SAN DIEGO – Downtown San Diego's redevelopment authority will now investigate three years' worth of projects to determine possible conflicts of interest, following this month's revelations that former President Nancy Graham had an undisclosed business relationship with a developer.

The agency already has found one problem with the proposed Civic Center redevelopment, Centre City Development Corp. officials said Wednesday.

The consultant who led the agency's number-crunching has a tie to a subcontractor of Gerding Edlen, the Oregon developer who is the last remaining contender to rebuild a new San Diego City Hall. An executive at the consultant firm, Jones Lang LaSalle, recently took a job at CB Richard Ellis, which helped Gerding put its proposal together.

To fix that problem, the corporation's officials said they will hire another outside firm to check the consultant's analysis. Jones Lang LaSalle will cover the cost, CCDC Chairman Fred Maas said at a news conference held Wednesday at the agency's offices.

The redevelopment agency has been under scrutiny because of Graham's ties to Related Co., which won a fierce bidding contest to build a $409 million public-private development dubbed 7th & Market.

Despite Graham's claims she had no ties to Related, court documents have shown she received $3.5 million from the developer, a portion coming as late as June 2007, because of a Florida condo project she had worked on.

Maas said the extra work on the Civic Center could delay the project, which was scheduled to go to the City Council for its approval in October. If the delay stretches into December, the project will face a new City Council on which one new member – Carl DeMaio of District 5 – has already said he opposes the redevelopment plan.

In other announcements:

 The agency will ask start asking consultants to indemnify the agency over any conflicts of interest that arise.

 All current and future applicants will be asked to state whether they have, or ever had, financial relationships with Graham or any existing CCDC official.

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