Here are the videos for the month of June (2016).








Including a video of a woman who stood up for Bob's cause and insisted that the city council do as he asked.

Well done Bob, My question is why has this gone on for so many years with no action from the city council? I did a quick search of Sherry Lightner and found she easily won the election in spite of spending far less money than those running against her....Whats that all about? Usually its the big spenders win these things. That is really strange.
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/election ... istrict-1/
Also, this her second term and Sherry is being forced to retire this year due to term limits but five people are running to fill her soon to be vacated position and one of them is her Husband?
her husband is running to fill the vacancy? WHY? To keep things as is after Sherry is retired?
Has any of this been written up so those who do not go to council meetings can take notice an speak up like that one woman did or has this all just happened at city council meetings?
I looked up Air adventures inc. on Dun and Bradstreet. they list an annual revenue of 490,000.
https://www.dandb.com/businessdirectory ... 03495.html
Not actually a lot of money for an outfit with 8 employees. But I am getting the impression the 20 year lease was FREE? Any details on that lease?
Who negotiated that lease? Was Ushpa involved?
...My girlfriend and I are both curious about What is behind Sherry Lightner great success in spite of low spending on elections and the San Diego city councils total lack of action to do anything at Torrey except roll their eyes.
You have been at this for six years? Has your struggle with the council been written up for the public at large to weigh in on this issue? It is turning into a news story Bob.
Has anyone posted these complaints and violations on yelp to warn Wannabe customers of fly torrey or Air Adventures? Are they both the same company?
Any Torrey Hawks could post on yelp.....just as an ordinary person....not as a pilot. about the dirty toilets, bad manners, rudeness, cigarette smoking, and unsafe flying practices to warn wannabe para-luggage to go elsewhere to learn.
Brainstorming.

Yes, Pubic awareness needs to be raised, The voice of San Diego or some other Rag. It needs to go OUTSIDE the city council.
Negative reviews need to be left on Yelp and other review services to warn the public to go elsewhere to learn to paraglide.
If the 490,000 annual revenue is whittled down to a non-profitable amount what good is a 20 year lease? Are San Diego residents AWARE that a FREE 20 year lease is being abused in this manner?
If I was living in San Diego I would get in front of some news cameras or get the story written up in some widely read journals, both inside and OUTSIDE of San Diego.
I once went to a city council meeting Where some religious groups had tried for years, quoting scripture, to force the city council to remove a porn theatre from the main street running through Des Moines, WA where I lived at the time.
I watched as the religious element said their thing and not one city council member moved a muscle of course. A person can not protest on moral grounds for the removal of such a business.
I decided to stand up and tesitfy that, as a resident of that town with two children, the only businesses I did not walk my children past were those along main Street because the theater had Posters outside the theatre I did not want my young children to view. I told them the business was counter productive to the family image they were trying to promote for their town. I told them the main, downtown, area of their town would probably not flourish until the Theatre was moved to another location. I hit them in the pocketbook.
all the city council members were scribbling frantically as I was speaking.....the theatre was moved within one year......There is more than one way to move an elephant. You can stick a lever under its a** and throw your full weight into it and nothing will change.....or....you can feed the elephant some peanuts and get him to follow you to somewhere else.....(bad analogy)
But when one route does not produce the desired change, look for other options.....like public awareness of bad reviews that cause the gliderport to lose revenue and turn the 20 year lease from a cash cow into a financial nightmare that they WANT to get out from under.
Still just brainstorming....

A person can look up and find bad reviews on yelp concerning the concessionaire but the average person is going to just look up torrey pines gliderport which has very high reviews....how beautiful it is, the ocean, the beach, etc. etc.
so, encouraged by those positive reviews they go, see the gliding activity, and before you know it they are signed up for a joy ride.
Most people are going to ASSUME the positive reviews for the glider port, which is a public facility, apply to the concessionaire as well......
Bad reviews should be left on yelp concerning the torrey Pines Gliderport ABOUT the concessionaire to warn people to go elsewhere for paragliding rides. This, coupled with outside news journals getting a hold of this story and presenting it to the public could make a difference.
good news travels fast but bad news travels even faster.

First, thanks to majiemae for digging through hours of video to find and post these clips!!




That's my question as well. The lease was issued in August of 1998. It was a 5 year lease with a one-time option for a 5 year extension. So it has been in an expired status since August of 2008. Why?


Bruce Lightner didn't make the cut in the spring primary, so the election will be between Ray Ellis and Barbara Bry in November. There was some discussion that Bruce Lightner entered the race to draw votes from Ray Ellis to keep him from winning outright in the spring. That may have backfired since neither Ellis nor Bry got over 50% ... although Bry came much closer. San Diego uses a crazy system where anyone who gets 50% + 1 votes in the "primary" wins the election outright ... without having to run in the normal November election. Before I knew about this rule, I would go to vote in November only to find that the seat wasn't even on the ballot.



Thanks!! I've made some "back of the envelope" calculations that estimate their income between 1/3 and 1/2 million per year (after paying their tandem pilots). That figure confirms it.


The full lease is published at "takebacktorrey.com" (a web site that I started back in 2008 when the lease was expected to expire). Yes, it was a free lease for a multi-million dollar piece of land. They have to provide 4 portable toilets, a "flight director" and insurance protecting the City for consequences of their business. David Jebb is a former San Diego police officer, and I believe his connections within the city government are behind this corruption.


In the spring of 2015, there were several articles published in our local newspapers/magazines about the expired lease and abuses. The City was quoted saying they would put it up for bid soon, but as far as I know it still hasn't happened. There was also a brief television interview about the abuses. Here are some links (original first, US Hawks topic second):

Cover Story of San Diego Reader:
    http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2015/jun/17/cover-keep-out/
    http://ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1940

San Diego Union Tribune (our primary local newspaper):
    http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/jun/08/gliderport-lease/
    http://ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1912

Channel 10 News Interview:
    http://www.10news.com/news/confrontation-at-torrey-pines-gliderport-caught-on-camera-072915
    http://ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2043


I think Air California Adventure is the legal name of the business, and I think flytorrey.com is their official web site. I haven't posted to Yelp, but I've seen complaints posted by customers.

There is no doubt in my mind that the City of San Diego is protecting this business. From the expired lease to the discontinued Torrey Pines City Park Advisory Boad, the whole thing smells of corruption. I believe it involves our former police chief and former mayor Jerry Sanders (who now heads up the Chamber of Commerce). David Jebb and Jerry Sanders may very well know each other from their time on the San Diego Police Department. Even though I haven't proven that, it would explain a lot of what we've seen in the past decades at Torrey Pines.

a free lease and they only have to provide four toilets, which is the primary complaint on yelp about this facility. And insurance, that I am assuming is provided via USHPA? Is that correct or are they privately insured?
If USHPA is the source of their insurance, we have already seen what happened when you brought this situation to the attention of USHPA board. They expelled you, defamed you in a letter to all USHPA membrs, and refused to distribute your rebuttal.
If they are insured by some other company the situation should be brought to THAT insurance companies attention. They lose their insurance, they lose their business.
The unsanitary conditions should be documented daily and reported on yelp concerning the toilet facilities and also brought to the attention of the sanitation engineers responsible for public sanitation in San Diego parks.
4 toilets is an arbitrary number and totally not adequate according to the reports on Yelp. Of course they will just add more toilets of more frequent service but these additional costs would help to reduce their profits.
Do they provide food to the public?
Is that facility sanitary?
Are there food service violations that can be first documented and then reported?
There are a lot more angles than just focusing on unsafe flying practices.
Of course there is some serious corruption going on. This is obvious to my girlfriend who used to date an L.A. cop and can tell all sorts of similar stories.
How many different Public service organizations can be alerted via sanitation, food service violations to apply pressure on several fronts at the same time?
Where does the FAA stand in all this? They are obviously involved with the sailplane portion of the gliderport. Can the FAA be made aware of non-compliance concerning safety issues in a way that would not damage our sports independence?
I dont want the FAA involved but you got to admit if this facility was under FAA administration they wouldve given those guys the boot a long time ago.
Does the department of health know about all this? They are not going to care about any lease or corrupt city council. They will shut that place down in a hearbeat if health violations can be documented.

These violations and complaints can be encouraged to be filed but not by you Bob. You are so much on their radar right now you need to learn the fine art form of creating irritation indirectly.
A person could simply loiter by the toilets, for example, all cheerful like, and make light conversation with folks using the facilities that are obviously disgusted with their condition.
A person might happen to have a card with the Department of healths number on it and pass it out to make it easy for folks to voice a complaint.
The friendlier the better.
Someone other than yourself could order food from the kitchen, preferably a cook or food service person their self, make friends with the cook, compliment them on the food and ask to see the kitchen out of curiousity. Tell a few jokes, Get the torrey cook to pose with them for a selfie with clear violations in the background.
The smokers among us, which I am one, could go hang out with the staff on smoke breaks by the no smoking sign and do the same....
Its time to get friendly. Keep it fun. And take em down.

The Torrey Sanitation Society starts a petition for better facilities based on a Survey they take at the local public park. The dates serviced written inside the sanicans phtotographed and recorded and compared to the number of people using the facility. THEN a petition is taken in the parking lot and signatures submitted. Totally legal....could be fun....raises community awareness, etc.
There is probably already group of ordinary citizens nearby that volunteer to pick up trash in parks and work on sanitation issues.....find them.....pool efforts

There are many directions that can be taken toward reform. I tend to focus on establishing a form of oversight that has visibility and accountability. I believe the Torrey Pines City Park Advisory Board could have filled that role, and I believe that's exactly why the Sanders administration made sure that it was deactivated before Jerry Sanders left office. They also deactivated it in a very sneaky way without most of the members knowing it was about to be deactivated until just prior to the last meeting.

There were so many things wrong with the way the Advisory Board was handled by the City:

• Required to be an "Advisory Board", but formed as a "Citizens' Committee" (but called an "Advisory Board" anyway).
• Established far after the deadline in the settlement agreement.
• Mayor's office giving both seats to SDHGPA and none to Torrey Hawks.
• Special "Deal" offered by City Attorney's office to "unofficially" include Torrey Hawks while officially excluding them.
• Special Torrey Hawks requirement to submit 3 names for Mayor's choice while other clubs submitted only one.
• Initial promise to deal with management, but then refusal to address any management issues.
• Violations of the Brown Act by Sanders' own appointed Chairwoman Ginny Barnes.
• Surprise termination of the Board without members being notified that it would be their last meeting.

They did all those things to minimize any influence the Advisory Board might have over the operations at Torrey. If it were just one or two items, then they might be dismissed as coincidence. But the number of "irregularities" points to something more sinister inside the City of San Diego.

When Bob Filner was elected Mayor, he wasn't part of the City's "insider's club" and I believe he was looking around and finding lots of similar corruption. I believe that's what was really behind his ousting. Unfortunately, he helped by giving them the ammunition.

But back to your main point, there are many different directions that different people can take. As you point out, I am probably not the person to pursue some of those directions due to my very public position in the matter. And that's exactly why USHPA expelled me ... as an implied threat to anyone else who might consider taking a similar direction.

Updated on 2021-06-11 to add the R-302749 Settlement Agreement below.

I've noticed that the City of San Diego TV is now displaying views of slides of citizens speakers. Not full screen as sometimes requested but in the upper left corner of the speaker's camera shot on City TV.

Is the City in fact showing all of the slides now when it hadn't in the past?

The Brown Act has been mentioned and I'm wanting to know was it only the implied threat of a possible complaint of The Brown Act violation by the City that now has more slides being displayed during that segment of the public addressing the council.