Politics Report: Roundup

We’re catching up a bit this week, here are some stray thoughts and links:

Total sign of confidence: Friday night, at 7 p.m. (really the optimum time to get attention on your announcements), county leaders sent out a news release touting how good their internal controls are and how helpful they were in assisting the embezzlement investigation. 

The press release claims none of the upsetting revelations about the allegedly stolen funds indicate any failure of the county’s oversight and controls. 

“In fact, the County’s swift actions—including contract monitoring, corrective directives, audits, site visits, contract suspension, contract termination, and referral to the Public Integrity Unit—demonstrate that the County’s systems functioned as intended,” they write. 

What they’re responding to: Pulling this from one of Lisa Halverstadt’s reports on the ongoing investigation about Amy Knox’s alleged embezzlement: 

“[District Attorney Summer] Stephan said a 2023 county audit documented significant financial red flags and staffers learned after a background check that Knox had been previously convicted of embezzlement of more than $500,000 from a former employer. Yet the county awarded a second contract to the Harm Reduction Coalition a year later.

“‘The fact that the checks and balances that exist for a reason failed or were overruled is very troubling,’ Stephan said.’”

This is the time to come together: “The focus must remain on the individuals accused of embezzling funds from HRCSD meant for provision of potentially life-saving services,” county staff insists in its press release. (One side note: Why is “individuals” plural?)

The politics: It’s no secret that Terra Lawson-Remer, the chair of the Board of Supervisors, and the largest employee unions, wanted someone different to lead the county and not Ebony Shelton, the chief administrative officer. They also wanted a new county counsel and they have now engineered a wholesale turnover of that office. Shelton probably correctly sees this scandal as a pretty significant opportunity for them to make a change. 

How long can Bailey keep this up? I’ve heard all week from people about Richard Bailey’s decision to not say anything about Donald Trump and national politics as he begins his campaign for City Council in what will undoubtedly be the most expensive and toughest Council race this year.  

I personally would love nothing more than to mildly hate the president like always and not think about him at all beyond that. But Trump doesn’t give us that luxury. He is ever present, he makes companies, politicians, athletes, almost everybody pick sides. Now he’s begun a war in Iran (“Operation Epic Fury”). It’s going to be hard to cover your ears and just not talk about Trump for nine months. 

Thing is, Bailey saw that and did take a side: He left the Republican Party for a reason. Kamala Harris underperformed dreadfully in San Diego County in 2024. And yet, the coastal District 2 where Bailey is running voted for Harris over Trump by 30 percentage points. There are no doubt many smart residents of the district who are way more interested in city policy and neighborhood issues than Trump. 

But there are a lot of others who are only experiencing politics right now through the dichotomy Trump has framed. 

As Trump sought the presidency, Bailey was not just a registered voter in the Republican Party, he was an active member of its leadership on the Central Committee. He has only recently moved to Point Loma and left the party. That’s a lot of effort to just stop short of criticizing the president. I’m sure it hurt to leave the party and I’m sure his friends there didn’t like it either. Why go through with that and not just fully embrace the opposition to Trump?

Something to watch: We’ve been tracking this effort by the San Diego County Water Authority to sell some of its surplus of water for a long time now and it seems to be getting somewhere? The U-T’s Michael Smolens wrote optimistically about it: “According to its agenda this week, the water authority board held a closed session to discuss the terms and price of sales to the city of Burbank, the Eastern Municipal Water District, Three Valleys Municipal Water District and the Western Municipal Water District of Riverside County.”

Our MacKenzie Elmer is going to do some reporting this week. Stay tuned. 

Meanwhile: Our “surplus” is based, in part, on the claims we have purchased from the Colorado River. That’s … yikes:

“… across 11 western states, 45% of the region is in at least a moderate drought, and large portions of the Colorado River watershed are in severe drought.

“The snowpack in the Upper Colorado River Basin stands at 66% of average. That will mean less snowmelt feeding the river’s reservoirs, which are declining to critically low levels.”

On this week’s second-home tax: It’s pretty interesting how easily Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera’s measure to tax empty second homes went through the San Diego City Council’s Rules Committee this week. He estimates that it could bring in $51 million annually to help the city’s beleaguered budget. But I noticed this from the independent budget analyst: “Our Office estimates that the proposal would have a net positive fiscal impact ranging between $12.1 million (conservative) to $23.8 million (optimistic) in the first year of implementation, which could increase to $15.3 million (conservative) to $30.0 million (optimistic) in the second year.”

Because the council insisted on protecting vacation rentals from the tax, that remains one option for owners hoping to avoid it: convert your empty vacation home into a money-making short-term rental. 

At least some of those homes go on the rental or for-sale market, which would be a win for the policy. 

I had to tease Supervisor Jim Desmond a bit this week. He tweeted this:

“When the government starts dictating how you must use your own property — and fining you thousands a year for not complying — it raises a serious question about what property ownership even means in this city.”

Wait until he hears about zoning and permitting, amirite? Or is he against that too?

The full council will hear it Tuesday. 

Podcast guests coming up: This coming week, we will have Shana Hazen and Cody Petterson, both members of the San Diego Unified School District Board of Education. We’ve got a lot of questions for them about the continued decline in enrollment, the budget problems (and the deal they already made with teachers to give them raises and ensure no layoffs), 

What would you like to ask them?

Also: The following week we will have San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl on the podcast. What do you want to hear from him?

If you have any ideas or feedback for the Politics Report, send them to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org or will.huntsberry@voiceofsandiego.org.

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