A new San Diego County Grand Jury report accuses board trustees at the Grossmont Union High School District of potentially harming students by cancelling a mental health services contract.  

The board cancelled the contract because of incendiary claims from a board trustee at another school district, Anthony Carnevale of Cajon Valley Union. Carnevale claimed that organizations such as nonprofit San Diego Youth Services are part of what he called a “groomer cartel” because they provide services to LGBTQ youth.

The only problem: That’s not even the type of program that San Diego Youth Services was providing at Grossmont. 

The scathing report is the latest controversy at the district, which in recent years has faced discrimination lawsuits, staff turnover and protests against layoffs, as our education reporter Jakob McWhinney explains. 

The report called trustees’ rationale for canceling the contract a “misrepresentation” of the facts and listed nearly a dozen corrective recommendations.

A district spokesperson downplayed the report, saying it found no actual wrongdoing.

Read the full story in The Learning Curve here. 

Controversy Continues at Einstein

Grossmont wasn’t the only school organization in the hotseat this week.

A former principal on Tuesday sued Albert Einstein Academies for alleged retaliation and wrongful termination.

The principal, Margaretta Bouterse, said in the lawsuit that former Einstein Superintendent David Sciarretta fired her last year because she was unwilling to go along with Sciarretta’s efforts to sabotage the school’s teachers union.

Sciarretta resigned last week following a series of controversies, including accusations he misused school funds.

The full story on Einstein is also in The Learning Curve.

Robbing the Convention Center to Pay for… the Convention Center?

Our Scott Lewis found a strange detail in the budget San Diego City Councilmembers approved this week.

The budget will use money that had been explicitly promised to pay for expanding the Convention Center to instead pay for old debt related to older Convention Center improvements. 

Measure C was a 2020 ballot measure that increased the hotel room tax. The city has been collecting that tax for just two years now. It promised voters an expansion to the current Convention Center as well as improved homelessness services and road repair. 

The Council did this budget move in the service of restoring arts funding that Mayor Todd Gloria had proposed cutting. 

Gloria did not use his line-item veto to nix the fund shift. In fact, he’ll sign the budget as it is, he announced Wednesday. But he didn’t appear to like it much. Such moves, he said in a statement Wednesday, “set us up for the same budget challenges next year.”

Read the full story here.

About Tuesday’s City Council Protest Song

As you may have seen in yesterday’s Morning Report, we brought attention to a man who stepped up to the microphone during the City Council’s public comment period, guitar in hand, and belted out a one-minute protest ditty. He mostly repeated the lyrics, “Get the Flock out,” in reference to the city’s contract with Flock for surveillance cameras placed around the city. 

That reminded us: Back in 1980, legendary CBS 8 reporter Larry Himmel had the gas company blues — so much so that he wrote a song about it. Himmel’s parody, called “SDG&E Blues,” still hits as hard now as it did 46 years ago. In the lyrics, he describes himself as being held hostage by the energy giant. Damn, remember when reporters used to be funny!

Quotable

“For me, this is personal.” That’s former San Diego state legislator Lorena Gonzalez, who now leads the California Federation of Labor Unions, announcing her impassioned personal endorsement of her Xavier Becerra. The Federation, notably, did not endorse Becerra. It gave the nod to three separate candidates in the governor’s race and Becerra wasn’t one of them. But Gonzalez now wants you to know that was the wrong choice. She presented Becerra as a longtime political BFF in an emotional Instagram post Wednesday. She posted photos of herself with him over the years and told of Becerra’s personal support when Gonzalez battled breast cancer.

Brews & News Is Tonight

Join us for our Brews & News Live Podcast at 6:30pm at Soda Bar and get an election debrief with Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera.  Get your tickets here. Attendees will be automatically entered for a chance to win two tickets to a Padres game.* Winners will be announced at the event. 

Plus – It’s hyper-local bumper sticker battle time: While zoning out in traffic, do you ever stare at the sticker-laden bumper of the car in front of you and think “I could do better”? Well, now’s your chance to prove it. 

We’re accepting submissions for our hyper-local bumper sticker contest. This can be a funny, clever, deadly serious or just plain absurd San Diego-centric saying you think would look good on the back of our education reporter’s 2003 Honda CR-V. 

Examples include: “I’d rather be on the UCSD Blue Line Trolley Extension,” “Paradise Hills is for lovers <3,” “Make Coronado ferry again” and “I saw a ghost at Fam Mart and I am frightened.”

There’s just one catch: you’ve gotta come to the live pod to take part! We’ll select our favorites and then the room will vote on the inaugural bumper sticker battle champ. We’ll even print a copy for the winner 🙂

*Obligatory note: No purchase or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win the Brews and News Live Podcast Giveaway. A ticket purchase or donation will not increase chances of winning. All applicable federal, state, local and municipal laws, rules, and regulations apply. Void where prohibited by law. 

In Other News 

• It’s official: The AP has called it. Steve Hilton, the Republican FOX News commentator, has secured his spot against Xavier Becerra in the November race for California Governor. Billionaire Tom Steyer came in third and will not advance to the runoff. (Associated Press)
• Black San Diegans are nine times more likely to be cited for resisting a police officer, even in the absence of any other crime, according to a KPBS investigation. Advocates say such charges indicate an abuse of police power. A police spokesperson said officers cite people only when there is probable cause of a crime.
• A brush fire in Camp Pendleton prompted evacuation orders in parts of Oceanside. Earlier this week, firefighters contained a blaze in Sorrento Valley. (Union-Tribune) 
• The Imperial Beach City Council voted to authorize installation of six law enforcement cameras in the city, including four license plate readers and two cameras for unspecified “law enforcement use.” The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, which provides law enforcement services in the city, will install and monitor the cameras. (inewsource)
• Transit officials this week briefed North County riders on an upcoming proposed fare increase that could raise the cost of bus and trolley rides from $2.50 to $3 later this year. Officials say the increase is needed to plug a $500 million budget gap. (KPBS)
• A controversial border fence in the Jacumba Wilderness claimed its first wildlife victim earlier this month. A biologist found a dead peninsula bighorn sheep entangled in concertina wire installed as part of Trump Administration efforts to seal off the U.S.-Mexico border. Environmentalists say the fence blocks critical migration routes and risks injuring or killing endangered species. (KPBS)
• More wilderness news: A grizzly recently attacked a 32-year-old San Carlos hiker in Glacier National Park. The hiker, Daniel Crago, survived the attack but suffered two broken bones after the bear bit him and dragged him dozens of feet. (Union-Tribune)
• Why we love San Diego: A cohort of girls at a Chula Vista high school on Monday graduated from a special program that teaches kids how to build their own custom lowrider bicycles. The program, conducted by the non-profit United Lowrider Youth Leadership Bike Club, provides students with bike frames and teaches them how to trick out their rides in style. (KPBS)

The Morning Report was written by Jim Hinch, Will Huntsberry and Jakob McWhinney. It was edited by Will Huntsberry.

The post Morning Report: Grand Jury Slams Grossmont District appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

A new report from the San Diego County Grand Jury slams the controversial decision by the Grossmont Union High School District’s board not to renew a contract with a nonprofit that provided mental health services to students.  

The Grand Jury found the decision was “not based on performance concerns or misconduct,” but intended to restrict services for LGBTQ kids. The watchdog group also found the move was potentially harmful to kids, among other findings. 

The report is just the latest bump in what’s been a wild couple of years for the district that have included lawsuits alleging discrimination against staff, fishy hires followed by rapid resignations, raucous pushback against layoffs and more. The board has been at the center of many of the swirling controversies.  

Let’s rewind: In 2023, Grossmont Union’s school board decided to ditch San Diego Youth Services, a nonprofit whose mental health clinicians were embedded in the district’s campuses and who provided suicide prevention services to district students.  

The contract was relatively uncontroversial, at least for a while. Then during the public comment period at a July 2023 Grossmont Union board meeting, a school board member from another district named Anthony Carnevale showed up to rail against San Diego Youth Services.  

Carnevale, a trustee for Cajon Valley Union School District, has made a name for himself as a conservative firebrand who trashes organizations like San Diego Youth Services, which he’s referred to as part a so-called “groomer cartel.” 

The program he objected to is called Our Safe Place and, as the name suggests, is meant to be a safe space for trans or questioning youth to consult with health providers or seek mental health support. Grossmont Union had not contracted with San Diego Youth Services to provide that program in its schools. But that didn’t stop Carnevale from suggesting the program could expose students to information about “top surgery” and “transitioning.” 

Later at that same meeting, the district board voted to reject the renewal of the contracts with San Diego Youth Services.  

The Grand Jury found that the board ditched the contract “solely due to a misrepresentation about referrals for services to transgender students.” They also found that Carnevale’s contention that another program offered by the nonprofit was not evidence based was “easily disproven with minimal fact-finding.” 

In a Facebook post, Carnevale called the report a “partisan hit piece.” 

“This is how Western values are subverted in America – by appointed panels of mostly former government employees, who use theatrics, selective outrage, and taxpayer-funded lawyers to bully representatives voters actually chose,” Carnevale wrote. 

The findings: The decision not to renew the contract with San Diego Youth Services left  Grossmont Union students without mental health services or a suicide prevention program for months, the Grand Jury found. That gap likely caused student harm and compromised the district’s ability to achieve the goals laid out in its own accountability plan. That plan specifically called for more mental health supports.  

The report lays out nearly a dozen steps the district should take. They include recommendations that the board actually follow its own policies – from ones that call on officials to ensure equal opportunities for all students to others that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.  

The Grandy Jury advised the board create a Citizen Advisory Committees that can solicit stakeholder input and help rebuild trust. It also recommended the board participate in annual ethics and governance trainings. 

Grand Jury reports are not binding documents, but the agencies that get investigated are required to issue a response within 90 days. District spokesperson Collin McGlashen told the Union-Tribune the district would.  

He also downplayed the report, telling the paper it represented differing opinions on the board’s decisions rather than evidence of wrongdoing. 

“Reasonable people may disagree with those decisions. However, disagreement with a board decision is not, in and of itself, evidence that board policies, bylaws, or the Education Code were violated,” McGlashen wrote in an email. 

Einstein Supe Resigns, Fired Principal Sues 

Longtime Albert Einstein Academies Superintendent David Sciarretta resigned last week. Sciarretta’s resignation caps off more than a year of turmoil, during which a series of controversies – ranging from the abrupt firing of one of the charter chain’s principals to allegations of improper use of funds – fueled calls for his removal. 

Still, the hits keep coming.  

Yesterday, Einstein was hit with a lawsuit filed by the elementary school principal Sciarretta fired last year, Margaretta Bouterse. It accuses Sciarretta and the charter school of retaliating against a whistleblower and wrongful termination.  

Bouterse’s firing hit the Einstein community hard: Over the course of her more than two decades at the school, she had developed close relationships with many of the staff and families. For many in the community, her unceremonious firing over Thanksgiving break was one more reason to rally for Sciarretta’s removal.  

At the time, Sciarretta claimed Bouterse was fired because she did not hold an administrator credential. He also claimed the school had somehow not realized this fact in the nearly 12 years she’d been employed as a principal – during all of which he served as either executive director or superintendent.  

In the lawsuit, Bouterse tells a very different story: She claims the fact that she did not have an administrative credential was common knowledge and that during her tenure no one had ever asked her to obtain one.  

Instead, Bouterse alleges, Sciarretta fired her because she was unwilling to go along with his efforts to bust Einstein’s newly-formed teachers union. The efforts began even before the union was certified, with Sciaretta pressuring her to “talk to [her] people” and tell him which teachers could be convinced to oppose the union, Bouterse writes. 

After the union was certified, Bouterse claims that Sciarretta’s pressuring escalated – now with the intent to decertify the union. Bouterse writes that she chose not to go along with Sciarretta’s efforts out of fear they may constitute “unlawful de-unionization activities.” 

During this period, which stretched into fall 2025, the community’s pushback against Sciarretta continued to grow. Board meetings began to turn into raucous affairs filled with public commenters ripping into Sciarretta. Bouterse alleges that during this period Sciarretta became more agitated and said he was tired of “getting his ass handed to him” at board meetings. He pressured “leadership team members to write letters publicly supporting him,” the lawsuit alleges.   

In the days following a particularly tense meeting with Sciarretta, Bouterse writes that she was contacted by Einstein’s human resources representative who asked whether she had a credential. She claims she “understood the call as an attempt to manufacture a basis to terminate her.” 

Over the following weeks, Bouterse claims that Sciarretta pressured her to resign, which she refused to do. Ultimately, he fired her. 

One detail in this part of the lawsuit caught my eye: Bouterse writes that during Sciarretta’s efforts to persuade her to resign he “attempted to intimidate plaintiff into compliance, warning her that a journalist at the Voice of San Diego would ‘skewer’ her if the credential matter became public and that parents would come after her regarding her salary.” 

On a personal note, I will say it’s pretty unexpected to see a lawsuit allege that my reporting was used as a threat against someone. It’s especially unexpected because this seems like such a ham-fisted bluff by Sciarretta. Ultimately, as the many stories I’ve written about Einstein show, Sciarretta is the one who ended up over the coals.  

The post The Learning Curve: Grand Jury Slams Grossmont Union’s Board  appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

This post has been updated.

One of my favorite random facts about the city of San Diego is that it loses money every year because of ongoing flooding of the Convention Center.  

This year, the mayor proposed to pay $1.2 million on the “dewatering” of the Convention Center through a novel source: the money coming in from Measure C, the 2020 ballot measure that increased the hotel room tax in the city. The money from the tax was supposed to fund an expansion of the Convention Center, improved homeless services and road repair. For years, the city could not collect the Measure C money because of an ongoing court battle. Now, for the second year, it is collecting the tax.  

The mayor also proposed that $3 million the city gave the Tourism Authority to market the Convention Center also come from the new tax.  

This helped give the city’s independent budget analyst and the City Council an idea. They were scrambling to find money to restore funding for the arts that Mayor Todd Gloria had proposed cutting in his budget.  

They found $6 million in Measure C. 

Here’s how: The city makes payments of about $12 million per year to pay off old debt it took out for the 2001 expansion of the Convention Center.  

They’re going to pay half of that with Measure C’s tax collections. The tax passed to fund a new expansion of the Convention Center is now going to actually be to pay off the one from 25 years ago. The city’s lawyers confirmed with the Council that Measure C does explicitly allow the city to use the new tax revenue for old debt. The people who came up with Measure C likely thought of that in the context of a new bond for a new expansion refinancing some old debt.  

The mayor issued a statement Wednesday saying he disagreed with some of the Council’s adjustments to his budget but he would not veto them.  

“Decisions like diverting Measure C funds from the Convention Center may avoid difficult cuts this year, but they set us up for the same budget challenges next year,” he said.  

Councilmember Kent Lee, who helped craft the solution to help arts organizations, sent over a statement: “It’s clear we must address the needs of our Convention Center both in terms of maintenance and delivering on the expansion. In addition to seeking long term and more sustainable solutions to arts and culture funding.”

They’ll likely need a new design or strategy or new money – the time from when Measure C passed to when collection began included major inflation in construction and other costs.

“This is a short-term solution… a bridge to a long-term solution to arts funding. All of this needs to be part of the regional and collaborative discussions we have moving forward,” Lee said in a written statement.

Clarification: Councilmember Lee’s quote has been updated to include his full written statement to better reflect his perspective.

The post Convention Center Expansion Money Now Paying for 2001 Expansion  appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

The City Council unanimously approved a budget on Tuesday to send back to Mayor Todd Gloria. Gloria can now approve it, veto it or use his line-item veto. 

Even though the budget passed unanimously — it didn’t happen without some controversy and disagreement. 

Flock contract stays in place: Four councilmembers supported the cancellation of the city’s $2 million per year Smart Streetlights contract. The controversial Smart Streetlights, operated by a company called Flock, provide “AI-powered video surveillance,” as well as license plate reader technology. The councilmembers attempted to pass a budget that eliminated the contract, but it didn’t have the fifth vote it needed to pass. 

Soundtrack: During the public comment period, one San Diegan expressed their displeasure with the Flock contract — in song. A man brought his guitar to the microphone and jammed to a melodic little tune that mostly repeated the lyrics “get the Flock out” over and over. Attendees erupted into applause.

After the failed attempt to pass a de-Flocked budget, councilmembers then unanimously settled on the following changes.

Arts funding deal moves forward: A deal struck by councilmembers and the Prebys Foundation restores much of the arts and culture budget. The city would restore around $7.3 million in arts funding and Prebys would commit another $3 million, which it would administer.

Restorations to library and rec center hours: Gloria’s initial proposal slashed library and rec center hours. But the Council’s budget keeps them intact in Districts 4, 8 and 9 — which contain some of San Diego’s most low-income neighborhoods. It also restores Monday hours for the North Park library, and half-day Saturday hours at Mira Mesa and Linda Vista libraries. 

The following rec centers also had their budgets fully restored: Carmel Valley, Pacific Highlands Ranch, Robb Athletic Field, Canyonside, Doyle, Mira Mesa, Hourglass Field, Nobel Athletic Fields and Standley. 

Big slashes to shelter beds avoided: The final budget avoids cutting hundreds of shelter beds at the 16th and Newton shelter, as Gloria originally proposed. Instead, the Council’s approved budget only cuts 50 beds. It also cuts 37 city-funded beds at the Lighthouse Shelter located in National City. 

Homeless day center still faces cuts: The Council’s budget still cuts city funding to the Neil Good Day Center, which provides homeless people with basic services they might need during the day. Father Joe’s Villages, the nonprofit that runs the center, plans to downsize and relocate. 

Win for traffic safety: The budget includes funding to improve what’s known as the Fatal 15 — the 15 most dangerous intersections in the city. It also maintains funding for the Multi-Modal team, which design safety improvements like crosswalks, stop signs, and bike lanes. 

Union Pushing for Big Reforms to Chula Vista Government

Move over San Diego County — Chula Vista voters may also be asked to consider serious reforms to the city’s government this November. 

A ballot measure being pushed by a powerful local labor union would allow elected officials to seek an additional term in office, potentially boost city councilmembers’ salaries, beef up the city’s ethics commission and add a binding arbitration provision to contract negotiations with public safety unions. 

The reforms echo a ballot measure recently approved by county supervisors that will come before voters in November. Supporters say longer term limits can increase stability in city government. But not everyone’s sold.

As with the county’s reforms, critics likely will label the Chula Vista proposal a power grab.

At least one councilmember, Jose Preciado, has already voiced skepticism about parts of the measure – especially proposals to increase councilmembers’ workloads.

“I don’t think we’re ready for that kind of prime time,” Preciado said.

Read the whole story here.

Secret County Subcommittees Stay Secret

County supervisors on Tuesday again failed to advance a policy that would have shed more sunlight on board subcommittees meeting behind closed doors.

This time, Supervisor Joel Anderson proposed a policy requiring ad-hoc board committees to post meeting agendas, minutes and materials, and allow the public to attend — with the possibility to exempt some subcommittees.

The four supervisors who attended Tuesday’s meeting ultimately split 2-2 over whether to advance Anderson’s policy. Fellow Republican Jim Desmond sided with Anderson and Democrats Monica Montgomery Steppe and Paloma Aguirre suggested another approach.

The two Democrats said they’d like flexibility to allow more privacy for some committees, such as one focused on juvenile justice where some families have shared stories they fear could lead to retaliation.

“I support transparency and accountability, but when it comes to this particular policy, I think it has to be determined on a case-by-case basis,” Aguirre said.

Anderson and Desmond argued transparency was the right approach.

“We’re saying we’re for transparency and then we find all the reasons under the sun not to be transparent,” Anderson said.

What’s next: Because supervisors split at Tuesday’s meeting, the item will now be heard again at supervisors’ June 25 meeting.

Song of the Month

Los Sols – “Cherry Red Nova”: Much of Los Sols’ output takes a page from FIDLAR’s belligerent pop-tinged punk – albeit with a delightful dose of Chicano spanglish. But for my money, the four-piece really shines when they turn down the volume and the tempo, like with the enchanting acoustic jam “horchata.” On 2024 single “Cherry Red Nova,” Los Sols dial up the oldies and end up with an absolute earworm of a pop gem. 

Like what you hear? Check out Los Sols with local favorites Los Shadows at Mason Aleworks on Saturday, June 19.

In Other News 

• On Monday, a judge sentenced an OnlyFans creator to four years in prison for the death of an Escondido man who’d hired her to perform bondage fetish acts on him. The woman, who pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter, had duct taped the man’s mouth shut and placed a plastic bag over his head. (Union-Tribune)
• Carlsbad’s City Council unanimously approved a five-story, 397-unit housing complex that features 59 affordable apartments. (Union-Tribune)
• The number of immigrants detained by immigration officials at local military bases has spiked since the reelection of President Donald Trump. The danger for delivery and rideshare drivers has become so significant that many are now avoiding military bases altogether. (KPBS) 
• Amid deadlock and discord in negotiations over how to parse out water from the Colorado River, the Trump administration has nominated a longtime Central Valley farmer to lead the agency that oversees water in western states. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
• The redevelopment deal for the city of San Diego’s 101 Ash Street property will not close this month as planned. That’s because the development team planning to lease and convert the office tower into affordable housing is short $8 million for the $252 million project. (Union-Tribune)
• San Diego’s infrastructure budget hasn’t kept pace with the growth of the general fund. While the general fund has increased by 28 percent nominally since fiscal year 2022, the infrastructure budget has only increased by about four percent. (inewsource)
• Grossmont Cinemas is dead. Long live the new Grossmont Cinemas. A week after Reading Cinemas announced it was leaving Grossmont Center, AMC has announced it plans to take over the theatre. The new theatre – complete with recliners in every theater – is slated to open in 2027. (ABC 10 News)

The Morning Report was written by Mariana Martínez Barba, Jakob McWhinney and Lisa Halverstadt. It was edited by Will Huntsberry.

The post Morning Report: Council Overrides Some Budget Cuts — for Now appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

A prominent San Diego County labor union is preparing a November ballot measure that would dramatically reshape the city of Chula Vista’s government.

The measure, which union representatives say they plan to present to the City Council next week, would give elected city officials, including the current mayor, city councilmembers and the city attorney, an additional term in office while also potentially raising elected officials’ salaries by creating an independently appointed commission to determine officials’ annual compensation.

Currently, Chula Vista’s four city councilmembers serve part-time and are limited to two four-year terms in office. The mayor and city attorney serve full-time but also are limited to two terms.

The ballot measure would amend the city charter to give elected officials up to three terms in office, 12 years in total, and increase councilmembers’ responsibilities by creating several permanent City Council committees to address key city issues.

If approved by voters in November, the measure also would create a beefed up city ethics commission, shift some governmental work from appointed citizen commissions to the City Council, formalize lobbying rules and enable an appointed arbitrator to resolve stalled contract negotiations with public safety unions.

The goal, union representatives said, is to increase transparency and accountability in Chula Vista’s elected government and enable elected leaders to shepherd complex projects, such as housing developments, which often take longer than eight years to complete.

“As Chula Vista continues to grow, we believe it is important that the city’s governing charter evolve to meet the needs and expectations of today’s residents,” said Valentine Macedo, business manager of the laborers union local, known as LIUNA 89. The union represents construction workers and other laborers who often work on city development projects.

“We look forward to sharing the full proposal with the public and engaging in a community conversation about how these reforms can strengthen public trust, improve accountability at City Hall and help prepare Chula Vista’s government for the future,” Macedo said.

The laborers’ ballot measure comes on the heels of a similarly-spirited measure recently placed on the November ballot by majority Democrats on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

That initiative gives supervisors an additional term in office and includes provisions that would empower supervisors to be more directly involved in work currently performed by the county’s unelected bureaucrats.

Like the planned measure in Chula Vista, the county measure is backed by prominent organized labor groups, including the union representing county employees.

At least two unions representing city of Chula Vista employees, the Chula Vista Police Officers Association and the Chula Vista Firefighters Association, have pledged to support the laborers’ ballot measure.

David Martinez, president of the police union, said his members support the measure because extending councilmembers’ terms in office could create greater stability in city government and ensure that councilmembers favorable to union interests stay in office longer.

Of course, said Martinez, longer term limits cut both ways. “If it’s a bad Council, that doesn’t benefit us,” he said.

Martinez said police officers also like the prospect of adding binding arbitration to the city’s contract negotiation process for public safety unions.

In instances when city officials and union representatives reach an impasse, the added provision would force both sides to enter an arbitration process overseen by one or more appointed arbitrators. The arbitrator would have the power to force both sides to agree to a compromise.

Martinez said relations between the city and police have been amicable in recent years and officers currently don’t see the need for binding arbitration. But he said that could change “in the future if things change in city leadership and it gets hostile.”

“It’s a way for the process to be fair,” Martinez said.

Critics of the county’s ballot measure have called it a thinly disguised attempt to boost organized labor’s influence over county government. The Chula Vista measure similarly would empower elected leaders whose positions depend on winning elections with the help of financial backers, including deep-pocketed labor unions and other interest groups.

LIUNA 89, the labor union drafting the Chula Vista measure, has played a major role in recent city elections. A union representative said the union spent roughly $750,000 promoting candidates and issues in last week’s primary election alone, with much of that money directed toward races for Chula Vista mayor and City Council.

The union expects to spend as much or more in the November general election.

At least one City Councilmember, Jose Preciado of District 2, said he’s not sold yet on the LIUNA measure and wants to see the fine print before deciding whether to place it on the November ballot.

Preciado said he likes the idea of bolstering the city’s ethics commission with subpoena power and stiffening rules around lobbying.

But he said he’s undecided about the value of extending term limits and feels councilmembers’ current workloads are manageable and don’t need to change.

“I’m not finished with my career and I’m not interested in a full-time Council job,” said Preciado, who works as an administrator at San Diego State University. “I don’t think we’re ready for that kind of prime time. [Having] part-time councilpeople with one full-time aide and maybe one legislative committee is manageable.”

Currently, Chula Vista’s part-time city councilmembers earn roughly $65,000 per year. The mayor earns close to $159,000 per year. Councilmembers also are entitled to hire one full-time aide and seek reimbursement for city-related travel and other costs.

Apart from Preciado, other city councilmembers, including Mayor John McCann, either declined to comment on the measure or did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to California election law, city councils must vote to place ballot initiatives before voters at least 88 days before the next scheduled election.

Macedo said union representatives plan to present a draft of the union’s ballot measure at next week’s City Council meeting with the aim of getting the measure placed on this year’s Nov. 3 general election ballot.

The post Union Aims for Major Overhaul of Chula Vista’s Government appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

A state-backed Arizona finance authority is considering a plan to fund a wastewater-to-drinking water facility in the Tijuana River Valley.

The goal? Pipe the purified water back to Mexico, and in exchange, ask Mexico to hand over some of its Colorado River water. It is one of several ambitious concepts backed by a $1billion Arizona fund aimed at identifying new water resources for the drought-stricken state.

But navigating the legal and environmental nuances of cross-border sewage is messy. The reality is that it’s incredibly complex to try to treat another country’s runoff on U.S. soil, our MacKenzie Elmer writes.

Still, with the Colorado River basin facing a potential “crash” that will significantly impact Arizona, the state’s water leaders are desperate for a solution.

Read the the full story here.

Shuttered County Treatment Facility to (Finally) Reopen

The county is preparing to reopen a former Volunteers of America Southwest substance use treatment facility four years after it got the facility in a settlement deal.

In 2022, the county took over the 120-bed facility in National City after Voice of San Diego exposed financial misconduct at the nonprofit. Voice’s reporting led to the CEO’s ouster and the resignation of the entire board of directors — as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs pulling $2 million in funding. 

County investigators determined that Volunteers of America Southwest owed the county millions of dollars — which ultimately led the charity to turn over the treatment facility. 

Now the county expects to open the center with 73 residential treatment beds and 16 recuperative care beds for people early this fall. The county this spring signed a contract with New Creation Behavioral Healthcare Foundation, based in Ontario, Calif., to operate it.

Behavioral Health Services Director Nadia Privara Brahms said the county has invested $29 million in state bond and grant funds and opioid settlement dollars into rehabilitating the facility.

Correction: Budget Reckoning 

Today, the San Diego City Council will vote on a final budget to send back to Mayor Todd Gloria’s desk — for approval, veto or line-item vetos. 

The budget process has been grueling. Gloria initially proposed a budget that would cut funding for libraries and recreation centers, as well as arts funding, while keeping money for firefighters and police steady. Councilmembers have pushed back hard and fought to restore some of that funding. 

Expect more tension on those topics today — and potentially a push to end the city’s controversial Smart Streetlights program.

On that note: Yesterday’s Morning Report incorrectly attributed quotes from Council President Joe LaCava to Charles Modica, San Diego’s independent budget analyst. 

LaCava wrote in a memo to the IBA that he didn’t agree with “draconian cuts” to the city’s middle managers and doesn’t support new revenues or fees on San Diegans.

You can read the corrected Morning Report here. 

In Other News 

• More than five years after San Diego residents voted for stronger and more independent police oversight, the city’s Commission on Police Practices still lacks many of the powers that voters were promised. (Union-Tribune)
• An air purifier company is suing San Diego County, arguing that a $26.8 million contract awarded to the company’s competitor should be voided. The company claims the contract process was faulty. The air purifiers are for South Bay residents exposed to toxic gases from the Tijuana River. (Union-Tribune)
• Lolz: The Switzerland National Football Team, which is training for the World Cup at the San Diego Jewish Academy, shared a map of its training facilities — with the entire area outside of the facility marked off limits because of rattlesnakes. Rattlesnakes are the only things the Swiss fear more than than a scalding cup of cocoa and transparent banking.
• The California Teachers Association, the state’s largest and most powerful teachers union, has come out against the billionaire tax on the ballot in November. While members of the union aren’t opposed to the concept of such taxes, this tax would have dumped the new revenue into healthcare to make up for President Trump’s cuts to Medicare. That restriction was a dealbreaker, as the CTA would have wanted schools to get a cut of the loot. (Politico) 
• Today, County Supervisor Joel Anderson will revive his push to make the county’s secret subcommittees more transparent after fellow supervisors’ recent failure to move the ball. If approved, Anderson’s latest proposal would set public access requirements and standards for ad-hoc subcommittees made up of supervisors.
• The San Diego City Council officially voted yesterday to repeal paid parking in Balboa Park and to reduce trash fees for single-family homes. The Council agreed to the changes last month, but had to officially sign off on them. (KPBS)
• Fire crews were working to extinguish a wildfire yesterday near Sorrento Valley Boulevard, dubbed the Sorrento Fire, leading to road closures and several neighborhoods receiving evacuation orders. (KPBS).

The Morning Report was written by Tigist Layne, Lisa Halverstadt, Jakob McWhinney and Will Huntsberry. It was edited by Will Huntsberry. 

The post Morning Report: Arizona Eyes Tijuana’s Sewage appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Arizona is desperate for water. So much so that its taxpayers are willing to invest in treating Tijuana’s sewage so it’s drinkable. 

How would that help Arizona? The state would ask Mexico for some of its Colorado River water in exchange.  

That’s a plan proposed by EPCOR, a private Canadian water utility. The Arizona state legislature granted $1 billion to the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona, or WIFA, to jumpstart projects that could make new water, like the one proposed in the Tijuana River Valley.  

Under the proposal, Arizona could help build a wastewater-to-drinking water facility (like the one San Diego is building called Pure Water) at the federally-owned South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant or the city-owned South Bay Water Reclamation Plant. The cleaned sewage water would be sent back to Mexico to a reservoir in Tijuana which holds the city’s drinking water supplies. 

EPCOR’s Tijuana River project idea is one of seven WIFA contracted with private companies to explore. Companies with winning projects selected by WIFA’s board now must prove they are feasible, which could take 18 to 24 months, said Ben Alteneder, WIFA’s assistant director for external affairs.  

“Anything we do needs to be win-win for whatever community we’re working with. That’s what this phase is designed to do — determine whether or not this is a viable concept moving forward,” Alteneder said. 

It’s not the first time someone thought to treat the Tijuana River and sell the water back to Mexico. One of the first stories I ever wrote on the sewage crisis revealed that U.S. and Mexican companies wanted to do the same thing back in 2020.  

It’s a pretty complicated solution, though. Right now, Tijuana sends a portion of its sewage to San Diego for treatment at the international plant, which is then sent into the Pacific Ocean.

But once that Mexican sewage hits U.S. soil, it becomes California water, as I wrote back in 2021. Because the water gets polluted in Mexico, the United States doesn’t know what’s in it. So a local U.S. government, the state or feds — or even a private company — could take on the task of treating it, but they would also take on the liability should their water treatment strategy fail to pass strict U.S. water quality standards.  

In its project proposal, EPCOR wagers this water exchange could generate just over 14,000 acre feet per year as early as 2034. (An acre-foot is enough water for two California households for a year.) It could yield more than 200,000 acre feet per year after 15 years, according to project documents.  

Arizona stands to lose 760,000 acre feet of Colorado River water in 2027 under another proposal forged with California and Nevada to ease pressure on the drought-stricken river. If the river’s basin experiences just one more dry year, the whole system is on track to “crash,” water experts told the Salt Lake Tribune.  

None of the seven U.S. states or northern Mexico which depend on the Colorado River have agreed on how to share the drying waterbody. And previous rules the parties abided by are set to expire in just months.  

WIFA representatives attended last week’s ceremony in Carlsbad commemorating Arizona, California, Nevada and the federal government’s commitment to explore how water might be sold across state lines by swapping Colorado River supplies. (Mexico was not represented.) The San Diego County Water Authority is eager to start selling water as soon as possible – given the region’s surplus. And it seems they have multiple potential willing buyers.  

Alteneder said the legal framework for cross-border water trades is key to the success of their project proposals.  

“Arizona doesn’t have ocean front property. Wherever we can find regional solutions that help the entire basin, that’s what our focus is,” he said.  

Around the Environment:  

• Imperial County voters rejected a data center-backed candidate for its water and power utility board. (KPBS) 
• The Sierra Club sued Imperial County Board of Supervisors over its decision to greenlight the data center complex earlier this year. (KPBS) 
• And now, Imperial County is considering a moratorium on data centers. (inewsource)  
• A tribe in Imperial County has proposed an alternative data center project as online gaming cuts into casino revenues. (inewsource) 
• An activist investor group wants Sempra to ditch one of its biggest assets: Oncor, a Texas utility that operates one of the largest transmission and distribution systems in that state. (Union-Tribune) 
• Nobody is happy with changes to a California climate investment program that adds 24 cents to the price of a gallon of gas. (Union-Tribune) 
• New federal work and volunteering requirements for CalFresh or SNAP benefits could put thousands at risk of losing them. (NBC 7) 

The post Could the Tijuana River Help Get Arizona More Water?  appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

This post has been updated.

The San Diego City Council is set to vote on a final budget tomorrow.  

Up until this point, councilmembers have had an opportunity to review Mayor Todd Gloria’s proposed budget and bring forward their own budget priorities. 

Tuesday’s discussion will be interesting. The city is dealing with a $118 million deficit. Last month, Council President Joe LaCava weighed in on cuts and revenue projections proposed so far.  

What he’s not digging: LaCava wrote that “draconian cuts” to the city’s middle managers “has become a favorite talking point this budget cycle and reflects a misunderstanding of the critical role unclassified positions play in the city’s workforce.” 

He also said he doesn’t support new revenues or fees “on the backs of hard-working San Diegans” and revenue projections that aren’t based on hard data or “a verifiable track record.” 

The city’s Independent Budget Analyst Charles Modica raised similar alarms last year – that were mostly ignored. We’ll see how it goes. 

Related: On Friday, Councilmember Kent Lee, County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe, and Councilmember Henry Foster, who chairs the budget committee, announced a proposal to restore nearly all of the arts and culture budget with support from the Prebys Foundation.

The Politics Report this weekend had more on the budget negotiations and the big deal on arts. 

Correction: We incorrectly attributed quotes on cuts and new fees to Charles Modica, the city’s independent budget analyst. The quotes belonged to Council President Joe LaCava and they were from a memo to the IBA. We changed the photo on this post.

Sacramento Report: Grand Old ‘Sigh of Relief’

Though redistricting redrew the competitive and traditionally Republican 48th Congressional District to favor Democrats slightly, votes counted first were very good for Republicans.

San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert proved to be the safer bet for Democrats hoping to keep Rep. Jim Desmond from taking the seat.

Read the full Sacramento Report roundup here. 

Podcast Roundup of Election Results

The podcast hosts this week went through what they got right and wrong in their eight choices for races to watch this week. The spent some time on the 48th Congressional District and Ammar Campa-Najjar’s announcement that he’s done with politics after not making the runoff there. 

Also: The money and trust issues in the city were too much for Measure A. 

Check out the full podcast here along with more notes. 

Speaking of the podcast, we’re hosting a live recording on Thursday, June 11, at Soda Bar at 6 p.m. 

We’ll get into more results from the election, play games and talk with our special guest, San Diego City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera.

You can get your tickets here. (We are giving away Padres tickets, too. They’re going to be better soon. Scott believes.)

Note: This is a public 21+ event with valid ID required at Soda Bar in San Diego. (You can be as many years over 21 as possible.)

Waiting for the Next Update

The vote count will be updated at 6 p.m. Monday. We’re watching the county supervisor race in District 5, where San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones is comfortably advancing to the runoff. Democrat Kyle Krahel is clinging on to the second spot in the runoff by a margin of 2.42 percentage points or just less than 3,000 votes. 

In District 8 of the San Diego City Council, Antonio Martinez has advanced to the runoff but its still unclear who will go with him: Gerardo Ramirez or Venus Molina. Ramirez has the advantage of 352 votes out of about 13,000 counted so far. 

It won’t pass but: Measure A, the tax on empty second homes in the city of San Diego, has 45 percent of the votes counted so far. 

Read the Sacramento Report here. 

In Other News 

• San Diego City Council restored some of Mayor Todd Gloria’s proposed cuts to arts funding by redirecting $6 million away from a convention center expansion. A philanthropist filled in the rest. (Union-Tribune)
• Voters in Imperial Valley rejected a data center developer-backed candidate for the region’s water and power agency. (KPBS)
• The number of rabid bats in San Diego County is raising alarm. One was found outside the San Diego Zoo. And another inside a restaurant in Escondido. People that come into contact with one should contact County Public Health Services at 619-692-8499 immediately. (CBS 8)
• If you hit a road sign with your car, this is certainly one option for how to handle it. 

The post Morning Report: Budget Reckoning appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

As of Saturday, the County Registrar of Voters had 195,000 ballots left to count. The next update will come Monday evening.

We’ve rounded up the races that are mostly set for the runoff. If you missed it, you can catch up here.

OK, grab some cafecito (hopefully you’re drinking it in your Cup of Chisme mug).

Here’s what you need to know to start your week.

My Election Draft Pick

Every election season we host an election draft on the VOSD Podcast.

I drafted the San Diego City Council District 8 race. Councilmember Vivian Moreno currently represents the district which includes the neighborhoods of Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, Sherman Heights, San Ysidro and more.

The top vote-getter as of Friday was Antonio Martinez, a former staffer for Congressmember Juan Vargas. (It was his third time running to represent the district, and it looks like his message resonated with voters this time around.)

Which chief of staff will he face off in November? Gerardo Ramirez was ahead of Venus Molina by 352 votes as of Saturday. Ramirez works for Moreno and Molina is Councilmember Jen Campbell’s chief of staff.

If you live in District 8, and don’t mind sharing who you voted for and why, send me a note. You can email me at andrea.sanchez@voiceofsandiego.org.

Voices of the Voters

Another election tradition at Voice of San Diego is to send reporters out to the polls for our Voices of the Voters. We talked to people at the polls about what brought them out to vote. It’s a fascinating look at what campaign messages resonated with voters.

You can read the stories here.

The Hottest Pod Around

Speaking of the podcast, we’re hosting a live recording on Thursday, June 11, at Soda Bar at 6 p.m. Come by to watch me and my co-hosts in action.

We’ll get into more results from the election, play games and interview our special guest, San Diego City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera.

You can get your tickets here. (We are giving away Padres tickets, too.*)

Note: This is a public 21+ event with valid ID required at Soda Bar in San Diego.

*No purchase or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win the Brews and News Live Podcast Giveaway. A ticket purchase or donation will not increase chances of winning. All applicable federal, state, local and municipal laws, rules, and regulations apply. Void where prohibited by law.

More Chisme to Start Your Week

• A superintendent of a chain of charter schools has resigned. Jakob McWhinney has more on the drama that led to his resignation. Read the story here.
• Imagine a world where the sun is shining along dozens of desalination plants along the California coast. That’s what one Trump administration official said at a recent event. Our environment reporter MacKenzie Elmer was there and she has the chisme. Read her story here.
• In other news: San Diegans think City Hall sucks. (Does that surprise you?) Assistant Editor Will Huntsberry got his hands on an interesting poll. Read more here.

The post Cup of Chisme: Waiting Game appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

This post has been updated.

The city of San Diego’s budget negotiations are entering their final stage. 

At a budget hearing Friday, councilmembers gave the impression they are ready to restore funding that Mayor Todd Gloria left out of his budget proposal. 

They’ve done it with the help of the Independent Budget Analyst’s office, which works for the City Council. The IBA’s office says some funding can be restored without any hits to the city’s General Fund and that it has also discovered new revenue in next year’s projections. The restorations taking shape are set to happen with relatively few cuts, beyond a police communications job that costs the city almost $200,000 per year, as well as a few other cuts that don’t involve firing anyone. 

The big thing: There’s a new plan to restore millions of dollars to the city’s arts budget. Councilmember Kent Lee held a press conference with Councilmember Henry Foster and County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe before the budget hearing to announce the plan. 

The new plan calls for the city to spend $7.3 million in arts funding. The Prebys Foundation would commit to spending another $3 million, which it would administer itself, using some of the city’s metrics for funding arts. 

What else could get restored: 

• Money for the 16th and Newton homeless shelter. Instead of losing 250 shelter beds, the IBA’s office says there is a way to restore some funding and only lose 50. 
• $100,000 for each council office (there are nine) to hand out community grants. 
• Additional library and recreation center hours. It’s unclear how far the Council will go in these restorations but the IBA’s office has identified money that can help here. Only four council offices (not a majority) asked for these restorations in their memos to the IBA’s office. 

Also: The Council discussed the possibility of saving an additional $2 million per year by cancelling the city’s controversial Smart Streetlights contract. There are roughly 500 Smart Streetlights in the city. They read license plates and take video. Police insist they are necessary, but critics say they go overboard in surveilling San Diegans. Four Council offices told the IBA’s office they would support ending the contract.  

There’s a brutal tension in all these back-and-forth budget negotiations. 

On the one hand, councilmembers (and the mayor) need to make cuts to fix the city’s structural budget deficit once and for all. Otherwise, they will continue to drag this story around like an albatross. 

But those cuts hurt neighborhoods. 

During the hearing, Foster said he simply refused to put fixing the structural deficit “ahead of my community.” 

Correction: This post originally stated that San Diego County and the Prebys Foundation would help restore city arts funding. Those organizations will spend money to support the arts — but they will administer the money themselves. The county’s planned arts spending is not related to the city’s plan. 

The Deficit Drags On

Charles Modica, the IBA, and his team were clear: The current plan does not solve the city’s ongoing structural deficit. 

Modica said next years budget deficit is currently projected to be in the ballpark of $32.9 million. That number is highly subject to change and, if recent years have been any indication, grow. 

And that’s if the city doesn’t add any money to its reserves. Adding money to the reserves would put the deficit at roughly $100 million. The city already hasn’t contributed much to its reserves in recent years. 

And that doesn’t even begin to tackle the city’s insane backlog of infrastructure needs. The funding gap in infrastructure needs over the next five years is $7.8 billion — with a “B.” 

All this concerned officials from the IBA’s office greatly.

Jordan More put it like this: “It is crucial” — More emphasized the word — “that the city consider how to rightsize the organization in order to avoid the perpetuating cycle of annual budget cuts and begin to restore the public confidence that will be needed to address both the city’s financial issues as well as other issues.”

“It’s disappointing,” Modica said. “Anything you don’t do this year has to be done next year and maybe more.” 

I spoke to Modica after the hearing. He had a simple (and haunting) description for the catch 22 that leaders are currently stuck in.  

“Expectations for what services the city can perform are out of line with the revenues people are willing to trust the city to have,” he said.  

The Council will vote on the budget Tuesday. It will then head to Gloria’s desk.

Richard Bailey Did Well; But Not That Well

After the latest count Friday, more than 36 percent of the votes cast in San Diego City Council District 2 are for Richard Bailey, the former mayor of Coronado. Several months ago, he left the Republican Party and he left Coronado. He became an independent living in Point Loma. Yard signs for him are all over the Peninsula.

But that is all he did to distance himself from the Republican Party or its leader, President Donald Trump. On Election Night, he partied with the Republicans at the US Grant. He refuses to talk about the president or indicate how he feels about anything Trump does.

He may need to rethink that. As it stands, 36 percent is not going to do it. Nicole Crosby, the deputy city attorney from Clairemont is currently at almost 33 percent and climbing. Two other Democrats got almost 24 percent of the vote counted so far.

The physics of this primary were well-suited to Bailey. He had arguably the highest profile, boosted by his effective social media efforts and message discipline. And yet, after all the votes are counted, he may still end up behind one of the several Democrats running.

The City Council, labor and conservative groups have removed the two most animating issues of Bailey’s campaign: opposition to the trash fee and paid parking at Balboa Park.

He’ll need something new. (And, apparently, it’s not Midway Rising.)

The runoff is going to be a much different environment. In this round, labor groups and his rivals only gave him the slightest of tastes of what they are going to do to tie him to Trump.

History: In 2018, the Republican incumbent representing the district, Lorie Zapf, had no scandals, no major headaches as the Councilmember for the area. In the primary, she faced a very similar field of Democrats in a midterm election during Trump’s first term in office. She did better than Bailey has in this one, pulling 42.85 percent of the vote.

In the general election that November, the Democrats made major gains nationally, After a campaign to tie Zapf to Trump, she got 42.03 percent of the vote.

We’re waiting for results in San Diego City Council District 8 and Senate District 40 to finalize the Elections Contest winners. If you have any feedback for the Politics Report, send it to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org or will.huntsberry@voiceofsandiego.org.

The post Politics Report: Budget Takes Shape appeared first on Voice of San Diego.