By Arturo Castañares 
Editor-at-Large

Chula Vista City Attorney Marco Verdugo quietly hired his former boss to serve as a secret advisor, according to documents and sources within the City of Chula Vista. 

Mara Elliott, who served as San Diego’s elected City Attorney from 2016 to 2024, has been serving as an Assistant City Attorney in Verdugo’s office since September, even as she is running for partisan office as a Democratic candidate for the California State Senate’s 40 District.

No formal public announcement has been released since her hiring. 

Elliott is an official City employee, but works from home, even though City policies only allow employees to work a maximum of two remote days per week. 

But Verdugo has kept her employment a closely guarded secret, even from other City staffers and elected officials. 

Verdugo and his staff refer to Elliott as “outside counsel” and “ME” to avoid using her name within the office. Employees familiar with the arrangement confirm that Verdugo runs all important decisions through Elliott.

Elliott has not updated her California Bar Association listing to reflect her new position, and her LinkedIn profile still lists her position as San Diego City Attorney as her current job, even though she posted a campaign rally announcement last week. 

As an employee, Elliott immediately vested into the City’s pension system and continues to accrue retirement benefits on top of her more than 24 years of previous public agency employment. Elliott’s salary in her final year as San Diego City Attorney was over $243,000.

Elliott filed her Statement of Economic Interests form upon taking the position, stating a start date of September 19, 2025. 

But Elliott had declared her candidacy for the California State Senate just ten days earlier. Elliott is running to replace Senator Brian Jones, who cannot run for re-election under the state’s term limit laws. 

Before being elected as Chula Vista City Attorney in 2024, Verdugo worked as a Deputy City Attorney in Elliott’s office from 2016 to 2023, then he went to work as a Senior Attorney with the law firm of Burke, Williams & Sorensen, LLP, which served as outside counsel for Elliott’s office.

Verdugo worked for Elliott when she executed the lease for the controversial 101 Ash Street building in 2016, which lead to the City abandoning the office tower after loose asbestos was found. Although the City later filed lawsuits to undo the lease, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and the City Council pushed to buy the toxic building. 

Although Elliott said publicly that she advised the City Council not to purchase the building, she ultimately signed the purchase agreement. 

The City of San Diego has spent more than $200 million on the building, which is still vacant and unusable. Real estate experts argue to building is worthless as the costs to demolish it and clear the site are more than the value of the raw property.

The City’s Charter states that no contract is valid without the City Attorney’s signature, but nothing in the Charter required Elliott to sign a contract she advised against approving.

Verdugo did not respond to a request for comment.