Around 1 a.m. this morning, about 13 million gallons of water, sewage and who knows what else flowed down the Tijuana River, across the border and into the United States. 

At around 5 a.m., the level of sewer gas (called hydrogen sulfide) wafting off the river measured twice what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers safe to breathe.  

Kicker is, the river shouldn’t be flowing at all right now. It’s a seasonal river, which means it should be dry in the summertime, because it’s not raining (and hasn’t since May.)  

Mexico sends part of its sewage through a pipe across the border to a treatment plant on the U.S. side run by the federal government. But nobody’s treating the Tijuana River itself, which is often contaminated by runaway sewage, once it flows into San Diego, through an estuary and finally into the Pacific Ocean south of Imperial Beach.  

San Diego County Supervisors Paloma Aguirre and Terra-Lawson Remer think the county, and the county taxpayer, should.  

“We’re done waiting for someone else’s timeline,” Aguirre said at a press conference on Monday. 

In November, voters will decide whether to raise the county’s sales tax by half a cent. If they do, about $80 million of the money raised each year would be put toward solving the Tijuana River pollution problem. The measure doesn’t specifically say how the money would be spent, but Aguirre – whose political career has been fueled by solving the crisis – put out a plan to capture and treat the entire Tijuana River.  

The two supervisors hope their colleagues at Tuesday’s board meeting will agree to infuse $1.8 million in county reserves toward that plan. The amount, they said, would pay to start mapping out how the county might do that.  

Treating an entire river is no easy feat. In fact, this attempt on the Tijuana River could be the first of its kind.  

Featured press conference speaker Natalie Mladenov, a professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at San Diego State University, couldn’t name another project like it off the top of her head.  

“In this country, rivers don’t have sewage in them, but we treat large volumes that come through pipes. We have the engineering capability to divert water… to a treatment system,” Mladenov said.  

Here, we’re talking about a river – not sewage moved through a pipe.  

The Tijuana River has long been plagued with stuff other than sewage. Water tests showed byproducts from banned soaps and cleaners, metals used in industrial plating, parasitic worms, and chemicals from plastics.  The water would have to be treated well enough that it could either be reused, put back into the river channel or sent to the Pacific Ocean – where sewage treated at the border plant goes now. 

There’s also a ton of sand the flowing river brings along with it, and trash, which can clog-up and sometimes break treatment facilities.  

Then there’s the problem of where the county would build a treatment plant.  

The Tijuana River estuary is divvied up among a patchwork of land owners from the International Boundary and Water Commission (the federal agency that manages the border plant) to the city of San Diego to California State Parks, Homeland Security, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the Navy and private owners.  

The EPA paid consultant PG Environmental to study river diversion back in 2021. The consultant looked at what it would take to build a system that intercepted the river water, and routed it to a new, advanced treatment plant at the existing border water plant owned by the federal government and operated by Veolia, a private contractor.  

There’s lots of red tape. Altering the river would have to be OK’d by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife. The project would have to meet zoning requirements by the city of San Diego. And, due to its proximity to the border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection would need to approve the plans, too.

It’s a costly endeavor. Building and maintaining the project over the infrastructure’s 40 year lifespan would cost an estimated $28 million and $63 million, depending on its size, PG Environmental wrote. An advanced treatment plant would cost another $280 million to $640 million to build and maintain.  

That’s partly why the EPA ranked diverting the river through a treatment plant as the last thing to try and do on the U.S. side of the border in terms of solving the crisis.  

But the supervisors believe this sales tax is their golden ticket around that. If voters approved the measure in November, the supervisors said the revenue for the river could be packaged into bond financing and provide billions to invest immediately. (Essentially, that path would allow the county to borrow far more money than the tax brings in each year, through the issuance of bonds. The tax money would be used as a guarantee to pay back the bond financing.) 

Aguirre and Lawson-Remer said the county would play a role in owning whatever would be built at the border.  

“It would definitely have to be a significant true partnership with other agencies… we’d have to partner with IBWC who has federal jurisdiction in that particular area we’re talking about,” Aguirre said.  

She also mentioned the city of San Diego might play a role if the county were to incorporate the city’s South Bay Water Reclamation Plant as part of the solution. The parties could become a joint powers authority, which is a separate government entity created when two or more public agencies decide to share resources, services and power.  

I asked, if this all were to happen, whether the county would then be legally responsible for the treatment of the river water. This seems like a huge legal liability given all of the surprises the Tijuana River could throw at those who try to wrangle it. The International Boundary and Water Commission is sued regularly for failing to clean the sewage it receives to Clean Water Act standards.  

“The county currently already has a significant amount of legal responsibility and liability for clean water. That’s our job. I think we should be responsible,” Lawson-Remer said. “You don’t want supervisors who don’t want to do their job because they’re scared of being held accountable.”  

In Other News

• California lawmakers greenlit a new San Diego sports arena, bypassing environmental hurdles. (CalMatters) 
• Federal funding for a critical program that tracks ocean health, called the Argo float program, is about to run out. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration informally agreed to continue financially supporting it, but President Donald Trump’s 2025 budget cuts gutted the organization’s ability to cover the costs. (KPBS) 
• A new law making it easier to plug a solar panel into a regular outlet, which could dramatically expand solar access for renters, is heading to the governor’s desk, the Union-Tribune reports. I had been covering the bill’s progress through the legislature this year.  
• A Sempra subsidiary sold off a gas distribution network in Mexico, reflecting the company’s move to concentrate on its regulated utilities in California and Texas. (Union-Tribune) 
• Bike advocates say officials spend too much time penalizing e-bikers and not enough time fixing bike infrastructure to make riding safer. (KPBS) 
• The thirsty state of Arizona is mulling plans to suck water supplies from Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, parts of which are protected marine habitats. (Voice of San Diego) 
• About 250 people flocked to Fallbrook to oppose San Diego Gas & Electric’s proposed plan to build a high-voltage transmission line from Imperial County to the Orange County-San Diego County line. (Union-Tribune) 
• There’s fewer beach fire rings on city beaches this year than before. So annoying. (Times of San Diego) 

The post Two Supes Think County Should Own Tijuana River Pollution Crisis  appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Just a week and a half into the school year, students and staff at a local school that serves about 170 homeless students were vacated after concerns about possible mold in school facilities emerged last week. 

When asked about the potential mold, officials at the San Diego County Office of Education, which runs the Monarch School in Barrio Logan, wrote that concerns were first raised late Thursday. Officials notified parents that the following day of school was canceled while they worked to figure out where to reroute students.  

For the next week at least, students and staff will be working from alternate locations.  

The principal of nearby Perkins Elementary, a San Diego Unified school, agreed to provide classroom space for Monarch’s kindergarten through fifth graders. Students in grades 6 through 12 are being bussed to the County Office’s South County Regional Education Center in National City. Families were also given the choice to opt for independent study. 

The extent of the mold concerns is still unclear.  

While the school is run by the San Diego County Office of Education, the agency leases the school space from the nonprofit Monarch School Project, which owns the facilities. Officials with the San Diego County Office of Education wrote that the nonprofit will be “leading environmental testing, results, and recommendations.” 

A statement from Monarch’s grant manager, Roberta Sutton didn’t include many more details, just that students had been relocated “while environmental testing related to air quality is conducted at our school facility” and that the nonprofit would “continue to follow the guidance of qualified environmental experts.” 

“The health and safety of our students, families, staff, and community partners remain our highest priority, and this decision was made out of an abundance of caution,” the statement continued. “We remain committed to providing stability, care, and consistency for the students and families we serve throughout this transition.  

In a separate statement, officials with SDCOE wrote that the health and safety of students, family and staff is of utmost importance to Monarch School.  

“That’s why, as soon as we heard of emerging concerns about possible mold on our campus, we immediately took action,” a press release from the SDCOE reads. “We are grateful to our students, families, and staff for their flexibility, understanding, and ability to pivot quickly during this temporary adjustment.” 

Monarch isn’t the first local school whose opening has been marred by mold concerns. Mold was discovered in more than a dozen classrooms in at least two Poway schools, forcing the relocation of more than a thousand students.  

The post School for Homeless Students Vacated Due to Mold Concerns appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

For many years, this week, that last one before Labor Day, was the start of the school year. Before that, it was a week known for vacations, like the week after the Christmas holiday.  

Now, most San Diego public schools have been open for several weeks, despite the sweltering heat. I may not be representative of most families, but I hear a lot of complaints about it. Our family is very opposed. It seems like in San Diego we should go to school in June when it’s cool out and we don’t need to use as much energy to cool buildings. 

To go back to school when it’s the hottest feels just off.  

I asked San Diego Unified why. Nicole DeWitt, the deputy superintendent of instruction at the district, told me that student performance has improved since it started moving the opening of the school year into early August.  

She said before her time at the district, there were many concerns that students didn’t truly get a winter break. Running on semesters meant students often had finals and projects due right after the winter break.  

“Having two weeks off of school and then coming back and having to take a final exam was not ideal,” she said.  

She also said that moving the school year back provided more time for students to prepare for AP exams after winter break, which begin in May.  

I asked about the air conditioning costs. 

“That’s not something that we were looking at when we were developing the calendar. We really were basing the development of the calendar on student outcomes,” she said.  

And it’s just been two years, but she said the data has shown it is a good change. “We actually did see a reduction in D and F grades that were issued when the semester ended before the winter break,” she said. They sent me these charts.  

The school calendars for San Diego Unified are set for the next two years.  

The post Why San Diego Schools Open So Early in August Now  appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

This post first appeared in the Politics Report.

Kalshi this week announced it had entered into a brand partnership with the Padres and three other of the “most beloved teams in baseball” including the Dodgers.

It came just a couple days before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Kalshi is illegally operating sports betting in California.

Kalshi self describes as a “next-generation financial exchange” but it functions like a betting platform. Rather than betting at a casino against its sports book, Kalshi customers are buying futures contracts on whether a team will win or lose or endless other uncertain outcomes. It’s part of the proliferation of 24/7 digital access to gambling that has swept the nation.

Fernando Tatis Jr. and several other players told the U-T a year ago that the explosion in gambling had vastly increased the harassment they receive.

“It’s constant. People just wishing us death to ourselves, to our family. This is the new thing, I guess,” he said.

So it was a little odd to see the Padres partner with one of those betting platforms. The court ruling this week makes it even weirder.

Betting on sports is not allowed in California. There were two rival ballot measures a few years ago trying to change that and both failed.

Nevada obviously allows sports betting but heavily regulates it and tried to shut down Kalshi. Kalshi sued.

“Kalshi sought injunctive relief, arguing that it is not a legal sports betting platform, but a designated contract market under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) offering legal sports event contracts,” reads the Ninth Circuit ruling put out Wednesday.

Judge Ryan D. Nelson, in his opinion, cited Kalshi’s own words advertising itself as “the first app for legal sports betting in all 50 states.”

That seems unambiguous. But in court, Kalshi argues that sports bets and events contracts are different.

“Kalshi users can effectively place prop bets, bet the point spread, bet a specific score, or create a several-leg parlay. And the payout depends on the performance of a sports team or a player,” the court opined.

Those bets are not legal in California. Kalshi will appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court may have to settle it. It’s a fight that goes all the way to the top and includes President Trump, whose son, Donald Trump Jr., told state attorneys general to back off. He’s a paid adviser to the company. 

Meanwhile, Kalshi seems likely to still proceed with its advertising and “exclusive on-site activations” for Padres fans interested in placing a futures contract on whether the Padres win or Tatis hits a home run. For now, it appears death threats hurled at him if he fails are still not allowed.

The post Federal Court Rules Padres Partner Offers Illegal Gambling appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

This post first appeared in the Politics Report.

These two were probably never meant to get along. 

On Thursday, the San Diego Police Officers Association (the union) published a statement online accusing the city’s independent police oversight body of bias. 

The oversight agency, called the Commission on Police Practices, had posted a news story on its Instagram page the day before. The story from NBC 7 was about three officers arrested in recent weeks; two for disorderly conduct and the third for domestic violence. 

Posting the news story might imply an officer’s guilt before any investigation had taken place, the statement said. (For what it’s worth, CPP’s post didn’t make any commentary on the article.) The union has raised complaints about CPP’s social media posts on two previous occasions. 

The Politics Report asked Jared Wilson, the union president, whether there was any world in which the union and CPP might get along.

“I do foresee a world where the POA and the PD and CPP can work together. But CPP has to be unbiased and at no point in their six years have they shown they can be unbiased,” he said. 

CPP was created by a 2020 citywide ballot measure, Measure B, but it has been very slow to be implemented. CPP is supposed to have subpoena power to investigate serious incidents involving officers, such as shootings, but it still doesn’t have that full power. The City Council, police department, union, city attorney’s office and commission have all been negotiating exactly how the commission’s power would be applied in practice. 

The police union officially stayed neutral in the lead up to Measure B, but union leaders have been vocal about what they see as problems with the commission ever since its formation. 

According to the statement from Thursday, the union “supports independent civilian oversight and recognizes the mandate given by San Diego voters.”

We reached out to the relatively new director of the CPP Roger Smith for his reaction. 

“The CPP is delighted to learn five years and nine months after the fact that San Diego Police Officers Association supports the passage of Measure B and independent civilian oversight,” Smith said. 

Smith said that he and CPP stand behind all of its postings to its websites and social media channels and that the commission isn’t biased. 

Speaking to KPBS back in April, he said the department is actively preventing CPP from doing its work. 

Measure B’s official language said the commission would be “required to receive, register, review, and evaluate all complaints against city police officers.” 

A loophole has since emerged. CPP has not been able to review two-thirds of the complaints of officers, as KPBS revealed. The department’s Internal Affairs manual states that CPP is not entitled to review miscellaneous complaints, though it’s unclear exactly how that determination was made. 

The post Police Union Claps Back at Cop Oversight Agency appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

Facing a shrinking budget, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria made few commitments during his annual address to the city in January.

One of them was to win approval for a controversial plan to build a billionaire-backed professional sports stadium and a housing project in a long-vacant arena parking lot. 

“Let me be crystal clear,” Gloria, a Democrat, said. “The redevelopment of the sports arena will move forward. We will get this done.”

He may finally fulfill that promise for California’s second-largest city, despite the 165 foot-tall structure vastly exceeding the neighborhood’s 30-foot building height cap.

In the final days of the legislative session, lawmakers Sunday approved a last-minute deal to fast-track construction for Midway Rising, a project to construct a 25-story professional arena, 4,250 housing units and nearly 15 acres of public parks. If signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the new law would immediately shield the planned development from potential environmental lawsuits.

It’s a break for San Diego officials whose ambitions for the city’s Midway District have been fraught with legal challenges for years, namely because of the California Environmental Quality Act.

“San Diego in particular has had some bad experiences with CEQA litigation over efforts to rezone this very area,” UC Davis property law professor Chris Elmendorf said, referring to recent court rulings against the project.

“I think in light of that experience it’s totally understandable that the proponents of the project would be going to the Legislature and asking for help.”

Senate Bill 344, authored by Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, a Democrat who represents the neighborhood where the arena would be built, would allow the developer to use an existing environmental review of the project to comply with CEQA.

The bill passed the Assembly with 61 votes out of a possible 80 Sunday afternoon. Two lawmakers voted against it, including San Diego Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a Republican.

“To sit here and say a politically connected developer gets an exemption — that is an awful message to send,” he told colleagues.

Democratic Assemblymember Chris Ward, who presented the bill in the Assembly on behalf of Weber Pierson, defended the deal as a way to avoid costly delays on a project that has already been thoroughly vetted.

“We want to make sure that we have certainty, and that is exactly what SB 344 does, is to provide that certainty after almost a decade of exhausting environmental review.”

The eleventh-hour deal came together in closed-door negotiations just days before lawmakers gaveled out for session, sparking outrage among critics of the project who say city officials did not study the environmental impacts well enough.

Several neighborhood groups argue the arena will ensnare traffic and block coastal views. Other opponents such as Audubon Society worry the taller buildings could hurt or even kill migratory birds. 

People opposed to new development often sue under CEQA stall construction projects throughout California, sometimes for years. That’s why developers and lawmakers frequently seek to shield their preferred projects from environmental rules, even after recent reforms intended to make CEQA compliance less onerous, Elmendorf said. 

This two-year legislative session alone has seen its fair share of CEQA carveouts, including late-breaking negotiations over California Forever, a plan backed by tech entrepreneurs to build a manufacturing hub on the outskirts of the Bay Area. Another deal, Senate Bill 237, ended environmental lawsuits surrounding Kern County oil rigs to speed up production.

Democratic Assemblymember Tasha Boerner of Solana Beach, who also represents part of the Midway, did not vote on the project, which counts the same as voting no, and posted a statement on social media that said: “If we want to address California’s housing crisis, we need to allow for public scrutiny, and the public to sue when appropriate, to correct legitimate concerns and mistakes when assessing impacts.”

The pressure is on in San Diego.

The city and Midway Rising developers do not have a deal to build the project, but a deal to make a deal by Dec. 4. Missing that deadline could spell catastrophe for the project and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, whose company will have a 95% stake in the equity. Brad Termini, a political donor to Gloria’s 2020 campaign, is CEO of Zephyr, the housing developer chosen to lead the project.

Termini and his wife each gave $50,000 to an independent expenditure committee backing the mayor.

Gloria leaves office in 2028, and San Diego officials are pushing to break ground by next year.

Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto the bill.

Termini did not respond to multiple email requests seeking comment for this story. The Kroenke Group, Stan Kroenke’s real estate company, did not return a phone call and voicemail requesting comment.

Officials are confident criticism will abate once the Midway District, an overlooked historic neighborhood, is revitalized.

It’s expected to create at least 2,000 affordable apartment units and thousands of construction jobs, Gloria said in an interview. He said a small group of people “continually trip these projects from happening.”

“We have a project that’s been thoroughly vetted, that has been voted on by the public, that is going to receive public hearings in the city council,” he said. “When you’ve done that much process, that much review, that much transparency, the end result should be a firm answer.”

Contentious Road for Midway Rising

Plans to revitalize the Midway District have been shrouded in controversy for years as city officials have worked to maneuver around local zoning laws. 

The city failed twice — in 2020 and 2022 — to bypass the 30-foot neighborhood height cap with ballot measures that voters approved. Courts invalidated each, saying planners didn’t properly review how the much taller buildings would affect noise levels, air quality and nearby habitats .

Scrutiny from local activists and neighborhood groups picked up steam earlier this year once project leaders and labor unions began looking to Sacramento for help in earnest.

Senate Bill 958 was the first crack at the nut. That bill, also by Weber Pierson, would have given Midway broad CEQA exemptions. It was ultimately watered down to just negate the court rulings as negotiations rolled into summer.

When lawmakers returned from recess in August, Weber Pierson and other lawmakers began distancing Midway Rising from that legislation, saying it was entirely unrelated to the project despite its narrowly tailored language that only applied to Midway Rising’s financing and construction requirements.

Critics feared project leaders were sidestepping key processes and ignoring their grievances.

“The entire reasoning behind the gut-and-amend bill is to avoid having the project subject to the entire CEQA process,” said Eric Law, a longtime Point Loma resident and chairman of the neighborhood group leading the opposition. “What they’re trying to do is avoid informed decision-making.”

‘End-Running’: A Tried and True Strategy

Her last-minute maneuvering reflects a common way lawmakers push through specific projects in their districts, although the practice is often criticized for not being transparent. Sometimes called “end-running,” bills introduced in the final hours of session don’t have to hold hearings before public policy or spending committees, giving opponents no opportunity to speak.

It makes sense if your primary goal is to just bring the deliverables back home, Elmendorf said.

“You’ve got an influential legislator who cares about a project in their district and, you know, other people aren’t too concerned about it, and they do a favor for their colleague,” in voting for it, Elmendorf said of the tactic.

Midway Rising is local enough that policy fights over it weren’t likely to “consume the Legislature,” he said. Making things even easier: it doesn’t call for any state spending or financial giveaways.

Lawmakers have a history of pushing through legislation shielding sports arenas from more rigorous environmental review, including in 2013, when the Legislature approved a deal to streamline the environmental permitting process for a Sacramento Kings stadium. 

Gloria and other officials have said their approach is different because the San Diego development plan is only able to bypass zoning laws because it has a housing component.

But the deal-making opened fissures among lawmakers old and new. Former San Diego Assemblymember Lori Saldaña, who used to represent Midway and is a longtime critic of the project, says her criticism has alienated some former colleagues.

“If they cannot accomplish something at the local level, and they can’t accomplish it through a normal routine, then they go through these extraordinary end-of-session gymnastics,” said Saldaña, who believes nearby flooding could become an issue for any project on the site.

“I refer to it sometimes as, you know, a poker chip in a poker game, where you’re trading favors with your colleagues on these last-minute bills. And I’ve done it myself,” she said.

Some San Diego lawmakers don’t want to talk about it.

Democratic Chula Vista Sen. Steve Padilla, a co-author on the new bill, and Democratic Assemblymember Boerner, who also represents part of the Midway, could not be made available after multiple interview requests to discuss the project.

From Gloria’s perspective, drastic moves are needed to address the housing crisis.

“Coming to Sacramento and asking for clarification and certainty will make it more likely that it can actually happen,” he said. Otherwise, he fears an endless loop of litigation “ad nauseam.”

CalMatters’ Kate Wolffe contributed to this story. 

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

The post California Lawmakers Greenlight a New San Diego Sports Arena, Bypassing Environmental Hurdles appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

A Christian police support organization has hired a former San Diego County sheriff’s deputy who served prison time for sexually assaulting women — women who had called emergency services seeking help.

The Christian Law Enforcement Fellowship’s president said the former deputy, Ricky Fischer, had experienced religious redemption and was ready to minister, to male officers only, just as the organization had done for Fischer during his incarceration.

“Who better to minister to cops who are in trouble than a cop who has been in trouble who has now been forgiven by God?” said retired San Diego Police Department Capt. Jerry Hara, the fellowship president. 

Because of Fischer, county taxpayers paid out $10 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by the survivors. 

Read the full story here. 

Midway’s Legislator Did End Up Speaking About Midway Legislation

The Politics Report Saturday led with our attempts and failures to get Assemblymember Tasha Boerner to tell us what she thought of the legislation drawn up to support Midway Rising, one of the largest proposed development projects in the state. The bills would help developers put up more than 4,200 new homes, a new arena and more in her district. 

Yet did not vote on SB 958. She didn’t vote for it or against it. Just didn’t vote. If the governor signs SB 958, opponents to projects like Midway Rising would no longer be able to sue arguing that the developer did not study the impacts of the height of the planned buildings adequately. Boerner didn’t want to discuss it. 

Then, another San Diego Assemblymember presented SB 344 to the Assembly floor and a different San Diego Assemblymember spoke against it. But Boerner said nothing and then also didn’t vote on it. SB 344 would expressly protect Midway Rising from lawsuits over environmental impact.

Sunday we got a statement from Boerner: “I didn’t vote for SB 958 and SB 344 relating to the Midway Rising project. If we want to address California’s housing crisis, we need to allow for public scrutiny, and the public to sue when appropriate, to correct legitimate concerns and mistakes when assessing impacts. I agree we need to address the housing crisis, but we must do so in a way that does not sacrifice protections, especially environmental ones, we already have in place.”

Didn’t matter: The Assembly passed the bill with the needed two-thirds vote and it sailed through the Senate. 

More from the Politics Report: We also wrote about gambling and the Padres, the cops and the cops’ accountability agency and why the Prebys Foundation bought the dilapidated California Theater. 

The Politics Report is good but it’s for members here. 

More from the Sacramento Report: With just three days left before the midnight deadline, Sacramento is rushing to finish its work. A San Diego lawmaker is trying to ban ICE’s controversial shock gloves before session ends, sparking a fight between civil rights groups calling the gloves inhumane and police unions calling the ban government overreach. 

Another bill was proposed that would make it easier to place people with severe mental illness in court-ordered care.

Read the Sacramento Report here. 

Podcast: The Voice of City Workers

Michael Zucchet is the general manager of the largest union of employees of the city of San Diego. Scott Lewis did a one-on-one interview with him for this week’s podcast. Zucchet made the case that critics of spending at City Hall are talking about millions of dollars in a much much larger budget of billions and that real cuts in spending need to accompany service cuts. 

He acknowledged that worthwhile cuts and efficiencies were found after voters refused to approve a new sales tax and those changes would not have happened had the tax passed. He said it’s probably time to begin discussions about actual service cuts. \

The conversation also digs into labor costs and pensions, a trash-bin “lid lifter” mandate, and questions over the Port Commission’s handling of Harbor Island.

Listen to the full episode here. 

Judge Won’t Make Fletcher Accuser Pay Agency That Fired Her

A San Diego Superior Court judge on Friday ruled against forcing an ex-Metropolitan Transit System staffer who accused ex-Chair Nathan Fletcher of sexual assault and harassment to cover the agency’s more than $775,000 in legal fees and costs. 

We broke the news last week that MTS sought to force Grecia Figueroa to pay up after Judge Matthew C. Braner dismissed Figueroa’s case against MTS. Braner ruled her firing was based on performance issues. Braner also later threw out the sexual harassment case against Fletcher because Figueroa had deleted evidence detrimental to her claims.  

But Figueroa is appealing, and Braner ruled Friday that her appeal means it’s too early to force her to pay. 

He also noted in the more detailed tentative ruling Thursday that he would likely deny the request anyway. Defendants can’t usually collect attorneys fees unless a judge finds “the action was frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless.” Braner wrote that he didn’t find Figueroa’s claims met those definitions. 

Read more here.

In Other News

• Arrests by ICE hit record highs in San Diego and Imperial Counties last month. (CBS 8)
• If San Diego City Council and the developer of 101 Ash Street agree to some edits on their lease agreement, the deal to flip the building into apartments for low-income families could be closed by end of September. (Union-Tribune)
• Starting this week-end, SDPD is launching “Operation Last Call” in the Gaslamp, adding foot patrols and tactical units to target public intoxication, disorderly conduct and assaults. (Inside San Diego)
• San Diego could soon lose independent oversight of its juvenile detention and foster care system. The Superior Court said it will end its administrative support and insurance on Sept. 29. (KPBS)

The Morning Report was written by MacKenzie Elmer and Naomi Granata. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña and Scott Lewis. 

The post Creep Cop Now Minister to Cops appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

It was quite a week at Voice of San Diego.

Our reporters chased down some scandals and tracked down a troubled ex-cop. Grab some cafecito. Here’s what you need to know.

County Troubles

Reporter Lisa Halverstadt revealed in a new story that a county nursing facility has been plagued by racism, harassment allegations and sex tapes.

Separately, a county employee in the behavioral health department was investigated for making a racist comment during an online training session. Investigators concluded that the employee did do it, and county leaders later promoted the employee.

You may be wondering, how did Lisa find this?

We requested employee misconduct records, but the county refused to hand them over, so we sued them. Last week, a judge ordered the release of the records, and within minutes of the county sending us the documents, they announced that they had fired the behavioral health director.

Lisa spent time going through the records and unpacking the misconduct findings. You can read Lisa’s story here.

No Attorney Fees for MTS

On Friday, a judge denied a request from attorneys representing the Metropolitan Transit System to force ex-employee Grecia Figueroa to pay nearly $800,000 in legal bills.

Figueroa accused former county supervisor and MTS board chair Nathan Fletcher of sexual harassment and assault. She also sued MTS. Judge Matthew C. Braner dismissed both cases last year. (Here’s an explanation of why.)

Figueroa is appealing. In the meantime, Braner ruled it’s too early to force her to pay.

Lisa Halverstadt has more on the ruling and a joke the judge made. Read the story here.

Bad Cop, New Job

Reporter Jakob McWhinney revealed late last week that a former sheriff’s deputy who was convicted of assaulting women has found a new job with a Christian cop group.

Jakob writes that more than 20 women accused Ricky Fischer of “a myriad of abuses over a two-year period, from unwanted groping and kissing to forcing them to perform oral sex on him.” Fischer is now a chaplain with San Diego-based Christian Law Enforcement Fellowship.  

Fischer’s actions also cost taxpayers nearly $10 million from the settlements given to his victims.

Jakob spoke to an attorney who represented many of the victims and the president of the fellowship group about Fischer’s new gig.

You can read the full story here.

Don’t Miss This Deal!

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The post Sex Tapes, Attorney Fees and a Bad Cop with a New Job appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

This week, two members of the California Assembly had a lot to say about one of two bills drawn up to support the Midway Rising project. But neither one of them represents the Midway area. That representative isn’t talking or even voting.

Assemblymember Chris Ward introduced and later defended SB 958 to the Assembly Tuesday. SB 958 is the one inspired by the city of San Diego’s effort to remove the building height limit in Midway. Opponents successfully argued the city, twice, did not study the impact of taller buildings adequately. If SB 958 passes, a lawsuit arguing a developer did not study the impacts of the height of buildings enough won’t be an option for opponents of projects.

“When all the other environmental impacts have been successfully analyzed, reported to the public and properly mitigated … that alone cannot be enough to tank an EIR,” Ward said.

Assemblymember Carl DeMaio spoke against the bill.

“SB 958 would, in essence, allow a condo tower to go up on our beautiful California coastline and exempt it from height environmental impact review,” DeMaio said Tuesday night on the Assembly floor. The bill passed the assembly 55-5.

But neither Ward nor DeMaio represent the district where Midway Rising hopes to rise. It is Assemblymember Tasha Boerner’s district. She has said nothing.

Ward ended up voting for the bill. DeMaio voted against it.

Boerner did not vote.

She also has not weighed in on the new bill put forward specifically to shield Midway Rising from all environmental lawsuits: SB 344. Two San Diego reps, state Sen. Steve Padilla and Assemblymember Ward are co-sponsoring it with state Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson. But neither Padilla nor Ward represent the area.

Boerner does and won’t discuss it. Our reporter Nadia Lathan tried to get her perspective this week with no luck. And she did not respond to requests for comment from the Politics Report.

The bill still needs a final vote – and two thirds of legislators will have to support it.

Police Union Claps Back at Cop Oversight Agency

These two were probably never meant to get along. 

On Thursday, the San Diego Police Officers Association (the union) published a statement online accusing the city’s independent police oversight body of bias. 

The oversight agency, called the Commission on Police Practices, had posted a news story on its Instagram page the day before. The story from NBC 7 was about three officers arrested in recent weeks; two for disorderly conduct and the third for domestic violence. 

Posting the news story might imply an officer’s guilt before any investigation had taken place, the statement said. (For what it’s worth, CPP’s post didn’t make any commentary on the article.) The union has raised complaints about CPP’s social media posts on two previous occasions. 

The Politics Report asked Jared Wilson, the union president, whether there was any world in which the union and CPP might get along.

“I do foresee a world where the POA and the PD and CPP can work together. But CPP has to be unbiased and at no point in their six years have they shown they can be unbiased,” he said. 

CPP was created by a 2020 citywide ballot measure, Measure B, but it has been very slow to be implemented. CPP is supposed to have subpoena power to investigate serious incidents involving officers, such as shootings, but it still doesn’t have that full power. The City Council, police department, union, city attorney’s office and commission have all been negotiating exactly how the commission’s power would be applied in practice. 

The police union officially stayed neutral in the lead up to Measure B, but union leaders have been vocal about what they see as problems with the commission ever since its formation. 

According to the statement from Thursday, the union “supports independent civilian oversight and recognizes the mandate given by San Diego voters.”

We reached out to the relatively new director of the CPP Roger Smith for his reaction. 

“The CPP is delighted to learn five years and nine months after the fact that San Diego Police Officers Association supports the passage of Measure B and independent civilian oversight,” Smith said. 

Smith said that he and CPP stand behind all of its postings to its websites and social media channels and that the commission isn’t biased. 

Speaking to KPBS back in April, he said the department is actively preventing CPP from doing its work. 

Measure B’s official language said the commission would be “required to receive, register, review, and evaluate all complaints against city police officers.” 

A loophole has since emerged. CPP has not been able to review two-thirds of the complaints of officers, as KPBS revealed. The department’s Internal Affairs manual states that CPP is not entitled to review miscellaneous complaints, though it’s unclear exactly how that determination was made. 

Federal Court Rules Padres Partner Offers Illegal Gambling

Kalshi this week announced it had entered into a brand partnership with the Padres and three other of the “most beloved teams in baseball” including the Dodgers.

It came just a couple days before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Kalshi is illegally operating sports betting in California.

Kalshi self describes as a “next-generation financial exchange” but it functions like a betting platform. Rather than betting at a casino against its sports book, Kalshi customers are buying futures contracts on whether a team will win or lose or endless other uncertain outcomes. It’s part of the proliferation of 24/7 digital access to gambling that has swept the nation.

Fernando Tatis Jr. and several other players told the U-T a year ago that the explosion in gambling had vastly increased the harassment they receive.

“It’s constant. People just wishing us death to ourselves, to our family. This is the new thing, I guess,” he said.

So it was a little odd to see the Padres partner with one of those betting platforms. The court ruling this week makes it even weirder.

Betting on sports is not allowed in California. There were two rival ballot measures a few years ago trying to change that and both failed.

Nevada obviously allows sports betting but heavily regulates it and tried to shut down Kalshi. Kalshi sued.

“Kalshi sought injunctive relief, arguing that it is not a legal sports betting platform, but a designated contract market under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) offering legal sports event contracts,” reads the Ninth Circuit ruling put out Wednesday.

Judge Ryan D. Nelson, in his opinion, cited Kalshi’s own words advertising itself as “the first app for legal sports betting in all 50 states.”

That seems unambiguous. But in court, Kalshi argues that sports bets and events contracts are different.

“Kalshi users can effectively place prop bets, bet the point spread, bet a specific score, or create a several-leg parlay. And the payout depends on the performance of a sports team or a player,” the court opined.

Those bets are not legal in California. Kalshi will appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court may have to settle it. It’s a fight that goes all the way to the top and includes President Trump, whose son, Donald Trump Jr., told state attorneys general to back off. He’s a paid adviser to the company. 

Meanwhile, Kalshi seems likely to still proceed with its advertising and “exclusive on-site activations” for Padres fans interested in placing a futures contract on whether the Padres win or Tatis hits a home run. For now, it appears death threats hurled at him if he fails are still not allowed.

About that Paid Parking Ban

Readers of the Morning Report got some slightly bad information from us Thursday. Doh!

Councilmember Raul Campillo had been pushing a 10-year ban on charging for parking at any of the city’s beaches or Mission Bay. No one was advocating a plan to charge for parking and any future council would not have been bound by the decision.

The proposal passed committee, but it came out slightly different than it went in. The ban won’t be for 10 years. It will now be in perpetuity now — and it only applies to residents. Should it pass the full City Council, it still won’t be binding on a future Council. 

For now, the Coastal Commission’s position seems to be that cities can’t charge different parking rates to different people on the coast. That means that even though the proposal only technically protects residents from paying fees, in actuality everyone will be spared the parking meter. 

The amendments were proposed by Councilmember Kent Lee. Campillo is sure to cite the measure as part of his man-of-the-people bona fides in his expected run for mayor in 2028. 

Why Prebys Foundation Bought California Theater

We have had a good run of guests in the new Alice and Doug Diamond Podcast Studio these last two weeks. Prebys Foundation CEO Grant Oliphant came in to discuss the foundation’s investments in downtown buildings and leadership of the effort to revitalize the Civic Center. The Prebys Foundation is a supporter of Voice of San Diego.

Negotiations are ongoing between the city of San Diego and the San Diego Community College District to form a joint powers authority that could oversee the Civic Center redevelopment. Oliphant walked through the vision and what’s happening now.

He also spoke about the foundation’s recent purchase of the dilapidated California Theater building.

“I also think we underestimate the extent to which symbols of decay afflict the public psyche. So we bought the California theater because it is a monument to dysfunction and decay. When it sits there in the middle of the center of the city, what it sends to the community and to every visitor is a signal that this is OK in our town and that we can’t figure this out. So that’s why we stepped in — to remove that symbol,” he said.

The full discussion is worth a listen (or a watch).

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

The post Midway’s Legislator Won’t Discuss Midway Legislation appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

For nearly a decade, the case of San Diego Sheriff’s Deputy Ricky Fischer’s sexual predation rocked San Diego County. More than 20 women accused Fischer of a myriad of abuses over a two-year period, from unwanted groping and kissing to forcing them to perform oral sex on him.  

His victims ran the gamut – from women who were pulled over for traffic stops to women who called the sheriff’s department for help. He ultimately pleaded guilty to a half dozen felony and misdemeanor charges related to his sexual crimes, leaving San Diego County taxpayers on the hook for nearly $10 million in settlements from the civil cases brought against him. 

But just two years after the resolution of the final civil case, Fischer has a new gig – chaplain with San Diego-based Christian Law Enforcement Fellowship.   

The Christian Law Enforcement Fellowship describes itself as a “non-denominational Christian organization committed to a Biblically oriented outreach to the law enforcement community of San Diego County.” The nonprofit organization provides support and mentorship to police officers throughout the region, and throws widely attended prayer breakfasts and even marriage retreats. 

The group’s leadership includes multiple high-ranking former law enforcement officials, from retired San Diego Police Department Capt. Jerry Hara, who serves as the organization’s president, to retired lieutenant, Misty Cedrun, who serves as the organization’s vice president. The group’s leadership also includes current chaplains for the San Diego Police Department.  

Sheriff Kelly Martinez is also prominently featured on one of the organization’s webpages. In an email, Lt. David Collins wrote that Martinez was not aware that the organization was using a photo of her on its webpages and had asked it be removed. 

Collins wrote that Martinez supports the work of the Christian Law Enforcement Fellowship and “appreciates how invaluable a resource they are to our employees and the community.” She could not, however, speak to the organization’s hiring decisions. 

When it came to Fischer, Collins wrote: “Richard Fischer was terminated as a Sheriff’s Office Employee in February 2019. He was convicted of crimes and behavior that is not acceptable for any member of the Sheriff’s Office.” 

Fischer’s biography on the organization’s leadership webpage touts his background as a “former Sergeant in the Marine Corps with 10 years of honorable service” and a “former law enforcement officer with 10 years of experience.” The bio seems to only obliquely mention his prolific history of sexual abuse and assault, spinning it as a redemption narrative.  

“After facing some extremely challenging situations,” the biography reads, “God called Ricky into ministry where he now serves first responders, their families and others in need with compassion, hope and the truth of the Gospel.”  

Fischer declined a request for comment.  

But Hara, the fellowship’s president, said Fischer is no stranger to the organization. During his sentencing and through his brief incarceration, chaplains from the fellowship counseled him. In the years since, Fischer stayed connected with the fellowship and, in Hara’s telling, has gone through a religious redemption. He’s now attending seminary school. 

“Did he do something wrong? Absolutely, yes. But we are all sinners. We all deserve god’s forgiveness,” Hara said. “Who better to minister to cops who are in trouble than a cop who has been in trouble who has now been forgiven by God?” 

Prior to bringing him on as a chaplain, Hara said he and other leaders within the fellowship “vetted him” and that it was clear to them he was a changed man. As a former detective sergeant, he added, you can “smell if something is awry.” 

“I believe if God said ‘Hey, your sin is forgiven,’ who am I to contradict God?” Hara said. “He has integrity and high morals and he’s ministering to officers in crisis.” 

The trust they’ve placed in him isn’t without qualifications. Hara said the fellowship doesn’t allow Fischer to minister to female officers. Fischer is also paid via donations that come from those to whom he counsels. 

But not everyone’s prepared to take Fischer’s redemption arc at face value.  

Dave Myers worked in the Sheriff’s Office for more than three decades, later running against Martinez for Sheriff. He said organizations like the fellowship are vital to provide support to officers, who often deal with incredibly stressful and traumatic situations every single day.  

To Myers, though, the fellowship’s decision to hire Fischer was indefensible. Fischer had used the authority of law enforcement to “prey on the most powerless in our community,” Myers said. 

“It does an injustice to not only faith leaders, but an injustice to his victims and to all the good, honest law enforcement personnel out there who are not sexually molesting people who are calling them for help,” Myers said. “For the Christian (Law Enforcement) Fellowship to allow something like a predator in their midst, any law enforcement organization must distance itself from that organization now.” 

Fischer’s crimes drove a deep rift between the community and the Sheriff’s Office. While some of the women were accosted during traffic stops or searches, others were abused after they themselves called the Sheriff’s Office for help, deepening the sense of betrayal.  

One victim alleged that Fischer had stalked her after meeting her at a mental health facility where she worked. At one point, she alleged that she was woken up by his shining a flashlight into her window, later demanding she let him in. After being let in, the woman alleged Fischer forced her to perform oral sex on him.  

Another woman who’d called the Sheriff’s Office to report a domestic violence threat claimed that Fischer then hugged her, grabbed her butt and placed her hand on his crotch. The woman claimed Fischer asked her not to tell anyone.  

The accuser later told KPBS that she had let him into the house because she was vulnerable and scared. The experience, though, had changed her relationship with law enforcement.  

“He just scared me so bad. I will never let an officer in my house again,” the woman said.  

Fischer’s crimes also put a spotlight on how the Sheriff’s Office responded to misconduct claims by the public. At least one of Fischer’s victims testified that after she’d been groped by Fischer during a traffic stop, she’d lodged two complaints against him. Officers responded to neither. The silence wasn’t an anomaly. Reporting by KPBS showed that between 2014 and 2018, one in six citizen complaints to the Sheriff’s Office went unanswered.  

Some of the most graphic and disturbing allegations of sexual abuse were not included in Fischer’s trial. Still, he pleaded guilty to four felony counts of assault and battery under color of authority, two misdemeanor counts of assault by an officer and one misdemeanor count of false imprisonment stemming from allegations from 16 women.  

Over the following years, San Diego County taxpayers paid out nearly $10 million to settle the civil cases brought by his many victims. The county also footed the bill for the more than $1 million in attorneys’ fees Fischer racked up. 

Fischer was sentenced to 44 months in prison. He served far less than that, though. He spent just over a year in prison during his two stints, which were punctuated by a release after a judge wrongly counted time spent on house arrest as time served. Because his crimes weren’t technically sex crimes, Fischer also wasn’t required to register as a sex offender following his release.  

The leniency of his punishment outraged many of his victims.  

Upon his release, a woman who went by Jane Doe #3 during the trial told NBC 7 “Honestly, it makes it to where we don’t matter and law enforcement can do whatever they want and it shows everybody else that it’s OK, and you’re going to get away with it and there’s no real punishment behind it or repercussion for it.” 

“There’s just no justice, there’s just no justice,” another unnamed victim told CBS 8. “How dare anybody just let this guy walk around?” 

Hara, the fellowship’s president, has never spoken to any of Fischer’s victims. But when asked how he thought they would react to his new life as a chaplain counseling officers in crisis, he struck a note of optimism.  

“I’m sure that those victims do not want police officers to act in that criminal, evil unprofessional manner. What Ricky is doing is changing those officers by ministering to them,” Hara said. “Those officers who are lost or in trouble or in darkness, if we can change those officers to people who are nice and respectful and courteous I think the victims would prefer that.” 

Aside from the victims themselves, Dan Gilleon may be the person most suited to speak on their behalf. He represented 23 of Fischer’s victims during the criminal trial against him.  

He said that even before the assaults, Fischer presented himself as a godly man. So, his new religious redemption rings hollow.  

What also makes the narrative so difficult to for Gilleon to believe is how aggressively he says Fischer and his lawyers attacked his clients, particularly during the civil trial. Fischer’s lawyers went out of their way to call his clients liars and even deposed victims’ children in some cases. And while he’s had cases where perpetrators send convincingly remorseful letters to victims, no such communication came from Fischer.  

“I think most of my clients would call BS on it. He didn’t admit fully to everything he did, he pled guilty to certain crimes,” Gilleon said. “Repenting so he doesn’t burn in hell forever is one thing, but actually making amends to the victims is where the rubber meets the road and he hasn’t done that.” 

The post Ex-Deputy Convicted of Assaulting Women Now Chaplain for Christian Cop Group appeared first on Voice of San Diego.