With financial challenges ahead, San Diego County gives out bonuses
Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson….it’s MONDAY, DECEMBER 15TH>>>> [ BONUSES WENT OUT TO ALL COUNTY EMPLOYEES ... ]More on WHY next. But first... the headlines…########
IT’S LOOKING LIKE PEPPER PARK ON THE NATIONAL CITY BAYFRONT WILL BE GETTING ALMOST 50% BIGGER
THAT'S BECAUSE THE CALIFORNIA COASTAL COMMISSION APPROVED 'THE NATIONAL CITY BALANCED PLAN' LAST WEEK
THE PLANS' GOALS INCLUDE DEVELOPING TENT SITES, CABINS AND A R- V PARK
A PORT OF SAN DIEGO STATEMENT ALSO MENTIONS LOFTIER GOALS LIKE DEVELOPING UP TO TWO HOTELS AND A DRY BOAT STORAGE AREA
IF THE BOARD OF PORT COMMISSIONERS ACCEPTS THE CERTIFICATION, THEN THE PORT AND CITY CAN GET STARTED ON THE PROJECT
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THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION IS STEPPING UP AMIDST THE UNCERTAINTY OF FEDERAL FUNDING FOR PROGRAMS LIKE CAL FRESH
OVER TWO AND HALF MILLION DOLLARS IN GRANTS WILL GO TOWARDS STRENGTHENING NEW COMMUNITY LED PROGRAMS
THE MONEY IS COMING FROM THE SAN DIEGO UNITY FUND WHICH WAS CREATED THIS YEAR IN RESPONSE TO FEDERAL FUNDING REDUCTIONS IN HOUSING, FOOD AND HEALTH CARE
MAMA'S KITCHEN RECEIVED 325 THOUSAND DOLLARS TO EXPAND THEIR MEAL DELIVERY SERVICE FOR THOSE WITH SERIOUS ILLNESSES
A QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS ALSO WENT TO 'PROJECT NEW VILLAGE'
THAT MONEY WILL FUND FARMERS MARKETS ON WHEELS WITH THE OVERALL GOAL OF BRINGING LOCALLY GROWN AND FAIRLY PRICED FOOD INTO NEIGHBORHOODS WITH LIMITED ACCESS TO FRESH FOOD
FOR A FULL LIST OF PROGRAMS BEING FUNDED, YOU CAN VISIT SD-FOUNDATION DOT ORG SLASH UNITY
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THE EVER-ELUSIVE AND ANONYMOUS BANKSY IS COMING TO SAN DIEGO IN THE NEW YEAR… THE EXHIBIT THAT IS
'THE ART OF BANKSY WITHOUT LIMITS' TOURING EXHIBIT ARRIVES AT THE DEL MAR FAIRGROUNDS ACTIVITY CENTER ON JANUARY 30TH
IT SHOWCASES MORE THAN 200 ARTWORKS FROM THE FAMED-STREET ARTIST ACROSS MULTIPLE MEDIUMS...
INCLUDING PHOTOGRAPHY, SCULPTURE, LITHOGRAPHS, VIDEO-MAPPING INSTALLATIONS AND MORE
From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.Stay with me for more of the local news you need.
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COUNTY OFFICIALS HAVE RECENTLY WARNED OF MAJOR FINANCIAL CHALLENGES ON THE HORIZON.
FOR OUR WEEKLY WHY IT MATTERS SEGMENT, VOICE OF SAN DIEGO’S SCOTT LEWIS EXPLAINS WHY A MOVE TO GIVE OUT BONUSES TO ALL COUNTY EMPLOYEES SURPRISED SOME PEOPLE.
COUNTYBONUS (vosd) TRT 1:15 last words “why it matters”
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The federal government under President Donald Trump has passed major cuts to the services San Diego County provides to its poorest residents.
So it stood out recently when the county gave one-time bonuses of about $1000 to most of its employees. And now it has dipped into reserves to pay for them. Here’s county supervisor Jim Desmond at a recent board meeting explaining why he was upset about the decision.
“I’m in favor of all of our hardworking employees and county staff getting good compensation for the good work you’re doing. But using reserves to carry out employee pay agreements, to me, is the wrong path to go down. We should not be doing that.”
What Desmond didn’t say is he technically voted for the labor agreement that triggered those bonuses.
Here’s what happened.
This year, the Democratic majority on the Board of Supervisors passed a policy to theoretically allow them to dip into county reserves more easily.
But the board had also made deals with employee unions that if they ever changed that policy, the county would have to first give employees bonuses. Those are the deals Desmond had supported.
But now, Republicans are against it. After some political maneuvering, Democrats on the board found a way to tap into the reserves to pay for the bonuses, without the support of their GOP colleagues.
But the county’s financial situation remains so dire that Democrats and unions are expected to promote a tax increase next year.
I’m Scott Lewis for Voice of San Diego and that’s why it matters.
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LAST WEEK THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DESIGNATED MOST OF THE US - MEXICO BORDER IN CALIFORNIA A MILITARIZED ZONE.
MILITARY REPORTER ANDREW DYER SAYS CROSSING INTO THE AREA CAN MEAN EXTRA CHARGES FOR MIGRANTS.
MILZONE 1 (AD) trt: 53 soq
The new National Defense Area is under control of the Navy. it stretches along the border from the west side of the Otay Mountain wilderness area to a mile west of the Arizona border.
Essentially the designation makes a strip of land 60 feet wide along the US - Mexico border a military base.
This allows the military to detain migrants and lets the government add charges of trespassing on a military base to anyone caught inside.
This spring the administration declared similar zones along the border in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.
A joint task force southern border spokesperson says there have been more than 3,000 detentions within the new military zones since April..federal prosecutors have had difficulty getting trespassing charges to stick. Defense attorneys say migrants don’t know they’re stepping onto a military area.
a navy official in San Diego says the details of the navy’s new responsibilities at the border are still being worked out.
Andrew Dyer, kpbs news.##########
THE FIGHT OVER A MASSIVE DATA CENTER IN THE IMPERIAL VALLEY IS MOVING TO THE COURTS.
IMPERIAL VALLEY REPORTER KORI SUZUKI SAYS ONE CITY IS SUING TO FORCE AN ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW OF THE PROJECT.
DATASUIT 1 (1:10) SOQ
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The data center was proposed by a developer based in Huntington Beach. The facility would be almost a million square feet — and would include its own power substation and a giant battery system.
The data center would be located on unincorporated land — but it would be in the center of the small city of Imperial. Now, city officials there are suing to try and halt the project. Dennis Morita is Imperial’s city manager.
“We felt like it was very important that the public be made aware of the uh project and largely driven by the magnitude of it.”
The lawsuit was filed in Imperial County Superior Court earlier this month. It accuses county officials of violating state environmental laws and local codes by moving the project forward without certain permits, hearings and environmental review.
Critics of the project celebrated the news. Francisco Leal lives right next to the planned data center site and has been organizing his neighbors to oppose it.
“That gives us hope, right? That we're not alone, the residents and the city is doing something about it.”
A spokesperson for the county did not respond to a request for comment. In a text, the developer of the project said he hadn’t seen the suit yet. But argued the land was already set aside for industrial purposes.
Kori Suzuki, KPBS News.
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THE SAN DIEGUITO UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT PASSED SOME NEW RULES FOR ITS SCHOOL FOUNDATIONS LATE LAST WEEK.
NORTH COUNTY REPORTER ALEXANDER NGUYEN SAYS IT COMES AFTER A PAIR OF CONTROVERSIES AT CANYON CREST ACADEMY.
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CANYONCREST 1 :43 SOC
These foundations help with fundraising for student activities.
Earlier this month, the Canyon Crest Academy Foundation rented the school gym out to a production company that filmed questionable content. The Foundation now says it didn’t know the nature of the production in advance, and is consulting with legal counsel.
Trustee Rimga Viskanta says the incident highlights the need for district oversight.
“Sometimes terrible events make manifest the cracks in our systems.”
The district had already been working on a memorandum of understanding with all its school foundations after some Canyon Crest students questioned their foundation’s administrative fees.
The M-O-U caps those fees at ten percent, and puts the district in charge of all facility rentals that are not school related. AN, KPBS News
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STUDYING IN THE U-S FROM ABROAD IS MORE CHALLENGING NOW AS THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CLAMPS DOWN ON LEGAL IMMIGRATION.
VIDEO JOURNALIST MATTHEW BOWLER SAYS A NEW GROUP OF CALIFORNIA AND BAJA UNIVERSITIES ARE STEPPING UP TO ASSIST STUDENTS WHO LOOK TO STUDY NORTH OF THE BORDER
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(0:00) I'm here with Jake Godda. Godda, Godda, Godda, can you? (0:04) Yeah, sure. This is Jake Godda.
Happy to be here talking to Lawrence. (0:08) Godda, Godda, Godda. Jake Godda.
(0:10) All right, SDNN listeners, today is yet another episode of The Pod Behind the Package. (0:14) Once per week, I'll bring in a reporter, anchor, or a video journalist for a behind-the-scenes, deep-dive, and informal chat. (0:21) Joining me this week on his story that I invite you to visit on our website, (0:24) under the headline, After Multiple Delays, State Housing Law Could Clear a Path Forward for Midway Rising Development, (0:31) is host and reporter, Jake Godda.
Godda, what's up? (0:34) Not much. How's it going, Lawrence? (0:36) You're a California-born, right? California-raised. (0:39) Right here in San Diego.
(0:40) Right here in San Diego, which I think is pretty cool. (0:42) Let me ask you, has San Diego changed in a major way since growing up here as a kid? (0:47) Oh, yeah. I mean, 20 years ago, the city was a whole different place.
(0:52) I think if you go back that far, a big change that sort of spurred the new San Diego was when they moved the Padres downtown. (0:59) That was a huge deal. (1:00) I mean, downtown wasn't a place to be before that.
(1:03) They moved the Padres down there, built a new stadium, built a whole bunch of new apartments and hotels, (1:08) and sort of revitalized that whole area and made downtown more of a place to be. (1:13) And now that's bringing a whole bunch of changes all around the city. (1:16) They're building transit that goes to and from there.
(1:19) They're really upgrading. (1:20) It's really becoming like a big city, and I know some people might not like that, (1:24) but it definitely didn't have that feel growing up, and now it's really on the come up. (1:29) When you talk to people around the area or around Midway Rising, (1:33) out of the man-on-the-street, person-on-the-streets that you've done, would you say most people are for it or most people are hesitant about it? (1:39) Not that many people live in the Midway Rising area.
(1:41) That actual area that they're planning to redevelop for that project or even for the whole updated community plan, (1:48) there's really not that much residential there anyway, so there's not that many people who live there to even have an opinion one way or another. (1:55) That's kind of what they're trying to address is the fact that this is a big part of the city that doesn't have any residential. (2:02) People don't live there, and that means there's a whole bunch of other issues that go along with just this totally commercial area that doesn't have a population.
(2:11) People just go there and leave, and that creates all these problems. (2:14) But we have at KPBS spoken to people who have been supportive of that. (2:19) Andrew Bowen, he's been doing great reporting on these kind of issues for a long time, (2:23) and he's spoken directly to people who go to college in the area, people who do live in the Midway area, (2:29) and people who are supportive of new housing in general and understand that, hey, we got to grow.
(2:34) We got to find new places to live. (2:36) We got to do new things and new developments for a growing city. (2:40) I just want to mention the public voted on the issue twice.
(2:45) They voted on raising the height limit, which is how the city leaders wanted to facilitate Midway Rising, (2:50) but it was sold to the public very directly as this is voting on allowing Midway Rising to happen. (2:56) And San Diego populace voted twice to approve that project, approve the height limit. (3:02) The first vote was overwhelming majority, and so hundreds of thousands of San Diegans went to the polls, (3:09) voted, showed up, and said, we support this, we support that.
(3:13) And so I think we should listen to the hundreds of thousands of San Diegans who voted for this thing (3:19) if we're going to talk about what the people of San Diego want. (3:22) I mean, they literally came out and showed us. (3:24) They voted for it, they approved it, and that's what the public has said they wanted.
(3:28) Absolutely, and that second vote was a little tighter, but still majority passed by far. (3:32) Very much so. (3:33) It seems like part of the hangup with Midway Rising is the entering of Save Our Access and CEQA, (3:40) the kind of combination of those two things.
(3:43) The California Environmental Quality Act is what tells the city, hey, you have to do an environmental report. (3:49) Like, if you're going to raise the height limit, if you're going to allow new development, (3:53) and the city did, by the way, the city did a very extensive environmental impact report in 2018 (3:59) when they updated the zoning for the entire Midway area. (4:02) But the point is that the city did multiple environmental reports for this specific issue.
(4:09) They studied the change in the first place. (4:11) They studied raising the height limit. (4:13) And basically the court said the city was wrong about its environmental impact, (4:19) and they sided with Save Our Access.
(4:21) And that's what former planning director Bill Fulton said was one of the main issues with CEQA. (4:26) There's no guideline that lays out exactly what you have to study under CEQA. (4:31) It almost seems like if you have an issue with something, just throw CEQA at it.
(4:35) Jake Goddard's building in my neighborhood, I'm not down, calling CEQA, get CEQA on it. (4:39) They'll delay, and then we'll buy time for when we want to fight it formally. (4:43) That is something that critics of CEQA have expressed as one of their main issues (4:48) is that because there's no specific standards, there's nothing the court or the state law says that the city has to study.
(4:55) It just becomes whatever the public says is an environmental impact. (5:02) Do they have any chance of hitting that affordable housing goal without this $4 billion midway rising happening? (5:07) Or is this really like a big crux of their numbers that they want to say we did the largest affordable housing project in history? (5:14) They're really speaking about midway rising. (5:16) Well, so midway rising because it would include 2,000 affordable homes, subsidized affordable units.
(5:23) That would make it the largest affordable housing project in California history. (5:27) When discussing next steps for midway rising and talking about those 2,000 affordable units, apartments, (5:34) talk to me about the impact of the state density bonus law that might let them exceed that 30-foot limit, Jake. (5:39) Our understanding of the density bonus law here in San Diego was updated in 2022, (5:45) a couple years after the first lawsuit from Save Our Access.
(5:47) So before 2022, it wasn't clear if the state density bonus law would overrule a local ballot initiative like the height limit. (5:56) The state's density bonus law says if you include affordable homes in your development, you can exceed certain local zoning regulations, (6:05) be it a height limit, a setback requirement or a density limit. (6:10) And the reason that the city of San Diego knows that would well, thinks that would work for the midway rising project.
(6:16) And the reason the developers think that it would work for them is because in 2022, (6:20) there was an affordable housing development in Pacific Beach that used the density bonus law to exceed that 30-foot height limit. (6:28) And the state, the housing community development, California Department of Housing Community Development, (6:33) sent a letter to the city of San Diego and said, yes, this project can move forward. (6:38) You should give them their permits and they should be allowed to exceed that height limit because they include affordable units.
(6:44) Basically confirming that the state law trumps any local initiative. (6:48) Once again with us on Pot Behind the Package is our host and reporter Jake Gatta. (6:53) Jake, thank you so much for your time, man.
Thanks for having me.
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That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Lawrence K. Jackson. Thanks for listening and subscribing by doing so you are supporting public media and I thank you for that. Have a great day!
