Attorney Cory Briggs announced Tuesday that San Diego hoteliers have agreed to settle his lawsuit challenging a tax on hotel guests for tourism marketing, but that appears to be news to the defendant, the Tourism Marketing District.
During a morning news conference called to talk about the settlement, Briggs spent most of the time instead lambasting a City Attorney memo released a day earlier that raised numerous legal issues with a ballot initiative he has authored to boost the hotel tax. The Citizens’ Plan, as it is called, is designed to address a variety of civic initiatives, including helping finance an off-the-waterfront convention center facility and paving the way for an expansion of San Diego State on the Qualcomm site in Mission Valley.