San Diego advisor: Chargers were never at the table

A day after the Chargers said they have no faith the City of San Diego can get a stadium initiative on the ballot this year, an advisor for Mayor Kevin Faulconer returned a salvo.

In a written statement, political consult Jason Roe said the Chargers “never were at the table” in regard to working with the mayor’s Citizens’ Stadium Advisory Group toward finding a solution in San Diego.

“For the first time in seven months of incredibly hard work from the city, county, and CSAG, the Chargers did something honest - walk away from the table,” Roe said. “The truth is, they never were at the table. They’ve misled the fans and our elected and civic leaders by saying they wanted to remain in San Diego when in fact they initiated the process of relocation to L.A. a year ago. And throughout this process they’ve not done one single tangible thing toward a solution but instead put up phony roadblocks to success. Charger fans deserve better.”

In response, Chargers special counsel Mark Fabiani said the team will not participate in the city’s attempt to fast-track the environmental review process, especially in a way that the club believes would not hold up to legal scrutiny.

“The Chargers will never be part of the city’s legally dubious effort to deal with the California Environmental Quality Act. City officials are of course free to drive themselves off the cliff into legal oblivion with a half-baked environmental impact report, but the team has no intention of hitching itself to the city’s misguided, doomed scheme,” Fabiani said.

The Chargers have said they would prefer to find a stadium solution in San Diego, but simultaneously they have been working jointly with the Oakland Raiders on a stadium proposal in Carson. That plan is in competition with the Inglewood proposal of St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke.

According to the Chargers, San Diego has proposed an accelerated schedule for an EIR, with the idea of completing the process by the end of the year. The Chargers say that’s an unrealistic time frame, noting that in a February news release, City Atty. Jan Goldsmith said the EIR for a typical project requires 12 to 18 months.