the post-judgment court decision regarding standing is in error, as the real party in interest in the plaintiff LLC is obligated to pay the tax, and was as of the date of the timely filing.”
Added Severson: “We have scheduled the earliest available motion date for the court to reconsider the recent order and allow the legal challenge to go forward – especially having previously ruled it was invalid.  To do otherwise would impose an unlawful assessment on the property owners within the MAD.”
Ed Witt, Enhance La Jolla treasurer, said his group, which works closely with philanthropic nonprofit, fundraising La Jolla Community Foundation, was pleased by this most recent turn of events. Witt noted the lawsuit “was not against the MAD or Enhance La Jolla, it was against the City of San Diego for granting the MAD.”
Witt said any future money spent by a MAD on community beautification would be carefully prescribed.
“We’re not even legally allowed to empty a trash can,” said Witt, adding, “It’s a great way for La Jolla to have some control over the Village and how it appears. This will allow us to power wash sidewalks and a lot of other things. I think it will make a big difference. We’ll be able to restore La Jolla to the Jewel.”
Witt noted a new Village MAD would benefit both residents and businesses. 
“The more businesses succeed, the more property values will go up and we’ll all enjoy a better life,” he said. “This is so important for everyone who loves and enjoys La Jolla. All of us will benefit from this community effort.”
For more information visit www.enhancelajolla.org.