Audit: San Diego’s Poor Implementation Of Climate Action Plan

Good Morning, I’m Annica Colbert….it’s Tuesday, July 13th. >>>> San Diego struggles to implement its own climate action plan. More on that next, but first... let’s do the headlines…. ###### The San Diego County Sheriff’s department hosted a gun trade in Vista on Sunday, trading guns for gift cards. Here’s Sheriff’s Lieutenant David Buether. “We did run out of gift cards, I’m not sure when, but we had nearly 300 firearms that were surrendered in that time period, so many people ended up with some IOU’s.” Later this week The San Diego city council committee will get a report from the police department on so-called “ghost guns.” Or firearms that are untraceable. ########## A new report from The San Diego Food System Alliance has suggestions for how the county can improve San Degians access to food. According to the report, before the pandemic one in seven San Diegans in the region were experiencing food insecurity. The Alliance says that today it's one in three. The report outlines three main goals for improving food insecurity; that’s by cultivating racial justice, fighting climate change, and by strengthening public safety nets and investing in the local food economy. ######## The Beckwourth complex fire in North-East California is now the state’s largest wildfire of this year. Almost 90-thousand acres have burned since last week, and containment is at 23 per-cent. Chris Carlton is a spokesman for the Plumas National Forest where the fire is. "the plumas national forest---this is the third fire in three years of national significance. Every community in these counties has been impacted repeatedly in the last couple of years. while it's devastating, it's also really shown us what we're made of." (:14)] Investigators believe all the fires in the Beckwourth complex were started by lightning. ######### From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now. Stay with me for more of the local news you need. A new audit says San Diego has some major shortcomings when it comes to implementing its climate action plan. The city council reviewed the audit on Monday. KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen has more…. AB: San Diego's 2015 Climate Action Plan was hailed as a model for cities across the country. But the city auditor found the plan's implementation has fallen short. City departments aren't tracking their progress toward transportation and conservation goals and they aren’t being held accountable for their lack of action. Advocates have been voicing similar criticism for years, and say San Diego needs more staff dedicated to climate action. KARINNA GONZALEZ HAMMOND CLIMATE SOLUTIONS KG: The city of San Diego must show its commitment to implementing the climate action plan by increasing funding to the sustainability department so that the city has the staff and the resources to actually make progress. AB: City Councilmembers largely agreed San Diego has not moved fast enough to lower greenhouse gas emissions or prepare for the worst impacts of climate change. SEAN ELO-RIVERA SAN DIEGO CITY COUNCILMEMBER SER: All of this work requires people. Our sustainability team is amazing, but we want to make sure that they're adequately resourced so that they can continue doing the amazing work that they do. That's why I think the staffing analysis is so, so important, so that council can make the necessary budgetary decisions to meet our CAP goals. AB: City officials agreed to implement the audit's recommendations over the next year and a half. They're also preparing an update to the climate action plan that will include even more sustainability goals that stretch decades into the future. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news. ########## Father Joe Carroll, a man who created a national-model to tackle homelessness more than thirty years ago, died over the weekend. KPBS health reporter Matt Hoffman says his legacy will not soon be forgotten. I’m the director of the st vincent depaul center, it’s a center to help homelessness. So much has happened over the last thirty years Father Joe Carroll, the namesake behind one of San Diego’s largest homeless service providers died Saturday at age 80. At the Joan Kroc center in downtown San Diego people have been bringing flowers to honor him, and remember his selfless attitude-- He was hope lot a lot of the homeless here in San Diego He’s helped me out, he’s fed me, given me a place to live, resources. He’s definitely going to be missed. He’s an icon here in San Diego and he’s helped thousands and thousands of people Father Joe was a catholitc priest who more than three decades ago decided to devote his work to helping the homeless--- Deacon Jim Vargas, Father Joe's Villages CEO We talked about that the term hustler priest and the fact that he was so well known gathering money for those in need and he said it was quite easy because he wasn’t doing it for him Father Joe's Villages CEO Deacon Jim Vargas was tearful when recounting one of his last conversations with Carroll, where he told him about a new housing development that’s dedicated in part to his life-long work-- His legacy does live on and it will continue to live on in the work we do each and every single day Father Joe’s motto was simple : neighbors helping neighbors. KPBS spoke to him when he was named Mr. San Diego by the Rotary club in 2012-- So my goal in 30 years has been these are neighbors who happen to be in trouble. We have a neighbor who’s sick, that’s a homeless person sounds fearful but we’re neighbors helping neighbors so we help them He created a national model that he called ‘one-stop shopping’-- having shelter, job training and health services all at a single location. And my concept was why don't we have it all at one site so people in need neighbors who are struggling don't have to go walking over all town Father Joe’s health worsened over the years and because of diabetes he had both of his legs amputated and lost an eye.. But that didn’t slow him down, still rallying to raise money for the unsheltered and attending public events, like his annual holiday dinner. Everything at father joes begins with a meal this means all these people by getting food might get into one of our rehab programs. So it’s the beginning of a process that we hope to change their lives over the next year Details for a public memorial service will be released in a few days. . MH KPBS News ######## It's been one year since a fire destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard (bon-um rih-shard) on San Diego bay. And the investigation into what started the fire is still on-going. KPBS Military reporter Steve Walsh has more. The fire burned for 4 days, sending smoke billowing over the region. In November, the ship was declared a total loss, but the Navy hasn’t released any final report. Robert Schaal a former ATF arson investigator, says the delay isn’t unusual. “When you are conducting a criminal investigation you want to gather as much information as you can and hold it to make sure you’re gathering accurate information from other people. You don't want stuff to get widely circulated.” NCIS Spokesman Jeff Houston confirmed Monday that a criminal investigation is still underway and no charges have been filed. The ship has since been sent for scrap. Aside from a criminal investigation, the Navy is compiling at least two other reports on the cause of the fire. Steve Walsh KPBS News. ########## Coming up.... The results of a region-wide survey captures the struggles Latinas face in the San Diego workforce. We’ll have more on that next just after the break. The pandemic caused a lot of changes to the American workplace, and in many cases these changes saw people leaving their jobs. Latinas have left the workforce at higher rates than any other demographic. And, according to UCLA research, they’ve had some of the highest unemployment rates throughout the pandemic. In response to this trend, MANA de San Diego and the Kim Center for Social Balance released a snapshot summary of the issue... in an effort to highlight the inequities that Latinas in the San Diego region face at work. Hei-Ock Kim is the Executive Director of the Kim Center for Social Balance. She spoke with KPBS Midday Edition Host Jade Hindmon about the report. So you are releasing the first ever regional report today on the status of Latinas in the workforce, and it measures any qualities. What have you found in your research? Speaker 2: 00:55 We have found that despite the fact that mano de San Diego members tend to be in the upper echelons of professions, they are still experiencing the same kinds of barriers to career success as Latinos in all professional tiers. And that's worrisome, uh, considering that Latinas are a third of all employed women in San Diego county employers really stand to gain a lot and lose a lot unless they really pay attention to this demographic group. So Speaker 1: 01:36 What are some of the obstacles that are standing in the way? Speaker 2: 01:39 One of the biggest ones is representation. Over half of our participants. Our survey participants reported that there is not fair representation in leadership, and that serves several purposes. First of all, there's the visual affirmation that Latinas can be part of the leadership narrative in their organizations. And there's also the hand down effect, you know, the, uh, the mentorship and the opening of opportunities that Latinos can create for each other. And then of course the influence on our younger generations where they see what's possible. So Speaker 1: 02:18 Are Latinas being left behind, say, as the nation continues, its economic recovery from the pandemic, Speaker 2: 02:24 Uh, team noodles are still falling behind in terms of rates of promotion pay as well as representation in positions and industries that pay more and have higher levels of respect if you will. And that's not changing, unfortunately because Latinas were leaving the workforce in such high numbers because of COVID, but it's actually getting worse. And as they come back into the workforce and employers are really going to benefit if they're able pay attention to the needs of this group, not necessarily as a special group, but simply to implement practices and policies that ensure that, uh, their promotions, their pay advances, their access to career advancement tools are fairly distributed and, um, access is fairly offered. You know, Speaker 1: 03:22 There's growing speculation that there isn't so much of a labor shortage as there is a shortage of fair compensation and benefits for many workers. Does that play into what we're seeing with Latinas in the workforce at all? Speaker 2: 03:36 It does in a lot of ways. I mean, particularly when you're talking about benefits, uh, family leave, you know, in addition to basic state requirements, accommodations for flexibility, working from home when it works for people, sometimes it doesn't work, um, and that's, that needs to be paid attention to as well. Um, a lot of these things can help Latinos and other groups. And let's be honest, we're really talking about women in general, um, because women are the largest. I hate to say marginalized, you know, people in group in the workforce, and they're often the most, uh, burdened with caregiving and other home responsibilities. In addition to their work responsibilities, Speaker 1: 04:21 This report is also a call to action. So how can the business community in the region support equity and equality for Latinas in the workforce? Speaker 2: 04:30 Absolutely. It's a call to action. Uh, research says that if you want to make widespread cultural transformation, you really need to do it on the local level. But if you're going to do, if you're going to have a United community response, you need to have local data. So the chem center is launching a full regional assessment. The first of its kind, I think in the country actually, uh, sometime this later this year, and we are hoping that all employers will join forces with us, uh, elected officials, foundations, unions, you know, all our partners and would be partners in the community will join forces with us on a company by company basis. Employers should really pay attention to the highlights that we, um, point to in the report because every community is different. Every company is different. So the highlights that we provide are at least a baseline for what San Diego is addressing. What we are addressing here is very different from what's happening in Tulsa, Oklahoma, or New York city. So let's pay attention to what's going on here. And then to employers, I would urge you to do your own assessments. That was Hei-Ock Kim, Executive Director of the Kim Center for Social Balance, speaking with KPBS Midday Edition host Jade Hindmon. That’s it for the podcast today. Be sure to catch KPBS Midday Edition At Noon on KPBS radio, or check out the Midday podcast. You can also watch KPBS Evening Edition at 5 O’clock on KPBS Television, and as always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Annica Colbert. Thanks for listening and have a great day.