City Panel’s Action Could Send Sierra Club Packing

Concerned that the local chapter of the Sierra Club is violating a ban on “political activities” in leased city office space, a San Diego City Council committee Wednesday proposed a rule change that could force the environmental group from its subsidized headquarters in Balboa Park.

The council’s Public Facilities and Recreation Committee ordered the city manager to draft language that would exclude from city offices any nonprofit organization whose federal tax status allows it to participate in partisan political efforts.

If approved by the committee and the council, the amendment could force the Sierra Club from its 771-square-foot office on the second floor of Balboa Park’s House of Hospitality. The rule may also apply to an unknown number of the 73 other nonprofit organizations that lease city property at various locations, said James Spotts, the city’s property director.

“As long as (an organization) is educational, I think that’s great,” said Councilman Bruce Henderson. “But, if they themselves, by their own actions, choose to become political, then I think they put themselves in a different status.”

Spotts, however, refused to say that a rule change would force the Sierra Club from its offices, noting that, if the club has a lease with the House of Hospitality--which leases the aging structure from the city--it would be difficult to unilaterally change the terms.

“I don’t know the answer,” Spotts said. “You can’t just ignore an existing agreement just because you change the policy. Leases can’t be unilaterally changed.”

Joanna Knight, the Sierra Club’s chapter coordinator, said the group has a verbal agreement with the House of Hospitality under which it pays a monthly rent of $385.50, plus $38.55 for electricity and $48.60 for cleaning services. The organization has been at the Balboa Park location since at least 1975.

Spotts told the committee that the Sierra Club’s rent is subsidized by the city, but could not say how large the subsidy is.

Six other nonprofit organizations lease office space from the House of Hospitality, but the Sierra Club is apparently the only one chartered to conduct political activity, said Ralph Johnson, manager of the building. The other groups are the Cafe del Rey Moro, Citizens Coordinate for Century 3, I Love a Clean San Diego, the San Diego Opera, the San Diego Civic Light Opera Assn. and the local chapter of Young Audiences.

Tax Status at Issue

At issue is the Sierra Club’s status under federal tax laws, which qualifies the group as a nonprofit organization but allows it to become involved in political activity such as endorsing candidates.

The club, with 12,600 members in San Diego and Imperial counties, has a separate political arm, the Sierra Club Committee on Political Endorsements, whose members conduct research on political candidates and make endorsement decisions.

Current city policy states that city-owned property “shall not be utilized for the purpose of working or campaigning for the nomination or election to any public office, be it partisan or nonpartisan.” Open public forums are not precluded.

A recent article in the San Diego Business Journal said that political activity was being conducted out of the Sierra Club’s House of Hospitality office, but Barbara Bamberger, the club’s conservation coordinator, told committee members Wednesday that the accusations are false.

Bamberger said that only conservation work is conducted in the office. All politically oriented work is done at other locations, mostly private homes, she said.

Bamberger also said the Sierra Club’s political activity is no different from the efforts of other nonprofit organizations housed in city-owned office space that every year lobby council members during budget season and send out mass mailings to their members urging them to contact council members on important issues.

“It’s going to be much more difficult than you realize” to distinguish between different kinds of political activity, Bamberger said.

Councilman Bob Filner agreed, saying: “That’s in the eye of the beholder, what is political activity?”

But, at the urging of Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, committee members appeared to be leaning toward a distinction based on a group’s status under the federal tax code, with those chartered to engage in partisan politics excluded. The city manager’s office was ordered to bring back a clarification of the differences between the varying kinds of tax designations in time for the committee’s Aug. 10 meeting.

Spotts said he will review some of the 73 other groups that lease city property to determine whether they would be affected by a policy change. The organizations range from the Sunshine Little League to the San Diego County Campfire Girls to the Normal Heights Community Development Corp.