This election season, our reporters delivered a guide that helps voters cut through the noise and rhetoric they are often drowning in this time of the year.

Depending on where you live, your mailbox is probably already filling up with mailers making all sorts of claims about candidates and local measures.

We know it can be overwhelming — especially when so many races are between candidates in the same party. Our guide will help you make sense of the races and understand what’s at stake.

If you haven’t already, you can view our No BS Voter Guide here or download it here.

OK, grab some cafectio. Here’s what you need to know to start your week and some behind-the-scenes information about our editorial decisions.

New chismosos: If you’re a new Cup of Chisme reader, welcome! This newsletter recaps coverage from Voice of San Diego and offers some insight into our newsroom and reporters.

Tenants Strike Over Utility Bills

Environment reporter MacKenzie Elmer and intern Naomi Granata have been investigating how San Diego renters are charged for utilities.

They recently reported that despite a new city law, some landlords are allegedly failing to provide renters with a breakdown of how they are charged for utilities.

Now, they have a new story about a group of tenants who went on strike over utility charges that more than doubled after their landlord started using an new billing system.

You can read the story here. If you’re a renter who’s had a similar experience, you can contact our reporter here: mackenzie.elmer@voiceofsandiego.org.

Behind Voice: How the Voter Guide Came Together

It really was a team effort.

Our reporters and editors identified the races and local measures with the highest stakes. (That’s not to say other stuff on the ballot isn’t important. Other news outlets do a great job covering everything on the ballot, which give us the luxury to focus on more complicated proposals and races.)

Our reporters took a crack at explaining the races and then we went through each write up as a group and pushed each other to go deeper.

If you have any thoughts or feedback on the guide, feel free to email me at andrea.sanchez@voiceofsandiego.org.

The Mayor, a Candidate and Angry Instagram Comments

Late last week, our editors published a story about how Mayor Todd Gloria was working behind the scenes to get groups to drop their support of Councilmember Henry Foster.

Foster is running for re-election and is defending his seat against political newcomer Martha Abraham. Both are Democrats.

Our story relied on unnamed sources. Readers who found our story on Instagram, many of whom support Abraham, found that upsetting. They made incredibly serious claims that our story was fabricated.

There are two things going on here.

First, the mayor is not very popular right now. So the implication that he is supporting Abraham, simply because he wants Foster out, is not something that Abraham’s supporters welcomed. (In another other world, a mayoral endorsement would be something coveted by candidates for city council.)

The second is confusion about unnamed sources. We have very strict standards at Voice of San Diego. Such decisions are not made by reporters alone.

When a source asks to remain anonymous, reporters and editors weigh three things: Is this the only way we can get this information, would naming this person harm them and can others confirm that the information they are providing is true?

In this case, the information was credible and we felt it was important to protect our sources.

We work very hard to get our stories right. If you ever think we got something wrong, please reach out to me with your source and point of concern and we will happily correct the record.

The post No BS, Just a Voter Guide appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

On the latest episode of the VOSD Podcast, our hosts explain why the mayor’s support may be unwelcome assistance to one City Council candidate. Plus, a recap of Politifest.

First up! We revealed that Mayor Todd Gloria is working behind the scenes to make sure that Councilmember Henry Foster does not get re-elected.

As our editors wrote in the Politics report, the mayor “has described Foster’s downfall to them as his No. 1 political priority.”

Our podcasts hosts explain why that support may not be something candidate Martha Abraham wants. She’s running against Foster as an outsider who is fighting the establishment forces.

Behind voice: Our managing editor takes some time on the show to explain how Voice of San Diego reporters and editors handle anonymous sourcing and corrections.

Finally, our hosts pull clips from Politifest and breakdown some of the most interesting discussions from our annual event.

Listen Here Now

The post VOSD Podcast: The Mayor’s Unwelcome Assistance appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Earlier this year, the San Diego Police Department made headlines for a policy that prohibited officers from using artificial intelligence to produce police reports. Now, the department is opening the door to do just that. 

A request for information issued by the department on July 31 describes the department looking for a program “that utilizes AI technology to assist officers and investigators in writing police reports.” 

“The goal of this initiative is to enhance efficiency in report writing, thereby allowing officers to respond more quickly to calls for service,” the request for information reads.

The request for information notes that the program must allow users to maintain control over the “content and structure of their reports.” It also notes that it is not a request for proposals and is being issued “solely for information gathering and planning purposes.” The document estimates the contract value to be somewhere between $500,000 and $3 million. 

In an email, SDPD spokesperson Ashley Nicholes emphasized that the department is just in an “exploration phase” during which they are working to learn what’s out there and what best practices for such technology is. Should they choose to pursue AI-assisted police report programs, they would conduct outreach to elected officials and community members, she said.  

“SDPD is constantly looking at ways to maximize efficiency throughout the department, particularly given current staffing shortages of front line officers. With the emergence of AI technology, this may be an option to reduce time spent on certain tasks to put officers back in the field responding to additional calls for service faster,” Nicholes wrote. 

The request comes less than a year after the department instituted a policy that, at first, seemed wholly contradictory. In December, the department forbade officers from using AI platforms to generate reports. 

“The Department does not authorize the use of any generative Artificial Intelligence programs to author a police report,” read the memo, first reported by CBS 8.  

The policy change came shortly before Senate Bill 524 went into effect. The law required police departments statewide to begin to develop policies regulating AI use. It also required that departments disclose if AI was used to write reports and hold on to any body-cam footage and audio to allow for future audits.  

But the San Diego Police Department’s policy came with a huge asterisk: it only prohibited officers’ use of non-department-approved AI platforms. So, what may have seemed like a blanket ban was really just a time-out, assuming the department officially approved an AI platform. 

Khalid Alexander is a professor at San Diego City College and the founder and president of Pillars of the Community, an organization dedicated to supporting San Diegans impacted by law enforcement. To him, the prospect seems all bad.  

“It’s just one more example of them trying to take any kind of humanity away from policing,” Alexander said. 

But it goes deeper than that for him. He not only worries about whether systems stuffed full of information about people on the worst days of their lives are actually secure, he also worries about over-reliance on the technology.  

As an instructor, he constantly sees students relying on AI to complete coursework. What it produces is work rife with errors, hallucinations and nonsense. He said he imagines a typically flawed system used in a law enforcement context will have even worse repercussions.  

“The problem isn’t just that they’ll use it, it’s the assumption that the technology is less biased and more correct than human beings,” Alexander said. 

A handful of local law enforcement agencies have already leaned into AI. Both the Chula Vista Police Department and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office utilize AI programs that transcribe residents’ non-emergency calls and route them to the appropriate place in a bid to free up dispatchers to take more emergency calls.  

Chula Vista, which has wholly embraced such technologies, also utilizes AI to write police reports.  

“We’re estimating usually three to five hours per shift spent on report writing,” Chula Vista Police Department Chief Roxana Kennedy told CBS8 in November. “If that means that officer is going to get back out on the street quicker, it’s super important.” 

Still, law enforcement’s usage of AI has long sparked controversy. Many of those concerns have centered on the often-troubling biases programmed into AI platforms. But as AI platforms have become more integrated into everyday life, other worries have emerged, like whether the tendency of AI platforms to flatter and confirm the priors of their users can negatively impact police investigations.  

Already, there are scores of examples of AI platforms bungling police-related tasks, leading to real-life consequences for innocent individuals, particularly when it comes to reliance on facial recognition software. 

All of these concerns have been sent into overdrive by increasing pushback against AI-enabled surveillance cameras like Flock, of which San Diego has a robust network. Last year, one local man spent nearly a month behind bars after being arrested for a crime he didn’t commit thanks to a misidentification from a Flock camera 

The use of AI to create police reports has been panned by some opponents and experts. Studies have found that AI can produce writing that is better, at least technically, but may not actually save officers time.  

One recent study found that AI-generated police reports were “rated substantively and significantly worse on accuracy,” according to Ian Adams, a former police officer and criminology professor who ran the study.  

“For a document whose downstream readers are prosecutors deciding to charge, defense attorneys probing for inconsistencies, and judges and juries reconstructing events months later, accuracy is the threshold condition,” meaning it is a minimum requirement, Adams wrote in a post on LinkedIn. 

The platform used in that study was created by Axon, a company that creates all sorts of technology for police departments. In fact, the body-worn cameras used by San Diego police officers are made by the company, allowing for easy integration and even automatic uploads should the department opt to contract with the corporation. It also includes safety elements, like a feature that requires human input in all written reports and even manually inserts nonsense phrases to ensure reports have been reviewed by officers.  

Andrew Ferguson is a law professor at George Washington University who specializes in police surveillance and the impacts of the integration of AI into policing. In a 2025 law review article on AI-produced police reports, he wrote “the danger for the criminal legal system is the digital poisoning of the facts in criminal trials by algorithmically altering the narrative.” 

Still, Ferguson doesn’t view himself as an out-and-out critic. The current reality of human-produced police reports is far from optimal. After all, humans produce errors as well. But he does count himself as a skeptic. 

“Because most of the history of police technologies has usually been one of adoption, ‘Oops, we created a problem,’ scandal, news report and then walking it back,” Ferguson said.  

To him, there’s no question that AI will only become more integrated into policing. It’s already happening quicker than we realize. But officials and the public needed to understand there are inherent dangers in “moving a very human job to a less human mechanism.”  

“The question is what human aspect are you losing, and what do you do to make sure that there aren’t real errors or problems in the technology?” Ferguson said. “The thing that I find the most frustrating is that we never seem to ask these hard questions before we roll out the technology. If we were really asking the questions beforehand, we might have avoided some of the more obvious errors before using tax dollars to pay for this stuff.” 

The post San Diego Police Department Is Weighing Using AI to Write Police Reports appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Sacramento Report Countdown

25 days until the November election

If there’s one ballot initiative you’ve heard of this election cycle, it’s probably Proposition 40, colloquially known as the billionaire tax. The measure would impose a one-time five percent tax on the assets of California’s roughly 200 billionaires, which would not include retirement or pension accounts.

It was put on the ballot by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West to backfill federal funding cuts to Medi-Cal. They estimate the wealth tax will raise roughly $100 billion in additional revenue over five years.

SEIU-UHW, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and other proponents say a tax on wealth, rather than income, will force billionaires who pay little in income taxes to pay their fair share.

“The ultra wealthy tend to not be getting wage income. So a wealth tax is one way to make sure they’re paying their fair share,” UC Riverside political science Professor Jennifer Gaudette said.

But how, exactly, will the state calculate those assets? That question remains up in the air, as there’s plenty of logistical challenges about how implementing a wealth tax would work. 

Most legal scholars believe taxing assets, rather than income, would be illegal at the federal level, which poses questions about the constitutionality of a state version. California would be the first in the country to try it out.

It doesn’t help that there’s not many other examples to point to nationally or internationally. If voters approve Prop. 40, the state would have six months to figure out basically from scratch how to evaluate the value of stocks, investment accounts, art, cars and other property. 

These concerns and others have splintered the Democratic Party and reordered liberals and progressives into idiosyncratic alliances. A popular critique is that Prop. 40 would hurt the state’s long-term revenue by spurring a mass-exodus of California’s richest residents and deprive the state of their income tax revenue. (That only works for billionaires who left the state before Jan. 1, as it would apply to anyone living in California on that date.) 

The departure of Google co-founder Sergey Brin and a handful of other high-profile tech moguls is a big reason why Gov. Gavin Newsom, who terms out this year, and gubernatorial favorite Xavier Becerra, staunchly oppose Prop. 40. Newsom has said he’d support a federal wealth tax instead for this reason.

San Diego’s own Democrats can’t even avoid the divide, although many have simply opted out of taking a public position. 

State Sen. Catherine Blakespear, an Encinitas Democrat, opposes the proposal for similar reasons as the governor and said she would support a federal billionaire tax to prevent billionaires and their tax dollars from leaving the state.

San Diego’s Chris Ward, a Democratic assemblymember, said in a recent campaign statement that he supports the proposal because it “will help ensure billionaires made in California pay a fairer share so that healthcare costs can be stabilized.”

And the dizzying debate doesn’t stop there. Things get wonkier just down the ballot where two countermeasures — Prop. 41 and Prop. 42 — would void Prop. 40 if either receives more votes than it. 

Prop. 41 would do so by tightening tax laws to block the state from collecting revenue from the wealth tax, while Prop. 42 is more of a direct rebuttal to the billionaire tax. That one would prohibit the state from taxing assets.

SEIU-UHW  says the countermeasures are another tactic for billionaires to avoid paying taxes on their massive wealth. Opponents of the wealth measure, who put Prop. 41 and Prop. 42 on the ballot to counter it, say their proposals would prevent what they see as a slippery slope where retirement and pension accounts could one day be taxed. 

Brin is the primary financier of both countermeasures, pouring in over $138 million in the campaigns for and against all three.

Last week at Voice of San Diego Politifest at the University of San Diego, local labor leader Carol Kim said she thinks Democrats’ division over the billionaire’s tax comes down to fears over how it’d hurt their ability to get re-elected rather than if they think it’s a good policy or not.

“I think we can chalk that up, frankly, to the fact that they have political aspirations and ambitions,” Kim said of prominent Democrats who oppose the measure.

Mark Cafferty, CEO of the San Diego Economic Development Corporation, said there are legitimate concerns that Prop. 40 is just bad legislation.

“The thing that you’ll hear over and over in my circle is this will put California at a competitive disadvantage. We do have the most billionaires in the nation,” Cafferty said. “They could make decisions theoretically to move businesses out of the state of California or stop growing jobs in the state of California.”

You Get a Ballot Measure, You Get a Ballot Measure

If you’re wondering why this song and dance sounds familiar, it’s because it is. And you can thank California’s ballot initiative process for that. Citizen-led ballot measures currently need about 875,000 signatures to qualify — or eight percent of votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election — which doesn’t cost much to acquire for a wealthy person who can seed an operation to pay people to collect signatures for their initiative of choice, said Gaudette.

That’s led to a storied history of the ultra-rich putting all kinds of props on the ballot. Take ex-gubernatorial candidate and billionaire Tom Steyer who, in 2012, bankrolled a measure to close a so-called loophole that allowed companies to pay lower state taxes. And billionaire Charles Munger Jr. who is the principal backer of the propositions to create California’s independent redistricting commission 15 years ago.

This means voters have to parse through these political fights and become quasi-policy experts overnight from the sheer onslaught of measures that make the ballot each year, Gaudette said. This can be tiring, especially when it comes to convoluted tax policies.

“You ask a lot of people, and they say, ‘I don’t really know how to vote, I’ll just vote no,’” she said.

Why Are Out-of-State Billionaires Bankrolling a California Voter ID Initiative?

Venture capitalists. Packaging magnantes. Former vice presidential candidates. The donors bankrolling Proposition 39, a measure to require voters to bring a government ID to polling places, are a bit of a who’s who of Republican politics.

That includes Illinois packing supply executive Richard Uihlein, who is the biggest donor for the Yes campaign by a longshot, contributing $17 million. Other major donors include the San Diego-based right-wing group Reform California, Southern California businessman Steven Bray and Nicole Shanahan, ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Combined, proponents have hauled in more than $36 million. In my latest story for CalMatters, experts told me their interest may signal that the GOP views Prop. 39 as a test of support for similar proposals in more moderate states.

Uihlein is a longtime Republican donor who’s backed candidates in Illinois and Wisconsin through his Restoration of America PAC, which he and his wife Elizabeth have given $35 million to just this year.

Other high-dollar out-of-state funders to the Yes campaign include Airbnb co-founder and White House official Joe Gebbia, who this week threw down $8 million. And there are more tech entrepreneurs (or adjacent) where he came from.

Shanahan, who was also former Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘s running mate has pitched in $350,000, and tech executives Cameron and TylerWinklevoss  have contributed $250,000 each.

If the measure passes, voters would be required to write the last four digits of a government-issued ID, like a Social Security number, on their mail ballot. Proponents, including the California Republican Party, argue that it will prevent alleged voter fraud and note that more than two dozen states already require or recommend an ID to vote.

Voting rights groups are lined up against the initiative. Common Cause, the League of Women Voters and others argue that voting fraud is rare and an ID requirement would unfairly block citizens from voting who may have recently moved, changed their last name or simply don’t have one, and that it would disproportionately affect groups who historically voted for Democrats.

Opponents have also raised a ton. As Democratic party leaders campaign against Prop. 39 as an “existential threat,” they’ve opened up their coffers. The state Democratic Party has given $5.5 million, followed by the Sonoma-area Tribal Council of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria with $2 million. Patty Quillin, a film producer and spouse of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, has given $1.5 million as has longtime Democratic donor and philanthropist Quinn Delaney.

Even if the odds of its success are long in Democratic-heavy California, Republicans will be looking to see how well or poorly the measure does to get a sense of how a similar proposition could fare in toss-up states such as Wisconsin or Michigan, Sonoma State University political science Professor David McCuan said. 

“There’s a spillover effect if you do better than expected, even if you lose,” McCuan said. 

Read more in my latest for CalMatters.

What I’m Reading Now

• Encinitas voters continue to buck statewide political trends and those in other liberal-leaning coastal cities, inewsource explains.
• Managers at one California agency were found improperly working out-of-state for months, ABRIDGED reports.
• The USS Lincoln returns to the San Diego Bay after a record-breaking (and controversial) deployment at sea, KPBS writes.

Thanks for reading this week’s report! Please reach me at nadia@voiceofsandiego.org for any questions or comments.

The post How to Make Sense of the Major Tax Propositions on the Ballot appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

County Supervisor candidate Kyle Krahel wants the county to make it easier for developers to build. 

That includes “right sizing” the county’s vehicle miles traveled, or VMT, policy, he said during Voice of San Diego’s Politifest North County event on Friday, Oct. 2.

Krahel is a Democrat running against Republican San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones for the District 5 seat on the Board of Supervisors.

A state law requires developers of projects in unincorporated areas to analyze vehicle miles traveled in an effort to reduce traffic, travel costs and greenhouse gas emissions. The more miles residents of these further out developments have to drive, the more developers have to do to offset the emissions caused by mileage. Things like building bike lanes or paying a large fee. 

Krahel and many developers agree that the county’s VMT policy can be a major obstacle to building in the county’s unincorporated areas. That’s because it made it legally riskier and way more expensive to build. 

“Let’s be honest we have a vehicle miles traveled policy that’s supposed to reduce driving and emissions and all it’s doing is driving people to buy homes in Riverside County,” he said. “That’s not an effective vehicle miles traveled policy.” 

The county is currently using an exemption, known as 15183, that lets developers off the hook for VMT if their proposed project fits the standards set in the county’s general plan. 

Though he doesn’t specifically know how he would want to change the policy yet, Krahel promised to gather stakeholders from the development community, environmental community, as well as local residents to improve it. 

He also said he wants to streamline approvals of housing projects in general, creating easier processes for projects that already conform with the county’s general plan, as well as reducing duplicative environmental analyses.  

And finally, he wants county leaders to be more strategic about building in unincorporated areas, proposing that the county prioritize building in communities that have a strong infrastructure system already in place, like in the village centers of Fallbrook or Valley Center, for example.   

“These village centers are identified in the county plan, and when you go to the communities, you see they have their central urbanized core,” Krahel said. “That way we’re not having to spend huge amounts of money getting things like sewer lines out to greenfield developments.” 

The post Candidate Says This County Policy Is Pushing San Diegans to Riverside  appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

A coalition of labor and advocacy groups want to increase the countywide sales-tax by a half cent to shield San Diegans from cuts pushed by the Trump administration and address the Tijuana River sewage crisis.

Headlines about that sales-tax pitch –known as Measure B have focused most on those elements of the proposal.

What you may not know: Measure B doesn’t include an expiration date and also aims to bolster child care offerings and support, among other line items.

Our Lisa Halverstadt dug into the fine print on Measure B so you don’t have to.

Read the full story here.

Related: If you haven’t already, check out our inaugural 2026 No BS Voter Guide. Our reporters explain what’s at stake and help voters cut through the noise. 

You can download a free copy here. 

North County Supe Candidate Sounds Off on Measure B

The Democrat hoping to represent North County communities on the Board of Supervisors is worried about what will happen if Measure B doesn’t pass.

At Politifest last week, Kyle Krahel told our Tigist Layne that he believes people will die on the street if the sales-tax measure doesn’t pass next month.

Krahel, who is hoping to defeat San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones next month, said he fears drastic county budget cuts if voters don’t approve it. (Jones had another commitment and couldn’t attend.)

Layne rounded up Krahel’s comments on Measure B. Read the full story here.

Can’t get enough Politifest? We’re working hard to upload recordings of the Politifest sessions so you can watch them if you couldn’t join us. We have some up already that you can watch on our YouTube page. 

Our reporters also spent this week delivering news from Politfest. You can read our coverage and watch videos here. 

A Free, Spooky October Activity

Do you like spooky stuff and ghost stories?

KPBS reports that Tootie, the icon behind North Park drag bar Lips, is hosting Wednesday night ghost story events this month at Pop-Up Winona, an open lot at El Cajon Boulevard and Winona Avenue.

All are welcome. It’s free – and so are the coffee and cookies they’ll serve. And Tootie says organizers “do invite some people who have had really fantastic ghost stories.”

Who’s got a good ghost story to share?

In Other News 

• The USS Abraham Lincoln is (finally) back in San Diego. The Union-Tribune reports that the 5,000 on board including 67 fathers who were set to meet their new babies for the first time.
• ICYMI, the Associated Press reported that President Donald Trump mentioned San Diego – yet again – at a campaign rally.
• Journalism matters: 10 News reported earlier this week on a water sprinkling anti-loitering system at an East Village Jack in the Box. It’s now turned off and the company says it is “concerned by what (they) saw.”
• The Union-Tribune pulled back the curtain on a Coronado ballot measure that council members said they only put on the ballot to comply with state law.
• A contingent of Escondido residents do not want an ice rink at Kit Carson Park, CBS 8 reports.
• KPBS reports that county supervisors earlier this week approved updates to zoning rules in Jacumba to help the unincorporated community grow and bring in more jobs.  

The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña. 

The post All About the Proposed Countywide Sales Tax Hike appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Kyle Krahel is ready to see the county government do more for its residents, and he’s hoping to lead the charge as the new District 5 county supervisor. 

But, he said at Voice of San Diego’s Politifest North County event on Friday, it will be difficult for the county to provide essential services to the region’s most vulnerable if a proposed countywide half-cent sales tax increase, Measure B, doesn’t pass in November. 

“People are going to die on our streets,” Krahel said. 

Krahel is the Democrat in the race for the District 5 Board of Supervisors seat. He is a political newcomer and former chair of the county Democratic party. He’s running against Republican Rebecca Jones, the current mayor of San Marcos.  

Jones couldn’t attend the District 5 Politifest debate because of a family commitment. 

If Krahel wins, it will give Democrats their first-ever 4-1 supermajority on the Board of Supervisors, allowing them to pass major budget decisions without Republican votes.  

During our conversation on Friday, the county’s budget deficit and Measure B came up several times as we discussed behavioral health services, homelessness, housing and more. 

When it came to Measure B, Krahel didn’t beat around the bush. 

“If it doesn’t pass by a majority, we’re going to have to do cuts that are going to leave people going to the emergency room for basic care … or dying on our streets because they can’t get any kind of care,” he said.  

He explained that the federal government has been rolling out massive cuts to food benefits, health care coverage and many safety-net programs as part of the Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” Those cuts will severely impact everyday citizens, he said. 

“I’m going to do everything I possibly can to make sure we’re not putting people’s lives at risk but at a certain point of the federal level cutting hundreds of million dollars, there’s going to be cuts to the citizens, and people are going to die on our streets,” Krahel said.  

He added that he would support adopting a sunset clause, or expiration date, for Measure B. It currently doesn’t include one, meaning the tax increase will be collected indefinitely if it passes. He also said he would implement an oversight system to monitor spending. The measure already includes the formation of an oversight committee. 

It’s unclear what steps Krahel may push to add more oversight or a sunset clause for the tax. 

The post Supe Candidate Kyle Krahel Says People Will Die if Measure B Fails  appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

If a countywide sales-tax hike passes in November, it won’t have an expiration date. 

That’s just one key detail of Measure B getting less attention than its goals of combatting Trump administration health and food benefit cuts, addressing the Tijuana sewage crisis, plus funding public safety and child care. 

We dug into those details and other fine print on the measure.  

The Dollars and Cents 

The citizens’ initiative would increase sales taxes on most purchases from a current rate of 7.75% throughout much of the county to 8.25% – a half cent.  

The county auditor’s office estimates this increase will pull in $400 million to $450 million annually.  

Measure B supporter Courtney Baltiyskyy said during a Politifest debate that the campaign estimates the measure will cost a family of four less than $200 a year.  

Mark Kersey of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, who argued against Measure B, didn’t dispute her estimate. 

What the Measure Would Fund 

Health Care and Food Benefits: Up to 60 percent of the estimated annual haul would be directed to “protecting and providing” health care, nutrition, food security and programs for families and children seeing cuts under Trump administration-backed reforms. The measure says these funds – totaling an estimated $240 million to $270 million – could “expand the county’s safety-net healthcare programs using existing healthcare providers” rather than supplant existing funding. 

Seventeen percent of funds could back county programs offering health services or coverage for uninsured or underinsured low-income county residents and up to 7 percent could support food assistance, which could also mean retaining county workers who determine who’s eligible for certain benefits.  

Measure B also calls for 5 percent of funds to go to in-home health services for seniors and others who are medically vulnerable and 9 percent to other affordable health services, which the measure says could cover staffing or new funding for services historically funded by Medi-Cal. 

Tijuana Sewage Solutions: No more than 22.5 percent – or roughly $90 million to $100 million – could annually support efforts to address the Tijuana River sewage crisis. The measure says most of the funding should back infrastructure and engineering projects to halt sewage flows. County supervisors recently took a vote to lay the groundwork for a more formal plan to build a sewage treatment system. 

Measure B also notes that if the state Water Control Resource Control Board gives the area’s water quality its seal of approval or the Tijuana River is “diverted directly into a wastewater treatment facility” then county supervisors could vote to divert the money. Supervisors could then choose to direct funds to “other environmental mitigation” or other programs such as infrastructure to protect clean water.  

Child Care: Up to 22 percent of the funds – or at as much as $99 million annually – could be deployed for child care, development and safety causes. Eight percent of the money would fund stipends for licensed care providers, prioritizing those who serve infants and toddlers. Another 8 percent would back vouchers for families to obtain care. Six percent would fund early childhood mental health services. 

Public Safety: Up to $79 million annually – or 17.5 percent of funding – would fund public safety causes. At least 8 percent of the funds could help the county fire prevention district retain and hire more firefighters and paramedics, increase wildfire prevention, upgrade equipment and reduce response times with training and helicopters. Another up to 8 percent could go to keeping sheriff’s deputies on the job and improving infrastructure including regional 911 systems and facilities. 

Administrative Costs: At least $6 million – or 1.5 percent of the annual haul – could support county staff salaries, benefits and contracts to support the deployment of sales-tax funds. 

How the Funds Get Doled Out 

Measure B says top county bureaucrats will direct funds in the categories the measure lays out “based on the county’s anticipated needs and projects” for that year or over multiple years. 

The Coalition Behind It 

The Service Employees International Union Local 221, child care advocacy group Children First San Diego and Cal Fire Local 2881 were the leading groups that pushed to get Measure B on the ballot. Additional supporters include the San Diego Foundation, the Hospital Association of San Diego & Imperial Counties and Surfrider Foundation. 

No Sunset Clause  

If voters approve Measure B, the county will keep collecting additional sales taxes in perpetuity.  

The Measure B campaign describes this as a feature rather than a bug. 

“Because Measure B targets long-term crises — such as ramping up wildfire prevention, protecting 911 response times, safeguarding community hospitals, and solving the Tijuana River sewage emergency — including a sunset clause would be counterproductive,” campaign manager Alex Wilcox wrote in an email. “Cutting off dedicated revenue streams for programs that require sustained, multi-year investments would only create future fiscal crises, causing 911 response times to spike and critical healthcare coverage to lapse.  We would be back right where we started.” 

Kersey has some beefs. 

Kersey argued that sunset clauses increase accountability because they force supporters to reckon with the outcomes of tax hikes and the need to ask voters for permission to re-up them. 

He also questioned whether San Diegans might prefer more spending on other causes such as homelessness or want to tweak the share of the measure going to different line items over the long haul. 

For example, Kersey questioned, what if Trump administration cuts are ultimately reversed? 

“The priorities that they’ve locked in right now, those spending priorities will be the priorities in perpetuity,” Kersey said at Politifest. 

In a statement after Politifest, Wilcox pushed back on the notion that Trump administration cuts could be quickly rolled back and argued that Measure B is “the only real, immediate answer” to protecting San Diegans from them. 

Following the Money 

Per the measure, a 12-member citizen oversight committee will conduct an annual spending and compliance audit and produce an annual report on its results that will be presented to the Board of Supervisors. The committee will include representatives of labor, public safety, public finance, health, science, the child care industry and people whose children are enrolled in child care and who are impacted by Tijuana River sewage. The county auditor will serve as an ex-officio member. 

Wilcox said this process will give San Diegans information to press for potential changes in spending. 

“The public will have the power and authority to demand changes if they decide the programs aren’t performing,” Wilcox said. 

The Taxpayers Association has a different take. 

Kersey argued Measure B’s approach focuses on spending compliance rather than tracking the results of that spending. He also said those who could receive funding shouldn’t be involved in the review process. 

“An oversight committee should not be made of people that are actually receiving the funding,” Kersey said. 

More On Child Care Support for Families 

Thousands of families are now on a state waiting list for child care vouchers distributed by the San Diego County YMCA. 

Roughly $32 million to $36 million annually could help the county fund child care vouchers for those families under the First 5 San Diego program. 

Baltiyskyy of Children First Collective San Diego, a group that’s part of the coalition behind Measure B, said the vouchers funded by the sales-tax hike would first go to roughly 5,000 families on the waiting list. 

After that, Baltiyskyy said the county and First 5 San Diego would likely rely on state eligibility standards allowing families making 85 percent of the state median income to qualify. For a family of four, that would mean making up to $115,673 annually. 

She said the rollout will be based on the San Diego County Child Care Blueprint backed by the county Board of Supervisors.  

Baltiyskyy acknowledged low-income families are likely to initially be prioritized, but said the goal is to make vouchers available to a wider swath of families over the long haul. Measure B itself mentions prioritizing infant and toddler care. 

“While expanding care to every family remains our ultimate goal, our current priority is ensuring support is directed first to those who need it most,” Baltiyskyy wrote in an email. “We are committed to broadening access step-by-step so we can eventually serve households across all income levels.” 

At Politifest, she said child care funding supporting licensed care providers will also help make care more available and accessible for families of all incomes.  

The Potential Union Talks 

Employees in two county labor unions may seek pay increases if the sales tax passes, as Voice of San Diego revealed earlier this year.  

SEIU Local 221, the county’s largest labor union and champion of Measure B, and Teamsters Local 986, which represents construction and maintenance workers, included clauses in their latest labor deals triggering reopened pay negotiations if voters approve a measure that “generates revenue for the county’s general fund in 2026.”  

The Taxpayers Association flagged this as one of its concerns about the measure. 

“What we’re being told is that the money is going to go towards people who have had CalFresh benefits and SNAP benefits and healthcare and other things cut by the federal government,” Kersey said. “But if what’s actually happening is that some of that money is going to get siphoned off to pay for worker salaries and pensions, you can make the case that that’s a good use of the money, but I think people should know that one way or another.” 

SEIU President Crystal Irving defended the language in her union’s deal in a Tuesday statement. 

“Our region is facing extreme staffing shortages in nursing, mental health professionals, and first responders who provide vital services in our communities,” Irving wrote. “SEIU has negotiated a clause in its contract that will give frontline workers a voice in training and wages so that the county can recruit and retain the staff needed to address these shortages and invest in the health and safety of all people in San Diego.” 

A county spokesperson previously said it would be “premature” to comment on the possibility of wage hikes. 

Measure B explicitly bars some pay hikes. The measure states that Measure B can’t back bonuses or salary increases for county managers or executives, or fund pay or benefits for elected officials. 

The post The Fine Print in the Countywide Sales Tax Hike Pitch appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Earlier this year, San Diego County Democratic Party leaders made it clear they wanted to rectify a problem in the county’s southern half. Despite overwhelming voter registration dominance, there are no Democratic mayors in the region.

One by one, that goal keeps slipping further out of reach.

With the Democratic candidate in Chula Vista halting fundraising and sounding resigned to defeat, Republican Mayor John McCann appears on a glide path toward re-election.

National City is certain to have Democratic leadership, since two leading mayoral candidates are Democrats. But the race has turned bitter and expensive and likely will leave the city divided in its wake.

Now, infighting between two Democrats vying to unseat Imperial Beach Mayor Mitch McKay, a conservative-leaning independent, appears to be dimming Democratic prospects in that city.

The president of the city’s local Democratic club recently resigned amid an acrimonious debate over endorsements. The two Democrats in the race have attacked each other’s experience and ties to party elites.

Democrats said they fear the two candidates will split the Democratic vote and hand the race to McKay.

“That race is over,” one observer said. Not what party leaders had envisioned.

Read the full story here.

Controversies Keep Rolling at Grossmont Union School District

In yet another controversy for the board of the Grossmont Union High School District, Trustee Rob Shield is proposing a censure of his fellow board member Jim Kelly.

A resolution authored by Shield claims that while producing records related to a Union-Tribune records request, district officials discovered that Kelly “intentionally and improperly disclosed confidential and attorney-client privileged information, including information acquired or discussed in closed session, to unauthorized parties on multiple occasions.” 

Kelly also seemed to try to exert influence over the district’s recently appointed Superintendent Kirsten Vital Brulte.

“It was me who single-handedly got her appointed to be our superintendent,” Kelly wrote. “I think she knows that is because of me she has her current position but her actions do not suggest any sort of appreciation or help.”

This censure proposal is just the latest in a running series of controversies for Kelly. Last year, Kelly was one of the district’s board members shown to routinely violate public meeting laws by speaking about district business in group chats. He also played a role in a shady hire that brought a teacher who’d resigned from the district while under investigation back into the fold – at least temporarily.  

The scandal couldn’t have come at a worse time for Kelly, who’s facing perhaps the most serious opposition campaign of his career. For the first time in years, the district’s teachers union backed challengers to incumbent trustees. Shield, who authored the resolution and was once a conservative ally of Kelly, opted not to run for re-election in the face of the opposition.

In a statement, the president of Grossmont Union’s teachers union Stephanie Macecca  wrote: “This is just another example of a lack of transparency and attempts to keep students, teachers and the public out of the loop.”

Grossmont Union’s board will consider Kelly’s censure on Thursday evening.

D2 Council Candidates Spar Over Vacation Rentals

In the hotly contested race to represent San Diego’s coastal City Council District 2, candidates Richard Bailey and Nicole Crosby agree on little – including, it appears, basic facts.

In a Politifest debate Saturday, Bailey and Crosby went at it over a simple question: Can the city reduce the number of vacation rentals in Mission Beach, as Crosby wants to do, “on day one.”

Or, as Bailey contended, does the California Coastal Commission need to weigh in? And should the city even try, since the rentals are tax generators?

They were both right – sort of. Crosby, a chief deputy city attorney, is right that the city can change its citywide vacation rental ordinance without Commission approval.

But Bailey is correct that, in Mission Beach, the city does need Commission approval because the neighborhood is in a state coastal zone.

Crosby insisted the city could lower the number of permitted rentals, which she said have “decimated” the community, right away and work with Commission staff to get a quick signoff.

Bailey said now is not the time for the city to be eliminating a lucrative source of revenue.

“We… need to keep in mind the other side of the ledger,” he said.

Read the full story here.

Oceanside Voters Weigh Second Sales Tax Hike in Two Years

When Oceanside voters look at their ballots this year, they might experience some deja vu.

The ballot includes Measure S, a half-cent sales tax increase to fund repairs to the city’s aging pier, among other priorities.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because voters approved a different sales tax measure in 2024. If Measure S passes, it would raise the city’s sales tax rate to 8.75 percent and bring in an estimated $20 million per year.

Passage is not a slam dunk, our Tigist Layne writes.

The 2024 measure was actually a 10-year extension of a half-cent sales tax increase voters approved in 2018.

Having seen the benefits of that measure – enhanced public safety, infrastructure and homeless outreach programs – voters seemed fine with keeping it going.

This time around words like “double taxation,” “double-dipping” and “politicians’ slush fund” are making the rounds on social media. 

City officials counter if the tax doesn’t pass, there could be painful budget cuts in face of several pressing infrastructure needs.

Read the North County Report here.

All San Diego, All in One Tee

Our limited-edition “I ♥ SD” shirt is packed with hand-drawn details that make San Diego icons and landmarks — from the Coronado Bridge and trolley to local wildlife, neighborhoods and more. Only real locals wear them. 

Wear your San Diego pride — and support independent local journalism while you’re at it. Get  yours here.

In Other News

• San Diego County Supervisors on Wednesday voted unanimously to oppose the placement of three sexually violent predators in the county. The three men in this case had been in state hospitals. Another sexually violent man went missing in the county last month after cutting off his GPS device and fleeing his workplace. (Union-Tribune)

• inewsource has a guide to school board races in six South San Diego County school districts.

• San Diego State University basketball season ticket sales are down, with just 84 percent of previous ticket holders renewing for this season. That compares with renewal rates well above 90 percent in previous years. (Union-Tribune)

• The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is scheduled to arrive in San Diego today after 260 days at sea that included combat operations, supply shortages and at least one sailor jumping overboard amid reports of deteriorating morale. (KPBS)

The Morning Report was written by Jim Hinch and Jakob McWhinney. It was edited by Will Huntsberry.

The post Three-way Race Threatens Dems’ Bid for Control in I.B. appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

This post has been updated.

For a few months early this year, the electoral contest to lead Imperial Beach appeared to be shaping up as a classic two-way race between Mayor Mitch McKay, a conservative-leaning independent, and retired school construction manager Karl Bradley, a liberal Democrat with big ideas for change. 

Then, in July, a third candidate entered the race. And city politics went a little haywire. 

Local Democrats, unified in their desire to find a successor to former Democratic Mayor Paloma Aguirre, fractured over whether to endorse Bradley or his challenger, City Councilmember Matthew Leyba-Gonzalez. Aguirre left last year after winning a seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. 

Infighting over the endorsement grew so heated, the president of the local Democratic club resigned, according to Bradley. 

Accusations flew that a powerful labor union supporting Leyba-Gonzalez – the union is also his employer – was trying to influence city politics. 

Those concerns grew when the union – Local 89 of the Laborers International Union of North America, known as LIUNA – poured $25,000 into an independent expenditure committee backing Leyba-Gonzalez. 

Then Bradley woke up one morning in August to find someone had slashed a tire on his wife’s car, torn up his campaign signs and possibly poured a foreign substance into his gas tank. 

There was no evidence the vandalism was tied to the mayoral campaign. But tensions rose a few weeks later when a vandal scrawled racist, antisemitic graffiti on the house of a prominent local Democratic activist. 

Police later arrested an 18-year-old computer enthusiast in the graffiti incident, who denied he was involved. 

The acrimony has rattled the city. 

And it has prompted Democrats in and outside of Imperial Beach to shake their heads in disbelief that the party appears on track to split its vote and surrender city leadership to McKay, a low-key retired aerospace engineer appointed last year to replace Aguirre. 

One South San Diego County Democratic insider, speaking privately, summed up party sentiment: “That race is over,” he said. 

Bradley and Leyba-Gonzalez insisted they are in the race to win and see a viable path to victory. 

“I’m blessed and fortunate to be in this unique situation, and I’m going to approach it working as hard as I can and do the best I can,” Leyba-Gonzalez said. 

“It’s politics, and I’m pragmatic and walking precincts, and I still plan on winning,” said Bradley. 

Bradley, 69, entered the race in May. 

A retired school construction manager, he said he’s running because he feels that under McKay’s leadership, Imperial Beach had abandoned the fighting spirit that characterized Aguirre’s seven years in City Hall – four as a city councilmember, three as mayor. 

The city is beset by an overriding, existential issue: An ongoing sewage crisis in the Tijuana River that has closed local beaches, battered businesses and depressed tax revenue to the point that the city had to dip into reserves to fund some one-time projects. 

“Paloma was in the media almost daily shouting from the rooftops about this,” Bradley said. “Our current mayor was interviewed in the Union-Tribune saying they need to dial back the rhetoric…There are those who think if we don’t talk about it, business will get better and developers will come back. That’s not realistic.” 

Bradley said his decades of experience managing multimillion-dollar school construction contracts gives him the expertise to advocate on the sewage issue and ensure the federal government follows through on promises to resolve the problem. 

“I’m very confident at least in the area of facilities and construction,” he said. 

Aguirre, a surfer and environmentalist with a bi-national background, drew support from several constituencies in the city, in particular renters, immigrants, environmentalists and college-educated activists. 

She often teamed up with Leyba-Gonzalez and a third city councilmember, Jack Fisher, to advance Democratic priorities. 

Following Aguirre’s departure, a remaining majority of more conservative-leaning councilmembers swiftly appointed McKay to replace her. McKay first won election to the Council in 2022, representing District 3. 

A few weeks after appointing McKay, the Council appointed Republican Mariko Nakawatase to fill his Council seat, further cementing conservative control. 

McKay, 68, describes himself as a consensus-builder. Following his appointment, he said he moved to calm the waters by focusing on routine responsibilities, completing projects started under Aguirre and exploring ways to support Imperial Beach’s struggling business community. 

He also tackled the sewage crisis by working with regional leaders and reaching out behind the scenes to federal officials, he said. 

He rejected Bradley’s criticism that the city has lost momentum on the sewage issue. The key to making progress, he said, is working constructively with other leaders, not generating unnecessary conflict. 

 “How do you get people organized to do positive things for their community?” he said, describing his preferred approach to politics. 

Bradley said McKay’s soft-touch to governing was not working. 

“They’re not demanding transparency from [the federal government],” he said of city leaders. “When I tell people why I’m running, it resonates…I don’t want to backslide on this.” 

McKay acknowledged that an effort he spearheaded earlier this year to secure federal aid for city businesses had failed to produce results after the Trump Administration essentially shut down the local branch of the federal Small Business Administration. 

But he said the city is proceeding on other fronts the community cares about, including a recently completed $3 million sports park renovation and a new senior living center now under construction. 

“[Flashy-sounding] plans are great,” he said of grand pronouncements about the sewage crisis. “But they are hard to put into effect.” 

For two months after announcing his candidacy, Bradley geared up to run a two-way race with McKay. 

He touted his stance on the sewage issue, talked of staging more public events to generate additional city revenue, raised campaign funds and unveiled a campaign website. 

Then, in July, shortly before a filing deadline, Leyba-Gonzalez entered the race, instantly scrambling the electoral calculus. 

A lifelong construction worker turned union business official, Leyba-Gonzalez said he entered the race because he feels the city’s working-class residents need a strong advocate atop City Hall. 

“I know the issues our residents face,” he said. “I’m not a politician. I’m a hard-working blue-collar worker who wants to make things better.” 

Leyba-Gonzalez, 54, first won a seat on the Imperial Beach City Council in 2020. He entered politics, he said, because “it seemed like my district was disenfranchised from the rest of the city.” 

Not everyone agrees with his self-description as a political outsider. LIUNA, the union Leyba-Gonzalez works for, is a major force in San Diego County Democratic politics and one of the biggest spenders in county elections. 

Among other responsibilities, Leyba-Gonzalez said he oversees 30 project labor agreements for the union in multiple jurisdictions throughout the county. The agreements guarantee publicly financed construction projects employ union workers and meet other labor-friendly criteria. 

The union’s hefty campaign war chest, along with a $500,000 effort two years ago to install a slate of allies atop the county’s Democratic Party leadership structure, has secured it a central role in decisions over who runs in local races, who gets endorsed and who has the funds to compete. 

The entrance of a second Democrat into the Imperial Beach mayor’s race instantly fractured the city’s tightknit Democratic community. 

Bradley said some Democrats he reached out to for endorsements pointedly told him he should drop out to clear a path for Leyba-Gonzalez. 

Bradley said he was taken aback by the bare-knuckle demand. 

“I said I love this community too much and I said I’m not going to withdraw,” he said. 

He sought the endorsement of the local Imperial Beach Democratic Club and won the support of 80 percent of members. 

But the club’s other 20 percent wasn’t happy. 

Aguirre, who financed much of her County Supervisor campaign last year with union support, backed Leyba-Gonzalez. Her allies in the Democratic club demanded the club do the same. 

Debate grew bitter and the president, Felicia House, ultimately resigned over the issue, Bradley said. 

“I’m very disheartened by that,” he said. 

House did not respond to a request for comment. 

Though the county Democratic Party’s Central Committee often defers to local sentiment when deciding on its own countywide endorsements, the committee voted to disregard the Imperial Beach club’s endorsement and backed Leyba-Gonzalez. 

Bradley said he’d rather have local support than the backing of party elites. The party’s endorsement entitles Leyba-Gonzalez to placement on voter guides the party sends to members. The guides often play an influential role in local races. 

Leyba-Gonzalez said he won the party’s endorsement because of his record supporting Democratic priorities. 

“I’ve had the experience. I’ve built the relationships. Which is why I received endorsements from labor and from the Democrats,” he said. 

Last month, LIUNA pumped $25,000 into an independent expenditure committee backing Leyba-Gonzalez. So far, the committee has spent more than $17,000 on mailers, voter research and consulting. 

Bradley has raised roughly $11,000 in mostly small-dollar donations from supporters in and outside of Imperial Beach. 

McKay has raised $5,500. 

Leyba-Gonzalez voiced frustration with Bradley’s insistence on running for mayor despite his lack of previous electoral experience. 

“He wanted to bypass serving on the Council to get experience,” Leyba-Gonzalez said. “He just wanted to run for mayor. I’ve gone through my apprenticeship and I’m like a journeyperson and I’m ready to go to be a foreman…You can’t just jump to being a foreman.” 

Bradley countered that being a political insider is not a prerequisite to solving Imperial Beach’s most pressing problems. 

“I think Imperial Beach is ready to go a different way,” he said. “The job[] of the mayor…is to be the voice of the city and advocate for us on this existential issue that affects every component of our lives.” 

McKay said he can’t predict whether Bradley and Leyba-Gonzalez will end up knocking each other out of the race. 

“I’m not a politician,” he said, echoing Leyba-Gonzalez. “I was in aerospace for 40 years.” 

“I’m going to run a positive campaign,” he said. “Being mayor for 15 months is my resume. That’s what’s most important.” 

Correction: This post has been updated to correct the cost of a sports park renovation.

The post Three-Way Mayoral Race Threatens Democrats’ Bid for Control in Imperial Beach appeared first on Voice of San Diego.