Morning Report: One Bad Apple or Poor Oversight?
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San Diego County officials hired a firm to conduct an audit of the county’s contracting processes. This follows a criminal misappropriation debacle involving a former county contractor.
Chief Administrative Officer Ebony Shelton announced Monday that the county has retained an outside auditor to “conduct a targeted review of contracting processes.”
In a Monday announcement, the county said the firm is expected to deliver a report that includes findings and recommendations by the end of May. County officials said the county is committed to “transparency and constant improvement to ensure confidence about how public funds are managed.”
A county spokesperson could not immediately confirm whether the report will be released publicly. Read more here.
Cesar Chavez, Who?
San Diego officials are moving fast to strip any mention of César Chávez.
Today, members of the San Diego Unified School District board will likely kick off a renaming process for César Chávez Elementary School.
“We are deeply mindful of the complexity of this moment and the impact it may have on our community. As a district, we are committed to creating space for thoughtful, respectful conversations and to supporting our educators and school communities throughout this process,” wrote Superintendent Fabiola Bagula.
This is the latest effort to remove the former labor leader’s name since the New York Times dropped a bombshell investigation into allegations that he sexually assaulted women and young girls. Chávez died in 1993.
San Diego Councilmember Vivian Moreno told us it’s fine to get rid of all references to Chavez in her Council District before knowing what to rename them. Cesar Chavez Park is now Port Park in Barrio Logan. A mural of Chavez at Chicano Park had been spray painted.
We published an Associated Press map of all known tributes to Chavez. You can check it out here.
The H Barracks Dilemma
A safe parking lot in downtown San Diego has a curfew. Now, safe lot users and city officials are at odds about whether it should.
H Barracks, near the San Diego airport, is a city-owned safe lot that allows homeless people living in their vehicles to park overnight and access case-management services, food, showers and more.
The lot is only open from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m., which means users must leave with their vehicles during the day. Another safe lot in Mission Valley is open 24 hours a day, a model that many safe lot users and experts prefer.
A group of homeless people are suing the city of San Diego over the lot’s shorter hours.
Some experts say it’s more effective to keep safe parking lots open 24 hours because it gives clients more access to resources and case management, our Mariana Martínez Barba writes. But officials with the city of San Diego say overnight-only lots do a better job at getting people into permanent housing — and they point to data to back that claim.
Border Report: The Taco Museum
A museum in Tijuana is dedicated to a classic and beloved Mexican dish: the taco.
Tijuana’s Taco Museum opened almost two years ago, and recently, Voice contributor Kate Morrisey decided to pay the museum a visit.
Just as its name suggests, the Taco Museum highlights and celebrates the history and impact of tacos in Mexico. It offers an immersive experience, with each room diving into the different aspects of a taco while also highlighting taquerias around Mexico.
And as visitors leave the museum, they have a chance to eat some tacos at the museum’s own taqueria.
In Other News
- ICE agents are being deployed to airports across the country, but as of yesterday, there were none at the San Diego International Airport. TSA lines, though, are still very long. (Union-Tribune)
- A nonprofit called Feeding San Diego is distributing food to TSA officers near the San Diego airport who have been without full pay for more than a month because of the partial government shutdown. (NBC 7)
- Residents in Del Mar are fighting to stop the installation of a temporary fence at a construction site on the coastal bluffs. Crews are working on drainage improvements as part of ongoing railroad bluff stabilization efforts, but residents worry it will restrict beach access. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt, Tigist Layne and Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.
The post Morning Report: One Bad Apple or Poor Oversight? appeared first on Voice of San Diego.
