S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. On today's show , San Diego County is considering charter reform. Will tell you what the reforms could change. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors is set to discuss proposed reforms to the county's charter tomorrow. Those changes could include adding longer term limits and ethics commission , and much more. If passed , the charter rewrite would go to public vote in November , but there's still a lot of debate over what exactly those reforms should look like. Here with more is Lucas Robinson. He covers San Diego County government and politics for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Lucas. Welcome back.
S2: Hi there. Thanks for having me back on. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Glad to have you here. Before we talk about the proposed changes , remind us how a county charter works and what it means for how San Diego is run.
S2: Yeah , so it's really easy. Like , if you understand the concept of a constitution , it's more or less the same thing in the way the federal Constitution outlines the powers of the president , Congress , Supreme Court , the county charter does the same thing. It outlines that there is a board of supervisors with five members , and they serve this many terms. And there's also other elected or other positions in county government. And they have these powers , and it delineates the powers of the different people and county government. And like an amendment to change the US Constitution , what the supervisors are trying to do is the same thing to amend the county's charter through a ballot measure. Interesting.
S1: Interesting. So , I mean , it's been what , 50 years since changes to the charter were last made ? Why is there movement to to rewrite the charter now ? Sure.
S2: So there's a few different ways to answer that. Some of the elements in this package are things Different interest groups and county government like labor unions or nonprofits have wanted for quite some time. Those include confirmation hearings for expanded confirmation hearings for top county positions. Folks have felt that process , which is not up to the supervisors , has lacked transparency over the years. The package would also create an independent budget analysis. Who would have the ability to give the supervisors analysis and recommendations about the county's budget ? Kind of separate through the county's existing bureaucracy. So those things have been talked about for years now. Now , but some of the new elements are these term limits for the supervisors , which would expand their term limits from two terms to three terms. And that is something that is a bit new , that has come up from what Supervisor Tara Lawson Ramer is proposing.
S1: Well , I mean , that brings us to her , her plan. I mean , let's talk more about the term limits you mentioned there. What is she proposing ? Yeah.
S2: So the term limit part of it would allow , like I said , supervisors to now serve three four year terms. They currently serve to kind of the kicker is though that the sitting supervisors would be able to take advantage of these new terms. So it's opened up a lot of concerns about loss. And Raymer and the other Democrats on the board who support this , essentially passing something that they would be able to benefit from politically.
S1: And that also includes term limits for the sheriff and the district attorney. But that's not actually permitted under state law. Talk about the distinction there. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So this is where some more , even more controversy comes from under state law. These positions like the Da and the sheriff , you can't impose term limits on them. They can serve as many terms as they want. And so in the ballot measure that Lawson Ramer has proposed , it basically says it asks voters to put term limits on those positions where allowed by law. And guess what ? It's not allowed by law. So it's kind of a moot point because if the voters pass it , nothing changes. And even if the voters didn't pass it and there was a change in state law , it wouldn't be up to the county or the electorate at all to decide this. And when I asked Lawson Ramer , do you plan to lobby the state legislature to change this law ? She told me no. So that kind of begs the question , why is this even in there ? And to some of the critics of this , they're basically saying this is a sweetener for the package. So when the , you know , the average person who maybe hasn't read my reporting or listen to your show goes in and they don't know what this is all about , because generally the public supports term limits. So they see this thing. It says , okay , term limits for the Da and sheriff. Like that sounds good. And they just check it off. So they're basically saying this is a trick to get voters to support this. Interesting.
S1: Interesting. Well does she know anybody that's going to that's lobbying for that.
S2: At the state.
S1: Level ? Yeah.
S2: Not that I'm aware. I mean , the county has lobbyists that it hires to go to Sacramento and push for the things that the county wants , but I don't see this being. I mean , she even told me this is not something that they're going to actually push for. Mm.
S1: All right. Uh , nothing burger there. Um , she's also looking to add an ethics commission and make changes to the budget process.
S2: Sounds pretty great. Something we would all want in local government. But when you look at the details of the proposal proper , this ethics commission they're proposing lacks a lot of the best practices that you would see in similar ethics commissions nationwide. And you can just compare it to the City of San Diego's Ethics Commission , where there's a ethics board. But they also have dedicated staff with an executive director and investigators. And these investigators have their own budget and subpoena power to get documents and compel people to testify about alleged violations , and the city's ethics commission also has the ability to impose fines on people who have violated the ethics code. This county proposal contains almost none of that. There's no staff , there's no dedicated budget. They say they want to give it subpoena power , but there's nothing in the language actually authorizing that. So that , again , kind of raises some questions of when a voter goes in and looks at this ethics commission. Sounds good , but the devil is in the details. So when you look at it , what they're proposing does lack a lot of the best practices that are seen elsewhere.
S1:
S2: There's a nonprofit think tank called the Center on Policy Initiatives , which has studied the county's budget for a long time , and they've been brought in to advise Lawson Ramer on the development of this. Another big advisor on it is Jack McGrory , who is the city manager of San Diego in the 90s. And so those two have been part of the brain trust that has been advising Lawson Ramer on how to propose this and how to draft the measure. Okay.
S1: Okay. Well , Supervisor Joel Anderson has since presented a counterproposal to Lawson Reimers plan.
S2: It eliminates the confirmation hearings for top county staff. It makes the independent budget analyst an elected position instead of one appointed by supervisors. His proposal also contains the term limit component , but it exempts sitting supervisors from taking advantage of it. So to hear Anderson tell it , he thinks he is supportive of a lot of the things in the package , but he wants it to a not benefit the sitting supervisors and be kind of take out this what he would call politicization of the county's civil service. Hmm.
S1: Hmm.
S2: She also kind of says that , oh , they're just trying to fight the term limits that this package would impose on them. But we already know that this package doesn't accomplish that. And you would need state law to actually put term limits on these positions. So that has been the supervisor's response so far.
S1:
S2: What this package does is give more powers to the supervisors and you can make an argument. And they do that expanded confirmation hearings bring out into the open this process of how these really important jobs in the counties bureaucracy get picked. And not only that , it also , you know , gives the power to confirm them with actual elected officials who voters choose. Um , I think this would increase. Tell us a lot more about the county's budget. If there is an independent analyst kind of giving reports and recommendations on the county's budget. The city has that , and it's definitely a helpful resource for the public to kind of understand more about what's going on in the county's budget. So there are those components , but it definitely the story here is getting clouded by some of these more politicized parts. That's really where the controversy is lying. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. So people really have to sort of sift through all of this , um , to get a clear picture of what decisions are being made here. Uh , you know , as the this debate continues , I imagine it'll be a major point of discussion at tomorrow's vote.
S2: Well , it could be. It could be one of those meetings that goes into Wednesday. And I think hopefully there is more of a discussion between the supervisors about this term limit package , because really at this point , I have not heard from Lawson Reamer , the other Democratic supervisors , a real full throated defense of what they want to do with these term limits. They sort of say , well , state legislature has three terms , and that's what we're doing. Or they say , well , it's technically up to the voters , even though we are voting to like ask it of them. So I personally would like to hear more from them about why they do think they should be able to take advantage of these new rules. Another thing that's been included in the new legislation from Lawson Reamer is it basically directs the county's top bureaucrat to create sort of educational materials for the public about the ballot measure. It throws out , you know , maybe organizing town halls or different information guides so people could actually understand kind of what you and I are talking about and what some of these different proposals do. So I expect that language in the package to come up tomorrow as well.
S1:
S2: Okay. So I was looking at it this morning. I'm going to leave your studio here and go write that story now. Um , it's , uh , I believe it kind of boosts spending up to about $9 billion. And there's some interesting , uh , kind of new mandates the county is having to pass , including the prop 36 , which involves the justice system. They have to appropriate new money to that. Uh , also , federal budget cuts are kind of starting to impact social services like Cal Fresh , for example. So there's kind of new money they're having to put into the system to be able to , uh , you know , keep up those sort of social services for people. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Does it look like it'll. They'll have it. They'll be able to meet that need. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. And what they've proposed so far because I mean , also the county has a sales tax ballot measure coming in the fall , potentially. And the thinking behind that is this new money in there would be able to fill some of the new unfunded mandates that the county will have to take care of with social services because of federal legislation.
S1: All right. Well , we'll be looking out for that story. Next. I've been speaking with Lucas Robinson , County government and politics reporter for the San Diego Union Tribune. Lucas , thank you so much.
S2: Yeah , likewise. Thank you.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
