Morning Report: Why a School Board Trustee Pushed Back on Housing Pitches
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San Diego Unified Trustee Richard Barrera caught seemingly everyone off guard earlier this month when he halted what would have been a historic move to build hundreds of housing units on district land.
Barrera’s move torpedoed the much-anticipated board vote on 15 proposals. The expectation was that the vote would allow the district and developers to move ahead with delivering more than 1,000 workforce housing units.
Our Jakob McWhinney wanted to know: What happened? Barrera told McWhinney he thought the process was moving too fast. He also raised questions about the district staff and thus income levels that the district should be focused on serving.
Now the board is set to dig back in sometime next month.
The Latest on the City Contract Caper
Our Mariana Martínez Barba has been trying to get to the bottom of a mystery that has haunted City Council recently: How did city staff press ahead with $6.7 million in changes to a single city contract without City Council approval?
Her latest scoop: City officials did not discipline staff who approved changes. They planned instead to ask for retroactive City Council approval. That’s because city managers ordered the changes.
A city spokesperson said Friday that the changes “necessary for critical operations and to address emergencies” were made in the city’s procurement system to ensure vendor Herc Rentals got paid and that the city wasn’t in breach of its contract with the company.
The problem: City law requires the City Council to sign off on all contract adjustments over $200,000.
Year in Review: A New Federal Administration
Love or hate it, the Trump administration has rocked San Diego’s relationship with the federal government this past year.
In his latest DC Explained column, Voice of San Diego contributor Alan Berube reviews major actions over the past 12 months that have dramatically impacted San Diego and its local governments.
Remember the almost-immediate funding freeze after President Donald Trump took office? What about “Liberation Day” or the Buona Forchetta immigration raid?
Berube of the Policy & Innovation Center reviews all that and more.
No Buyers for San Diego Water, Yet
San Diego arrived in Las Vegas this week ready to sell off some of its excess water at negotiations over the dwindling Colorado River between the states, tribes and farmers who use it.
They left without a deal in place.
In her last dispatch from the big water negotiations in Las Vegas, MacKenzie Elmer explains what’s in the way of San Diego’s big idea to ease the pressure on local ratepayers.
Sacramento Report: All the Legislative Attempts to Combat the Tijuana Sewage Crisis
The long-running Tijuana sewage crisis has gotten more attention from federal and state lawmakers this past year – and 2026 is poised to become another big year for the issue.
In her latest Sacramento Report, Nadia Lathan broke down recent legislative moves including state Sen. Catherine Blakespear’s joint legislative hearing in La Jolla on new public health findings and fellow Sen. Steve Padilla’s latest push. Padilla last week introduced a bill calling for the California Air Resources Board to review and lower its standards for acceptable levels of the biggest pollutant coming from the river, a step that could pave the way for more public health funding.
Read the full Sacramento Report here.
VOSD Podcast: What to Watch in San Diego Politics
On this week’s show, the VOSD Podcast gang looked ahead to the big political pushes likely to loom large in 2025.
Among them: Labor unions and advocates are preparing to collect signatures in hopes of getting a countywide sales-tax hike on the November 2026 ballot. Former Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey continues to haunt city of San Diego politics with commentary about controversial new fees.
The pod squad also reviewed an unfortunate misprint in The San Diego Union-Tribune and what it reveals about the state of local journalism.
Chula Vista Elementary School District and Former HR Chief Respond
Last week, we wrote about a troubled school in the Chula Vista Elementary School District, the inexperience of its former principal and the district’s resignation agreement with Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Jason Romero.
We updated the story to state Romero resigned.
The district and Romero sent us a statement we have published in full here.
It reads in part: “Mr. Romero was not terminated from his position, nor did he resign in lieu of termination. While the district conducted an internal investigation, it was a narrow inquiry unrelated to any of the speculation contained in the article. The review had nothing to do with Ms. Porras, with any financial or record-keeping issues in the Human Resources Department, or with any alleged pattern of intervening in hiring processes. Mr. Romero was placed on administrative leave solely to preserve the integrity of that limited review, not because of any concerns about hiring practices.
“The district made no finding that Mr. Romero engaged in any illegal, unethical, or improper conduct, and Mr. Romero categorically denies any allegation of wrongdoing.”
In Other News
- Three years ago, we documented how the Raschke family of six ended up living in a van and then their move from homelessness into a Mission Valley apartment with the help of a federal emergency housing voucher. Now 10 News has a story on the Raschke family’s fears about what’s next following federal notice that funding for those vouchers will end far sooner than planned.
- San Diego notched a rare win in its years-long 101 Ash St. saga: Developers behind a plan to turn the troubled city building into an affordable housing complex recently secured about $64 million in needed federal subsidies for the project. (Union-Tribune)
- Builders pushing a controversial 23-story hotel and residential project in Pacific Beach are arguing their plan should automatically be approved after the city allegedly missed a deadline. (Times of San Diego)
- As the Metropolitan Transit System faces big budget deficits, it’s sharing survey results showing riders prefer fare increases to service cuts. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt. It was edited by Scott Lewis.
The post Morning Report: Why a School Board Trustee Pushed Back on Housing Pitches appeared first on Voice of San Diego.
