South County Report: The Rehabilitation of Francisco Tamayo

What a difference a year makes. 

A little more than 12 months ago, Chula Vista Elementary School District Trustee Francisco Tamayo, a Democrat, was nearing pariah status in his own political party. 

Local party leaders were moving to censure Tamayo and fellow Chula Vista Trustee Lucy Ugarte for what leaders said was the trustees’ role in an elaborate scheme to oust fellow Democrat Kate Bishop from the Chula Vista school board. 

“Appalling…unacceptable,” Democratic Party South Area Vice Chair Jason Bercovitch called the scheme at the time. “Students will pay the price because they’re putting their own personal vendetta over the students they were elected to serve.” 

This week, Tamayo announced his latest campaign venture: A bid to unseat Chula Vista’s veteran Republican mayor, John McCann. 

Democratic leaders – including Bercovitch – said they couldn’t be happier. 

“He’s a proven winner,” Bercovitch said of Tamayo in an interview Thursday. “He’s been elected multiple times to the Chula Vista Elementary School District school board. He’s shown he can win hard races…Francisco has a great chance.” 

Er, what? 

Following my initial coverage of Tamayo’s entrance into the mayor’s race, readers asked the logical question: Didn’t Democrats try to censure that guy? What is he doing running for mayor? 

I gave Bercovitch a call and asked the same question. Turns out, bygones are bygones when Democrats sense an opportunity to topple a longstanding Republican fixture of South County politics. 

“John McCann has refused to stand up to Donald Trump and all he’s doing to our communities,” Bercovitch said. “It’s a very different atmosphere [than when Tamayo unseated Bishop in 2024]. Tamayo has a reputation as a fighter. Most voters want a fighter.” 

Leading up to this week’s Chula Vista election filing deadline, Bercovitch and other Democratic leaders had fretted that McCann might run unopposed for one of South County’s most powerful elected offices. Democrats currently hold not a single mayor’s seat in the region, despite outnumbering Republicans more than two to one. 

This week, Bercovitch sounded positively relieved. It was “a two-way conversation,” he said of Tamayo’s decision to run. “It [was] not me calling him or him calling me.” 

Bercovitch said he was clear-eyed about Tamayo’s strengths – and highly publicized weaknesses. 

In addition to the scheme against Bishop, Tamayo has faced accusations of mixing district business with campaign activities, cozying up to the influential teachers union and presiding over an extended period of internal turmoil and budget problems in the Chula Vista district. 

“We have some Democrats who like him and some who don’t,” Bercovitch said. “Tamayo is going to be asked some hard questions about his tenure on the school board.” 

Still, said Bercovitch, Tamayo “is a local Latino leader and that’s really important that we’re empowering Latino voices in South Bay, especially given what’s happening at the national level.” 

As for that censure? The effort quietly died last year and Bercovitch made no mention of resurrecting it. 

Tamayo himself was circumspect. “My main focus will be on what is the main vision for Chula Vista,” he said in an interview. “We might have a shot at this.” 

McCann, too, kept his focus on the issues. In a brief interview and email exchange on Tuesday, he said Chula Vista has achieved numerous successes during his time in office. 

“We will continue to keep Chula Vista safe, we will work to expand opportunity on the bayfront, open more parks in west Chula Vista and elsewhere and continue to focus on providing home ownership opportunities so families of all income levels can obtain the American Dream,” he said. “This truly is Chula Vista’s decade.” 

Chula Vista Bayfront Transformation Continues 

On Tuesday, the day after Francisco Tamayo filed papers to run for mayor, Chula Vista’s current mayor, John McCann, was all business. 

That morning, he helped preside over a groundbreaking ceremony for the latest step in the yearslong transformation of the Chula Vista bayfront from an industrial zone to a recreational jewel in the city’s crown. 

Leaders from Chula Vista City Hall, the Port of San Diego and the California Coastal Conservancy gathered to inaugurate a $15 million project to build a landscaped picnic and play area on 12 acres of vacant land adjacent to the recently opened Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center. 

The new park space will become part of an expanded Harbor Park, which, when combined with the recently opened Sweetwater Park just north of the Gaylord, will provide parkgoers with nearly 65 acres of open space along the Chula Vista waterfront. 

The new section of park will feature a splash pad, two play areas, picnic tables and an artificial turf play slope. A future phase will bring improvements to 13 nearby acres formerly known as Bayside Park. 

Near the start of the ceremony, McCann, a Navy veteran who serves as a commander in the naval reserves, asked attendees to observe a moment of silence in honor of servicemembers currently serving in what McCann called “a war on terrorism in the Middle East.” 

McCann and other speakers, including port CEO Scott Chadwick, port governing board Chair Ann Moore and Deputy City Mayor Cesar Fernandez, described the bayfront park as a key component of efforts to make Chula Vista a regional tourism and recreation destination. 

Fernandez noted the emotional connection South County residents have with Chula Vista’s waterfront. 

“This is not just about dirt and design,” he said of the planned park improvements. “It’s about people. It’s impromptu car shows, people picnicking, lovers meeting…Long after the work is done and the cameras are gone, families will gather here and say, ‘This is ours.’” 

In Other News 

San Diego County Supervisors this week gave the go-ahead to file a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security after officials at a privately run migrant detention center in Otay Mesa denied two supervisors entrance to the facility during a recent county public health inspection. 

The Chula Vista City Council on Tuesday gave initial approval to an ordinance that strengthens and clarifies city policies surrounding cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, including a requirement that the city manager file periodic reports detailing enforcement operations in the city and the level of city cooperation with federal efforts. (inewsource) 

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