San Diego State University has spent about $1.6 million crafting its vision for the old Qualcomm Stadium site.<\/p>\n
That spending \u2013 on architects, real estate and stadium experts, a public relations firm and a veteran political operative \u2013 helped boost the university\u2019s Mission Valley expansion plans before last fall\u2019s election. After seeing and hearing from the university about what it could do with the stadium site, voters approved a ballot measure that essentially forces the city to sell land to SDSU.<\/p>\n During the campaign, the university had to dance a fine line. As a general rule, public agencies like SDSU cannot spend public money to urge people to vote for or against a ballot measure, unless the spending is explicitly authorized by law, the California Supreme Court has ruled. There\u2019s no hard and fast rule about what is OK, because the court said that depends on the \u201cstyle, tenor and timing\u201d of information coming from a public agency.<\/p>\n Documents released by the university in response to a public records request by Voice of San Diego drive home just how close to the line SDSU went \u2013 one political consultant did work for SDSU right up until he joined a campaign trying to get land for the university. And though the records shed light on how the university spent $1.6 million creating the plans, officials will not clarify where the money came from.<\/p>\n A year before the vote, the university released a plan for what it would do with the land, if the measure passed. The plan included a new stadium, a river park, more space for research and thousands of new housing units. It continued to release new renderings of plans for the site in the months leading up to the vote.<\/p>\n Para leer el resto del art\u00edculo, visite voiceofsandiego.org\/topics\/education\/docs-shed-light-on-sdsu-mission-valley-spending<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Docs](\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Qualcomm_Stadium-Wikimedia-Commons.jpg\")
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