Has Bob Watkins ever actually volunteered for anything?

See all Bob Watkins' posts.

I'm wondering if Airport Authority chairman Bob Watkins ever did anything without significant compensation. I've been reading letters to the editor in the San Diego Union Tribune (below) that rave about Watkins' contributions to the community.

But we'd have to go back and look at his reimbursements for "expenses" to find out if he was really volunteering, wouldn't we? And then there is the political capital he amassed by pleasing the powerful.

I've twice met Bob Watkins, both at SDCOE meetings. I spoke both times, criticizing SDCOE for its relationship to school attorney Daniel Shinoff.

The first time Bob Watkins looked at me with a very friendly smile on his face. I suspect he didn't listen to a word I said; he had absolutely no verbal response. He showed his true attitude the second time I spoke, when he rudely interrupted me, trying to prevent me from having my say.

John Witt and Susan Hartley had the decency to look down at their desks as I spoke. I appreciate their body language, which at least acknowledged that the subject of discussion was a serious matter.








The Watkins story
Letters to SDUT Oct. 6, 2009

Something or nothing? Being an investigative reporter in San Diego must be a lot like being a weather man in San Diego: you have to try to make something out of nothing.

Your multiple articles on Bob Watkins, chairman of the board of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, was nothing more than character assassination in the guise of investigative journalism. Your headline about his operating seven businesses from his home office was clearly designed to create guilt by accusation.

Yes, Watkins was wrong to use city funds for a Chargers function in London. You correctly reported that and he correctly and promptly repaid the city. Your continuing investigation and multiple reports, and your call for his resignation on the editorial page were comparable to a San Diego weatherman warning of a hurricane from a San Diego drizzle. This does nothing for the U-T's reputation of providing serious journalism.
JIM FITZPATRICK
La Jolla


You have convinced me to quit volunteering with your nasty editorial demanding that Bob Watkins step down. Volunteering in San Diego just isn't worth it. Why put yourself on the line, spend your time trying to make things better in this community, take time away from your family, and use your hard-earned money to contribute to any effort to improve or lead this city?

Bob Watkins has spent years serving on many, many boards and making good and calm decisions that have helped this city and many nonprofits here.
KATHERINE KENNEDY
San Diego


I have known Bob Watkins for over 40 years and know few better men. Why do you not balance your criticism with some of the positive public service he has done over many years?

RICHARD L. WAGNER

San Diego

Kudos on your call to send Bob Watkins packing from the Airport Authority. While at it, he should take the rest of his colleagues and allow for a complete fresh start. In other words, let's get the Airport Authority back in the hunt to fulfill its real calling: Finding a site for a real airport.

By the way, “real airport” means an airport that does more than rate highly with tourists for its nearness to downtown, but one with multiple runways and 24/7 operations that can make us the headquarters city that can provide the jobs and incomes necessary for our future generations.

Whether it is anchored to the ground or floating on the ocean, let's get busy.
GREG FINLEY
San Diego

Airport Board acts in response to Bob Watkins' scandal

See all Bob Watkins' posts.

Airport Board Travel Expenses Capped
Voice of San Diego
ROB DAVIS
October 1, 2009

The Airport Authority today approved limits on board members' meal and hotel expenses while traveling, but delayed any decisions about other proposed travel policy changes proposed after our August story revealed existing policies weren't always followed.

The authority's 6-1 vote (San Marcos Mayor Jim Desmond voted no) will cap reimbursements for board members according to federal standards that allow a maximum $71 reimbursement for meals each day and a maximum $340 for hotel stays.

The board didn't adopt them for employees, deferring discussion on that and other expense policy changes to its November meeting.

Board members had mixed opinions about those other changes. Robert Gleason said he wanted to see per-diem limits for employees if they were being adopted for the board. He said the board should eliminate premium travel -- any flights more expensive than coach class.

"I think it is difficult to explain and difficult to justify to the traveling public," Gleason said.

Three other board members disagreed: Tom Smisek, Desmond and Bruce Boland. Desmond said business class travel on international flights is important to keep employees fresh and rested for meetings once they arrive.
Related Links

"The question comes back: are you willing to defend that from a public scrutiny perspective?" asked Bob Watkins, the authority chairman.

"Are we running it or is the media running the ship?" Desmond replied.




BOB WATKINS' MANY MYSTERIOUS BUSINESSES

Mayor mum as more problems surface for airport chairman
Watkins failed to pay city taxes at two businesses based at townhouse
By Steve Schmidt
SAN DIEGO Union-Tribune Staff Writer
September 30, 2009

Airport authority Chairman Bob Watkins has had a number of irregular dealings, including questionable expense accounts, incomplete state forms and apparent violations of city zoning laws.

What's changing: Watkins also failed to pay city taxes on at least two of the seven businesses that list his townhouse near Lindbergh Field as an address...

The San Diego City Treasurer's Office yesterday said airport board Chairman Bob Watkins failed to pay city taxes on two businesses, and that it plans to investigate two more.

The city Planning Department also said it will review possible zoning violations at Watkins' Brant Street townhouse, where he and an associate run seven businesses, according to state records.

The irregularities are the latest to dog Watkins, but the office of Mayor Jerry Sanders was mum yesterday on Watkins' status as the head of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.

After meeting with Watkins last week, Sanders promised to monitor the chairman's performance in light of revelations about his travel expenses at the authority and his failure to fully disclose his business interests on state forms.

City officials yesterday said Watkins ran his executive recruitment firm out of the townhouse for two years without a valid business license. They said another Watkins' business, Aztec Ventures, is a year behind in paying its business fees...


When asked about his business license Monday, Watkins said he has one but would not say when it was renewed or what date it has on it.

Yesterday, city business tax manager Ricardo Ramos said a representative of Watkins' R.J. Watkins & Co. renewed the company's business license last week, a day after The San Diego Union-Tribune  began asking questions about the property.

The reinstatement came two years after the city started sending repeated notices to Watkins about the need to pay his annual $34 license-renewal fee.

“Multiple notices were sent, and we never heard back,” Ramos said.

All active, for-profit businesses in the city are required to have a license.

Ramos said Aztec Ventures, an investment firm in Watkins' name at the same address, owes the city at least one year of business tax. It remained in arrears as of yesterday, Ramos said.

Ramos said the city is also reviewing the situation for two other Watkins businesses that use the address — WWW Ventures and Tollbridge Partners.

Watkins considers the businesses inactive and has said they do not require a license. Ramos said companies that are in operation for six days or less a year are not required to pay a business-license tax.

Three companies run by longtime Watkins associate Andy Strasberg are also listed at 2515 Brant St., according to state records. Strasberg said Monday that Watkins asked him to move out when questions arose about the property.

Home businesses are allowed only if the owner lives there, and no employees are allowed on site. Watkins, 66, lives in Alpine. He acknowledged last week that he has a part-time employee at the townhouse.

On a related matter, city officials yesterday said they plan to investigate whether Watkins is complying with zoning laws at the townhouse.

At least seven businesses list the townhouse as their address, in a neighborhood zoned for residential use...


# Records show 7 companies located at Watkins' townhouse
# Head of airport board says he'll fix business matters
# A mayoral rebuke for Watkins
# Airport board leader may be breaking law

New Bob Watkins disclosure problem: he failed to report property he owned on SDCOE conflict of interest forms

See all posts re Bob Watkins.

More Watkins Disclosure Discrepancies
Voice of San Diego
ROB DAVIS
September 24, 2009

When Bob Watkins, the airport authority chairman, clears up problems with his conflict-of-interest disclosures -- as he promised Mayor Jerry Sanders today -- he'll also have to address disclosure issues during his service on the San Diego County Board of Education.

His disclosures to the [San Diego County] board of education raise other questions. One year's report he filed with the county board doesn't jive with the report he sent to the airport authority the same year.

His annual disclosure to the county board submitted Feb. 1, 2007 said he had nothing to report -- no businesses, stock or property. But in his disclosure to the airport authority two weeks later, he said he owned a business, that he was its CEO, and that he owned property and more than $100,000 of stock.

Watkins hasn't returned a call seeking comment.

SDCOE's Randolph Ward refuses to turn over Bob Watkins' conflict of interest statements

See all Bob Watkins' posts.
See all Randolph Ward posts.

Click on the link directly below to see Voice of San Diego's links to other stories.


Who's Wrongly Keeping Information Secret?
by ROB DAVIS
Voice of San Diego
September 24, 2009

As we reported recently, Bob Watkins, the airport authority chairman, didn't disclose property he owns near the airport on his annual conflict-of-interest reports the authority keeps.

Watkins, who's scheduled to meet today with Mayor Jerry Sanders about that issue and others we've raised, previously served on the board of the County Office of Education. I went to its office today to see what Watkins listed on the disclosure forms he submitted during his tenure.

State law requires public agencies to produce the forms for anyone who wants to see them. During regular office hours. At any time of the day.

While many public documents require a written request to be disclosed, the conflict forms don't. State law says "no conditions whatsoever" can be imposed on members of the public who want to see the documents. The agency can't ask for identification or any information from a requestor.

But Leo Cole, the assistant to county Superintendent Randy Ward, told me to file a written request for the forms when I arrived at the office today. She said the office would follow up as soon as possible. Three people have access to the disclosure forms, Cole said. All were out of the office, she said.

Cole told me that she'd talked to Ward, who was out of the office but had given her those instructions.

I read the relevant section of state law to her and asked her to call the superintendent back and tell him that his instructions violate state law.

So she called Ward, then called me at the front desk, where I was waiting.

File a written request for the forms, she told me again.

Violating the state law can bring fines as high as $5,000 per incident from the state Fair Political Practices Commission, which enforces disclosure laws.

It's the second time the county office has done this. The office required another voiceofsandiego.org reporter to file a legal request for the same documents last year.

I called Roman Porter, the FPPC's executive director, to tell him about the problem.

"The Political Reform Act specifically bars agencies from asking for any identifiable information from requestors or requiring a request to be submitted in writing," Porter told me.

Bob Stern, a former FPPC attorney who wrote the section of the law requiring public agencies to immediately disclose the records to any member of the public, said the county office's refusal to provide the documents was "highly unusual."

"It's totally inappropriate," Stern said. "The FPPC should tell them that they can't do this. Most agencies know the rules -- particularly when you show them."

I've just heard back from the office of education. They're making the forms available. "We fully intend to comply," Jim Esterbrooks, a spokesman, told me.

Bob Watkins failed to report his conflicts of interest as airport authority chairman

This story makes me wonder if there is perhaps a whole lot of information, other than mere yearly updates, that Bob Watkins has failed to report. And it also makes me wonder if Watkins charged San Diego County Office of Education for Charger games or airplane tickets. What was the grand total of his expenses at SDCOE?

See all Bob Watkins posts.


Watkins' Interests Not Disclosed
Voice of San Diego
by Rob Davis
Sept.16, 2009

When Bob Watkins, the airport authority chairman, took office in 2006, he reported owning his consulting business, property near the airport and more than $100,000 in stock. He reported the investments on his annual conflict-of-interest report.

In the two years since, Watkins hasn't disclosed anything on the annual forms. He has ticked a box that says he has nothing to report. The airport authority's conflict of interest code requires board members such as Watkins to disclose "all investments, business positions, interests in real property and sources of income."

But county records show that Watkins still owns property near the airport as well as a home in Alpine. His business, R.J. Watkins & Co. is located at 2515 Brant St., eight blocks from Lindbergh Field. He listed its fair market value at being more than $1 million when he took office. He stopped reporting it in 2008.

The lack of disclosure is potentially problematic. The property sits in an area that the airport authority's board has land-use planning powers over, giving Watkins the power to influence future land uses there. And Watkins signed the annual disclosure forms under penalty of perjury. Such disclosures are made to alert the public about potential conflicts of interest. Officials who fail to fully report their interests can be fined up to $5,000 per violation by the state Fair Political Practices Commission...

Bob Watkins repays Charger tickets after true purpose of outing is revealed

It turns out that Bob Watkins, formerly of SDCOE and now airport authority chairman, did not take a member of parliament to a baseball game as he claimed.

See all posts about Bob Watkins.

Watkins Repays Chargers Tickets
Voice of San Diego
by Rob Davis

Bob Watkins, the airport authority chairman, has reimbursed the authority $1,200 for the Chargers-Saints game he attended in London last October, an authority spokeswoman announced today.

Watkins didn't attend the game with the person he said he had. When I talked to him in July about the expense, he told me he'd taken a member of the British Parliament. He said they sat on the 5-yard line. At the time, he said this:

The tickets that I got were for myself and a member of Parliament over there who essentially is involved in airport security and as a result of that particular activity, we then met with a number of other people who were involved in England’s -- Great Britain’s airports -- Stanstead and Heathrow, so it was a business expense, not a junket.

Diana Lucero, an authority spokeswoman, said that Watkins actually took James R. Burrows, then the CEO of Litelogic, a British company that puts LED advertisements on buses and that had interest in doing business in San Diego...




Watkins Took Niece's Husband to Chargers Game
Voice of San Diego
by Rob Davis
Sept. 15, 2009


In early August, Bob Watkins, the airport authority chairman, told me that when he went to the Chargers-Saints game in London last year -- with tickets paid for by the airport authority -- he took a member of Parliament involved in airport security issues.

The authority corrected Watkins last week, saying he'd actually taken James Burrows, then the CEO of Litelogic, a British company that puts LED advertisements on buses and that had interest in doing business in San Diego. Watkins repaid the $1,200 tickets in late August after our coverage highlighted that expense and others.

What the authority's correction didn't say: Burrows is part of Watkins' extended family.

Burrows is married to Watkins' niece, Gwynneth, said Peggy Fainelli, Watkins' ex-wife.

In an interview Monday, Watkins refused to confirm the relationship. He later acknowledged that his brother, who now lives in San Diego, had lived in England and still has family there. Watkins said he contacts them when he's overseas...

Is anybody missing the pompous Bob Watkins at San Diego County Office of Education?

If Bob Watkins is as rich as he claims to be, why doesn't he pay for his own plane tickets?

UPDATE: Taxpayers manage to pry a few bucks from Bob Watkins' fingers when true purpose of Chargers game outing is revealed.

See all posts about Bob Watkins.


A Voice of San Diego reader asks Bob Watkins (above), "What are you? Marie Antoinette in drag?"

Here's a chance to get some insight into the attitudes of Bob Watkins, who was on the board of San Diego County Office of Education for the past many years. Watkins is now chairman of the Airport Authority.


BOB WATKINS GOES TO LONDON

Airport Officials Continue Flying (and Dining) In the Lap of Luxury
By ROB DAVIS
Voice of San Diego
Aug. 9, 2009

...Though they had the option to pay $950 to fly economy, [San Diego Regional Airport] authority Chairman Bob Watkins and board member Bruce Boland upgraded to business-class fares. So the public paid $11,000 for the tickets instead of $1,900...

Employees have flown to Los Angeles on four occasions for meetings instead of driving. Those flights have cost as much as $820 each.

Watkins said he went on the London trip to help identify customers for Zoom Airlines, which briefly provided nonstop service between San Diego and London before the company bankrupted, a business failure that cost the authority $81,000. He said he went to the Chargers game and reception "to continue to help develop relationships."...

[UPDATE: There's a little problem with Watkin's explanation. Zoom went bankrupt TWO MONTHS before his very expensive trip.]

Watkins said the latest issues voiceofsandiego.org identified weren't alarming and hadn't been raised by the authority's internal auditor -- whose staff has expensed dinners costing as much as $89. The $435,000 budgeted for 2009 travel is less than a percent of the airport's total budget, Watkins said.

He suggested that a voiceofsandiego.org reporter couldn't relate to business class travelers because the reporter didn't make enough money. Watkins compared voiceofsandiego.org's examination of authority expenses to a "person who works for the Internal Revenue Service who’s making $40,000 a year and goes in and audits someone who lives in a $1 million home or $2 million home. They’re going to be skewed in terms of, 'Wow, I don’t have that.'"

[Maura Larkins comment: IRS rules are clear, Bob. And don't be so sure that the IRS guy isn't thinking, "Wow! I'd never want that in my house."]

Watkins said the authority's expense reimbursement policies were a "guideline" and needed to have flexibility.

"The public can trust us because we're not flagrantly violating the rules," he said. "Our people are honest and we have enough checks and balances to make sure we're not flagrantly violating the rules."...

The authority's employees shouldn't be entitled to more lavish travel than other municipal employees, [San Diego Taxpayers Association's Lani] Lutar said.

"If the city of San Diego can dine at a lower rate, the airport authority should be able to do so as well," she said. "If the mayor of San Diego can travel economy, airport authority staff should be able to travel economy...

[Maura Larkins comment: Go Lani! It's nice to be on the same side as SDTA for a change.]





Let Them Eat Prix Fixe Spaghetti Dinners
By Ted Blake
Aug. 10, 2009

So airport authority Chairman Bob Watkins "suggested that a voiceofsandiego.org reporter couldn't relate to business class travelers because the reporter didn't make enough money."

Has anyone ever heard a more aloof, clueless, and arrogant statement from a public official? The rules don't apply to rich people, Mr. Watkins? Your expense account is being paid for through user fees charged on us ordinary people, but we're too poor to understand why you need deluxe travel to an overseas Chargers game? What are you, Marie Antoinette in drag?

Here's an idea: call the mayor and tell him he made a big mistake appointing a pompous person like yourself as Chairman, resign your appointment immediately, repay the airport authority for all your "official" travel, and then use your ample personal wealth to pay for all your own perks from here on out!




Morning Report: You Couldn't Possibly Understand



It's becoming a trend when we confront public officials about extravagant spending on the public dime: You just don't get it.

"Have you ever tried to eat on $25? I promise you it is very difficult to do," the San Diego schools chief told us last spring while defending taxpayer-funded meals of venison and fancy Japanese beef.

Bob Watkins, the chairman of the San Diego airport authority, tried a similar approach when asked about an $11,000 first-class airfare for two to London among other expenses...

After the story ran, it became clear that Watkins' explanation for why he had to go to London wasn't holding up. He had said he went there to support an airline -- Zoom -- but it turns out this airline had gone belly up two months before his trip.

Yesterday, Watkins offered another explanation for taking the trip.

The aforementioned schools chief has changed his ways: He's flying coach and has cut back on other expenses.

To help illustrate the whole spending story, our media partners at Ch.4 cox and Ch. 7/39 swooped in with a video version of the story. You can watch it here to catch up.






'Flagrantly' Untrustworthy
By Francis Tepedino
Aug. 10, 2009

RE: The Airport Authority's attitude on expending the public's money: It is clear from Bob Watkins' statement:

"The public can trust us because we are not flagrantly violating the rules."

So we can trust them because they are only violating the rules -- but not flagrantly. A typical politician's response to getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar. I demand that Watkins and the others who are only violating the rules -- "but not flagrantly -- return the public monies, and perhaps they should also resign their position of public trust.




HOW CREEPY IS MIDGE COSTANZA'S GHOST-WRITTEN "OPINION PIECE"?

Ghostwriting the Airport's Story
By ROB DAVIS
Voice of San Diego
Monday, April 10, 2006

A lot of work went into Midge Costanza's opinion piece that appeared Dec. 23 in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

The staff at GCS Public Relations spent 16-and-a-half hours researching, editing and polishing the article, titled "Who will lead on our airport issue?" Costanza, president of the Midge Costanza Institute, a non-partisan public policy group, met twice with Rick Cook, a partner at GCS. They worked to make Costanza's words more conversational. They discussed a submission strategy. Cook twice spoke with Bernie Jones, the Union-Tribune's opinion page editor, and kept him updated on the article's status.

The bill for GCS's work came to $3,140, according to invoices. The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority paid it.

But anyone reading the article would have had no idea that the authority's public relations team had shaped Costanza's words. She does not work for the authority, and the opinion piece did not divulge the authority's role in drafting it. It appeared to be one person's concerned opinion, not part of an orchestrated campaign by a public organization...



From SDCOE website:

Alpine resident Bob Watkins was re-elected as President of the San Diego County Board of Education Wednesday at the board’s first meeting of 2008.

Watkins, the president and chairman of RJ Watkins Co., an international management consulting firm, said, “I am flattered that my colleagues think I’m worthy to represent them and the County Board of Education. The County Office of Education is doing a miraculous job, but there will always be work to do to see that all students get the best education possible.”



Bob Watkins' airport shenanigans are among his least damaging actions. If abusing expense accounts were the worst behavior officials engaged in, we'd be doing fine. We are seriously harmed when big decisions are made to benefit people in power and their friends. Both VOSD and the SDUT are to be congratulated for recent stories looking at how decisions have been made by the San Diego County Office of Education during the years Bob Watkins was on the board. SDCOE officials Randy Ward, Lora Duzyk, Diane Crosier, Rick Rinnear and Dan Puplava seem to be suing or getting sued with unprecedented frequency. A Bob Watkins-style culture seems to permeate SDCOE. I think Dianne Jacob gave this story its due; she's got bigger fish to fry, such as how SDG&E got its pals on the city council to approve power shut-offs in the back country without requiring that SDG&E work on undergrounding power lines or at least repairing them.

How much money did the Lincoln Club give Cheryl Cox?

San Diego's Hillary?

The San Diego Union Tribune wrote about power couple Cheryl and Greg Cox on
January 1, 2007.

It would seem that Cheryl nourished her husband's political goals while holding her own considerable political ambitions in abeyance for a few years, much like Hillary Clinton.

But the Cox's are extreme right wingers, it seems.

"The Cox campaign raised more than $200,000, which was $45,000 more than Padilla's war chest. The conservative Lincoln Club of San Diego County independently spent $50,000 on direct mail attacking Padilla."

And that's not counting direct contribution's to Cox's campaign. Cheryl has repaid the favor by endorsing the Lincoln Club's former president, Bob Watkins, for US House of Representatives.

The San Diego Union Tribune quotes Cox as saying of herself and her husband, “We have pretty much lived our lives as an open book."

This is, of course, not true. Cox was as secretive as a board member could be while she was a board member at Chula Vista Elementary School District. She paid Stutz, Artiano, Shinoff & Holtz and Parham & Rajcic law firms many $100,000s to hide what was going on at CVESD. And who recommended these law firms? Bob Watkins' own San Diego County Office of Education-Joint Powers Authority.




http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070101-9999-1n1coxes.html