Morning Report: It Doesn’t Matter Who Recycles Toilet Water
EM - News Moderator 
There’s a debate over whether the city of San Diego should or could build a smaller sewage-to-drinking water recycling project than originally planned.
If fully built out, the project costs would top $5 billion. And the City Council is desperate to save ratepayers money. But the city probably can’t build a smaller Pure Water project, even though some want it to, because recycling wastewater is something the city promised to do – or risk being sued by environmentalists.
A bloc of East County cities is building their own, similar project. And they’ve told San Diego, hey, why don’t you just build something smaller, save money and count the water we make from our toilet flushes toward your project? San Diego’s Public Utilities Department told City Council President Joe LaCava they’re looking into it during a heated water and wastewater rate hike debate.
But it wasn’t clear whether environmentalists had a problem with East County sharing San Diego’s commitment toward wastewater recycling.
Our MacKenzie Elmer asked them.
They told her, yep, we’re good with it. As long as San Diego is able to recycle and produce 83 million gallons of sewage per day – sewage that right now dumps into the Pacific Ocean via the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant – we don’t really care how you get there, they said.
Mayor Fires Top Deputies
City Hall sources confirmed Wednesday that San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria fired Alia Khouri, the city’s deputy chief operating officer for operations and Kristina Peralta, the deputy chief operating officer for neighborhood services. They were two of the five deputy chief operating officers who reported to Gloria directly after he fired Eric Dargan, the former chief operating officer.
The City Council had mandated that he make two cuts like this after they overrode his veto of their budget. But he had initially indicated he would ignore their budget decision and find equivalent savings elsewhere.
The Learning Curve: Grossmont Recall Effort Fading
A massive recall effort against one of the board members of Grossmont Union High School District appears as if it is going to fall short.
Grossmont has been in turmoil during the last year. In the face of raucous protests, the board’s conservative majority managed to approve budget cuts which included the layoff of librarians.
More than 200 volunteers organized 36 canvassing events to gather signatures for the recall of Scott Eckert, but now they say they will likely come up short, reports our Jakob McWhinney.
The volunteers would need to gather signatures from 15 percent of voters in Eckert’s sub-district. They have until Monday.
He Got Suspended and Allegedly Fell Asleep on Duty. Now He’s Promoted.
The Harbor Police Department and one of its officers are embroiled in a series of disputes that have now led to the officer’s promotion, reports the Union-Tribune.
Officer Damith Rodrigo was passed over twice for promotion. He then filed a racial discrimination complaint against the department.
A sworn declaration by Chief Magda Fernandez says that Rodrigo wasn’t promoted because his behavior as an officer had been so poor. Fernandez said he fell asleep on the job, was accused of sexual harassment and vomitted inside the station after heavy drinking.
In Other News
- County Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer wants the county to partner with the San Diego Foundation to help sustain social service contracts that could be under threat due to federal cuts. (Union-Tribune)
- San Diego City Councilmembers have pledged not to cut arts spending during the budgeting process next spring. The city will be facing an $111 million budget deficit, which means they’ll have to look for lots of cuts in other places. (U-T)
- The Building Industry Association has named its next CEO: Aimee Faucett. Faucett has worked in local politics for years, including under Republican mayors Jerry Sanders and Kevin Faulconer. BIA represents local developers and plays a massive role lobbying City Hall. (Times of San Diego)
- An atmospheric river is set to drench San Diego this weekend. That could be a good thing when it comes to fires. (CBS 8)
The Morning Report was written by Will Huntsberry and Lisa Halverstadt. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.
The post Morning Report: It Doesn’t Matter Who Recycles Toilet Water appeared first on Voice of San Diego.
