The Chargers, who are poised to start collecting signatures on their stadium ballot measure this month, will be meeting Monday with backers of another citizens initiative that proposes to increase the hotel tax, also a key component of the team’s financing plan.

While no defined purpose has been set for the meeting, the get-together comes as supporters of the Citizens’ Plan measure, authored by attorney Cory Briggs, are getting ready to submit their signatures later this month to qualify their initiative for the November ballot. Meanwhile, the Chargers are getting ready to launch a campaign for their measure, which could also start later this month.

The two initiatives, while somewhat complementary, conflict with one another in many respects and would likely prove confusing to voters come November.

The Briggs measure calls for an increase in the hotel tax to 15.5 percent to help fund an off-the-waterfront convention center and tourism marketing, but bars public funding for a downtown stadium. The Chargers plan asks voters to approve a hike in the room tax to 16.5 percent, much of which would help finance their proposal for a hybrid football field and convention center facility. Absent from the Chargers proposal are any incentives for redeveloping the Qualcomm stadium site for a possible expansion of San Diego State and for additional parkland, both key provisions in the Citizens’ Plan.


Briggs said the Monday meeting was prompted by what he says is an absence of leadership at City Hall. While some council members have indicated they’re not supportive of the Chargers stadium plan, Mayor Kevin Faulconer has yet to state his position on the proposed initiative.

“The reason we’re having to do these discussions is because unfortunately there’s a vacuum of political leadership, they’re not leading the city so it falls to the principals of the Citizens’ Plan and the Chargers to see if there’s something we can do that’s better for the community than what we are already doing,” Briggs said. “That doesn’t mean consolidating the initiatives.”

Faulconer’s deputy chief of staff, Matt Awbrey, pointed out that Faulconer was the first mayor to “put forward a real stadium proposal, so we recognize the challenges and time it takes to create a fair plan.” He added, “Keep in mind that these are private entities working to reach a deal between each other under the citizens’ initiative process.”

While Briggs said the likely focus of the Monday meeting will be discussion of the two parties’ mutual interest in the future of the Mission Valley site once the Chargers are no longer playing there, sources close to the situation said there are no limitations on what issues will be broached.


Chargers special adviser Fred Maas said Friday that the team has already been in “regular dialogue” with backers of the Citizens’ Plan.

“We’re not delusional. Having both initiatives on the ballot layers in a whole new level of complexity we’d rather avoid,” Maas said. “We’d hope we can work out some of the objectives they want to accomplish outside the initiative. I would expect that will be the spirit of the meeting Monday.”

In the event the Chargers were to even consider rewriting their measure, they’d have to do so quickly in order to have enough time to collect signatures for the November ballot. The Chargers on Friday submitted to the City Clerk’s office a required proof of publication of its measure, a prelude to collecting signatures, which can begin on April 23.

Jeff Powers, a spokesman for the Citizens’ Plan campaign, said Briggs’ group is close to reaching its goal of collecting 90,000 signatures, which are due to the City Clerk April 27.


San Diego hoteliers and tourism leaders have not taken a position yet on the Chargers plan, but some have expressed reservations about the team’s proposal to raise the hotel tax to 16.5 percent, which would make San Diego’s levy one of the highest in the country. At least 1 percent of the increase — and as much as 2 percent — would be set aside for marketing the city as a tourism destination. While hotel guests already pay 2 percent on their room bills for marketing, Briggs has challenged the legality of the hotelier-approved tax because it was not voted on by the public. A trial is scheduled for later this summer.

Board members of the hotelier-run Tourism Marketing District, which is a defendant in the suit filed by Briggs’ client, San Diegans for Open Government, have been holding several closed session meetings in recent weeks to discuss the litigation. Those meetings could be focusing, in part, on a possible settlement of the Briggs lawsuit, but both sides have refused to comment.