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What We Learned This Week + School Insolvency Drama, Explained

2012-05-19T07:15:00-07:00

San Diego schools trustee Scott Barnett told his colleagues earlier this month it was time to call off the teacher layoffs and admit that the district was insolvent.

A decision like that would hand over control of the district to the state, and there were some consequences to his remarks. First, the president of the board told him to relax. All they had to do was stay on the same path: rush to sell land, keep the proposed teacher layoffs in place and get some concessions from the teachers union.

The teachers union, though, has been experiencing some drama. And shortly after its departing leader warned that its current leader was going to cave to the district, the current leader assured members he was not going to concede anything. Finally, district staff, who first warned about insolvency last year, are now scolding Barnett and sounding the alarm about how freaked out Wall Street is over his remarks about insolvency.

What the heck is going on? We decided it was time to pull together a Reader's Guide. Will Carless walks you through everything from how we got to this point to what's at stake now.

Politics Make Strange Bedfellows: Teachers Union and DeMaio Bash Fletcher

The American Federation of Teachers, a national union, has jumped into the mayoral race, sending out a mailer about how conservative Nathan Fletcher is despite his departure from the Republican Party. (San Diego Rostra)

The message echoes the same one Councilman Carl DeMaio's campaign is trumpeting as loudly as it can: Look at all of these things liberals should be concerned about with Fletcher.

While it may seem odd for DeMaio to bash someone for being too conservative, as Liam Dillon explains, the goal is to produce a November runoff between DeMaio and Congressman Bob Filner.

"DeMaio has sent at least four separate mailers attacking Fletcher from the left, an effort to blunt the newly independent assemblyman's standing with liberals," Dillon writes.

Filner's quite happy about the help from DeMaio.

What We Learned This Week

Mayor Wants Getting Public Records to Be More Costly: Though his communications director admitted that the mayor had not done a study on the costs the city incurs for providing public records on demand, he is proposing new fees on records delivered electronically.

All four major mayoral candidates oppose the fee.

How to Understand Proposition A: I was just thinking how complex ballot measures are getting these days and I came up with an idea: We should elect a group of people who can represent us and spend the time to learn about and decide on new laws. We could call them lawmakers.

Something to think about. In the meantime, San Diego voters have to decide on Proposition A, a measure that would prohibit the city from requiring so-called project labor agreements. What are those and what does the measure do? We explain the most controversial parts of it all in this reader's guide to the initiative.

Brain Research Is Cool: People have long believed that music will help students succeed in other areas. Now, scientists at UC San Diego want to prove it. They'll be following a group of youngsters as they learn music, karate or nothing to see what happens to their brains.

The research could affect the way we help struggling students.

What Each Mayoral Candidate Wants to Do About Schools: We finished a series of analyses about each mayoral candidate's take on local schools.

There's the ambitious plan from District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, DeMaio's lead-by-example approach, Filner's I-know-education take and Fletcher's philanthropy-focused idea.

♦♦♦

Mogul Starts Funding Independents Everywhere

A new "Super PAC" has formed in San Diego to fund independent candidates across the country. The U-T reports that billionaire co-founder of Gateway Ted Waitt has seeded it. The committee has begun airing this ad in support of Nathan Fletcher.

Waitt was part of a group of local business leaders who recently announced that they were "moving to the middle" and were inspired by Fletcher's denouncement of the two dominant political parties.

Top Five Comments of the Week

Dagny Salas posted her choices for the best reader comments of the week.

My favorite is Benjamin Katz' take on the mayor's proposal to add a new fee for copies of public records.

"They have spent tens of millions of dollars on IT 'modernization.' If they had actually modernized successfully, pulling public records should be cheap, quick and easy," Katz wrote.

What to Read

Salas also pulled together her sweet reading list on topics not necessarily focused on San Diego. This week's list includes a fascinating take on how one politician is innovating modern communications with Twitter.

Quote of the Week

"I wouldn't marry Carl DeMaio."

Nathan Fletcher, explaining his stance on same-sex marriage to CityBeat. We explored his shifting on that topic here.

Quote of the Week, II

"We're pretty confident that we're going to be facing Bob Filner in the general."

DeMaio campaign manager Ryan Clumpner explaining the campaign's decision to relentlessly attack Fletcher for his conservative stances.

I'm Scott Lewis, the CEO of Voice of San Diego. You can contact me directly at scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0527 and follow me on Twitter (it's a blast!): twitter.com/vosdscott.

Letter: Allied Gardens and Grantville: Primed for Development?

2012-05-18T17:03:00-07:00

Developers hoping to capitalize on prime land within Allied Gardens and Grantville seem unfazed by the lack of tax-increment financing once offered by the state’s redevelopment program.

They are poised to invest billions in the old Grantville Redevelopment Zone. Their investment in high-density apartment complexes will yield millions to their bottom line. But it comes at a price to the community, because hanging in the balance is the very character of our neighborhoods.

At issue is whether the first of these projects will establish a baseline for all future development in our community. Current proposals include transforming our community’s skyline with 85-foot high skyscrapers, increased density, more traffic and amendments to our community plans. Other questions include whether the San Diego River will be further degraded to second-class status as developers ponder mitigation of past mining operations along the river.

Multiple developers are looking to build more than 10,000 apartment units along the San Diego River corridor as they march from Interstate 8 to the industrial concrete mine, Superior Ready Mix, over the next decade.

Change is coming.

That’s not necessarily bad, but it demands that our community be provided with a real voice and allowed meaningful discussion and input to determine how our community will grow in the future.

The proposed $1 billion Shawnee Project at Riverbend, a 23-acre site located on the San Diego River parallel to Mission Gorge Road at Old Cliffs Road, needs thorough analysis because it has a significant impact on our community. This proposal could attract 2,000 new apartment residents, 7,000 new car trips per day, and 90 new school children.

The developer, Urban Housing Partners, wants to build 996 apartments, 27 row homes, and 37,000 square feet of commercial space on the site. This will require a myriad of variances and amendments to the city’s General Plan, the Navajo Community Plan and changes to the current San Diego River Park Master Plan.

Major issues include population-based park space requirements, current height limits in our neighborhood, population density and permanently altering the course of the San Diego River.

According to city guidelines, Urban Housing Partners is required to include five and a half acres of park space based on the site’s projection of new residents. The original plan would have short-changed our community by three acres of park space. In return, the developer would pay the city a $5.4 million for park mitigation. Neighbors surrounding the site balked. The community was concerned that park mitigation credits would never circle back and be re-invested in the community. The developer capitulated, reversed course and included all required park space.

It seemed to be a great start.

Discussions between our community and Urban Housing Partners have stalled over the proposed 85-foot skyscrapers and what to do about the development’s effect on the region’s environmental treasure — the San Diego River.

The developer maintains that, in order to be profitable, it needs an 85-foot height limit for its apartment buildings. The community cried foul. Currently, there is a 30-foot height limit for residential buildings in the region. In 2008, Archstone, the development next door to the site, was granted a 65-foot height variance by the City Council, over the objections of the community, to build a 444-unit apartment complex.

Our community is weary of taller and taller structures as development moves northeast along the San Diego River. If another variance is granted, it’s a safe bet that the next developer will claim they need a height limit higher than 85 feet to maintain profitability.

Many neighbors whose homes are perched on a hill within Allied Gardens and the Old Cliffs Mobile Home Park have a spectacular view of the San Diego River, its wildlife and Admiral Baker Golf Course. Any 85-foot structure on the site would forever change the community character by permanently walling off their views.

There is no ideal solution for our community, but we know from past experience that simply saying "no" usually does not work. The developer should not be granted an 85-foot height variance for the proposed development. It seems fair to start the discussion at the current 30-foot height limit as stated in the community plan.

Limiting any proposed height variance would make a significant dent in the projected population density. Even so, the community has serious concerns about the increased density because they are not convinced that the funding necessary to mitigate the negative impacts from the development will ever be available.

The last issue is a bit more complex.

As proposed, Shawnee at Riverbend would make significant changes to the floodplain of the San Diego River. The developer is quick to point out that it makes no change to the current flow of the stream bed. Maybe not, but the San Diego River is more than the current path of water. We all know that it changes according to season and year-by-year. Sometimes the river is 10 feet across and other times its currents are hundreds of feet wide.

For construction purposes, the developer is seeking approval to grade approximately 110,000 cubic feet of earth to elevate their development above of the flood zone. Given the property’s location in the floodplain, moving this much earth is sure to have many unintended consequences, including changes to river flow, velocity, temperature, inviting invasive non-native plants and potential flooding to surrounding areas that may not otherwise have flooded.

Compounding the issue — this portion of the San Diego River has already been negatively affected by past mining operations. Mining operators of the 1950s left an environmental mess and walked away. It needs repair and the developer is taking a pass, claiming the firm isn’t required to restore the river to its original habitat. They didn’t cause the problem and they’re not going to fix it.

As a gesture of good will, they say they’ll replant native vegetation but will ignore the environmental quagmire left in the wake of the mining operation. That’s either a Band-Aid or a drop in the bucket, you pick the analogy.

Community leaders and those who are engaged in cleaning up the San Diego River propose a better solution. They have asked the developer to contribute less than half a percent of the value of the developed land, only $5 million, to a San Diego River mitigation fund.

This could go a long way in helping to improve that portion of the river. Future developers choosing to develop along this portion of the river could be held to the same standard.

Asking future developers to assess themselves a small amount (half a percent) for a clean and safe river environment adds financial value for the developer and benefits the entire community.

It’s time for Urban Housing Partners to come back to the table where there is room for environmental responsibility, community character and profitability.

Anthony Wagner is vice chair of the Navajo Community Planners, vice president of the Allied Gardens Community Council, member of the San Diego River Park Foundation and a third generation resident of Allied Gardens/Grantville. He can be contacted at anthonyjohnwagner@gmail.com or on Twitter @AnthonyWagnerSD.

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Guide to Council District 9: Speak City Heights

2012-05-18T15:20:00-07:00

Need a refresher on the race for the newest City Council seat? Andrew Donohue partners with NBC 7 San Diego on a video explaining the issues and candidates in City Council District 9, which includes City Heights. Watch it below to catch up before the election on June 5:

You're reading our roundup of news from Speak City Heights, a collaboration between KPBS, The AjA Project, Media Arts Center San Diego and us.

Here are the rest of this week's stories:

• KPBS has a quick overview of the governor's proposed budget cuts to safety net programs.

• Check out a map of where bullying happens at Monroe Clark Middle School (students compiled the incidents). The exercise is part of a program run by The AjA Project to encourage kids to look at issues in their community. Students also photographed the locations where bullying occurred and created videos featuring the photos with descriptions.

• Media Arts Center talks with organizers and attendees of a recent job fair in City Heights. The event aimed to provide outlets for young people to stay occupied.

• Media Arts Center also has video of a local Trayvon Martin vigil on March 26. Young people in the video discussed how they want to feel safe and the importance of speaking up.

• This week's Twitter news roundup includes links on a skatepark for City Heights, a soda tax and filibusters in Congress.

Want more news on City Heights? Sign up for Speak City Heights' weekly email.

Dagny Salas is the web editor at Voice of San Diego. You can contact her directly at dagny.salas@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5669.

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DeMaio to Liberals: Fletcher’s Not One of You

2012-05-18T14:52:00-07:00

In recent days, San Diego Democrats have received mail from an unlikely interloper.

City Councilman Carl DeMaio, the GOP-endorsed mayoral candidate, wants voters to know that his rival Nathan Fletcher is more like him than them.

DeMaio has sent at least four separate mailers attacking Fletcher from the left, an effort to blunt the newly independent assemblyman's standing with liberals. The strategy seems clear. DeMaio, the race's presumed frontrunner, would rather face Democratic Congressman Bob Filner in the November general election than Fletcher. So DeMaio's doing what he can to bury Fletcher.

The plan is resulting in some rather ironic messaging.

DeMaio highlights quotations from reliably liberal politicians Donna Frye, Lori Saldaña and Jerry Brown. He also plays up a commentary from lefty website, OB Rag. The site has recently called DeMaio "a dangerous mean-spirited liar" and "the snarling pit-bull of the hard right." Not surprisingly, it got fired up about the DeMaio mailer.

The advertisements not only feature lefty politicians, but also lefty rhetoric. One mailer slams Fletcher for votes to, "cut off children and seniors." By that DeMaio meant Fletcher voted for budget packages championed by Republicans in the state Legislature that cut education and welfare programs rather than raise taxes. Of course, in other situations DeMaio and his supporters criticize Fletcher for not being ideologically pure enough for Republicans.

Another hits Fletcher for authoring the "Midnight Deal," last-minute legislation that eliminated a key limit on downtown San Diego redevelopment. The mailer says Fletcher "voted to take millions from local schools and give the money to downtown developers." Of course, this ignores that DeMaio brought up eliminating the same downtown redevelopment limit more than a year before Fletcher's bill. DeMaio can rightly criticize the lack of transparency surrounding Fletcher's bill. But if DeMaio's hitting Fletcher for taking millions from schools and giving it to developers, it's worth knowing that DeMaio wanted to do that first.

DeMaio's campaign spokesman, Ryan Clumpner, saw no irony in the mailers.

"People on both the left and the right should be aware that Nathan Fletcher is not who he says he is," Clumpner said.

Asked if DeMaio was more concerned about going one-on-one against Fletcher rather than Filner in the general, Clumpner replied: "We're pretty confident that we're going to be facing Bob Filner in the general." He added, however, that the DeMaio campaign is taking every opponent seriously.

Meantime, Filner realizes he's the beneficiary of all this. So far the congressman has done far less advertising than DeMaio and Fletcher and hasn’t done a single television spot. Filner told local PR man Tony Manolatos on Wednesday night that DeMaio is his best weapon against Fletcher.

Clarification: This story originally said DeMaio and Fletcher sent more mail advertisements than Filner. We’ve clarified it so that it now compares the candidates’ overall advertising, including television.

Liam Dillon is a news reporter for Voice of San Diego. He covers San Diego City Hall, the 2012 mayor's race and big building projects. What should he write about next?

Please contact him directly at liam.dillon@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5663.

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Letter: Reader Cancels U-T Subscription After DeMaio Endorsement

2012-05-18T14:30:00-07:00

I signed up for Voice of San Diego's news email after sending this email canceling my long-time subscription to the U-T San Diego on May 6:

I was appalled by the "front page" overlap endorsement of Carl DeMaio in Sunday's paper. We all knew who the U-T supported, but that sort of endorsement belongs on the editorial page. I have never seen such biased and inept coverage of a local election as this year.

I am 60 years old, a native San Diegan and a subscriber to the paper since my college days at San Diego State University. For the past year my wife and I have been on the verge of canceling our subscription due to the deterioration of the news and editorial content of the paper over the last few years, but we never were pushed over the edge until today. That's it. I am calling your subscription department today, if they are open, or tomorrow if they are not. I've had it.

Bob Davis lives in the College Area.

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'A Failure of the Sanders Administration': Comments of the Week

2012-05-18T14:02:00-07:00

Our comments sections on stories and commentaries regularly light up with your discussion of the issues, so every week we highlight a sample, hoping you'll take a tour and join in. Hope you'll register to comment!

Here are five from the week:

• Amy Redding on "What Nathan Fletcher Wants to Do for Schools":

Of all the mayoral candidates, Nathan Fletcher is in a very unique position with respect to the educational debate. As a member of the state assembly, he can influence education and budget decisions in Sacramento that affect the children in San Diego. If there ever is a time to work some bipartisan magic with respect to education and the state budget, now is the time. With the decisions that have been made both locally and at the state level, San Diego Unified students in the coming years are faced with cuts that will devastate the quality of their education. Increased funding from the state may not be able to save San Diego Unified, but in the very least it can help cushion the fall for the innocent victims in this situation — the children.

• Angela Carter on "Teachers Union President: No Concessions Planned":

I'm glad to see that the pressure from members is prompting Bill (Freeman) to finally go on the record that we're not making concessions. I am still worried by the letter from John Lee Evans. It is obvious that previous conversations have happened between Bill and John, and that those conversations have left John with the understanding that concessions are coming. I am also wondering why the union's leadership seems so lost in fighting to get jobs back. Saying no concessions, no layoffs is fine, but that means we need a plan to make it happen like we've had in past years. Where is it? For the record, I'm glad Camille (Zombro) is going public with her concerns. We pay union dues, and deserve to have the people who spend them held accountable. Camille got us this contract. I don't want to see Bill give it away.

• Benjamin Katz on "Mayor Wants New Fees for Public Info":

This can only be seen as a failure of the Sanders administration. They have spent tens of millions of dollars on IT "modernization." If they had actually modernized successfully, pulling public records should be cheap, quick and easy.

Google sells the "Google Search Appliance" -- which puts the power of Google on to your local network. By purchasing one of these, we could make every document in the city of San Diego quickly searchable. Of course, we'd need to take some steps to protect confidential information, but the entire situation shows a failure of imagination and failure of technical expertise.

And the cost for a Google appliance... less than 1% of what the city spent on their "modernization" efforts.

• Oscar Ramos on "What Bonnie Dumanis Wants to Do for Schools":

It doesn’t matter how many people you stack on the school board if my students are homeless or come from families with under/unemployed parents and they have no place to get tutoring after school or access the internet. If our students’ parents were employed and their families had healthy food to eat and they lived in a neighborhood that was safe with libraries that were open for them to access and had academic enrichment programs for different ages, don’t you think that our students would have more academic success? And if our schools had more academic success, there wouldn’t be this exodus of families going to Poway for the schools. I’m digressing, but my point is that the mayor can do plenty for education without wading into school board politics.

• Theresa Quiroz on "Letter: What Makes You Think They Want to Fix Pensions?":

I always suggest to anyone who will listen — if you do not FULLY understand ALL of the provisions of a ballot initiative then vote NO. It is better to wait and try again with one you do understand than to vote for something that has a poison pill in it.

Statements have been lightly edited to fix spelling errors and typos.

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Dagny Salas is the web editor at Voice of San Diego. You can contact her directly at dagny.salas@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5669.

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Tweeting Politicos, Polluting Boats, Facebook IPO: VOSD Reading List

2012-05-18T13:54:00-07:00

Dive into our latest compilation of fascinating stories related to the San Diego region and the issues facing it. And make sure to share with me what you're reading too and why — I'll add it to next week's list!

Here are this week's picks:

• Scott Lewis, CEO, on "The @CoryBooker Guide To Twitter":

It's a great dissection of what a politician can do with Twitter if he or she tried.

• Rob Davis, senior reporter, tweeted about "Copper Pollution in San Diego Bay":

Nice piece from @bledsoeNBC & @dagmarNBC puts a face on story re: boat pollution in SD Bay. nbcsandiego.com/video/#!/on-ai… Bkgd: voiceofsandiego.org/environment/mu…
— Rob Davis (@robwdavis) May 16, 2012

Watch the video below:

View more videos at: http://nbcsandiego.com.

• Will Carless, investigative reporter, tweeted about "Why Jerry Brown’s Bid to Fix California’s Budget Isn’t Working":

If you read one story on California's budget mess, it should be this one: bit.ly/KZ6O6G
— Will Carless (@willcarless) May 15, 2012

Bonus Carless! He also recommended "Meet the ‘worst’ 8th grade math teacher in NYC":

The Washington Post features a fascinating blog post on New York’s "worst" 8th grade math teacher. The post illustrates the shortfalls of value-added testing, a method of grading teachers based on their students' performance on standardized tests. I took an in-depth look at value-added testing and the broader issue of teacher evaluation in my story "Why San Diego Isn’t Joining the Teacher Evaluation Revolution."

• Me on "Facebook a windfall, not a solution, for California":

With Facebook's IPO today, I was curious what it could mean for California's finances. The L.A. Times has a quick look.

Dagny Salas is the web editor at Voice of San Diego. You can contact her directly at dagny.salas@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5669.

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Fact Check Update: The Return of the General and the Librarian

2012-05-18T12:57:00-07:00

You might have seen on television or web ads, including one potentially above this article, a comparison between a four-star general's pension and one of a San Diego "City Librarian." It's being run by supporters of the city of San Diego pension initiative.

We've gotten a number of requests to fact check it. Fortunately, we already have — the ad first appeared 18 months ago on a giant, roving billboard. At the time, we deemed it Misleading.

Liam Dillon is a news reporter for Voice of San Diego. He covers San Diego City Hall, the 2012 mayor's race and big building projects. What should he write about next?

Please contact him directly at liam.dillon@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5663.

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City Schools' Insolvency: A Reader’s Guide

2012-05-18T09:00:00-07:00

Talk of insolvency at the San Diego Unified School District lay dormant for months after being a hot topic last fall and winter.

That all changed last week, when schools trustee Scott Barnett said the district is already insolvent. Barnett called on the district to cancel layoffs and declare itself broke, triggering a state takeover.

We’ve been following this story closely. Here’s a quick five-step guide to help you catch up and understand just what’s meant when we talk about the district going insolvent.

Step 1: Watch This Three-Minute Video Explainer

There’s a whole legal process that governs school district insolvency in California.

The basics are this: If a district gets to the point where it simply can’t pay its bills, the state sends in an appointed administrator to take over. The district superintendent is fired and the school board is relegated to an advisory role.

To get the district out of its immediate bind, the state would also give San Diego Unified a significant loan that the district would then be saddled with paying off for decades to come.

A key takeaway: Insolvency has never happened at a district as big as San Diego Unified. Plus, the state is in a lot of financial trouble itself, and considering the district would need a loan of potentially as much as $100 million, this would be an unprecedented test of this process.

This video, which we produced with our media partners NBC 7 San Diego, lays out the whole process.

Step 2: Read Our Background Explainer:

My colleague Keegan Kyle pointed out what is probably the most important aspect of insolvency in an explainer he wrote about the process last October:

No longer beholden to an electorate, the administrator could make politically unpopular decisions in the community that can be difficult for a board to make under pressure from parents and teachers. The school board, employees and residents could still offer their input on major decisions, but the administrator could ignore them.

Step 3: Understand How City Schools Ended up in this Mess:

San Diego Unified didn’t just wake up one day in the fiscal mess it’s in today. Rather, most of the district’s looming budget deficits over the next two years is due to a deal the district made with labor unions in 2010.

The district promised employees future pay raises in exchange for workers taking five unpaid furlough days for two years. It was a short-term fixed that staved off teacher layoffs in the first year. But the savings from those furloughs are dwarfed by the cost the district now finds itself facing for the pay raises it promised.

The pay increases are set to begin ramping up as the new fiscal year starts on July 1.

It was an epic gamble that has proven disastrous.

Step 4: Watch 'Schools on the Brink'

Last winter, we teamed up with NBC to film a series of video explainers on the crisis at city schools. That series culminated with a live forum, at which we asked five panelists to analyze the crisis and pose possible solutions to it.

Part 1 of Schools on the Brink examined what’s at stake from the fiscal crisis. We took a look at the impact the mess is having and could have on local schools and the local economy.

Part 2 looked at how the district ended up in such a mess and how it might get out of it.

Part 3 examined the gambles the school board made with the future of the district: Promising pay raises without any guaranteed way of paying for them.

Part 4 focused on how the district could solve its problems, including taking a look at whether declaring itself insolvent is a viable solution.

Step 5: Check Out Last Week’s Action (and Read the Comments)

Last week, Barnett called for the district to essentially declare itself insolvent by rescinding the more than 1,600 layoff notices it issued this year.

His argument: The district’s plans to sell off more than $20 million worth of land, combined with the deep cuts it is making to classrooms, mean it is basically insolvent already. He thinks there’s no point in waiting for the “inevitable” day when the district can no longer legally make cuts. Instead, he said, the district should get out in front of the problem.

Here’s what Barnett said:

What we need to do is, instead of waiting for [insolvency] to happen to us in 2013 - 2014, after we’ve devastated schools and sold our land, we have to proactively, this next year, trigger it ourself.

The way we trigger it is, we rescind the layoffs.

By rescinding the layoffs and keeping class sizes the same as they are this year, and other services at the same level, we have a budget we can’t fund. We are starting the process of insolvency.

And here’s my analysis:

The state already has a set process for school districts in insolvency. It revolves around the district getting a big fat loan from the state, which it then has to pay off for decades to come.

Ron Bennett, an expert on school district insolvency, said each process is different. Every loan from the state to a school district comes in the form of a piece of legislation, he said.

That legislation can be written to suit the needs of each particular case, Bennett said, and it’s theoretically possible that a state loan could come with the proviso that committees like the ones Barnett is suggesting would have some say in reshaping the district going forwards.

But Bennett said what Barnett is suggesting would also be “highly irresponsible.” Any benefit that might come from having San Diego Unified’s insolvency somehow guided by committees would be far outweighed by the costs that come with the process, Bennett said.

In response to his colleague’s rather sudden announcement, School Board President John Lee Evans held a press conference to try and tamp down concerns of looming insolvency.

Evans said the district can balance its budget, and called on Barnett to “stop panicking.”

Judging by the comments on the story, our readers weren’t impressed by that reasoning. Here’s what commenter Stephen Rosen had to say:

So, with 2,000 staff layoffs, 20% of the teachers laid off, massive historical budget shortfalls with associated cost cutting, albeit shortsighted and minimal, will someone tell me when it's time to panic??

Will Carless is an investigative reporter at voiceofsandiego.org currently focused on local education. You can reach him at will.carless@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5670.

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Morning Report: The DA Wants to Rock Schools

2012-05-18T05:30:00-07:00

Among the four major candidates for mayor, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis wants to do the most, by far, about education.

She plans to write a 2014 ballot measure that would allow the mayor to add four trustees to the school board, which now has five members who are directly elected by the public.

Dumanis also calls for a new city department that will oversee relations between the mayor's office and the school district. She says schools will get better by 2016.

But, as our City Hall reporter Liam Dillon points out, Dumanis hasn't always seemed on top of education details.

Things have certainly changed since 2008, when mayoral candidate Steve Francis' plan to remake education prompted a mocking headline on our site: "What Job Is This Guy Running For?" Now, a candidate without an education plan seems almost out of touch.

This is the last in our series of stories about how the mayoral rivals want to fix education. Check our previous looks at the education plans of Councilman Carl DeMaio, Rep. Bob Filner and Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher

Getting a Charge Out of Public Records

Mayor Jerry Sanders wants to add new charges for members of the public who want to see public records like PDFs and computer data. Now, the records are often provided free.

Under the new proposal, each page in a PDF — a document only readable with the help of a computer unless it's printed out — would cost 25 cents. That's the current cost for printed pages.

There would also be a new fee for electronic copies of computer data.

A mayoral spokesman said the proposal standardizes fees that are sometimes charged today. The city clerk has raised objections, however, and all of the mayoral candidates told us they oppose the new fees (Filner confirmed this later in the day). Our story includes their written statements.

Auditor Rebuts Pension Measure's Savings

In a report, the city said Prop. B, the pension reform initiative, would save $950 million over 30 years. But the city's auditor now says the estimate is exaggerated.

The problem, he says, is that the estimate includes savings from a salary freeze that isn't guaranteed.

On TV: The Race for District 9

San Diego Explained, our video series in conjunction with NBC 7 San Diego, examines the race in District 9, which has nothing to do with the movie as far as I know. (If you do see an alien, drop me a line immediately.)

Our District 9 encompasses an unusually diverse bunch of neighborhoods — City Heights, Kensington/Talmadge, the College Area around San Diego State, Mount Hope, Southcrest and Mountain View. The two candidates are Latino activist Mateo Camarillo and Councilwoman Marti Emerald, who currently represents District 7.

Big issues, which vary heavily by neighborhood, include urban renewal, public transit and the installation of underground power lines. For more, check our story that includes a definition of this nifty term: "devil's strip." No, it has nothing to do with a demonic g-string.

To learn about other council races, check our San Diego Explained videos on District 1 and District 7.

Letters: Fletcher, Test Scores and Poor Folks in the Middle

In letters, Bob Stein of University City isn't enamored by the mayoral candidate who sets some hearts aflutter: "I don't find Fletcher fetching. He strikes me as too unsure of who he is or what he stands for other than his own ambition, glibness and good looks. I’m concerned he is shallow and phony."

Also, Allen Hemphill of Escondido finds school test scores put California in the bottom, and Daniel Smiechowski of Bay Ho is suspicious of the local business big shots behind a campaign to support a middle ground in politics.

"Where is the disparate income distribution of this so-called movement to the middle? It all seems so tragic and contrived," Smiechowski writes.

Quick News Hits

• The Morning Report yesterday incorrectly described the price of a Mission Beach property that the San Diego school district is considering whether to sell. It might be sold for $4.7 million less than the appraised $12.5 million, not $4.7 million. We regret the error.

• A mailer from the GOP in support of DeMaio for mayor miscalculated the amount of pension benefits that he decided to give up, the U-T reports.

Instead of giving up $800,000 as the mailer and DeMaio claim, the U-T finds the value is about $428,000.

DeMaio's campaign has acknowledged the error and will use the correct number.

• Gov. Jerry Brown wants to cut pay and workload for state workers by 5 percent, but he's not calling it a furlough, The Sacramento Bee reports. Instead there's talk instead of "a four-day workweek."

The Bee notes a tweet from our own Liam Dillon: "they should push for '3-day weekend.' Everyone loves those."

• UC San Diego has a new chancellor. (U-T)

• Earlier this week, I linked to a story about an unfortunate — or fortunate, depending on your point of view — incident involving a clone of our waterfront's controversial Unconditional Surrender statue.

A lady driving her Mercedes in Sarasota, Fla., whacked into that city's statue of the famous V-J Day kiss. The statue was damaged and ended up being placed horizontal on the ground so it wouldn't fall over and hurt someone. Now it's being fixed.

Local art types, many of whom can't stand our own hulking statue, merrily clucked over the story at the Facebook page of KPBS arts reporter Angela Carone. My favorite comment is courtesy of Jessica Hanson York: "We need to find San Diego's worst drivers, immediately."

Please contact Randy Dotinga directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.

Mayor Wants New Fees for Public Info

2012-05-17T14:00:00-07:00

Mayor Jerry Sanders wants to charge more money for public records, adding another hurdle for the public to get information about the inner workings of San Diego's city government.

A little-known proposal working its way through City Hall would add fees for copies of public records like PDFs and computer data. Today, these records are often provided for free.

The city is required under state law to provide copies of many records upon request. Legislators argued long ago and the courts have upheld since that this process is crucial to public accountability of government. News media and other watchdogs rely on it daily.

While the city must release records, the law also provides discretion to recoup the cost of making copies. The city gives PDFs and other scanned documents to the public for free. Under Sanders' proposal, the city would start charging 25 cents per page, the same as it costs today for paper copies.

The proposal has raised concerns from City Clerk Elizabeth Maland, who said the new fee could hamper accessibility to public information. In some cases, Maland predicted the fee could actually end up costing the city more money than it would take in.

"So much of what we're trying to do is make information more available, accessible, easier for people to get," Maland told an April 25 City Council committee meeting. "It will slow down our responsiveness in many instances."

The city would also add a flat rate for electronic copies of computer data, a fee that's been used by other government agencies as an insurmountable hurdle to effectively allow some information to be kept secret. For example, San Diego County told Voice of San Diego in 2010 that copying data about gang-related crimes from an archaic mainframe would cost roughly $8,000.

Under the mayor's proposal, eight hours of work would cost $336 (or 70 cents per minute), a charge that would depend entirely on how long it takes the city to copy the data into a readable format. The charge greatly depends on the city's own competence. Outdated IT systems or poor knowledge of city technology can make copying data a more tedious process and therefore more costly to the public.

Mayoral spokesman Darren Pudgil said the city already charges for PDFs and data today, but doesn't do it consistently. The new policy would standardize the rates and require the fees across city departments, he said.

"We look at this as a minimal increase. It's something that just has to be done," Pudgil said. "We're not going to take money from other city functions to offset the cost to provide that service."

By copying records for free, Pudgil argued the city would be tapping funds that could otherwise pay for police, libraries and other core functions. He said the city would do whatever possible to minimize any additional delays to providing PDFs and data.

The step comes from a mayor whose office has at times struggled to comply with the state's open-records law. Voice of San Diego had to threaten to sue Sanders in 2009 to obtain copies of routine e-mails that had been illegally kept secret.

In statements to Voice of San Diego, all four candidates campaigning to succeed Sanders said they oppose the new fees. Each argued the fees would add barriers to public participation and knowledge of city activities. (Their full statements are posted below.)

We also asked all City Council members for their positions on the mayor's proposed fees. Aside from DeMaio, only council members Todd Gloria and Kevin Faulconer have replied so far, saying they haven't made a final decision.

At a City Council committee hearing last month, Mark Leonard, director of the city's budget department, argued that the city was trying to recover the cost of city staff's time.

Leonard said workers spend the same amount of time and use the same equipment when making paper copies as they do when they're scanning documents. Both involve employees walking to a copying machine and pushing a few buttons. That's time away from conducting other city business, though the sole job of some city workers is to provide the public with information.

With copying data, Leonard said many requests come from companies asking for information that requires a lot of time to research. He said higher-level employees work those requests because they can apply more technical expertise.

None of the council members spoke at length about the proposals. They only asked basic questions or echoed concerns first raised by Maland about charging 25 cents per page for scanned documents.

Maland worried the city might spend more time and resources collecting fees for scanned documents than would be needed to copy the documents themselves. In some cases, she said the cost of collecting the fee would be larger than the fee itself.

Maland also said the invoicing process would further delay the release of public information. Today, her office can scan a document and email it within a matter of minutes. Under the proposal, the office wouldn’t send the document until it had received 25 cents from whoever requested it.

Maland also said the fee would discourage the City Council's paperless push. She's worried that providing paper and electronic documents for the same price would take away a key incentive to move away from paper.

Pudgil said the mayor is committed to transparency and has supported making more information available online. But he acknowledged IT systems aren't always designed with public access in mind.

"We store data to serve our needs and to make it efficient for our employees. We don't necessarily store data to make it easy for the public to access," Pudgil said. "When somebody does want a special program with certain fields of data, it is going to take a little longer and that person is going to need to pay for it."

The council committee approved the hike, but it must still be approved by the full City Council, which is expected to discuss it in mid-June.

The Mayoral Candidates on the Fees

• City Councilman Carl DeMaio:

I oppose this fee hike. We should be promoting greater transparency and sharing of City information with the public. Billing taxpayers for information stifles their participation and understanding of our government.

• District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis:

I have stated all along that I don’t support adding any new fees and this is no different. I believe we can minimize the number of employees and staff hours it takes to provide information by putting as much as possible online in the first place. The policy would charge a fee for retrieval of information that is already stored in electronic format. Why not make that available so the public can retrieve it themselves? Prop A would require the City to post all contracts online, and that’s a good start. We need to minimize the cost of providing information first, not create new fees.

• Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher:

I don't support the new fees. Public access to city documents shouldn't be limited by fees and unfortunately not everyone has access to a computer to view them online. I released a full transparency plan to increase access to public documents and make the process more efficient.

• In an interview late Thursday, Congressman Bob Filner said he opposed the new fees. "It's wrong. It's wrong. It's wrong,” he told news reporter Liam Dillon. “We should be encouraging transparency not making it more expensive." If the City Council approves the fees and he is elected mayor, Filner said he would repeal the fees.

Update: This story has been updated from its original version to include Filner's opposition to the fees.

Keegan Kyle is a news reporter for Voice of San Diego. He writes about local government, creates infographics and handles the Fact Check Blog. What should he write about next?

Please contact him directly at keegan.kyle@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5668. You can also find him on Twitter (@keegankyle) and Facebook.

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City Heights, Kensington + Surrounding Environs: Explained

2012-05-17T13:09:00-07:00

The City Council's Ninth District has four distinctive groups of neighborhoods. There's City Heights, Kensington/Talmadge, the College Area around San Diego State and three southeastern San Diego neighborhoods — Mount Hope, Southcrest and Mountain View.

They all have distinct needs and desires. And for the first time, they're grouped together in the brand new City Council district.

I spent a week in the district in April talking to residents to gauge their biggest concerns and putting their questions to the two candidates, Mateo Camarillo and current District 7 City Councilwoman Marti Emerald.

This week, we wrapped up all that coverage into a quick video explainer with NBC 7 San Diego. Enjoy:

View more videos at: http://nbcsandiego.com.

For more District 9 coverage, read about how it was created and the major issues facing the district, including the lack of eligible voters and basic infrastructure problems in City Heights to the undergrounding nuisances in Kensington.

And see our Reader's Guides of Camarillo and Emerald.

I'm the editor of VOSD. You can reach me at andrew.donohue@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0526.

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Letter: Room For Janitors In the Middle?

2012-05-17T13:00:00-07:00

It is said that in its heart, America is a center-right nation. So as we evaluate the motivation and intent of several well-heeled businessmen bankrolling their move-to-the-middle campaign, no pun intended, one is reminded of that old saying, "Something stinks in Denmark."

Make no mistake, I completely respect these folks' entrepreneurial genius but the power of the purse talks and the media listen. Where is the undistinguished class among them? Where are the janitors, gardeners, caregivers and the like? Are their voices heard in Voice of San Diego? Where is the disparate income distribution of this so-called movement to the middle? It all seems so tragic and contrived.

Do these captains of industry really give a damn about who I am and my underclass friends?

Daniel Smiechowski lives in Bay Ho.

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Auditor: Pension Initiative Overstates Savings

2012-05-17T11:39:00-07:00

Two months ago, the city of San Diego released its official financial analysis on Proposition B, the June pension initiative. The analysis said the city would net $950 million in savings over three decades if it passes.

But City Auditor Eduardo Luna disputed the figure. In a response to a draft of the analysis, Luna contended the savings estimate was exaggerated:

The draft fiscal impact analysis does not clearly and impartially present the relevant fiscal impacts associated with this ballot measure. In fact, the manner of presentation would, in our opinion, lead the average voter to conclude that a "Yes" vote on the ballot measure would reasonably yield the significant savings presented in the fiscal analysis when, in fact this is not necessarily the case.

Luna's concerns spring from the measure's key money saving element: a five-year pensionable pay freeze. We've spilt a lot of digital and visual ink on the pay freeze over the past year. In a nutshell the measure aims to hold steady city workers' pensionable salaries over the next five years to save on pension costs. But voters can't mandate city employee salaries at the ballot box so the measure provides a strong recommendation for City Council to impose the freeze.

The pensionable pay freeze is so essential to the initiative's savings that with it supporters can claim the measure saves $1 billion over 30 years and without it opponents can claim it saves $0.

Because the freeze isn't guaranteed, Luna didn't think the financial analysis should count any of its potential savings:

By including an estimated savings of $963 million associated with a salary freeze that is based on problematic assumptions, the City materially biases the nature of the fiscal impact associated with passing the ballot measure. This is the case especially since additional City Council action subsequent to the ballot measure's passage is necessary to trigger any savings.

He recommended that the analysis say the freeze resulted in "an undeterminable fiscal impact."

The auditor, whose report was released March 14, also believed the analysis should mention the high risk of litigation associated with the initiative. Labor unions have vowed to challenge the pension measure, and one lawsuit already is winding its way through court.

Luna's opinion lost the day. The city requires the auditor, independent budget analyst and chief operating officer to write the financial analysis for ballot measures. Budget analyst Andrea Tevlin and COO Jay Goldstone agreed that savings associated with the pensionable pay freeze should be included.

Liam Dillon is a news reporter for Voice of San Diego. He covers San Diego City Hall, the 2012 mayor's race and big building projects. What should he write about next?

Please contact him directly at liam.dillon@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5663.

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Letter: How California Students Rank

2012-05-17T11:00:00-07:00

May I remark upon an L.A. Times article about the latest National Assessment of Education Progress test, in which the article says that the latest test showed a two-point gain in California student's "science" (8th grade) scores over the last similar science test in 2009.

The article also tries to place the two gained points in perspective by noting that it raised the California grade from 150 to 152, with 300 being a perfect score.

The headline says "Science report card for eighth-graders: Not an F, but hardly an A+." 152 correct out of 300 is not an "F?" In what universe?

But even worse, nowhere in the article does the proper information appear that would put the score in perspective.

Let me try: A 152 score places California students in 47th place among the states and the District of Columbia. California thus stands tied with Hawaii, and ahead of ONLY Mississippi, Alabama, and the District of Columbia.

Now that is perspective.

Allen Hemphill lives in Escondido.

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What Bonnie Dumanis Wants to Do for Schools

2012-05-17T10:00:00-07:00

With San Diego Unified School District in continued financial distress, the city's four major mayoral candidates have made K-12 education an issue in the campaign. The city has no direct control over the school system and current Mayor Jerry Sanders has largely avoided talking about education during his seven-year tenure. But across the country, big city mayors increasingly have gotten more involved in their K-12 education systems. And in San Diego, public polls show voters want the mayor and City Council to pay more attention here.

In a series of stories this week, we'll be laying out the mayoral candidate's education plans, explaining their ideas and calling out their potential weaknesses. Last up: Bonnie Dumanis.

The Candidate: Bonnie Dumanis

The Word: Control

Dumanis wants to increase mayoral involvement in city schools much more than any of the other candidates. It's the policy at the centerpiece of her campaign and would group San Diego in with the growing trend of mayoral involvement in urban schools across the country. Most significantly, she plans on authoring a 2014 ballot measure that would add four mayoral-appointed members to the current five-member elected school board.

She also wants to have a new department to act as a liaison between the Mayor's Office and school district and appoint an independent board to oversee district finances.

The Ideas: By increasing control over schools, Dumanis also would be increasing the accountability of the Mayor's Office. She has said she will "fix" the city's schools by the end of her first term in 2016. By her definition, fixing schools means that student performance has improved, the district has more stable finances and threats of teacher layoffs and a state takeover have ended.

She contends that her appointments to the school board will de-politicize San Diego Unified's leadership, which has seen frequent turnover among board members and superintendents in recent years.

Her board and financial panel appointments will come from recommendations from local university and parent leaders. And the education liaison in her office will coordinate everything, including connecting schools with philanthropic donors.

"It's really an assistant's position to bring the leverage of the Mayor's Office, the bully pulpit of the mayor, to help the schools get the expertise that they need," Dumanis said in an interview.

The Weaknesses: For someone who has made a bold education plan front and center in her campaign, Dumanis has appeared to struggle at times with the finer points or import of her ideas.

Faced with a question about her position on the current last-in, first-out layoff practices at an April mayoral education debate, Dumanis paused for a full six seconds before asking for clarification. She eventually said she supported a more merit-based system. (Dumanis said she understood the question and she's long dealt with similar civil service rules. "It's just trying to put it into a mouthful," she said. "Sometimes I get it backwards.")

She also isn't sure how many people she'd need for her new education department, but said she'll find the money for it by cutting from other places in the budget.

Dumanis wants to advocate for adding parents to the school district's labor negotiating team. But doing so would put parents in the thicket of the state's collective bargaining laws, which delineate a strict process for negotiating in good faith. Dumanis said she expected parents would abide by the rules, but hadn't yet worked out the details for how the process would work.

"We're not getting down in the weeds right now," she said. "We are looking at the overall picture and the need to have parent involvement and transparency in the process."

Liam Dillon is a news reporter for Voice of San Diego. He covers San Diego City Hall, the 2012 mayor's race and big building projects. What should he write about next?

Please contact him directly at liam.dillon@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5663.

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Letter: What Is Fletcher Passionate About?

2012-05-17T09:00:00-07:00

Unfortunately Mr. Katz I can’t join you in voting for Nathan Fletcher ("Progressive Entrepreneur for Fletcher"). But thanks for asking. Maybe we can vote in unison another time.

I don’t find Fletcher fetching. He strikes me as too unsure of who he is or what he stands for other than his own ambition, glibness and good looks. I’m concerned he is shallow and phony.

He also seems too inexperienced, even as he enters mid-life, to actually perform the job of mayor, considering it requires managing a 10,000 employee, $3.2 billion enterprise. I don’t see anything in his resume that suggests he has the know-how to function as chief executive of such a large project. And I wonder, technical knowledge aside, if even the Qualcomm executives supporting his candidacy would hire him to run a multi-billion-dollar division of their corporation.

But as you are acquainted with him, and I am not, please tell him that if he wants my vote he should spend several years building his resume in San Diego, and not elsewhere, doing tangible things, motivated by genuine need, which amply demonstrate his organic interest in the well-being of wide swaths of the people who live here.

I’m not talking about "job creation" through "legislation" or cutting ribbons or grandstanding for sex offender laws. Nor am I talking about voicing words like "innovation" and "independent." This is easy. I’m talking about actually doing something in direct, immediate, real and sustained ways.

I don’t care what he does. He could feed the homeless or build a new stadium. I need evidence from Fletcher that he is a politician because it enables him to further some moral or ethical beliefs and not simply because the behavior comes easy and the job yields power and wealth.

All three of his competitors have careers rooted in deep beliefs. All three have overcome handicaps and hurdles. All three seem more comfortable in their shoes than Fletcher. Their passions are also clear: Carl DeMaio cuts costs, Bonnie Dumanis metes out justice, Bob Filner protects the powerless.

Fletcher? I draw a blank.

Bob Stein lives in University City.

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Morning Report: Fletcher's Education Plan Is Philanthropy

2012-05-17T06:30:00-07:00

Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher has eagerly embraced the idea that the city's top boss should have a plan to fix local schools.

He's touted his education plan and has lots of ideas. "He wants to increase job training programs, promote greater access to the internet and create two specialized high schools," our City Hall reporter Liam Dillon writes.

Who'll pay for it all? Do-gooders, mostly, through a private foundation.

But Fletcher doesn't know how much his plan will cost.

We're taking a look this week at the education plans of the top mayoral candidates. We've already examined the plans of Councilman Carl DeMaio and Rep. Bob Filner. Next up is District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, who supports the most radical changes of all. Look for that analysis later this morning.

Checking Fletcher's Tax Record

Fletcher's supporters like to point out that he pushed for a $1 billion tax cut in the state Assembly; foes say he wanted to hike taxes by $1 billion. San Diego Fact Check finds there's some truth in the claims, but there's plenty of context that is left out. That's only enough to get them a Barely True verdict.

TV: Explaining the District 7 Race

San Diego Explained heads to District 7, which includes neighborhoods like Tierrasanta, Mission Valley and Linda Vista, for a look at the issues in the contested City Council race.

Three men are vying for the spot on the council, including two whose first names are missing consonants. (Maybe that's a sign of how willing they are to cut things?) The rivals are Scott Sherman, Mat Kostrinsky and Rik Hauptfeld.

The winner -- either in the June primary or the November general election -- could shake up the council's political balance.

Few Good Tidings for Victims of Xmas Mess

Some of the performers who contracted to perform at a Christmas festival and then failed to get paid have gotten small checks, our arts editor Kelly Bennett reports. The organizer of A Christmas Tabernacle had expected 30,000 attendees, but apparently only about 5,000 showed up. As we earlier reported, many of the performers were out thousands of dollars.

Letter: City Seems to Have Fat to Cut

In letters, Bill Bradshaw of Mission Beach compares city budgets in San Jose and San Diego, whose populations aren't too far from each other. "Perhaps I’m jumping to conclusions, but it’s apparent to this reader that, despite the belt-tightening efforts in San Diego, with the constant self-congratulations that accompany them, there are plenty of opportunities for more cuts by our next 'strong' mayor."

Quick News Hits

• My money was on alternative weekly CityBeat endorsing Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher for mayor. After all, CityBeat had been accused (probably by me) of having a massive man-crush on the guy. And now Fletcher is independent, an even better bet for lefties who aren't enamored by the sole major Democratic candidate.

But CityBeat has endorsed the Dem, Rep. Bob Filner. The editorial doesn't spend much time talking him up, however. Instead, shows the progressives' struggle in coming to grips with the pros and cons of a Fletcher, the former Republican.

They're excited about his thoughts on the environment, water and bikes. And think he's got substance. "There’s a high-functioning brain in that good-lookin’ noggin," the editorial says. But they're still troubled by his right-wing connections. "We surely do enjoy talking to the guy, but we really don’t know what we’re getting into with him."

They like Filner's politics and the new voices he'd bring to the table. But they're worried about the sloppy campaign he's run and if he'd manage City Hall similarly. Plus, the threat level for scandal would be "at least orange."

• CityBeat asked Filner why he wasn't buddy-buddy with the Occupy movement. After all, he was arrested at the Freedom Rider protests during the civil rights era.

Filner said he met with the Occupy folks in Washington D.C., but they blew him off. "It was disastrous. I came away so depressed," he said. "They didn't want any help. They didn't have any historical understanding of what people have done in this regard. They had no interest in working with us."

• The Reader has been tracking how the San Diego school district wants to sell several properties to bring in about $21 million to help plug a hole in its budget.

Selling land just to plug a one-time budget gap is never considered a smart idea. And there's concern that the district is selling the land at a discount.

In one case, a Mission Beach property might be sold for for $4.7 million less than the appraised $12.5 million. There's already a dispute brewing over the planned sale of the Barnard Elementary property in Point Loma.

• Someone, somewhere, deserves a big fat F in math.

Thanks to a number error, San Marcos High School incorrectly got named one of the best high schools in the country -- 11th to be exact -- by U.S. News & World Report. The snafu is a major embarrassment for the school (whose fans were thrilled, temporarily), the magazine and the National Center for Education Statistics. (U-T)

• The shutdown of the San Onofre nuclear plant has drawn the attention of Congress, the AP reports, with representatives expressing concern about the problems that led to its closure.

The LA Times, meanwhile, says it's still unclear what caused the crucial problems at the plant in the first place. The plant is considered unlikely to restart at full power.

• Remember KLSD, the local liberal radio talk station? It got snuffed several years ago, and some left-wingers say it was the victim of a right-wing conspiracy. A new documentary, co-hosted by former star TV newswoman Bree Walker, hints that the charges might be true. In a column for the North County Times, I call baloney.

• There won't be any booze for sale at a Starbucks in Coronado, the U-T reports. The city complained to the coffeehouse company about its application for a beer and wine license, so Starbucks withdrew its application to be the first one in the county to serve alcohol.

Too bad. I was really looking forward to a grande soy skinny pinot noir. With cinnamon.

Correction: The Morning Report incorrectly described the price of a Mission Beach property that the San Diego school district is considering whether to sell. It might be sold for $4.7 million less than the appraised $12.5 million, not $4.7 million. We regret the error.

Please contact Randy Dotinga directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.

On the Trail, Fletcher's Tax Deal Goes Beyond Mailers

2012-05-16T17:26:00-07:00

My colleague Keegan Kyle and I teamed up today for a Fact Check on mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher's record on taxes in the state Assembly.

Beyond the pro- and anti-Fletcher mailers featured in that piece, the deal Fletcher negotiated with Gov. Jerry Brown to raise taxes on out-of-state businesses and lower them on in-state companies continues to come up on the campaign trail.

That's because of Fletcher's day job.

Assembly Speaker John Pérez now wants to eliminate the same out-of-state tax break that Fletcher and Brown targeted previously. But instead of a tax cut for in-state businesses, Pérez plans to redirect the $1 billion in revenues to college scholarships for middle-class families. Like the Brown deal, the Pérez bill needs two Republican votes from each house of the Legislature to pass.

Fellow mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio has hammered Fletcher for absenteeism at the state house and pointed out that Fletcher has failed to make recent committee votes on the Pérez bill.

In an interview last week, Fletcher said he had "some concerns" with the bill and was in negotiations with Pérez. One of Fletcher's concerns, he said, was that it would be a tax increase.

"I would like it to be revenue neutral, but at the end of the day I want a bill that I believe is the best way to advance economic competitiveness," Fletcher said.

Liam Dillon is a news reporter for Voice of San Diego. He covers San Diego City Hall, the 2012 mayor's race and big building projects. What should he write about next?

Please contact him directly at liam.dillon@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5663.

Follow @dillonliam

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A Christmas Disaster: Checking Up

2012-05-16T16:05:00-07:00

Early this year, I reported this story about a ballyhooed Christmas festival in Point Loma that became a yuletide nightmare for arts groups and small businesses. Many hadn’t been paid by mid-January for their ballet performances, reindeer rentals and caroling at the event, called A Christmas Tabernacle.

Organizer Jamie Sutton told me then he’d hoped for 30,000 people to attend, and had calculated a stripped-down budget in case only 10,000 people came through the gate. But actual attendance, he said then, was just about 5,000 people. "That worst-case scenario didn't even come true," he said. "It was just mind-boggling."

Many of the performers and featured acts — like live reindeer — he contracted with are out thousands of dollars. Some had asked for deposits but had performed even when he didn’t pay the full upfront amount.

I wanted to follow up with those businesses to see what’s happened since January, when the Christmas Tabernacle’s attorney, Jerry Hemme, said the company was trying to proceed in the “best, most ethical way it can” and was planning to disburse a share of whatever money's left.

San Diego Ballet, which brought about 100 dancers to perform the full Nutcracker, was supposed to receive $2,000. The ballet company got a check a few weeks ago for about $100, said co-director Robin Sherertz Morgan.

She said the attorney told her Sutton was apologetic. He laid out their options: “We could either all sue him and he’d go bankrupt and we wouldn’t get anything” or they could opt for a small share of what was left. That’s what she chose, she said.

“So much time has gone by,” she said, “and what am I going to do?”

Other groups like the ballet that hadn’t received a deposit or any other money yet received some money. The San Diego Master Chorale received a “very tiny check,” said executive director Joanne Couvrette.

David Scovel, the event stage manager, didn’t receive any money personally for his freelance work organizing more than two dozen acts and running entertainment logistics.

The audio/visual company Scovel otherwise works for rented A Christmas Tabernacle a video projector for a price of $775.

The company just got a check for $50.79, Scovel said.

Now that the firm has distributed the remaining cash to creditors, Hemme’s firm has “ended our involvement in the matter,” he wrote me this week.

Several of the people I talked to said there was one weird part of the letter. It said someone involved in the festival had withdrawn $10,000 and had refused to return it when asked.

Diana Frieling, who brought live reindeer to the event, said she plans to pursue the rest of the money she’s owed through the courts.

One of the still-livid vendors is Vonna Ruiz, who paid $1,160 to put up an Italian gift shop booth called “Soprattutto Per Voi.” Her booth was moved behind the stage away from the other vendors “at the last minute.” Then, organizers closed the stage due to weather and low attendance, which affected the foot traffic past her booth. Ruiz didn’t sell anything. She said she and her husband are seniors living on fixed incomes otherwise. They count on the “little bit we manage to make at these few events each year,” she said.

Sutton did not respond today to a request for an interview for this update. Last month he wrote me an email to say he felt unfairly targeted by my initial story. “I found it very distasteful and was very disappointed in you and your organization to say the least,” he said.

I'm Kelly Bennett, a reporter for Voice of San Diego. You can reach me directly at kelly.bennett@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0531.

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