By Arturo Castañares
Editor-at-Large

A statewide CSU system official who was blocked from testifying under oath in a lawsuit filed against SDSU by La Prensa San Diego says no one from the University even told him about the deposition before objecting to his appearance. 

Jack McGrory, a member of the 25-member California State University Board of Trustees, was blocked from testifying last month about his involvement in discussions about an offer for a free-to-taxpayers sports arena within SDSU’s Mission Valley campus that has been kept secret from the public for more than two years. 

Jack McGrory

 

“No one asked me about the deposition or the documents you requested,” McGrory told La Prensa San Diego in reaction to an article published last week detailing how SDSU lawyers objected to having McGrory testify under oath. 

McGrory, who served as San Diego's City Manager from 1991 to 1997, was appointed to a 12-year term on the CSU Board in 2018.

La Prensa San Diego filed a lawsuit in May after SDSU failed to turn over documents about the proposed sports arena which should have been produced under the requirements of the California Public Records Act. 

As previously reported, McGrory and eight other San Diegans, including SDSU President Adela de la Torre, flew to Texas in May 2022 to tour the University of Texas at Austin’s Moody Center which was built by arena developer Oak View Group in a deal that used no public money for construction of the $380 million facility.

After the trip, Oak View Group sent a one-and-a-half page memo outlining a potential deal under similar terms as those used in Austin where OVG would build and operate the arena, allow SDSU basketball teams to play for free, and split future revenues with the University without using any taxpayer funds for the facility.

No other media outlet had reported on the free arena offer before La Prensa San Diego broke the story in March.

SDSU lawyers then objected to McGrory being questioned, claiming the request “seeks information that is not relevant nor reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence” and that it is “unduly burdensome, oppressive, harassing, and a misuse of the discovery process.”

After McGrory’s deposition was blocked, La Prensa San Diego requested specific answers regarding documents McGrory had received, including a written copy of the deal memo he reviewed in mid-2022 which was sent from the development company that proposed the arena. 

This week, McGrory told La Prensa San Diego that no one from the CSU system, SDSU, or their lawyers contacted him to notify him of the deposition, or to ask whether he had or has the document sent from Oak View Group. 

In written responses, SDSU lawyers claimed the University “lacks sufficient knowledge to admit or deny” whether McGrory has or had the written deal sheet, but it is now clear SDSU made no effort to ask McGrory either for the document or to arrange his deposition

“I’ll talk to anyone who wants to know about the offer,” McGrory said this week. "I have nothing to hide and I don't lie," McGrory added.

McGrory maintains that he spoke with SDSU President Dr. Adela de la Torre and her staff about the offer after receiving a paper copy of the document from Erik Judson, CEO of JMI Sports who maintains a consulting contract with SDSU.

Dr. Adela de la Torre

 

“I talked to Adela and her team,” McGrory said this week.

Judson had received the offer from Oak View Group after the trip and provided it to McGrory in person.

SDSU did not provide any copy of the deal from Oak View Group in response to several requests made by La Prensa San Diego under the California Public Records Act which requires public agencies to make reasonable efforts to search for responsive records.

The written legal responses from SDSU claim they made a “reasonable effort” to determine if documents exist or to answer whether McGrory had any such documents, but now McGrory disputes those claims.

“No one asked me,” McGrory said in response to questions about whether anyone from the University system made any effort to determine if he has or had the deal sheet or to schedule his deposition. 

McGrory, SDSU President Adela de la Torre, and seven others traveled to Austin to tour the Moody Center in May 2022.

After receiving the memo from Oak View Group —which McGrory characterized this week as a term sheet— he contacted San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and his staff to explain the deal.

Mayor Todd Gloria

 

McGrory maintains that Gloria told him not to pursue the deal in Mission Valley because he was moving forward to redevelop the existing Sports Arena site into a new mixed-use project with affordable housing and a new, 16,000-seat sports arena.

Just a few months later, Gloria pushed City staff to select developer Brad Termini and his Midway Rising group to enter into exclusive negotiations over two other competing development teams. City staff had complained they were not allowed to properly vet Termini’s proposal because the Mayor’s office had already decided which team to pick.

Brad Termini

 

Although Termini had never developed any project near the size and complexity of the Midway project, he and his family had donated more than $100,000 to support Gloria’s 2020 campaign.

During the City Council meeting where Termini’s group was selected, local union leader Brigette Browning spoke in favor of the proposal, calling Termini’s team “absolutely the best project to go forward” among the three bidders who had all pledged to use union labor in their construction.

Browning and her Labor Council have endorsed all nine current City Councilmembers in their most recent elections, as well as Mayor Todd Gloria and City Attorney Mara Elliott.

During her comments, Browning also claimed Termini’s project would result in more permanent union jobs because he had included a 200-room hotel. Browning also serves as the President of the local hotel workers’ union.

Brigette Browning

 

But what Browning and Termini failed to disclose before the vote to select him was that Termini had paid Browning’s husband, political consultant Dan Rottenstreich, over $200,000 to promote the project.

Dan Rottenstreich

 

Browning failed to file a financial disclosure form with the US Department of Labor which is required if she has a conflict of interest as a union leader.

Termini's group was later fined $5,000 by the San Diego Ethics Commission for failing to file lobbying disclosure forms which would have revealed Rottenstreich's income before the City Council meeting where Termini was selected.

A year after being selected, Termini cut the 200-room hotel out of his plan, but Browning and her union did not object or protest.

Rottenstreich had also run the 2020 campaign committee supporting Todd Gloria where Termini and his wife donated $100,000 when the next largest personal contribution was only $15,000. The committee was funded by the Laborers’ International union.

Termini, who moved to San Diego from Buffalo, New York, has longtime family ties to the Laborers’ union and local development projects.

His grandfather, John Termini, was an official in the Laborers’ International union in Buffalo in the 1950s who is listed on several online references as "Mafia controlled", "Organized Crime Figure", "Mafia soldier", and "Labor Racketeer”.

The Buffalo-area Laborers' Union Local 210, which represents contractors in construction, demolition, and asbestos work throughout much of Western New York, had a long history of mafia connections dating back to the early 1900s.

In 1995, federal prosecutors and the International agreed to clean out mafia members from the union to settle a civil racketeering lawsuit the Justice Department and the International filed against Local 210. The Buffalo local became only one of three Laborers' Unions locals under the International's control, including a district council in Chicago and local in New York City who also had mob ties.

The racketeering lawsuit named 16 members as mobsters and mob associates. As part of the settlement agreement, the International removed more than two dozen Local 210 members that union officials described as members of the mob, or mob associates.

Rocco Termini, Brad's father, became a local developer in Buffalo, and Brad Termini followed in the family business of development before moving to San Diego. 

Brad Termini is also the developer of a growing network of cannabis campuses that combine the production, cultivation, and processing of marijuana products, including six in California, and a new $200 million campus approved in his native Buffalo in late 2021.