Among those who got wind of the project in summer 2004 were two young reporters named Scott Lewis and Andrew Donohue. Donohue had been on the City Hall beat at the Daily Transcript , a San Diego business newspaper, and had made a reputation for himself as the city’s finances and power structure began to unravel in spectacular fashion. In August 2003, three San Diego City Council members were indicted under federal law for corruption. They stood accused of accepting campaign contributions and favors from a strip club owner seeking looser regulation of his business. [1] When Donohue left to take a communications job in Costa Rica at the end of 2003, Lewis took over the beat. Meanwhile, retirees had sued the city over its unfunded pension obligations, and in January 2004, the city admitted that “errors and omissions” in its financial statements had concealed a deficit of over a billion dollars in its pension fund. The next month, the city came under federal investigation for accounting fraud and corruption.

As a result, San Diego’s credit rating fell, making it nearly impossible for the city to secure financing for large projects such as a planned baseball stadium and federally mandated sewer upgrades. [2] By September 2004, San Diego’s nickname in the national media was “Enron by the Sea,” a reference to an energy corporation that had collapsed amid an accounting scandal in 2001. The Union-Tribune ’s editorial board opined in October: “Never has the city faced such a dark and troubled financial morass.” [3]

In the thick of covering the morass for the Transcript , Lewis contacted Voice Editor Bry to inquire about the planned website. Bry and the board soon offered Lewis a job as Voice ’s first reporter—though inclined to accept, Lewis had to relocate to South Carolina for the year for his wife’s job. Knowing that his former colleague Donohue was eager to resume a journalism career in San Diego, Lewis recommended that the board contact him; in November 2004, the board hired Donohue, and he moved back from Costa Rica. Lewis hoped to contribute to the site from South Carolina and perhaps take on a full-time role when he returned to San Diego the following year.

In addition to Donohue, the board hired another young reporter, Evan McLaughlin, and an office manager. By the end of 2004, Voice of San Diego had a salaried four-member staff, including Bry as editor, working toward a planned launch on February 9, 2005.