Good advice for Oceanside - Council wise to seek help in stadium search, but keep consultants on short leash

Building stadiums, negotiating with pro sports teams -- that's tough stuff, even for cities that presumably have the resources and know-how to negotiate with NFL owners. Go ask San Diego.

That's why we're glad to see the Oceanside City Council prepare to hire experienced consultants to aid the city's negotiations with the Chargers, including setting aside $100,000 for that purpose Wednesday night. The next step is to make sure that the city's contracts with those consultants exclude any possibility that they can benefit from the building of a stadium or an ongoing relationship with the Chargers.

In contracting with a consultant, the council would be wisely acknowledging that they lack the experience or savvy to sit opposite the Spanos family and their hired guns and come away with the best deal for Oceanside. That same instinct should compel the council to make sure that they aren't taken for a ride by the consultants. The council must ensure that the consultants aren't counting on a lucrative long-term relationship as middlemen between Oceanside and the Chargers.

Limit the consulting contract to this early scoping of the financial and legal implications of building a Chargers stadium on Goat Hill, and ban these consultants from any future -- potential -- negotiations with the Chargers. That would make us more confident that their advice would be in Oceanside's best interest.