South County Report: No Love (Yet) For Electric Trucks 

Environmental ideals and corporate ambition ran smack into political reality last week when representatives from the Port of San Diego and a national electric vehicle power company did their best to sell National City residents on the benefits of a planned electric truck charging station near the city’s 24th Street Marine Terminal. 

Residents and at least one key city official who attended the May 1 presentation at the National City Aquatic Center were not persuaded that the project, a key component of the port’s efforts to shift its operations away from fossil fuels, was in the city’s best interests. 

Attendees peppered port officials and the president of Skycharger, the company selected by the port to build the charging facility, with questions and sometimes even catcalls during the Thursday evening meeting, though some said they would reserve judgment until they see the results of an environmental study the port recently commissioned. 

The proposed 4.8-acre charging facility would have 70 charging berths for trucks of various sizes, along with solar panels on canopies over the berths, a storage battery for extra power and a convenience store for truckers while they wait for trucks to recharge. 

Concerns raised at the May 1 meeting included the possibility of toxic electric battery fires, additional truck traffic in an already clogged industrial area and worries that a switch to electric power will leave behind independent truck operators whose diesel trucks currently carry most port cargo. 

Skycharger President Andy Karetsky promised residents that the company had “heard your concerns and input and we’re continuing to address that. We want to bring a project the community understands the benefits of, is economically viable and makes the community proud…We’re a good neighbor. Not just tonight but all the time.” 

Peter Eichar, the port’s climate program manager, said the truck charging facility was an effort to address long-standing concerns from port-adjacent communities about pollution from diesel engines in ships, trucks, cranes and other port infrastructure. 

“Our goal for 2030 is 100 percent zero-emission trucks and cargo-handling equipment,” Eichar said. 

Residents were not mollified, even after being offered free rides in two cherry red electric trucks parked outside the aquatic center. Skycharger also provided meeting attendees with a charcuterie spread catered by chefs at the local Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center. 

“You’re talking money,” called out one attendee sporting an arm-length International Longshore and Warehouse Union tattoo. “There’s nothing that can put these [electric battery] fires out.” 

Mayor Ron Morrison chided the port for, in his view, rushing approval of the charging facility to give itself bragging rights for environmental leadership. “We’re the guinea pig” for the project, Morrison said of his city. “It’s only because I asked for it over and over” that the port agreed to conduct a full environmental review of the project. 

Eichar said the port would carefully review every facet of the project to ensure it was safe and provided genuine environmental benefit to the community. Residents will have more opportunities to weigh in when a draft version of the port’s environmental review is made public later this year, he said. 

Alexander Fernandez, a National City resident who operates heavy-duty lifters at the port, encapsulated the ambivalence expressed by many at last week’s meeting – an ambivalence about zero-emission technology in working class communities that partly explains why 35 congressional Democrats recently joined Republicans in voting to overturn a California electric vehicle mandate. 

Fernandez, like other members of his family who attended last week’s meeting, said he was “leaning against” the truck charging station because of safety concerns and because he feared a decline in port business if electric trucks are unable to provide the same level of service currently provided by diesel operators. 

But he said he would change his mind if he knew port workers wouldn’t lose jobs to the new technology. “When the electrification is more [widely] adopted, then by all means implement it,” he said. 

South County Dems Vote to Censure Chula Vista Board Member 

The San Diego County Democratic Party’s South Area Caucus voted on Monday to censure Chula Vista Elementary School District Trustee Francisco Tamayo for allegedly “undermining Democratic Party ideals, attacking members of the LGBTQ community and abandoning the students he was elected to protect,” according to a resolution approved by two-thirds of attendees at Monday’s caucus meeting. 

The vote, which must be ratified by countywide party leaders to become official, stemmed from Tamayo’s successful effort last year to unseat fellow Democratic board member Kate Bishop by running against her even though he wasn’t up for re-election. 

Monday’s censure resolution also cited Tamayo’s earlier vote against a district Pride flag policy and his vote in January to appoint a Republican and an “unknown Democrat” to the school board to fill two post-election vacancies. 

In a statement to Voice of San Diego, as well a longer statement Tamayo submitted to Monday’s caucus meeting, Tamayo denied the allegations in the censure resolution and said he was being targeted because he had dared to buck the interests of party insiders. 

“This censure will not distract me from the mission at hand,” he said in his statement. “I will continue to lead independently, work constructively and put students above politics every single time.” 

Tamayo also said in a separate text exchange with Voice that, if Monday’s censure resolution is upheld by party leaders later this year, he would consider leaving the Democratic Party altogether and becoming an independent “if the party decides that there is no room for moderate Democrats in the ranks.” 

South Area Caucus Vice Chair Jason Bercovitch said Democrats felt the censure of Tamayo was needed to show that “the Democratic Party can’t tolerate people running against our endorsed incumbents when they’re not even up for re-election…In the age of Trump, the Democratic Party needs to stand for something. We do. We stand up for our immigrant community and LGBTQ community and not banning books and letting our kids be who they want to be.” 

County Budget Becomes Political Football 

Even as South County cities gear up to begin adopting their own budgets – Chula Vista, National City and Imperial Beach all plan to hold budget discussions this week – San Diego County’s much larger budget has become a hot topic in the race to fill former South County Supervisor Nora Vargas’ vacant seat on the County Board Supervisors. 

Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, the Democrat in the race, has voiced support for a recent proposal by the Board’s two Democratic supervisors – Terra Lawson-Remer and Monica Montgomery Steppe – to loosen the county’s budget reserve policy to make it easier for supervisors to raid the reserves to balance the books without cutting services. 

Now Chula Vista Mayor John McCann, Aguirre’s Republican opponent, is weighing in. He and District 5 Supervisor Jim Desmond, also a Republican, plan to hold a press conference Wednesday morning to announce their opposition to the reserve proposal. 

The proposal, they said in a statement on Tuesday, would take money earmarked for true emergencies and waste it on “non-essential programs, government expansion and pet projects…at a time when San Diegans are already struggling with skyrocketing costs of living.” 

Lawson-Remer defended the proposal in a statement sent to Voice of San Diego last week: “This updated reserve policy ensures we can respond to real emergencies, protect core services and stand up for the San Diegans who count on us most,” she said. 

ICYMI: Lauded Arts Program Faces Uncertain Future 

I wrote on Monday about National City’s renowned A Reason To Survive youth arts program (known by its acronym, ARTS), which staged its annual spring exhibit of student artwork at its 20,000-square-foot studio facility adjacent to National City Hall on Saturday. 

The program, which has won awards for providing free arts programming to hundreds of South County families, is in the midst of negotiating a new arrangement to continue occupying its city-owned facility even as it faces a nationwide pullback in philanthropic funding amid heightened economic uncertainty. 

Read the story to be inspired by some budding youth artists. And keep your eyes peeled for the skull sword and the Cheese Wizard (you’ll see what I mean when you read the story.) 

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