COMRADE IHKRATA

There will be a lot in the news this week about the goings-on with the San Diego Association of Governments and its embattled Executive director Hasan Ihkrata. Rather than bombard readers with one long piece to explain, I'm going to divide a long narrative into parts to try to clarify some of the issues. 

I covered a lot of ground in this Facebook live piece the other night, and have received requests to explain more about who what SANDAG is all about, and why it's Executive Director matters to you. In this piece, I'll be addressing some background on Mr. Ihkrata, and address two of the more controversial aspects of his policies. 

Wikipedia has a very workable explanation, which I'll quote here. "The San Diego Association of Governments (abbreviated SANDAG) is our association of local San Diego County governments. It is the metropolitan planning organization for the County, with policymakers consisting of mayors, councilmembers, and County Supervisors, and also has capital planning and fare setting powers for the county's transit systems, the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System and North County Transit District, some of which was assumed by the Metropolitan Transit Development Board (became MTS in 1986). SANDAG, along with the Southern California Association of Governments, is the only metropolitan planning agencies in Southern California."

BACK IN THE USSR

In 1982 Leonid Brezhnev's body reportedly sustained two falls. As the coffin was lifted into place for the lying in state at the Column Hall of the House of the Unions, Brezhnev's body fell through the bottom of the cheaply made Soviet coffin.  

After that, a new, metal-plated coffin was made, and as it was lowered into the grave, the funeral servants could not handle its weight and the coffin fell with a loud crash into the grave hole. Accounts differ if the bottom had fallen out again happened again. 

Let's just say that Soviet Central Economic Planning earned a reputation for incompetence and corruption. 

The head of SANDAG is Hasan Ihkrata. He is a recovering Soviet Central Economic Planner. Here is his biography  "Hasan also worked abroad for the Government of USSR, Mosco Metro Corporation, where he conducted subway ridership forecasting, engineering design, and analysis of TDM programs for the Moscow Subway system...."

Here is a brief review of Ihkrata's Moscow Metro that says "pickpockets, thieves, and drunken travelers can darken an unwary passenger’s mood"

Hasan Ihkrata wants to bring his trademarked "Five Big Moves" to San Diego like he did in Los Angeles and back in the USSR. I love this quote from one of his LA critics,
"All this time I've been resisting the urge to compare SCAG with the excesses of the grim planning regimes of the Soviet Union. Too easy I thought. Cliched, and what would it really reveal except the same two-dimensional nonsense that anyone could have read in the 1950s? ..... But sometimes the truth is right there in front of you, and all you need to learn to do is recognize it. No matter how unbelievable it might seem" 

ENDING YOUR LOCAL CONTROL OF HOUSING AND CARS

So what does Hasan Ihkrata do? Both SANDAG and its counterpart in Los Angeles (where Comrade Ihkrata was hired from) have definite similarities to the glory days in Moscow.  It starts with the production of those Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) numbers you hear constantly bantered about at City Council Meetings.  

The "RHNA Process," is how unaccountable urban planners seek to inflict often hideously ill-conceived locally unwanted land uses into communities like those of North County. With the assent of unelected and widely hated bureaucrats, Ihkrata's apparatchiks operate at the pleasure of an increasingly centralizing state government, function completely free from any interference by we the voters, and are salivating to end "local control" of everything. 

As nobody calling the shots is being directly elected by "We the People", urban planning is essentially becoming an activity untouched by citizen input, just like Hasan's old haunts in the USSR. Remember recent campaigns based on citizen initiatives like Oceanside's SOAR? Guess what? The SD County Democratic Party opposes "ballot box planning" nowadays. This opposition is based on flimsy logic like that advanced by leading Ihkrata enablers like Carlsbad's surfer savant, which equates voter concerns with urban sprawl to racist "redlining".   

Obviously, California is a great place to work if you are a recovering Soviet Central planner.  We even live in a  one-party state deep into the process of ending all local authority and consolidating it within our increasingly centralized government in Sacramento.

With legislation like the infamous "Weiner Bill" on the horizon,  one can see the building trade unions salivating until construction is then peddled piecemeal to the highest donors to Democratic coffers. Those who believe in managed growth are destined to end up like many of those who opposed the centralization of Soviet Agriculture in the early 1930s. The term "We will bury you" is not a Cold War relic. 

Neither is the surveillance state. How else to term the presence of a black box in your car? Of course, it's tempting to folks like Comrade Ihkrata, who is desperately seeking ways to recreate the Moscow Metro in San Diego County. Just think, how a device that tracks each mile you travel both raises money and gives the government another way to track your every move. 

Of course, both Libertarians and the ACLU crowd are adamantly opposed. Several states are pouncing on the concept,  exploring how, over the next decade, they can move to a system in which drivers pay per mile of road they rollover. Thousands of motorists have already taken the black boxes, most of which have GPS monitoring, for a test drive.

"This really is a must for our nation. It is not a matter of something we might choose to do...There is going to be a change in how we pay these taxes. The technology is there to do it."  - Hasan Ihkrata

So do you really want a surveillance device in your car?  Yes, it is being sold as necessary in order to raise funds to pay for repairs to the nation’s decayed highway infrastructure,  despite the traditional tax per gallon on gasoline, already a consumption tax. Only a refugee from GOSPLAN would state that the solution to this problem is to install Orwellian tracking devices in your cars.

Look at it this way, perhaps Hasan Ikhrata never really did leave the Soviet Union.

He just brought it here with him.

MANY BLESSINGS- NOEL

TOMORROW NIGHT- PART #2. 

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER

"Despite falling short for her mayoral bid in 2018, Schumacher also discussed some of the attacks and challenges, especially online, of her positions, such as sharing an office with Assemblywoman Tasha Boerner Horvath during the 2018 campaign, union support, growth management, the expressive activities ordinance and this year’s Proposition 13, which does not address property taxes, but is a $15 billion statewide school bond, according to the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office" 

It was interesting to read the Coast News story on the District 1 campaign noting the issues with Carlsbad Councilwoman Corinne Schumacher, including her sharing a Campaign Headquarters with 76th District Assemblywoman (then candidate) Tasha Boerner Horvath in 2018.

With the help of a local accounting genius, we took a look. incidentally, Councilwoman Schumacher was then employed by the Assemblywoman in 2019. The reasons for her departure we’ve been given state that there was either a) a belated recognition by both the optics were awful or b) Cori scorched some serious earth in the office. Whatever the case, Tasha donated $250.00 for the Cori campaign in 2020.

OVERVIEW

When Cori and Tasha ran for their respective elected offices in 2018, their headquarters were separate suites in the same building. A review of the financials shows that Cori never paid rent for her suite. Tasha actually paid the rent and all of the insurance for the joint campaign.

Assemblywoman Boerner-Horvath tried to attribute half of the rent to Cori as an "in-kind" donation. She actually screwed up. Generally Accepted Accounting Practices and election law junkies will note that instead of attributing half of the rent to Cori on her financial reports, she attributed ALL of the rent to Cori.

The two campaigns also had several other shared expenses that should have been either split between the campaigns or paid for individually. The financials show that instead these were commonly paid were paid for in full by either Cori or Tasha including the gala "grand opening" party thrown for them by one of their common donors amongst their galaxy of building trade unions.

ANALYSIS

Cori Schumacher ran for Mayor in 2018. Until July 2018 she campaigned without a campaign headquarters office space for several months. At that juncture, Cori and Tasha Boehner-Horvath (then a Candidate for the 76th Assembly district moved into the same building at 570 Laguna Drive in Carlsbad.

Tasha was in Suite A and Cori was in Suite B. This address is an office building. It has two distinctly separate suites that share a common wall. Each suite had its own front door and its own back door. Each suite had separate dedicated maildrop just outside the front door. By any common interpretation, these were separate office suites. 

Upon procurement of the office space, money moves from Tasha’s campaign to the property owner for rent. Cori’s report shows no outlays for her office space. Several office-related expenses that accounting principles scream that should have been paid for separately are being paid for very “creatively” between the two campaigns. 

The rent paid to the property owner by Tasha totaled $600 per month. That number is far removed from the fair market value of office space in Central Carlsbad. The Boerner Horvath financials show credits to the Schumacher campaign in $600 increments for “in-kind” rent. Even if the rent was really $600, Tasha is enriching Cori’s campaign beyond the appropriate amount. 

TIMELINE

4/20/18 – The Boerner Horvath campaign needs a cash infusion. TBH loans her campaign $5000.

7/3/2018– Boerner Horvath pays $600 for office rent to the landlord. Tasha then provides $600 to Cori as an “in-kind” contribution. Separately, Tasha pays the landlord $300, which may have been some kind of security deposit, and again provides that amount to Cori as an “in-kind” contribution for rent. The landlord is the Virginia H. Murphy Trust. Again the financial reports indicate that the total rent paid for both offices combined is $600.

From July through October, only Tasha’s campaign pays rent on this property. Cori does not directly reimburse Tasha for the office rent in this period. Instead, Tasha pays the full rent to the landowner and then attributes the full rent to Cori as an “in-kind” contribution in the reportage. There are discrepancies between the campaigns regarding when these “in-kind” payments were received and paid.

7/16/18 – Cori’s financials note the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers provided Cori with an “in-kind contribution” of $138.18 in used office furniture. Horvath never discloses anything about office furniture on her reports, leaving unclear whether this donation was shared with Horvath.

7/25/18 – Cori discloses a “non-monetary contribution” from Robin Hanson for $138.18, described as a bin for office landscape clean up. Given their joint tenancy, the Boerner Horvath campaign also benefitted from this donation. It only appears on Schumacher’s disclosure. 

(Interestingly- after an innocuous reference to the public record above in an earlier version of this piece, the person noted above went on record in a variety of platforms openly hoping for my early demise. She who protests too much....)

Records also note in the 7/1 to 9/22 reporting period, Cori pays a security deposit and gas and electric through 9/22 for the joint office totaling $305.50. Throughout the rest of their joint tenancy, the two campaigns remain in their office space. Tasha pays some SDG&E bills and Cori pays some, but they are clearly paying for the other’s utilities throughout. Tasha regularly makes “in-kind” contributions to Cori for this joint expense. 

8/1/18 – Tasha pays Cori’s rent of $600. Tasha and Cori’s reports both note this as an “in-kind” donation to Cori, as does Cori’s though the dates are discrepant.

8/4/18 – Both candidates advertise on Facebook that they are having their own individual “Office Grand Opening.” Each notes the address with their individual Suite numbers. Tasha advertises Cori will be a “special guest” at Tasha’s party. Cori states she will have some “special guests”. Tasha does not disclose any expenses from the event or any “in-kind” donation of food or drinks. 

Cori discloses that the San Diego County Building Trades Council Family Housing Corporation, based in National City, provided $682.39 for her event. This is a joint event. these events happened together. Both campaigns should be reporting an “in-kind” donation for half of the costs of the event. Neither did.

8/10/18 – Cori notes that one Vickey Syage provided an $80 “in-kind” donation of landscaping materials for office/yard cleanup. As with Robin Hansen’s in-kind donation of the garbage bin, this needs to be reported by both campaigns as a joint expense.

8/29/18 – Boerner Horvath’s campaign pays $435.40 to Sacco & Sacco Insurance Brokers for ALL of the insurance for the joint offices. Schumacher’s campaign directly never pays for the property insurance

8/31/18 – TBH pays the $600 rent. Her filings note this as another “in-kind” contribution to Cori, as does Cori.

9/12/18 – Cori pays for the internet access for both offices for $142.47 (3 payments of $47.49 each for July, August, and September of 2018). Sometime in the 7/1/- 9/22 reporting period, Cori pays $374.91 to Spectrum business for “office internet and phones”. Tasha does not disclose either expense or “in-kind” donations of telecom costs. 

(These are apparently the phones used by both candidates for phone banking. Both campaigns advertise phone bank occurring at their joint campaign headquarters on their Facebook pages, obviously, both have phones. Those phones need to be separately accounted for, as a shared expense between two separate campaigns.)

10/1/18 – Tasha pays the $600 rent for both campaigns. Both filings note this as an “in-kind” contribution to Cori.

10/15/18 – Schumacher’s campaign pays $47.49 for internet access for Boerner Horvath. During the 7/1 – 9/22 reporting period, Schumacher also pays Spectrum Business $124.97 for the joint internet expenses.

During the 10/2 – 12/31 reporting period, Cori pays Junk King $400.00 to haul away the “unusable office furniture.” Tasha doesn’t pay for any of the removals. As an aside, it’s ironic that a self-declared “deficit hawk”, fiscal conservative, and “deep state warrior” would drop $400 to have $138.18 worth of used furniture hauled away. Waste Management commonly executes “large item pick-ups” for free.

10/21/18 – 12/31/18 - Boerner-Horvath’s disclosure for the reporting period states that Tasha has credit card payments due for $600 to Call Hub (phone banking, Robo-texts, and robocalls.) and $165.74 to Waste Management. Waste Management expense is apparently for trash service at the office. 

Schumacher should have been paying for this shared common expense, but it does not appear on her disclosures. if Call Hub also performed phone banking, texting, and robocalls for Cori, both “GAPP” and campaign finance laws clearly direct that the Schumacher campaign had to disclose that expense and its payment via Tasha’s credit card. The same disclosure indicates Tasha paid another $100 directly to Call Hub for office services. If these services jointly were utilized a disclosure is mandated.

12/27/18 - Tasha Boerner-Horvath receives a $440 refund from the office landlord. If Cori Schumacher actually was really paying rent through “in-kind” contributions, then Cori is entitled to half of that refund. Filings indicate no record of Boerner- Horvath disclosing any other monies sent to Cori or of Cori receiving these funds.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite the flood of donations into the Boerner-Horvath campaign that autumn, until the 12/31/18 reporting cycle, the campaign was said to be $16,000 in debt. Tasha loaned her campaign $5000 in 2018 and that loan was repaid long after the campaign. 

If this is to be believed the Boerner-Horvath campaign did not have the funds to support paying Cori Schumacher campaign’s rent and insurance throughout their joint office tenancy during the 2018 campaign. We all know that was quite a stretch, as KPBS stated in this piece prior to the election. 

"When it comes to fundraising, Boerner Horvath, as of 4 p.m. on Oct. 25, has raised more than $544,000. She has received support from major companies such as Anheuser Busch, drug-maker Pfizer, PG&E, T Mobile and some political action committees."

MANY BLESSINGS- NOEL

PS- On 3/29/20, Cori amended a campaign disclosure from 7/1/18-9/22/18. Amending a disclosure so far in the past is somewhat unusual, but not unheard of. normally it involves returning money from a donor who ended up being problematic. It wasn’t that. 

Cori amended her 2018 disclosure to erase a $64.50 in-kind donation of utilities from Tasha from when they shared a campaign office. Is Cori trying to “fix” an FPPC violation? If Tasha has started amending disclosures from the same time period, this is an issue that just might hit the Union-Tribune... It’s a really small amount of money, but it is an acknowledgment by at least the Councilwoman that they didn’t do their accounting correctly and were inappropriately paying each other’s expenses.

WHO IN THE (EXPLETIVE DELETED) IS BRIAN ROBERT HIGGINS?

So who in the (Expletive deleted) is Brian Robert Higgins? He is running for Carlsbad's City Council in District Two as an obvious Trump acolyte. He looks like he is running to be Vladimir Putin's successor. And there is something about Brian, you should know. He's lived in Carlsbad less time than we've had the pandemic.

But he wants to take Carlsbad "back". From what?  In most estimations that slogan by its very overuse is drivel. But when someone has lived in a community for a veritable coffee break, it's rather funny. 

And if an aspiring young politician wishes to go after Gavin, the least he can do is spell the guy's name correctly. It's Newsom. Not Newsome. 

So we searched for his qualifications to parachute on into town and pull papers. It seems the resume is a little light on specifics. 

And though we congratulate the candidate for his advisory Board position, the only Memoire Bakery we can find seems to be a tiny sole proprietorship domiciled at an undisclosed location somewhere in California.  It's hard to see why they need a "Board of Advisors". 

So you may ask, I'm certain that Brian has done a lot of community service. And you are right. If you are talking about La Mirada.

Interestingly, Mr. Higgins has pulled off quite the trick. He has managed to become a "City Council nominee", without ever seeing a primary. He follows that conflation, with the declaration. He's a Christian. Just not a detail guy. 

CONCLUSION

So who in the (expletive deleted) is Brian Higgins? For starters, his candidacy is either a vanity situation or (more likely) he's an import placed in the race to siphon far-right-wing votes from actual Republican Keith Blackburn. 

If the latter is the case, its foreshadowed by the conflations and omissions we see on the candidate's own propaganda.  And if one assumes it's vanity, one might ask a guy streaming Melania on his campaign FB page, why he would want to elect a Democrat and give Cori Schumacher control of Carlsbad? If he even knows who she is. 

Alternately he does know the Coricrats and is running as a carpetbagger from LA County, at somebody's behest, to skew our local election.  Whatever the case may be, if you live in Carlsbad's District Two, a vote for this aspiring politician is a wasted one. Don't fall for it. 

MANY BLESSINGS- NOEL