Morning Report: He Resigned from Grossmont. Now He’s Chief of Staff
Some stories are too wild to make up — and our Jakob McWhinney uncovered just such a tale at Grossmont Union High School District. The story centers on Jerry Hobbs, […] The post Morning Report: He Resigned from Grossmont. Now He’s Chief of Staff appeared first on Voice of San Diego.
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Some stories are too wild to make up — and our Jakob McWhinney uncovered just such a tale at Grossmont Union High School District.
The story centers on Jerry Hobbs, a former teacher. Hobbs resigned from Grossmont seven years ago after being investigated for misconduct. That’s where the twists and turns begin.
Hobbs became a paralegal and went to work at a law firm called JW Howard Attorneys. Then Grossmont hired JW Howard to do an investigation — an investigation that touched on Hobbs’ time there.
Hobbs, ultimately, took part in an investigation of his former boss. The investigation found that the former boss had retaliated against 24 people — including Hobbs, himself.
This led the law firm to conclude that Hobbs should be able to work at the district again.
Hobbs drafted a settlement agreement that would allow him to be rehired by the district. But there was another twist.
According to a memo written by John Howard, the principal attorney, Hobbs inserted language into the agreement without his and another attorney’s knowledge. That language, Howard alleged, was “illegal.”
Grossmont rehired Hobbs and now he is the district’s chief of staff.
One lawyer with experience in ethics litigation called the situation unprecedented.
“If this is an accurate depiction of how this settlement agreement came to be, it’s really unprecedented in my 45 years of law,” the attorney said. “It should not have happened.”
Supe Candidates’ Stark Differences on Budget
The two candidates in the Board of Supervisors race are staking out clear differences when it comes to county spending.
Chula Vista Mayor John McCann staged a press conference Wednesday morning in order to bash a Democratic proposal to pull hundreds of millions of dollars from the county’s reserve fund.
“Instead of spending on pointless projects, we need to prioritize the county’s core services,” McCann said.
Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre strongly disagrees.
“Aguirre said tapping the county’s reserves would enable long-needed investment in parts of the county that had been ignored for years,” our Jim Hinch writes.
The two sitting supervisors pushing reforms to the reserve policy have argued the county should be prepared to dip into its large bank account if there are significant federal cuts.
North County Report: The New San Onofre Lease
The price had nowhere to go but up. The U.S. military used to lease parts San Onofre State Beach for just $1 a year.
That rent is going up to more than $3 million a year, according to a new lease agreement obtained by our Tigist Layne.
The state, however, will be able to offset some of the costs by providing in-kind services to the military. These include energy projects, security and the use of other state parks as training grounds for the military.
Read the full North County Report here.
In Other News
- San Diego County supervisors on Wednesday unanimously advanced a narrow update to the county’s existing homeless camping ban that only allows sheriff’s deputies to cite unsheltered people whose camps pose an imminent risk to public health or safety. (Union-Tribune)
- We’re going to get a lot of sunshine over the next few days. Enjoy. (Union-Tribune)
- Part-time faculty at the University of San Diego’s College of Arts and Sciences are on strike. (KPBS)
The Morning Report was written by Will Huntsberry. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.
The post Morning Report: He Resigned from Grossmont. Now He’s Chief of Staff appeared first on Voice of San Diego.
