Deputy City Attorney Michael Calabrese joined the La Jolla Community Parking District Advisory Board at its December meeting to announce the board must comply with a state code disclosing certain financial interests before any voting or discussions could take place, ensuring no conflicts of interest occur among board members.
About 60 people, two San Diego police officers and a deputy city attorney attended the Dec. 19 parking board meeting, expecting a vote to ensue on the issue of paid parking but getting a surprise when they were told the board could no longer discuss matters until members filled out a form disclosing certain financial information.

In November, the watchdog group La Jollans for Clean Government sent a letter citing the Fair Political Practices Commission and asking the parking board to file a Statement of Economic Interest. The parking board asked the office of the city attorney for advice. Calabrese, along with City Attorney Michael Aguirre, offered an opinion in a Dec. 17 letter concluding the board was not previously aware of the code requirements and will help to customize a code for them.

“We take no stand on the parking issue,” said Steve Haskins, attorney for the watchdog group LJFCG. “We’re interested in the transparency of the board and in the process being followed.”
Because the form required “” SEI 700 “” is not tailored for a small volunteer board but is the same form that high-ranking officials such as the mayor must fill out, Calabrese said the city attorney’s office offered to tailor the conflict of interest form specifically to the needs of the parking board, which has been done in previous situations.
“We can customize the code for the board pretty quickly,” Calabrese said. “We cannot have it adopted within one month, but I am hopeful we can have it adopted by the council inside of two months.”
After the code is adopted, the board members will fill out the customized financial forms, Calabrese said. And before any more business continues, everybody must be in full compliance with the code and the financial disclosures, he said.
“The office of the city attorney continues to give the board advice on the Brown Act,” Calabrese said.
The meeting continued, mostly with members of the public speaking out against paid on-street parking. Because members of the parking board couldn’t vote or discuss substantive business regarding parking, no further progress was made on the pilot-parking program.
Once the parking board fills the financial forms out, the documents will be public. The parking board plans to meet in January to discuss the financial documents.
For information about parking, go to www.lajollabythesea.com. For more information about the Fair Political Practices Commission, go to www.fppc.ca.gov.