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Escondido Dem Club Dumps Palomar Health Board Members Amid Fear of ‘Privatization’
The Escondido Democratic Club has stopped supporting four Democratic elected members of the Palomar Health Board of Directors because of a new management agreement the board members supported in February. The club’s leadership says the new contract with a private nonprofit management company will greatly reduce public access and transparency....
Environment Report: What Equitable Undergrounding Means for the Rest of San Diego
Everything you thought you knew about when and where the city of San Diego will bury power lines might be changing. The city’s 2022 deal with its power grid builder, San Diego Gas & Electric, says areas with high fire risk and poverty should get power lines buried first. That’s not what’s been happening, so the City Council will be tasked with giving its undergrounding program another makeover.
Only One Finalist Stood at End of Contentious County CAO Search
This post originally ran as an item in the Politics Report. Voice of San Diego members can receive the Politics Report every Saturday in their inbox. Last week, the chair of the Board of Supervisors, Nora Vargas, made it official that she and all four of her colleagues had, as we reported last week, offered the job of chief administrative officer overseeing 18,000 county employees to Ebony Shelton, the current chief financial officer. She will be the first Black woman to lead the county and her financial expertise will come in handy immediately as the county braces for state budget cuts.
San Diego Steps Up as Water Authority’s ‘Sugar Daddy’
When the region’s water importer said it was hurting for cash, the city of San Diego said: I’ll be your sugar daddy. That’s basically what happened last week after the San Diego County Water Authority – in charge of getting water from the Colorado River and northern California to San Diego – broke the news to its 22 customer water districts that its prices were going up 39 percent over the next two years. Mayor Todd Gloria pushed back on the increase, calling on his board members to find a way to soften the blow on San Diegans.
Politics Report: Bill Walton, a Civic Obituary
Five years ago, before the pandemic, before that hellish year of 2020, a couple colleagues of mine and I visited Bill Walton at his home for breakfast. After we arrived, a worker pointed us to the garage where he was working out. He knew me and our work but my...
A Train Track’s New Home Could Be Under Yours
If you live in North County, particularly on the coast, you’ve probably heard about a plan to move a portion of the train tracks that run along the edge of the Del Mar bluffs into an underground tunnel. If that sounds extremely complicated and very expensive, that’s because it...
Sacramento Report: What’s Next for Bills We’re Watching
Last week California lawmakers made a final push to get their bills passed in their houses of origin. More than a thousand bills made it through votes on the state Senate and Assembly floors. We highlighted key bills by San Diego lawmakers last week, including legislation to tackle homelessness, coastal...
The Progress Report: A Program that Helped Parents for Years Was Just Gutted
It was about 5:30 p.m. when I arrived at Morse High School and the campus was, unsurprisingly, a ghost town save for two teens watching a video on a phone. I could hear their giggles reverberate as I walked through the empty halls. Then, I reached the auditorium. Young kids...
The Learning Curve: How San Diego Unified Plans to Spend State Dollars
Last week, San Diego Unified officials gathered at DePortola Middle School for a workshop on the district’s latest Local Control Accountability Plan, or LCAP. The plan is one in a long list of school-related jargon needing an explanation. So, strap on your education caps. Here’s a basic overview of...
San Diego Buried Power Lines in Richer Parts of Town First
It’s become really expensive to bury power lines underground in San Diego. But, until recently, it wasn’t clear where that work was actually being done. Now, the city has a map for that. Though San Diego’s been slowly burying power lines since 1970, it only started distributing the work equally among city council districts in 2002. Then, in 2021 under a new deal cut with the city’s monopoly power grid builder, San Diego Gas & Electric, the city said power line burial should be prioritized in communities of concern (older and poorer communities) and areas with a higher risk of wildfire.
A Middle Schooler Fires Up Friends and Families to Vote
Look familiar? This post first appeared in the Politics Report. When Ellen Nash said all that county drama was a distraction, she had a pretty vivid example of the kind of effort it distracted her from Friday. She was at the County Registrar of Voters, Friday, helping Henry Anderson III,...
Song of the Week: ‘I’m On It Now’
There’s a vintage nature to much of The Gift Machine’s jangly indie rock, likely because the band’s been at it in one form or another for more than two decades. Lead singer Dave Matthies hails from the Pacific Northwest, specifically Anacortes, Washington, home to indie legend Phil Elverum of The Microphones and Mount Eerie fame, with whom Matthies has previously collaborated.
Auditors Flag SDG&E’s Soaring Costs to Bury Power Lines
An audit of San Diego’s contract with its monopoly power company shows longstanding problems over burying power lines continue to bog down the relationship. As part of SDG&E’s new 20-year contract with the city, in which San Diego placed new demands on their energy grid builder, the company agreed to be audited every two years. Crowe LLP Risk Consulting’s draft investigative report says that while SDG&E is mostly in compliance, the company and the city need to work on their communication skills as costs for burying powerlines are getting out of hand.
Politics Report: Maybe the End of County Drama? Nah
Nora Vargas, the chair of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors called Ellen Nash to apologize, Thursday. Nash is the chair of the San Diego chapter of the Black American Political Association of California and she was the subject of at least one of the text messages that labor and progressive leaders released in an open letter to demand Vargas step down as chair of the Board of Supervisors.
Baby Sea Lions are Dying. We Don’t Yet Know Why.
Some researchers in northern California found alarming numbers of dead baby sea lions on their California island breeding grounds. But scientists don’t yet know what caused their deaths – and whether these incidents are a sign of a larger problem. The Los Angeles Times recently reported sightings of...
Sacramento Report: Flurry of Votes Decides Which Bills Move on, and Which Die
It’s crunch time in the state legislature Friday, as bills introduced this year face a deadline to pass their Assembly or Senate, before going onto the other house and then the governor’s desk. The bills that made it past this round include measures to tighten sexual predator placement,...
The Pick Is In: County Supes Choose New CAO
Wednesday, the County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to offer their chosen candidate to be the chief administrative officer of the county’s 18,000 employees the job. The announcement was made after the final interview and vote was taken in closed session. They didn’t announce who it was but it...
San Diego Mayor Pushes Back on Huge Countywide Water Rate Hike
Look familiar? This post first appeared in the Morning Report. Subscribe to the best newsletter in San Diego here. It’s been a rainy couple of years – and that means the region’s water importer and seller is hurting for cash. To help cover that gap, among other growing costs of its massive water infrastructure system, the San Diego County Water Authority proposed increasing water rates by up to 39 percent in the next two years.
Homelessness Spikes Again in San Diego County
San Diego County’s latest homeless census shows the crisis hit a new record this year. This January’s point-in-time count tallied 10,605 homeless residents sleeping in shelters or outdoors throughout the region, marking a 3 percent year-over-year spike that’s less dramatic than the previous year’s surge. Nearly...
Song of the Week: ‘I’d Rather Be’
It’s not often you see outlets like SPIN declaring a San Diego band’s “timeless pop rock is destined for stadium success.” But in June, that’s exactly what the nearly four decade-old publication had to say about Pleasure Pill. If you haven’t heard of Pleasure Pill, you’re forgiven. The band still hasn’t reached stadiums, but they have been around longer than it would seem.
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