The city is no longer obligated to shoo the seals from Children\u2019s Pool since a Superior Court judge dissolved the 2008 injunction this month. Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor indicated he agreed with the previous judge\u2019s rulings, but that new legislature has altered the case. Namely, State Senator Christine Kehoe introduced State Bill 428 to permit Children\u2019s Pool to also be used as “a marine mammal park for the enjoyment and educational benefit of children.” The bill will take effect Jan. 1, 2010.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “It is the court\u2019s view that nothing would be gained by insisting on compliance with the earlier orders for the next 48 days,” wrote Taylor in his decision. The decision about what to do with Children\u2019s Pool now lies in the hands of City Council. Paul Kennerson, the attorney from La Jolla who first sued the city to return the beach to its 1941 configuration as a pool for children, has not yet decided whether he will appeal. “I\u2019m not the only vote in the game,” Kennerson said. “It\u2019s really a community issue. I pay a lot of attention to what the community says. It\u2019s not my beach or Valerie O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s beach.”\u00a0 Kennerson represented swimmer and former La Jollan Valerie O\u2019Sullivan who was charged by the city for harassing the seals after swimming in the cove. Kennerson opposed Kehoe\u2019s amendment to include a “marine mammal park” in the trust, calling it “unconstitutional.”\u00a0 “[The judge] gave every benefit of the doubt to the validity of the statute,” Kennerson said. “I don\u2019t believe it\u2019s the right thing to do.” District 1 Councilwoman Sherri Lightner did not comment on the future of the beach, but spokeswoman Erin Demorest said Lightner is committed to upholding the law and court decisions. “If that\u2019s the new law, then we\u2019ll have to figure how the city can work within the confines of the new law,” Demorest said. Seal activist Bryan Pease, an attorney for the Animal Protection and Rescue League, applauded the ruling as “a victory for seals, a victory for children and a victory for people who like to come to watch the seals.” The City Attorney\u2019s Office also issued an e-mail to applaud the ruling. “In February, our office recommended that the City of San Diego sponsor legislation to change the terms of the trust to give the City discretion on use of the beach,” wrote City Attorney Jan Goldsmith. “Today\u2019s decision means that the issue can now be decided by the City Council and Mayor, the way public policy issues are supposed to be decided.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The city is no longer obligated to shoo the seals from Children\u2019s Pool since a Superior Court judge dissolved the 2008 injunction this month. Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor indicated he agreed with the previous judge\u2019s rulings, but that new legislature has altered the case. Namely, State Senator Christine Kehoe introduced State Bill 428 to […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":284431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Judge throws seal ball back in city\u2019s lap","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}