Early results are showing a slight lead for a measure that would extend term limits for San Diego County supervisors and give them more power over county government.
Measure A would extend county supervisor term limits from two to three four-year terms. It would also reform the county charter to create new budget analyst and program auditor positions, which would report to the Board of Supervisors. Finally, it would create an ethics commission whose members would be appointed by supervisors and county counsel.
Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe supported advancing the measure to voters. She spoke to KPBS before polls closed Tuesday night and said it would align supervisor term limits with state lawmakers.
“It just puts us on a level where we are able to advocate in the way we need to for our community, for our region,” Montgomery Steppe said. “And it also provides additional checks and balances for the board and for county staff.”
Two members of the Board of Supervisors opposed the measure, saying it’s self-serving to allow sitting officials to run for a third term.
Measure A would also allow supervisors to confirm and remove some senior county staff, and it would require additional public disclosures of some county spending.
Why it matters
Supporters say Measure A would help modernize a county government that’s grown dramatically in recent years to serve 3.3 million residents and manage $9.16 billion in annual spending. They said it would provide supervisors more time to tackle long-term projects. Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer also said the reforms would give the public more oversight over how money is spent, whether programs are working and whether the government is generally serving people to the standard they expect. Overall, supporters argue these changes would bring more accountability and transparency to county government.
Opponents said the ethics and accountability initiatives shouldn’t be packaged with reforms giving supervisors more power. Polling by the San Diego Union-Tribune suggests the accountability measures are far more popular with voters than extending supervisor term limits. Supervisor Jim Desmond called Measure A a “power grab” because it would apply to sitting supervisors (specifically, it would allow Supervisors Lawson-Remer and Joel Anderson to run for a third term). Opponents also question the independence of the budget analyst, auditor and ethics commission if they ultimately report to the board of supervisors (along with county counsel, in some cases).
By the numbers
Lawson-Remer’s office said the charter reforms would be cost neutral because the measure would rely on existing funding and modernizing inefficient county systems. Her office said the reforms could yield savings over the long term by rooting out wasteful spending.
As of Oct. 27, the campaign to support Measure A had raised $169,000 this year, mostly from labor and public employee unions.
No entities reported any spending to oppose Measure A as of Oct. 27, according to the county’s campaign finance portal.
Looking ahead
Supervisors on both sides of Measure A agree that it leaves a lot of policy uncertainties to figure out during implementation, if it’s approved by voters.
