Inhaling the OB vapors?.. Mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio got a taste of Ocean Beach the other night, when he attended a forum sponsored by the OB Town Council, and he’s emerged from the experience a changed man, judging from his actions yesterday. The City Councilman, whose San Diego League of Conservation Voters Environmental Report Card scores for the past years have averaged D minus, took to Twitter to declare “We must make our environment a priority” and added a link to his campaign website to back up the claim. (UPDATE: The OBRag responds to DeMaio’s new-found cause)
DeMaio announced a “Clean Coasts 2020 Plan” with six bullet points and a pledge to release additional “reforms” over the weekend as part of a coastal walking tour. The main idea contained in his web announcement was the creation of a new “Environment & Stormwater Department” as part of city government during a DeMaio administration. We can only hope that he doesn’t encounter any of the “storm waters” on the side streets of Pacific Beach in the evenings this weekend.
UPDATE: Conservation Voters Respond… Livia Borak, President of the League of Conservation Voters San Diego, made the following statement to San Diego Politico in response to DeMaio’s announcement:
“While the policy goals outlined by Carl DeMaio are welcome, they unfortunately still fail to reflect any serious engagement with the environmental challenges facing San Diego. Carl DeMaio’s claims of environmental leadership would be insulting if they weren’t so obviously laughable against his terrible record on environmental issues.
“During his tenure on the council, DeMaio received F’s on the Environmental Quality Report Card in 2009 and 2011 and he mustered a D+ in2010. By a significant margin, his cumulative score was the worst of any councilmember during that time, and has managed to be a reliable opponent of responsible environmental policy across the board.”
“While Mr. DeMaio’s pledge to meet with the environmental community is welcome, it notably did not come in time for him to participate in an environmental mayoral forum held by LCV San Diego to field questions from several leading environmental organizations.
“Similarly, it’s encouraging to hear DeMaio discussing the importance of open space. However, DeMaio hasn’t appeared in the minutes of a single meeting of the San Dieguito River Valley Regional Open Space Joint Powers Authority since January 2011 — despite being one of the two San Diego City Councilmembers appointed as a representative to the board.”
Carl DeMaio and Johnathan Hale = Ronald and Nancy Reagan… From LGBT Weekly, Columnist and long time activist Nicole Murray Ramirez rants on about everybody’s favorite GOP candidate for Mayor. It’s just too juicy not to share:
The entire GLBT community laughed its head off when Carl DeMaio told the San Diego media that his lover, Johnathan Hale would “have nothing to do with my administration” if he wins the mayor’s race. (All polls show Bob Filner ahead of DeMaio.) Well, what plain bullshit and a whopper of a lie – because we all know that first gentleman of San Diego-hopeful, Johnathan Hale has made it very plain that he will be the Nancy Reagan of San Diego to DeMaio’s Ronald Reagan.
Hale has told people who they both will and will not welcome to City Hall (yes, aNixon-like enemies list has been drawn up). Word is that Johnathan Hale and DeMaio are letting GLBT city commissioners know if they support Bob Filner, they will not be reappointed. (Sorry boys; my term is not up until 2016.)
Everyone knows that Johnathan Hale is bragging all over town about what clout he will have and use if he becomes San Diego’s next “first lady.” He has told some he will marry Johnathan Hale on the steps of City Hall if he wins, while he tells others he will not push any GLBT civil rights issues. Hell, that Johnathan Hale even left a recording on my home phone threatening to run a story on his media site accusing me of being a child molester! He, of course, backed down from this lie and tried to apologize. Johnathan Hale and Carl DeMaio don’t just live together; they plot together.
We are tired of DeMaio’s two faces and his lies. Oh, how he loves his fellow queers in Hillcrest and then denies us in Rancho Santa Fe. It’s only a matter of time until all San Diego will know what we know: If you elect Carl DeMaio, you will also be electing Johnathan Hale as “deputy mayor” along with his coveted title of “First Lady of San Diego.”
Sausage Making 101 disrupted… One of the ugly truths of California’s legislative process is the hundreds of bills that get abruptly considered each year during the closing days of “deliberation” by our state lawmakers. This legislative blizzard provides good cover for vested interests that seek to sneak measures into the law books that might otherwise not pass public scrutiny. Yesterday an attempt by business interests to overhaul the California Environmental Quality Act fell apart after environmental groups caught wind of the ploy and triggered a tsunami of phone calls from concerned Californians to their legislators.
The defeated proposal would have limited the reach of California’s signature environmental law, by limiting litigation against projects that comply with a city general plan or other planning document for which an environmental review already has been done. A story in theSacramento Bee quoted Sierra Club California director Kathryn Phillips, who called the bill “one of the worst attacks on environmental protections that we’ve seen in the 40-year life of this law.”
No corruption here, move along people… A long-standing dispute over contracts for security at Qualcomm Stadium was put to rest Wednesday when Mayor Sander’s office issued a letter to competing contractors splitting up the deal. San Diego began requiring all stadium tenants to use Elite Show Services to provide security, ushering and ticket-taking services at events in and outside the stadium. Complaints that Elite charged too much from stadium users were seemingly verified when the stadium-security contract was first put out to bid in 2010, after the UT’s Watchdog reported that city officials had quietly approved a 29-year, no-bid contract to that company.
Five other companies bid lower than the $29.50 hourly rate that was being charged at the time for stadium security during that process. None-the-less, Elite (which lowered its bidding price to $20 per hour) was selected as the winning contractor by a three-member committee reporting to the Mayor. Low bidder Staff Pro, who’d offered the city the same services at $17 per hour, threatened to sue. Late last year an appeals panel declared that the bidding procedure was faulty, pointing to a member of the selection committee’s relationship with Elite, which included providing a professional reference for the winning bidder. Shortly thereafter city officials opted to re-bid the contract, which led to this week’s decision.
GOP lawmakers like to beat their meat… The Associated Press reports that Republican lawmakers Devin Nunes, Kevin McCarthy and Jeff Denham have issued a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack asking the government to reopen a slaughterhouse at the center of a cruelty and food safety investigation. Calling the release of a video depicting animal abuse and other actions by activists with Compassion Over Killing “attacks that are occurring at the behest of radical groups.”, the Central California Congressmen claim that shuttering the Central Valley Meat Co. in Hanford will do nothing to further the goal of responding to the alleged animal abuse. The USDA says the company will not reopen until it resolves its humane handling issues.
Quote of the Day: “I freed thousands of slaves, and could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves.” Harriet Tubman(c. 1901)
On this Day: In 79AD Mount Vesuvius erupted, killing approximately 20,000 people. The cities of Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum were buried in volcanic ash. In 1968 Keith Moon (The Who) drove a Lincoln into the pool of a Holiday Inn in Flint, MI. In 2005 the planet Pluto was reclassified as a “dwarf planet” by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
Feed Your Mind: Activist Daniel Hirsch will speak on the risks of restarting the San Onofre nuclear plant at gatherings in Oceanside and San Diego on Saturday, August 25th, sponsored by the Peace Resource Center of San Diego. Hirsch is a Lecturer on Nuclear Policy and former Director of the Stevenson Program on Nuclear Policy at UC Santa Cruz and President of the Committee to Bridge the Gap, which focuses on nuclear issues from weapons proliferation to waste disposal.
“The pending question of whether it is safe to restart the damaged San Onofre reactors is one of the most important decisions for Southern California in years,” says Hirsch. “Eight and a half million people live within 50 miles of the plant. Each reactor contains a thousand times the long-lived radioactivity of the Hiroshima bomb.”
Presentations will be at the Oceanside Community Room, 330 North Pacific Coast Highway (between the Oceanside Library and Oceanside City Hall), 10am -Noon and the Peace Resource Center, 3850 Westgate Place, San Diego, 3pm – 5pm. For more information, go here.
Ambulante Border Series film festival: As part of their continuing effort against Free Trade Agreements, Af3irm San Diego, in collaboration with The Centro Cultural de la Raza, will be presenting the film MAQUILAPOLIS [city of factories] by Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre this evening. Following the film is a panel discussion with local groups on how to continue the efforts against Free Trade Agreements (old and new) in our bordering communities. This event is Friday (tonight!), Aug. 24 @ 6pm. Entrance is free to the public. For more information, go here.
Save Your Butt(s): The San Diego County Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation will hold dual Hold On to Your Butt Awareness Day events this Sunday, August 26th from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon across from Belmont Park in Mission Beach, and at the corner of E Street and Highway 101 in Encinitas. The events are part of an ongoing effort to raise awareness about the epidemic of cigarette butts on our streets and beaches and the volume of cigarette litter in the region. The group will engage activists, surfers, beach fans, concerned citizens and Surfrider volunteers at two of San Diego’s busiest intersections as people arrive for a day at the beach. Activists will hold signs, hand out personal ashtrays, distribute Hold On to Your Butt stickers and demonstrate about the ongoing problem of cigarette butt litter. For more on this ongoing effort, go to the Hold On to Your Butt campaign page at the website for the San Diego County Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.
Eat Fresh! Today’s Farmers’ Markets: Borrego Springs (Christmas Circle Community Park Christmas Circle & Palm Canyon Dr.) 7 am – noon, Fallbrook (102 S. Main, at Alvarado) 10 am – 2 pm, Imperial Beach (Seacoast Dr. at Pier Plaza) 2 – 7:30 pm, Kearny Mesa (No. Island Credit Union pkg lot 5898 Copley) 10:30 am – 1:30 pm, La Mesa Village (Corner of Spring St. and University) 2 – 6 pm, Rancho Bernardo (Bernardo Winery parking lot 13330 Paseo del Verano Norte) 9 am – noon, Southeast San Diego (4981 Market St. West of Euclid Ave. Trolley Station) 2 – 6 pm
I read the Daily Fishwrap(s) so you don’t have to… Catch “the Starting Line” Monday thru Friday right here at San Diego Free Press (dot) org. Send your hate mail and ideas to DougPorter@SanDiegoFreePress.
Doug Porter
Latest posts by Doug Porter (see all)
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This is probably the worst writing I’ve seen in a news story in a while, but the upshot in this NEWS 10 poll/coverage is that Filner has doubled his lead over DeMaio in the race for SD Mayor.
This is off the subject, but I was wondering if you would be interested in a Carl DeMaio push poll I received yesterday. It was pretty tricky, then pretty blatant and really nasty at the end. I hope Filner isn’t doing these things.