SPRING 2016 VOL. 5, NO. 1 · 2019. 9. 2. · Politifest 2016 WHAT: National keynote speakers, local...

An in-depth look at the races and ballot measures San Diegans will weigh in on this year

B Y A N D R E W K E A T T S

SPRING 2016 VOL. 5, NO. 1WWW.VOICEOFSANDIEGO.ORG

YOUR GUIDE TO THE JUNE 7 PRIMARY

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ON THE INSIDE

4 E D I T O R ’S NOT E By Sara Libby

6 P O L I T I FE ST I S M OV ING T O S A N D IE G O S TATEBy Mary Walter-Brown

10 H AP P EN IN G S : O N TH E S T R E ET• San Diego’s Giant Winter

Tides Were Higher Than EverBy Matthew Baldwin

• The Drought Where We Ended Up With Too Much WaterBy Ry Rivard

• The Elephant in the Room on Balboa Park FundingBy Lisa Halverstadt

• $1 Billion in School Bond Spent But School Buildings CrumblingBy Ashly McGlone

18 T E N T C I TY: A H O ME A N D C O M M UNI TY CENTER UN D E R FR I A R S R OAD

By Lisa Halverstadt and Jamie Scott Lytle

20 C O V E R S T O RY: S A N D I E G O D E C I DESA preview of the June election

By Andrew Keatts

30 O P I N I O N : T H E T R IAL O F FR I D OO N NE H AD

By Scott Lewis

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CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER/EDITOR IN CHIEF

Scott Lewis

MANAGING EDITOR

Sara Libby

STAFF WRITERSLisa Halverstadt, Andrew Keatts,

Mario Koran, Ashly McGlone, Ry Rivard, Maya Srikrishnan

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Jen Levario Cieslak

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER/PUBLISHER

Mary Walter-Brown

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

Erin Zlotnik

MEMBERSHIP AND EVENTS MANAGER

Christina Shih

ENGAGEMENT EDITORKinsee Morlan

DIGITAL MANAGER

Tristan Loper

FOUNDERS

Buzz Woolley & Neil Morgan

BOARD OF DIRECTORSReid Carr, Olga Diaz, Bob Kelly,

Mitch Mitchell, Cynthia Morgan-Reed, Bob Page, Buzz Woolley

Subscriptions and ReprintsVOSD members at the Inside Voice level and

above receive a complimentary subscription to Voice of San Diego Magazine as a thank you

for their support. Individual issues and reprints may be purchased on demand for $9.79 at

voiceofsandiego.org/magazine. Digital editions are also available for $2.99.

AdvertisingWant to advertise in VOSD Quarterly? Call today to

become a Community Partner: (619) 325-0525.

Spring 2016 | Volume 5 Number 1

Thank you to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for supporting innovative

journalism.

COVER PHOTO FROM ISTOCK.COM

editor’s Note

THIS ELECTION SURE DOESN’T LOOK LIKE THE LAST ONE – A FACT ANDREW KEATTS BREAKS DOWN IN MORE DETAIL IN THIS ISSUE’S VOTER GUIDE.The landscape has changed a lot for me, too.

Four years ago, with exactly two days between trips covering the Republican and Democratic national conventions, I pulled off a covert cross-country flight to San Diego to interview for this job. I got it, and I parachuted into town about a month before the November election. A guy named Bob Filner was elected mayor, and I got my introduction to San Diego by covering everything that unfolded after.

Since then, I have picked up a few lessons about what makes San Diego elections unique:

THE SYSTEM MATTERS.Democrats should have more going for them in San Diego than they do. They hold a decent advantage in terms of registered voters.

Yet arguably the three most powerful politicians in town – the mayor, the DA and the city attorney – are all Republicans.

For Democratic candidates, the June primary rules present a big challenge: Anyone who claims a bare majority – 50 percent plus one vote – in most local races, wins outright. Those June races are often low-turnout affairs that favor Republicans.

The numbers favor Dems, but the system favors Republicans.

SAN DIEGO DEMS ARE A PARTICULARLY RISK-AVERSE BREED.The system isn’t the only thing that handicaps local Democrats. Often they limit themselves. That’s how we ended up with a Republican mayor, in a Democratic-leaning city, in a presidential year sure to drive out Democratic voters, facing two longshot candidates.Heavyweight Democrats like Toni Atkins and Todd Gloria have opted for races where they’re shoo-ins.

THERE ARE LOTS OF DO-OVERS.The city elected Filner mayor. The City Council passed a new community plan for Barrio Logan, a minimum wage hike and a fee increase for developers building new projects.

Yet, Filner is not the mayor. Barrio Logan is stuck with its old, outdated plan. The minimum wage hike is still in limbo. That developer fee got knocked down to a smaller amount.

The Filner situation, of course, is unique. But the others are part of a trend that’s become the new normal: Collect enough signatures, and you can undo almost anything your elected officials push through.

And, of course, there are exceptions to every rule! So let’s sit back and see which of these lessons gets defied come June and November.

ELECTIONLESSONSBY SARA LIBBYMANAGING EDITOR

We want to thank San Diego’s nonprofit organizations for the charitable work they do, every day. Because of their tremendous efforts and our shared desire to serve our communities, we’re able to help thousands of people in the San Diego region. We believe in the power of community and we proudly support organizations that share our vision.

Connect at sdge.com.

connected ••••• to giving back

©2014 San Diego Gas & Electric Company. All copyright and trademark rights reserved. 0614


QUESTIONS? CONCERNS? Write to [email protected]

THE OTHER DAY A FRIEND ASKED ME IF ELECTION YEARS ARE ESPECIALLY CRAZY WHEN YOU WORK IN THE NEWS BUSINESS. THE SHORT ANSWER IS YES.

We get a bit obsessed with the different races and what the candidates are saying (or not saying).

We also spend a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to help engage and educate residents about these races. That’s part of our mission: to increase civic participation by giving residents the knowledge and in-depth analysis necessary to become advocates for good government and social progress.

So, while election years are definitely hectic, they’re also a great time to connect with people who aren’t always that interested in local government. Believe it or not, not all San Diegans are news junkies. Getting people to care about public affairs feels a bit like trying to convince my kids to eat kale. It’s so good for you but it’s a little bitter.

We created Politifest in 2011 to make politics more palatable. We wanted people to be able to learn about the candidates vying for mayor, to get more details about the various ballot propositions and have the opportunity to discuss and debate these issues with other residents. We also threw in a band, beer garden, face painting, dunk tanks – the works.

We did that four years in a row and it was fun. But, after taking a year off in 2015 to rethink things, we decided

to strip out the festival flair and go deep on what we do best, moderating, explaining and analyzing issues. And we’re teaming up with San Diego State University’s School of Journalism to get the Gen Z perspective and to keep the cool factor.

Join us on Saturday, Sept. 24, for Politifest 2016, a day-long summit at San Diego State’s Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union featuring national keynote speakers, local candidate debates and forums, one-on-one interviews and City 101 Speed Sessions where we’ll break down the most contentious and confusing initiatives in a way normal people can understand.

We’ll also have ballot worksheets so attendees can take notes about the various races. This is your opportunity to find answers to those questions that plague you in the voter booth – like what exactly is the State Board of Equalization? I promise, someone at Politifest will be able to answer that question.

If you have a teenager who’s going to be voting for the first time, Politifest is the perfect way to educate them about the election and to show them the importance of being an engaged citizen. You can even sponsor a senior class at your local high school.

Confirmed national keynote

speakers include DeRay McKesson, a politician and rising star in the Black Lives Matter movement who’s a regular on “The Daily Show,” and Reihan Salam, a conservative political commentator on CNN and executive editor of National Review. We’ll be announcing our full program line-up after the June primary.

A day-long program like this can’t be free. We will be charging an admission but we’re working hard to keep it affordable. To do that, we’ll need sponsors. If you or your company believes in providing an environment where residents from all walks of life can come together to learn about the election in a civil and productive way, then you should partner with us. We have several different sponsorship opportunities to consider. If you’re interested, please email our director of development, Erin Zlotnik, at [email protected].

Stay tuned for more details coming soon.

POLITIFEST IS MOVING TO SAN DIEGO STATEBY MARY WALTER-BROWNC0O/PUBLISHER

Politifest 2016WHAT: National keynote speakers, local candidate debates and forums, one-on-one interviews and sessions where we’ll break down the most contentious and confusing initiatives in a way normal people can understand

WHEN & WHERE: Saturday, Sept. 24 at SDSU’s Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union

Fall 2015 VOSD MAGAZINE | 7

Partner Voices is a section of the VOSD website dedicated to promoting the work of local nonprofits. These messages are paid for by the nonprofits themselves or generously sponsored by local companies.

This issue’s sponsor spotlight is San Diego Gas & Electric. SDG&E has generously supported Partner Voices since its launch in 2014 and has helped over 40 organizations tell their stories. Read more about their contribution to the community and four organizations they think you ought to know.

Brought to you by SDG&E

Drive Electric for a Better FutureReducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG)

is vital to the health of the community and the natural world. One of the best ways we can reduce GHG emissions is by promoting electric vehicles and reducing our dependence on gasoline as a transportation fuel. The transportation sector currently accounts for 40% of California’s and 54% of San Diego’s total GHG emissions, so imagine the possibilities if the region expands ownership rates for zero-emission electric vehicles to a whole new level.

That is where SDG&E’s new Power Your Drive Program comes in. This innovative pilot calls for the installation of 3,500 electric vehicle charging stations at businesses and multi-family residences such as apartments and condos where 50% of the region’s customers live but currently have few if any charging stations available. SDG&E’s project will overcome many current obstacles to EV growth and reassure local EV drivers that they will have a place to charge their vehicles. Another important program benefit is that it should maximize the use of renewable energy to charge electric vehicles, allowing customers to literally drive on sunshine.

The program will expand access to charging in the community, multiply EV ownership rates, clean the air we breathe and help California meet its goal of having 1.5 million electric vehicles on the road by 2025.

The clean energy future is happening now and there is no better place to see this transformation than San Diego. SDG&E looks forward to working together with local residents to help make the transportation sector electric, which will spread the many benefits of this better future to all San Diegans.

For more information about this initiative, visit SDGE.com/PowerYourDrive.

Above, clockwise from top left: Through the SAN DIEGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM’s Nature to You program, teachers can check out hundreds of objects like preserved taxidermy mounts of birds, mammals, insects and fossils. At the BIRCH AQUARIUM, with events like Discovery Lab at the aquarium, children as young as 4 or 5 can touch shark teeth, dissect squid, and hold live fish. Local nonprofit, WILDCOAST, puts kids to work in ways that reveal and showcase their power to make a difference. The San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy’s new WATERSHED EXPLORERS program aims to bring kids to the natural worlds beyond the borders of their lives and imaginations.

4 ORG A NIZ AT IO NS HELP ING K IDS GO GREENThese programs are supported in part by SDG&E’s Environmental Champions initiative.


News and Updates From Our Member Community

BY CHRISTINA SHIHMEMBERSHIP AND EVENTS MANAGER

AS MANY OF YOU KNOW, WE RELOCATED OUR OFFICES TO DOWNTOWN IN EARLY JANUARY.

While I knew our new location would be beneficial to our reporters, I was surprised to discover how the move would influence my own work as membership and events manager.

My office is 10 feet from our new podcast studio. As we rolled out new shows like Good Schools for All and San Diego Decides, I had the privilege of seeing some of our region’s thought leaders come through our doors. I listened in on shows dedicated to proactive conversations about San Diego’s future. I also saw colleagues strive to make each show better than the last.

All of this inspired me to produce events that expose people to different neighborhoods, borders and creations in San Diego that they might otherwise miss. It’s challenged me to think of ways to complement our reporting and take the conversations even further.

It’s funny to think that something as simple as a new office would spark such creativity and invigorate us to approach our work in a new way. Our move would not have been possible without the support of members like you. So thank you for investing in Voice of San Diego.

Here’s a look at some of the events we’ve hosted in the last few months:

CULTURE TRIP: DOWNTOWN ART WALK Culture reporter and local arts maven Kinsee

Morlan took an intimate group of 30 members on a tour of the downtown arts scene. Our journey gave members a glimpse into aspects of the arts community including street art, a commercial gallery and public art. We provided access to arts insiders, including artist Chris Konecki, Sparks Gallery Director Sonya Sparks, Library Exhibition Manager Kara West and Senior Public Art Manager Christine Jones.

VOSD EXPERIENCE: TIJUANASince launching the Border Report a few

months ago, we wanted to experience a side of

Tijuana that was off the beaten path. We asked our friend Derrik Chinn of Turista Libre to create an itinerary that would guide us through three neighborhoods of Tijuana and introduce us to the issues that locals experience every day. We also dug deeper into the topics of land use, housing and border crossing and experienced Baja-Med, a cuisine unique to Tijuana. It was an unforgettable trip that taught us a lot about our neighbors to the south and we hope to do it again soon.

MEETING OF THE MINDS: MUSIC BEYOND ENTERTAINMENT

What happens when you ask five musicians to tell you how music has changed their lives? You get laughter, honesty, performance and even tears. We watched Brandon Duncan, a rapper from southeastern San Diego tell us what it was like for him to sit in jail for seven months as he faced a life sentence for simply rapping about his community. Then there was Steve Poltz, who shared what it was like to face mortality as he showed a rare photo of him in the hospital after suffering from a stroke. What started as any other event turned into so much more. It was a reminder of how special a place San Diego is and how much there is to learn from one another.

LIVE “POTCAST” RECORDING: 420 EDITIONIn the spirit of April 20, the unofficial

holiday celebrating marijuana, we produced a live recording of the VOSD Podcast. Hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts called it the “potcast” and they tackled the complexities of legalizing marijuana in front of an audience at the Whistle Stop Bar. They were joined by Alex Kreit, professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law; Kimberly Simms, medical marijuana lawyer and Amanda Chicago Lewis, national drug policy reporter at Buzzfeed News.

Spring 2016 VOSD MAGAZINE | 9

News and Updates From Our Member Community

Above, from top to bottom: Members enjoyed a tour of the downtown arts scene, an experience of Tijuana that was off the beaten path and a Meeting of the Minds event exploring music beyond entertainment.

VOSD WELCOMES NEW DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR ERIN ZLOTNIK

Voice of San Diego welcomed Erin Zlotnik as its new director of development in April. Previously at the San Diego Library Foundation, Erin will be working to expand Voice of San Diego’s corporate sponsors and underwriters.

“We see a great opportunity for local business leaders to invest in public service journalism and show their support for civic engagement,” said VOSD COO/Publisher Mary Walter-Brown. “Erin and I hope to encourage more local companies to help facilitate the kind of forward-thinking conversations our reporting sparks.”

“I’m so excited to be part of the Voice of San Diego team,” said Zlotnik. “As a longtime San Diego resident and parent of two children in the public school district, I’ve looked to Voice for the news I need to stay informed about my community. Now I get to help expand this movement of supporters who believe that open dialogue on local issues will make San Diego a better place to live and work.”

Voice of San Diego is a nonprofit news organization that relies on the support of community members, corporate sponsors and foundations. Your company can help underwrite its groundbreaking reporting by sponsoring one of its focus areas, including education, good government, culture and nonprofits, the environment and land use.

If you’d like to learn more about Voice of San Diego’s sponsorship opportunities or meet Erin to discuss other partnership options, please contact her at [email protected].

ERIN ZLOTNIKDEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

HAPPENINGS ON THE STREETI N T H I S I S S U E

KING TIDES • THE DROUGHT WHERE WE ENDED UP WITH TOO MUCH WATER • THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM ON BALBOA PARK FUNDING • $1 BILLION IN SD SCHOOL BOND SPENT BUT SCHOOL BUILDINGS CRUMBLING • SAN DIEGO TO STATE: DO WE REALLY NEED TO KEEP SAVING WATER?


SAN DIEGO’S GIANT WINTER TIDES WERE

HIGHER THAN EVERWhen a portion of the street near

Midway Drive and Barnett Avenue in the Midway district flooded at the end of November, San Diego police moved quickly to rule out the usual flooding suspect: a broken water main.

The flooding, police said, was the result of a high ocean tide surging into the storm drain system.

On the morning of Dec. 23, the tide flowed over the beach at La Jolla shores, crested the seawall and flooded the boardwalk and parking lot. The next day, waves created by the incoming king tide badly damaged the famous surfer shack at Windansea Beach.

These were king tides. They typically happen throughout the November-February winter season.

This year, though, the water reached farther into San Diego than we have ever seen.

In late November, the swell reached

BY MATTHEW BALDWIN

Waves crash into Sunset Cliffs during the

December king tide.PHOTO BY MATTHEW BALDWIN


HAPPENINGS

ON THE STREET


historic heights.The California Ocean Protection

Council reported that the tide stations monitored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including those off of San Diego, recorded the highest sea levels ever on Nov. 25. The information gathered by the local tide stations cataloged sea levels up to half a foot higher than predicted.

Combined with the El Niño, these record-breaking water levels resulted in the abnormally large king tide and the Midway district flooding.

King tides have been a consistent annual event throughout San Diego’s history. Tidal forces typically push an inch or so of water up a storm drain or over a barrier to flood streets and parking lots. Once the tide goes back out, the water recedes, causing little damage.

But experts say it’s getting worse.“California broke a record [in late

December]: sea levels at several tide stations in southern California reached higher elevations than ever measured before, including during major storms,” Abe Doherty, California’s climate change policy adviser, wrote in a memo about these findings published by the OPC.

It’s having an effect on the local coastline. “Sea levels along the California coast have quite consistently been running several inches in excess of astronomical tide prediction,” said Dan Cayan, a climatologist at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. “During the king tide [in late December], La Jolla and other California coastal tide gage stations experienced record high levels. Fortunately, the minor storm was void of big waves.”

While the NOAA tide stations have been recording sea level fluctuations off of San Diego since 1906, the record on the location and strength of tidal flooding incidents is sporadic at best.

Oceanographers at Scripps say they’re working to correct this.

The Coastal Data Information Program at Scripps is building an online database and digital map documenting tidal flooding. One of the project’s goals involves matching photographs of flooding in early 20th century San Diego with wave and tide conditions recorded in newspapers, and other sources.

“In my opinion, our SoCal beaches are in for a world of hurt over the next decades,” said Robert Guza, a Scripps professor of oceanography. “It’s a matter of when, not if. An El Niño temporarily raises sea level by roughly the equivalent of 25 years of normal sea level rise. So this year is an interesting glimpse into the near future.”

El Niño flooding in the Midway district.

PHOTO BY KINSEE MORLAN

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HAPPENINGS

ON THE STREET

THE DROUGHT WHERE WE ENDED UP WITH TOO MUCH WATERBY RY RIVARD

The San Diego County Water Authority dumped a half billion gallons of costly drinking water into a lake near Chula Vista.

Now that drinking water has been poured into a lake, the water must be treated a second time before humans can consume it. And the drinking water that was dumped into the lake includes desalinated water, some of the most expensive treated water in the world.

Several factors are causing the bizarre outcome: stubborn water politics, pipeline physics, unexpectedly low demand and the restrictive terms of a contract the County Water Authority signed with water desalination company Poseidon Resources.

The result is that after spending money to make water from Northern California, the Colorado River and the Pacific Ocean drinkable, ratepayers will now have to shell out an additional

quarter-million dollars to retreat the water so it’s again fit for human consumption.

“Nobody wants to see any treated water going to a reservoir that would have to treated again,” said Mark Weston, chairman of the County Water Authority’s board of directors.

By February, about 554 million gallons of treated water has been dumped into the Lower Otay Reservoir, a popular fishing spot near Chula Vista. That’s a small portion of the County Water Authority’s annual supplies, but roughly as much water as 14,000 people use in a year.

How did this happen? Several years ago, the County Water Authority imagined an ever-increasing demand for water. So, it embarked on efforts to bring more water into the region, including its backing of Poseidon’s $1 billion desalination plant in Carlsbad.

The County Water Authority did not imagine an extensive drought would prompt Gov. Jerry Brown to order customers across the state to use less water. As San Diego benefits from its new supplies of water, its customers are cutting their water use.

That means San Diego now has more water than it needs.

There are two types of water. The first

is “raw” water that has to be treated before it can be consumed by humans. The second, more expensive kind is water that’s already been treated.

Getting extra raw water isn’t such a big deal, because it’s relatively cheap and can be stored in open air reservoirs and treated later. Regional water officials welcome excess raw water and are storing it in case the drought continues and for emergencies.

But now there’s too much treated water, and that is causing headaches.

The County Water Authority blames its main supplier of water, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, for the treated water being dumped into the Lower Otay Reservoir.

In recent weeks, the County Water Authority has asked Metropolitan to stop sending treated water to San Diego from Metropolitan’s treatment plant in Riverside County.

Metropolitan said it cannot do that without making physical changes to its pipeline, which is designed to carry a few hundred gallons per second of water.

“The Water Authority, like, calls us out of the blue and says, ‘We want it lowered to zero,’” said Jeffrey Kightlinger, Metropolitan’s general manager.

Water Authority officials said they did not want the water and are not going to pay for it.

The same pipelines carry two other kinds of treated water: desalinated water, and water the County Water Authority treated itself at its Twin Oaks Valley Water Treatment Plant in San Marcos.

The water that ended up in the Lower Otay Reservoir is a mixture of these three kinds of treated water.

Of those, the most expensive by far is desalinated water. It costs at least

The Lower Otay Reservoir near Chula Vista, where the County Water Authority has been dumping treated water..PHOTO BY RY RIVARD


$2,131 for an acre foot, the standard measure used by water officials, which equals 326,000 gallons. Metropolitan’s treated water costs about half that much, $942 per acre foot. The water treated at Twin Oaks costs even less, about $830 per acre foot.

Why is the County Water Authority trying to turn away cheaper water while buying desalinated water? Because it has to buy water from the plant, whether it needs it or not. That’s the deal the authority struck with Poseidon Resources.

San Diego water officials said the current situation does not undermine the long-term rationale behind the desalination plant.

“We have built in resources not for this year, next year – but we have built in resources for the next 30 years,” said Weston, the authority’s board chairman.

The authority also expects the desalinated water to become cheaper than Metropolitan’s sometime between 2027 and 2042.

One solution to all these problems? Just let San Diego use more water.

The County Water Authority has been lobbying against the governor’s water conservation mandate.

The authority sent an 11-page letter to the State Water Resources Control Board that continued to plead San

Diego’s case, which is basically that San Diego should have a choice about saving water, in part because it has worked for years to buy itself out of droughts.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM ON BALBOA PARK FUNDINGBY LISA HALVERSTADT

Within Balboa Park sits a little financial oasis, where a steady stream of taxpayer money helps pay for maintenance and upkeep. It’s the San Diego Zoo, the park’s largest tenant.

Outside its gates, Balboa Park’s maintenance and infrastructure needs total more than $300 million, and there’s no dedicated funding stream to address them. But the zoo has long been the beneficiary of a property tax that’s pulled in more than $10 million annually in recent years.

The zoo has managed to hold onto that pot of money despite proposals that would spread the wealth around the park.

The zoo’s received a share of property tax collections in the city since

a public vote in 1934. The zoo was fighting to remain open and pushed for a permanent tax measure that could help sustain it. The tax passed overwhelmingly and was added to the city’s charter, which means any effort to change or stop the tax would require another public vote. The passage of Proposition 13, which limits property-tax rates and requires a two-thirds vote, placed further constraints on the money, and the likelihood of changing the arrangement.

The zoo, which now operates as a nonprofit called San Diego Zoo Global, has come a long way since 1934. The nonprofit pulled in $295 million in revenue in 2014, about $69 million more than its expenses. It hails itself as the largest zoological membership association in the world and claims more than 250,000 member households, meaning it’s got a potential army of political supporters.

City attorneys have repeatedly concluded it’s not possible to direct the zoo tax to other parts of Balboa Park. But the zoo’s role in helping address the park’s challenges came up again

The San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park, seen from

its Skyfari aerial tram.PHOTO BY SAM HODGSON

HAPPENINGS

ON THE STREET

this winter as the city weighed charter amendments for voters to consider this June.

Two City Council members, Republican Councilman Mark Kersey and Democratic Councilwoman Marti Emerald, questioned whether there might be a novel way for the zoo to help Balboa Park.

Kersey wanted the zoo to voluntarily partner with the city on a solution.

“We have a lot of deferred maintenance in Balboa Park and I would like to see the zoo work with the city as well as the various Balboa Park committees and figure out if there’s not a way to leverage some of this money,” City Councilman Mark Kersey said at a December meeting.

Emerald agreed and made another suggestion.

“I think that Mr. Kersey raises a very sound point that, if we keep this, is there a way to leverage that $12 million to help fund other infrastructure in the park,” Emerald said, referring to the zoo’s annual property tax haul. “I think that that’s a legitimate question. And how much could we generate potentially? Then we have that information going in to sit down with the zoo.”

The zoo didn’t participate in the public discussion.

The City Council’s charter review committee directed the mayor and the city’s independent budget analyst to draft a plan to partner with the zoo on a bond for Balboa Park. That didn’t happen, and appears unlikely to anytime soon.

Jeff Kawar, deputy director of the budget analyst’s office, was more direct about where the proposal stands.

“There doesn’t appear to be immediate interest in docketing this for further discussion,” Kawar said.

Zoo spokeswoman Christina Simmons told me comments by Kersey and other members of the city’s charter review committee in December were made “without knowledge of applicable law in this case.”

Simmons would not answer my questions about whether the zoo might support a Balboa Park bond, how it spends the tax money it receives or how crucial that cash is to its budget.

“We do not have any additional information to offer you on this subject,” Simmons wrote in an email.

The city hasn’t always gotten that much detail on how the zoo spends the money it gets from the tax.

A 2013 city audit found city officials weren’t monitoring whether the zoo was spending the money on zoological exhibits, as the city charter requires. At the time, the zoo couldn’t verify that, either.

Before the audit was released, the zoo’s chief financial officer penned a letter to the city auditor pledging to establish a separate fund to track zoo tax spending. She also promised the money had been properly spent in the past.

In the years since that audit, city officials have at least twice brought up the zoo tax as either a funding source for Balboa Park, or at least a potential deal sweetener for another funding engine.

City Councilman Todd Gloria, who represents the district that includes Balboa Park, hasn’t been among those advocating for a change. “Given the legal issues, this question is somewhat moot,” he said.

Gloria and a handful of Balboa Park stakeholders said the zoo already delivers as a major tourism driver and caretaker of collections owned by the city.

Gloria and Tomas Herrera-Mishler, CEO of Balboa Park Conservancy, noted the zoo’s recent investment in upgrades to Old Globe Way and the Centennial Walkway when it built its new employee parking garage last year.

Herrera-Mishler believes the zoo tax should remain on the books.

“I think that it’s very important that there be dedicated revenue sources for sustaining and enhancing Balboa Park,

and this is one way that the taxpayers help to support the visitor experience in Balboa Park, at the zoo, and I certainly hope that not only it’ll continue but that we’ll find ways to create new dedicated revenue streams into the park,” Herrera-Mishler said.

In other words, the city should look elsewhere for Balboa Park funding.

The zoo seems to thinks so, too.

$1 BILLION IN SCHOOL BOND SPENT, SCHOOL BUILDINGS CRUMBLINGBY ASHLY McGLONE

After a tax hike, two ballot propositions and $1 billion in spending, San Diego’s city schools are in worse condition today than they were eight years ago, according to new data the district handed over to its Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee.

The report shows the agency’s Facility Condition Index is significantly worse than it was in 2012, when Proposition Z was passed. And even worse than it was in 2008, when voters approved Proposition S.

Proposition Z was a property tax hike officially called the San Diego Neighborhood Schools Classroom Safety and Repair Measure. It had a main objective of “repairing deteriorating 60-year-old classrooms, libraries, wiring, plumbing, bathrooms and leaky roofs,” according to the ballot language voters saw.

Proposition S was an extension of a previous tax hike. Combined, they were worth $4.9 billion.

Now, after the district has spent $1 billion, buildings are in worse shape than they were in 2008.

The index, or FCI, is a standard


industry measurement calculated by dividing the total cost of facility replacement, repair and renovation needs by the replacement value – determined by multiplying the district’s total square footage by the current cost for new construction per square foot. The amount to totally repair San Diego Unified’s buildings is $1.25 billion. To replace them entirely comes in at $5.5 billion, the latest figures estimate.

An index below 5 percent is good. Six to 10 percent is fair. Above 10 percent is poor.

San Diego Unified’s average FCI presently stands at 22.7 percent, up from around 18 percent when Proposition Z was passed in 2012, and 15 percent when Proposition S was passed in 2008, the new data shows.

How could they spend $1 billion and school buildings still end up worse off?

The answer lies in a combination of factors. First, the district claims the original data used to pitch the bonds was understated, creating an imperfect benchmark by which to measure the

progress officials say has indeed been made.

But the district hasn’t yet produced any data to back that claim.

The district also said it’s misleading to compare old data points to new ones, but the district itself does so in its own reports.

The same consultant, AECOM, produced each of the facility assessments, but district officials are more confident in the latest figures. In lieu of new “old” figures, here’s a look at what the existing data has shown and what we know.

San Diego Unified has spent large swaths of bond money on things like wireless Internet access and iPads, which, while valuable, do nothing to improve crumbling school buildings and leaky roofs. Nor do other projects prioritized early in the district’s bond program, like new stadiums, improve the FCI.

On the upside, there is still $3.9 billion left to be spent from Proposition S and Z. (A closer look at the next $800

million in projects can be seen here.) But decisions and project commitments early on have a huge impact and set the tone for the bond program, a lesson the district learned from Prop. MM.

Voters were told in 2012 Prop. Z would offer a new $2.8 billion revenue stream to deliver on those pledges and improve the district’s schools sooner. In the run-up to the election, district officials projected Prop. Z money would get the FCI to drop to about 17 percent by now. The index would hit the 5 percent “good” target by 2023, a district memo shows.

But that was 2012.Now, projections show average

facility conditions will improve to just 12 percent by 2024, then level off in the still-poor zone before beginning to climb again unless new state or local revenue is obtained.

Translation: A new local bond measure could be brought before voters in the next four to eight years to – once again – fix San Diego’s still-broken schools.


PHOTO BY JAMIE SCOTT LYTLE

BY LISA HALVERSTADT AND JAMIE SCOTT LYTLE

Mac Oson heads into his kitchen for an afternoon snack. He offers his guests – me and a photographer – some tea.

Oson decides on a peanut butter and jel-ly sandwich and starts pulling the supplies from the shelves.

The scene and many of the things sur-rounding it – the rooms that shoot off from the kitchen, the carefully swept floor – are pretty banal, except for one thing: Oson’s place is a homeless encampment under-neath a bridge on Friars Road.

The kitchen shelves were dug out of the trash. The “rooms” are separated by show-er curtains. Cars zoom along overhead. The peanut butter jar bears two homemade la-bels. One says “Did you wash your hands?” The other: “Pls keep this jar in the kitchen. – The Mgmt.”

Oson considers himself the management.For months, Oson and as many as a doz-

en others have lived under the Friars Road bridge. Many come and go.

Oson welcomes visitors to the sanctuary he’s created.

“This is like a fortress under here,” Oson said. He’s built a stairway to a makeshift suite for himself that’s filled with artwork and keepsakes.

Oson sees this place as a safe zone. It’s less chaotic than the downtown encamp-ments that often break up by 6 a.m. or those nestled in canyons that can be haz-ardous to those who live in them and those who try to disband them.

LOOK AT YOUR TENT CITIES, SAN DIEGO

A HOME AND COMMUNITY CENTER UNDER FRIARS ROAD


PHOTOS BY JAMIE SCOTT LYTLE

Mac Oson lives in an elaborate encampment under a Friars Road bridge in Mission Valley.

Oson, a trained cosmetologist, offers visitors haircuts and meals in the kitch-en. They often bring food to share, and Oson enjoys cooking it.

“Anybody that comes in here, the first thing he asks is, ‘Are you hungry?’” said Jon Cotterman, who lives in the camp.

(Oson’s best dish, said Cotterman, is his chorizo and egg burrito. Pasta and rice dishes are mainstays.)

“We don’t go without,” Cotterman said.Oson and his companions work hard

to keep it that way. They search for food wherever they can find it, including in dumpsters.

And when visitors leave, Oson cleans and repairs what’s broken. He straps on a headlamp and sweeps or arranges the trinkets that decorate the space.

He and others in the camp regularly combat erosion. Vibration from passing cars is constant and the rocky undercar-riage of the bridge often shifts. Some-times pieces break off.

Oson – who declined to reveal his age – knows he won’t be able to continue this work forever. He increasingly suf-fers from neuropathic pain in his feet, a symptom he fears means he’ll soon have to confront the diabetes that runs in his family.

Fostering a small community gives

Oson purpose.“I’m really helping,” he said.Oson and his companions store items

for other homeless people that can’t be lugged from place to place. They keep watch over one another’s belongings when they leave the camp.

“Under here it’s not like the other [en-campments],” Cotterman said. “It seems like the others are always ripping each other apart and fighting. Here we get along and we look out for each other.”

On my first visit to Oson’s place two weeks ago, I met Curtis Rodgers. He was living under the bridge for a few days af-ter El Niño rains flooded his camp along the riverbed. Rodgers said he immedi-ately went to see Oson, who offered ref-uge from the rain.

“Here is a lot better because you’re not out in the elements,” Rodgers said.

The rains brought uncertainty for the bridge encampment, too. The Friars Road bridge is surrounded by two large apartment complexes, and the develop-ment manager for one of them feared the area could be flooded.

Civita residents also told property managers they were concerned about frequent comings and goings from Oson’s encampment and shopping carts left around it, said Mark Radelow, the

Sudberry Properties vice president who oversees Civita.

In December, Radelow hired the non-profit Alpha Project to clean up trash that had piled up in the area and to talk to Oson and others about relocating be-fore rains hit. They offered to connect the group with services and gave them items to shield them from the rain.

“That was the point where we said, ‘Hey, guys you have to move. You can’t stay under this bridge,’” Radelow said.

Oson’s now resigned to the fact he’ll have to leave someday. He just doesn’t want to.

“I feel safe here and I’m not causing any problems,” he said.

Oson and the others in his camp don’t believe a shelter would be an improve-ment over the life they’ve built.

Here, they’ve got a kitchen and shelves filled with food. Oson’s got his own suite with a futon; the others are comfortable in their tents and rooms. There’s space for Oson’s artwork. He and the others take care of one another and don’t have to deal with the curfews or other rules they’d have at a shelter or in many hous-ing programs.

“I think we live a lot better than cer-tain people do and it’s because I put the effort in,” Oson said.


MAYORCITY ATTORNEY

CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 1 DISTRICT 3 DISTRICT 5 DISTRICT 7 DISTRICT 9

COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS DISTRICT 3

PROPOSITION I: MINIMUM WAGE AND PAID SICK LEAVE

PROPOSITION H: INFRASTRUCTURE LOCK BOX


a preview of the june election

WHAT A DIFFERENCE FOUR YEARS MAKES. At this time in 2012, voters were facing big decisions.

The mayor’s race pitted four of the city’s highest-profile politicians against one another, generated national attention thanks to the presence of a party-switching candidate and cleaned out the city’s donor class. There was a major initiative to take pensions away from new city employees.

Things are comparatively quiet now. Some of the most exciting races and issues burned out before they even got started. Still, there are contests with major implications.

In San Diego, the city attorney’s race brings four strong candidates competing for the second-highest city office, but it’s hard to get voters excited over a position for which few understand the job responsibility.

Control of the San Diego City Council is at stake, with a race for District 1 that went from straightforward to messy in the course of a week.

A minimum wage vote that looked divisive when it was first put to the ballot back in 2014 has fizzled. A statewide increase blunted the measure’s significance — but it’s still on the ballot and will change what businesses have to do here.


The mayor’s promise to put a convention center expansion initiative to voters never materialized. A decision on the Chargers’ future will have to wait until November.

Even as the race gets closer and voters tune in to local issues, it might remain hard for City Hall to generate much attention. For the first time in years, both the Republican and Democratic presidential primaries are still competitive now that it’s California’s turn to vote.

All the attention paid to those presidential bids borrow from what might otherwise go to local races.

Yet the decisions voters make will nonetheless shape local politics. There will be at least three new Council members. The mayor and Council will come away with a new legal adviser. We could change the way we budget for infrastructure improvements.

Here’s a brief guide to help you know where the candidates stand come Election Day.

MAYORFOUR YEARS AGO, San Diego elected its first Democratic mayor in decades and it appeared a long-term demographic shift in the city had broken the Republican Party’s long hold over City Hall.

Then Mayor Bob Filner resigned in disgrace, and Mayor Kevin Faulconer won the special election to replace him. The budget got bigger each year as the economy expanded post-recession, and a moderate, business-friendly Republican mayor approaches another Election Day with approval ratings at his back.

Running against him are Lori Saldaña, a former assemblywoman who has since left the Democratic Party, and Ed Harris, a lifeguard union chief and former interim city councilman.

Saldaña acknowledges hers is a long-shot campaign. Harris, who received the Democratic Party’s endorsement, says he doesn’t bother with odds.

The tandem is a far cry from a year ago, when Councilman Todd Gloria and Assemblywoman Toni Atkins were rumored challengers.

Faulconer has taken his lumps in a public spat with the Chargers over funding a new stadium, but it doesn’t appear to have hurt him. He vetoed a minimum wage increase and supported the coalition that collected enough signatures to put it on the June ballot. That minimum wage hike will share the

Mayor Kevin Faulconer has taken his lumps in a public spat with the Chargers, but it doesn’t

appear to have hurt him.PHOTO BY DUSTIN MICHELSON

ballot with him and is expected to pass comfortably, but that too hasn’t stuck to him.

Saldaña says she got in the race to offer voters a clear contrast. That contrast, she said, is about income inequality. Faulconer supports business interests and those who are already doing well. She’ll support those who’ve been left behind.

Harris, meanwhile, says the city is a mess despite the impression that things are gradually improving as the budget grows. Police retention issues, for instance, make clear there’s a lack of leadership in the mayor’s office.

Faulconer is touting the spending decisions he’s made as the budget increased. He’s increased money spent on street repaving, made emergency response time improvements and increased library and recreation center hours.

Voters could be asked to support Faulconer again before four years are up. As the lone Republican mayor of a major California city, he’s become a popular name among rumored GOP gubernatorial hopefuls. His embrace of a climate plan that would slash the city’s greenhouse gas emissions – pushed aggressively by Gloria and prioritized by Democrats – has aided his attempts to differentiate himself from his party.

THE CANDIDATES

Kevin Faulconer

Lori Saldaña

Ed Harris


CITY VOTERS MIGHT NOT have a clear sense of what a city attorney does, but the elected legal counsel for the mayor and Council has left its mark on city politics in recent years.

Republican Jan Goldsmith is termed out after he organized what he called a “de facto impeachment” of Filner. He succeeded Democrat Mike Aguirre, whose combative role against the mayor and Council regularly landed him in the news.

It’s a crowded and qualified field on the June ballot, where the top two vote-getters will move on to a November runoff, assuming no one gets over 50 percent of the vote.

The lone Republican in the race, Deputy District Attorney Robert Hickey, is likely to advance to the November election, where he faces a less favorable electorate. The career prosecutor has said his experience would help him deal with the city’s homelessness problems. He’s backed by most Republicans in town and has plenty of money.

Port Commissioner Rafael Castellanos leads a pack of Democrats vying to join Hickey on the November ballot. He says his experience as a land use lawyer makes him the candidate to implement the city’s Climate Action Plan. He came up just shy of landing his party’s endorsement but won more votes than his opponents, is a prolific fundraiser and is supported by Councilman David Alvarez, Attorney General Kamala Harris and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Gil Cabrera, former chairman of the city’s Ethics Commission, has likewise raised enough money to run a robust campaign and has support from high-profile Democrats like Assemblywomen Lorena Gonzalez, Atkins and Gloria. He’s pledged to publish the legal opinions he offers the mayor and Council, so residents know where he stands if the other elected officials go

Robert Hickey (top) is the lone Republican running for city attorney, while Rafael Castellanos will battle a

crowded field of Democrats.PHOTOS COURTESY OF ROBERT HICKEY

AND RAFAEL CASTALLANOS

THE CANDIDATES

Robert Hickey

Rafael Castallanos

Gil Cabrera

Mara Elliott

Bryan Pease

CITY ATTORNEY

another way.Deputy City Attorney Mara Elliott hasn’t raised much money,

but she’s got a built-in advantage: The job she’s running for is right there in her current title. In a low-information contest, that could push her over the edge. She’s said the office needs to be de-politicized, and that the city attorney should simply provide the best legal guidance it can on behalf of its client.

Environmental attorney Bryan Pease was the last entrant into the race and is running a grassroots campaign. He ran for the City Council four years ago and has filed high-profile cases against the city, most notably to stop the removal of harbor seals from Children’s Pool in La Jolla.


THIS RACE WAS SIMPLE, until it wasn’t. Democrat Barbara Bry was well-funded and had her party’s support and was facing off against Republican Ray Ellis, for which both things were also true.

They both ran on the basis of successful business careers. Both supported pension reform for city employees. Both say they oppose public funding of a football stadium. One major point of disagreement was a minimum wage increase, which Bry supports but Ellis opposes.

The race was on track to end in June – with a low-turnout electorate favoring Ellis – after community planning advocate Joe LaCava dropped out of the race. Then the flood gates opened.

Bruce Lightner, husband to the district’s current representative Sherri Lightner, announced he was running as

Barbara Bry, a Democratic

frontrunner, stands in the way of

potential Republican control of the City Council.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BARBARA BRY

CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 1

THE CANDIDATES

Barbara Bry

Ray Ellis

Bruce Lightner

Kyle Heiskala

well. He says he’s self-funding and suspects to surprise people with the support he receives from residents who are thrilled with his wife’s mentality, which he’ll continue.

Though his wife’s a Democrat, Lightner is a registered Republican. He says he’s running to protect neighborhoods from developments like One Paseo and from the effects of short-term vacation rentals.

Current Sherri Lightner staffer Kyle Heiskala also jumped into the race at the last minute. He’s an advocate for transit and bicycle infrastructure.

Ellis and Bry remain clear frontrunners, with party endorsements and enough cash to flood homes with mail pieces that up their name ID. Ellis’ best chance is to win outright in June. If he can’t get to 50 percent support in the suddenly crowded field, Bry could move on to November, where the electorate will be more favorable to Democrats.

This is potentially the most significant race in the cycle. A Republican victory would likely give the party control of the City Council and, meaning the GOP could potentially control the Council, the mayor’s office and the city attorney’s office, all in a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans.


Mark Kersey is pushing an initiative to

counteract the city’s infrastructure deficit.

PHOTO BY SAM HODGSON

DISTRICT 3, WHICH COVERS DOWNTOWN and the core urban neighborhoods surrounding Balboa Park, is an open seat where little from a policy standpoint separates the two veteran Democratic staffers vying to succeed Councilman Todd Gloria.

Chris Ward is chief of staff to state Sen. Marty Block. He took the Democratic Party’s endorsement and tapped into the party’s donor network early on to emerge as a favorite. Ward has been on the board of Uptown Planners, the planning group for the Hillcrest, Bankers Hill, Mission


THE CANDIDATES

Chris Ward

Anthony Bernal

Hills area, and says he’ll prioritize infrastructure, public-safety spending and addressing homelessness.

Anthony Bernal has worked in Gloria’s office throughout his term and says he’ll pick up right where his boss left off. He’s raised money from the restaurant and building industries, he says, because business owners in the district know they’ll be able to work with him, even though he’s a Democrat. But that support from traditionally allied conservative groups won him a rebuke from his party when it endorsed Ward instead.

COUNCILMAN MARK KERSEY MANAGED to take the open seat vacated by Carl DeMaio four years ago without a challenger. Now he’s an incumbent running against two opponents with little funding and is an overwhelming favorite to win outright in June and maintain his seat.

Kersey spent the last three years pushing an open-government initiative that’s beginning to bear fruit for the city, and is currently pushing an initiative to counteract the city’s infrastructure deficit.

He failed to pull together a ballot measure that would do that, but he’s put together as an alternative one that would sequester half of all revenue increases and force future councils to spend it on infrastructure only.

The Democratic Party endorsed Frank Tsimboukakis, who has pledged


THE CANDIDATES

Mark Kersey Frank Tsimboukakis

Keith Mikas

to roll back water rate hikes and increase police hiring.

Political newcomer Keith Mikas is also on the ballot.


Scott Sanborn

THE CANDIDATES

THE CANDIDATES

COUNCILWOMAN MARTI EMERALD COULD RUN for another term but decided to resign to concentrate on a bout against cancer. A field of Democrats from across the liberal spectrum seeks to succeed her.

The best funded is frontrunner Ricardo Flores, Emerald’s chief of staff. Like Bernal, he’s promised to keep the city’s business moving without a hitch, and like Bernal he’s received support from traditionally GOP donors, such as developer Tom Sudberry, a member of the Lincoln Club’s board of directors.

Democrat Georgette Gomez is an environmentalist and community organizer who, in her day job at the Environmental Health Coalition, was active in the fight for a plan to keep homes in Barrio Logan segregated from

IT’S A SIMILAR STORY in District 7, the district that covers the area just north of I-8 including Mission Valley, Serra Mesa and San Carlos, where Republican Scott Sherman won in June four years ago and now gets the decided advantage of running as an incumbent.

Sherman injected himself into the city’s push to build a new Chargers stadium in Mission Valley, rolling out his own plan that would turn the existing Qualcomm site into a home for dense housing, employment opportunities and a state-of-the-art stadium. He’s also become the Council’s most unapologetic conservative, railing against liberal priorities like the minimum wage increase.

His opponents are Justin Decesare, who won the Democratic endorsement



and says he’ll emphasize infrastructure spending and neighborhood improvements after Sherman was too focused on the Chargers issue, and Jose Caballero, a self-styled progressive running to Decesare’s left who says he’s breaking up establishment politics a la Bernie Sanders, who he’s proudly endorsed.

Scott Sherman Justin Decesare

Jose Caballero

Ricardo Flores Georgette Gomez

Sarah Saez

Sherman injected himself into the city’s

push to build a new Chargers stadium in

Mission Valley …

heavy industry, which was eventually tossed by city voters in 2014.

Sarah Saez is a labor organizer with valuable endorsements from the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council and the local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers. She won her stripes in the labor movement leading the push to lift the cap on taxi permits for the United Taxi Workers of San Diego. She’s come out in favor of participatory budgeting – where a city’s budget comes together with significant input from city residents – and has called for rent control in the city.

All three candidates were rated acceptable by the Democratic Party. Grassroots candidates Sam Bedwell, Araceli Martinez and Rebecca Paida are also on the ballot.


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THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE YEAR San Diego would solve its infrastructure deficit. As it stands now, the city can’t repair enough roads, sidewalks and storm drains to keep things from deteriorating further.

But instead of a measure that would generate enough cash to make substantial repairs, Councilman Mark Kersey’s plan would instead create an infrastructure fund and fill it with future tax revenue – money that would normally go to the general account the city uses to pay for all its core services. Kersey’s plan would set the city’s 2016 budget as its base; as revenues increase each year, half of that increase would go into the newly created infrastructure fund. And the city wouldn’t be able to decrease the amount it spent on infra-structure from its general fund, so the infrastructure fund’s spending would all be extra.

In short, the measure takes money the city is already ex-pected to receive, and mandates a certain amount is spent on infrastructure needs each year. The city’s independent bud-get analyst estimated it could divert up to $4 billion to infra-structure projects from other needs over the next 25 years.

Assuming current revenue growth holds steady, the mea-sure would bring in between $140 million to $200 million in the next five years. The IBA says it already knows of $1.4 bil-lion in infrastructure needs over that time, and that number will only increase. So the measure wouldn’t be enough to get the city to begin improving the state of infrastructure. It would slow the rate at which things are getting worse.

Two years ago, it seemed the minimum wage proposal would be among the most disputed pieces of the June ballot.

San Diego City Council Democrats in 2014 passed the increase on a party-line vote. A coalition led by the Chamber of Commerce and Faulconer, with significant financial support from out-of-town business groups, collected enough signatures to put it on the June ballot.

But even after working to force the issue onto the ballot, business groups weren’t that likely to pump much money or effort into combating the minimum wage. Polling showed it was popular and likely to pass regardless. Then the state Legislature made it even less likely in March when it passed a measure to increase the minimum wage statewide – to an amount even higher than San Diego’s measure.

If approved, San Diego’s hike will nonetheless raise wages faster than the new state measure. City workers would get a bump above the statewide $10 floor to $10.50 in June of this year and $11.50 at the start of 2017. San Diego’s wage would then increase along with inflation beginning in 2019. But by 2020 the state’s minimum wage would take over until it reaches $15 in 2022.

The measure also forces employers to provide 40 hours of paid sick leave to their employees.

FOUR YEARS AGO, County Supervisor Dave Roberts became the first new member of the Board of Supervisors since 1995, and the board’s only Democrat. His first term didn’t go as he expected, though: He weathered a scandal after a former staffer filed a wrongful termination claim against him in which she alleged Roberts had an inappropriate relationship with one of his staffers. The county paid out $310,000 in settlements to three Roberts staffers who filed claims against him.

Roberts has denied that anything inappropriate took place. He’s running for another term and touting his record of supporting strict restrictions on new developments and other environmental standards. He even spoke out against Carmel Valley’s One Paseo development, a project the county had no say over.

He’s running against two Republicans who’ve split the conservative establishment, Encinitas Mayor Kristin Gaspar and Escondido Mayor Sam Abed.

Gaspar is positioned in the mold of longtime supervisor Pam Slater-Price, a development-wary Republican in a development-wary district. She’s been endorsed by the conservative Lincoln Club. Abed is a more traditional conservative than Gaspar, promising to bring small-government conservatism to the seat. He’s won the support of the county Republican Party.

PROPOSITION H

PROPOSITION I

INFRASTRUCTURE LOCK BOX

MINIIMUM WAGE AND PAID SICK LEAVE

SAN DIEGO COUNTY OF BOARD SUPERVISORS DISTRICT 3

THE CANDIDATES

Dave Roberts

Kristin Gaspar

Sam Abed



“WE’RE NOT GOING TO HAVE A TRIAL IN THE MEDIA,” DISTRICT ATTORNEY BONNIE DUMANIS SAID AT A PRESS CONFERENCE — RIGHT BEFORE SHE METHODICALLY, EXPERTLY, LAID OUT THE MANY THINGS FRIDOON NEHAD HAD DONE TO MERIT HIS OWN DEATH.

THE TRIAL OF FRIDOON NEHAD

Right: District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis FILE PHOTO BY SAM HODGSON

PHOTO COURTESY OF NEHAD FAMILY

Fridoon Rawshan Nehad


At an unprecedented press conference three days before Christmas, where she proactively released a video of the police shooting of Fridoon Nehad that she had fought hard to keep secret, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis batted away questions about why she would not also release the officer’s statement about what happened.

Media organizations, including ours, had joined together to fight for access not only to the video but to the statement.

“Why not open the entire file?” she asked, flippantly, as though that would be ridiculous.

I asked, yes, why not?“We’re not going to have a trial in the

media,” she answered. (The officer’s statement was later released by Nehad’s family, thanks to the media’s intervention to unseal those documents.)

What Dumanis should have said was that we were not going to have a trial in the media of the officer involved in the shooting, Neal Browder. Dumanis was absolutely willing to try in the media the man who was killed.

Methodically, expertly, Dumanis laid out the many things Fridoon Nehad had done to merit his death. She even showed a video of someone else twirling a butterfly knife to help people visualize how menacing Nehad might have looked as he twirled a pen.

Even the prosecutor in Cleveland, who

on politicsBY SCOTT LEWISCEO/EDITOR IN CHIEF

THE TRIAL OF FRIDOON NEHADOPINION:


The Hi-Lite Theater’s alleyway, where an SDPD officer killed an unarmed man in April 2015. PHOTO BY JAMIE SCOTT LYTLE

ON POLITICS

similarly suggested 12-year-old Tamir Rice was at fault for his own death, at least met with Rice’s family, expressed condolences, called it a tragedy and told the public it was a “perfect storm of human error, mistakes and miscommunication.”

Dumanis acknowledged no such regret.Not once did she say what happened

was a mistake or a tragedy. She offered no hint that what happened was not the desired outcome. The only mistakes or bad actions were those of the deceased. The only problem she addressed was our society’s approach to mental illness. That was the only discussion she said the shooting and the controversial video should provoke: “how to better help the homeless who suffer from mental illness in San Diego County.”

Thus, if a mentally ill person acts threatening, brandishes what is inter-preted as a knife, gets the police called on him and then approaches a respond-ing police officer late at night at a slow pace, he should expect to be killed.

That was what I was taking away from Dumanis’s closing statement. Should anyone who does the same also should expect to be killed? I asked Dumanis that. This is the point of these discus-sions, no? To better understand at what point agents of the local government

have the right to kill civilians.Dumanis said every situation is

different. And then she said this: “I can say one thing the public should be aware of is that if an officer says to stop, you ought to stop. If an officer says to drop the knife, you ought to drop the knife.”

There is the problem that Nehad was not carrying a knife to drop. And though the officer believed Nehad was going to stab him, it is not obvious that Nehad was still walking or that he knew the car he was approaching was an officer’s. The district attorney, recognizing the importance of proving that Nehad was in fact still walking when he was shot, showed an enhanced slide from the video to prove that he was raising a foot.

While two witnesses heard the officer command Nehad to drop “the knife” or “it,” another did not and the officer himself is unsure if he said anything.

This was Dumanis’s case. It is pretty good as an explanation for why she did not prosecute Browder for murder or manslaughter.

But she had already made that decision and explained it several weeks before.

The press conference was a follow-up intended to help people understand the whole incident. In that, it was horribly inadequate. Dumanis was so

determined to prove her decision not to prosecute Browder was correct that she didn’t bother to acknowledge even the possibility that something had gone wrong.

Nehad’s family said it was just a “continued attempt to demonize Fridoon.” And they were right. We’ve heard about everything wrong with Nehad — his previous run-ins, his drug use, his mental health. The press conference served no purpose but to plaster him as deserving of what he got.

If that was not the purpose, then it should have included something more. Unless you’re willing to say that Nehad should have died and that this was the expected, desired outcome of the encounter between him and Browder, then you have to admit something went wrong and discuss it.

That’s the conversation Dumanis was not willing to have. It is not one San Diego’s mayor and police chief apparently want to have either. They did everything they could to avoid it — to hide the video as though we were not mature enough to handle it.

They know that if they can just prove Nehad was dangerous and not part of “us” then we won’t be worried. We survive on the myth that as long as we don’t do drugs, don’t stroll through dark alleys behind adult book stores and aren’t mentally ill, we will not encounter police officers and therefore don’t have to worry about their trigger fingers.

But Nehad’s family is just as removed from those things as anyone else. They are successful, intelligent people who, like many others, could not just cage a brother and son who was mentally ill. How many of us have friends and family members who descend into addiction, lose their homes or their minds?

Something went wrong. We have to be more comfortable exploring what it was.

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