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Chula Vista City Council Elections: Candidates Tackle Homeless, Housing

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On Sept. 7, 2016, Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce and the Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors hosted a Candidates Forum at Southwestern College. Four candidates — two for District 3 and two for District 4 — debated each other in hopes of gaining your vote for Chula Vista City Council on November 8.

Less than 100 people attended the event.

New Districts For Chula Vista: As the second largest city in San Diego County, Chula Vista has approximately 250,000 residents. The eastern part of the City anticipates an influx of over 60,000 more people within the next two decades, in particular with the coming of a new University and the Millenia Project.   [Read more…]

Largest Elementary School District in the State: Chula Vista

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Chula Vista Elementary School District (CVESD) is the state’s largest elementary school district (K-6) and good news: the CVESD outperformed its county and state counterparts in 2016 with 62% of students meeting or exceeding the standards in English. In math CV students scored 49% on average compared to the county’s 44% and the state’s 37%.

However, you’ll still want to be careful. In May 2016, shortly before the election primary, Larry Breitfelder-Navas and consultant Kenneth Moser filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission saying that three trustees: Eduardo Reyes, Leslie Bunker and Francisco Tamayo made campaign violations connected to reporting donations and spending during the 2014 school board election. Now careful. Breitfelder-Navas only named three Democratic trustees and Breitfelder-Navas is a Republican who ran for Chula Vista City Council in 2012.   [Read more…]

Chula Vista’s Sales Tax Increase: It Actually Might Be a Good Idea

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Way back in February 2016 I attended a meeting of the GMOC, where a city employee said Chula Vista needs $600 million for infrastructure repairs. To address the crisis, the city considered either a half-cent sales tax hike that would bring $16 million per year, or a $200 million bond. Both would fall short of actual needs.

Bond money would come from property taxes. The half-cent sales tax would be paid at the time of the sale of goods and would not apply to certain items, such as groceries and prescription medicines. According to a survey conducted in English and Spanish, with about 880 participants, more residents supported the sales tax measure.

Thus, on our November 2016 ballot, Chula Vistans will have Measure P.   [Read more…]

South Bay School Districts and Elections, Part II: The Candidates Write In

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Do you know who your school district board members are?

By Barbara Zaragoza

I wrote to several of the candidates running in the various South Bay school districts and received quite a few responses. I have paired them with bond measures where appropriate.   [Read more…]

Avoid School Board Elections At Your Own Child’s Risk

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South Bay School Board Elections.

Much like the yawn-worthy water districts (because who really cares if we have safe, affordable drinking water anyway?), these “down-ballot” school board trustee names scream out one word:

BO-RINGGG.

And yet, when your child experiences something bad at school, who you gonna call? Who are principals, administrators and teachers gonna call? Probably, the trustees of your school board.   [Read more…]

Deported Veteran Hector Barajas Might Return To U.S.

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Hector now lives in Tijuana while he awaits citizenship papers. In the meantime, he fills his time as director and founder of the Deported Veterans Support House, a shelter located in Otay, Mexico. He created the shelter in 2012 and currently six people live there, including one female who is not a veteran, but is staying at what he called ‘the bunker.’

“We try to do what we can. We try to help each other out. We live by the motto leave no man behind,” Hector says. “We have veterans deported from 24 different countries, from the Vietnam War to Iraq and Afghanistan. They served honorably, but after their service they got into some kind of trouble with the law. It could be a $300 check to something like a discharge of a firearm, like myself. I did three years in prison. I had my legal residence. I was not undocumented.”

One of the issues Hector is working on is to allow deported veterans to still get their medical benefits. Just because they are deported, doesn’t mean they lose their health care. However, since they can’t come across into the United States, they can’t be physically present for their appointments. Hector is working to get the VA to outsource those programs. That way, all these men who fought in Iraq and Vietnam and have PTSD can, at the very least, receive treatment.   [Read more…]

77 Minutes Focuses on the Victims of the San Ysidro McDonalds Massacre

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On a busy afternoon in 1984, a white man entered a McDonalds and for 77 minutes shot and then re-shot customers and employees. 21 people died and 19 were wounded. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in United States history.

That very day, the killer had been up in Clairemont Mesa arguing to a judge against a parking ticket. He then ate at a McDonald’s without incident. Originally from Ohio, the shooter had moved to Tijuana, but lost his job there and then came to San Ysidro and worked as a security guard.

Notice how I refuse to say the name of the killer. Charlie Minn, director of a new documentary about the McDonald’s Massacre in San Ysidro, also refuses to pay much attention to that individual. A filmmaker known for telling gut-wrenching stories— including Murder Capital of the World and Es El Chapo?—Minn began interviews for the San Ysidro film last May 2016. His focus was on the victims and their lingering pain even after thirty years.   [Read more…]

Six Candidates Compete for National City Council Elections

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The First United Methodist Church of National City had planned to host a City Council Candidates Forum on Monday, September 26th. They wanted to have a meet-and-greet, allow candidates to give a presentation and then have time for questions & answers.

Unfortunately, First United had to cancel the event. They explained only two candidates had responded to the invitation, even though this forum was the only one planned for the entire city.

Last week, I emailed & called each candidate. I asked them to answer 5 questions relating to National City. Of the six candidates, Jerry Cano (currently Vice Mayor) and David Garcia did not respond.

Fortunately, four other candidates agreed to send their answers: Jose Rodriguez, Luis Natividad (former City Councilmember and also endorsed by the San Diego Democratic Party), Candy Morales and Alejandra Sotelo-Solis (currently city council member of National City and endorsed by the San Diego Democratic Party).   [Read more…]

Safe and Affordable Drinking Water: The Value of One Vote

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Water Board District Elections and Your Drinking Water

South Bay! Do you know where your drinking water comes from? Not from San Diego County, that’s for sure. This semi-arid, bone-dry environment has seen droughts since settlers came to the region in the early 1900s.

San Diego County must import about 85 percent of its water. Rainwater, in good years, only accounts for about 5-10 percent maximum of water supplies. As a consequence, water districts have been focusing on becoming more water independent while still keeping water rates low for customers. Instead of importing more water from the Sierra Mountains and the Colorado River, both of which are drying up, water districts are looking towards local recycling and desalination plants.   [Read more…]

Imperial Beach City Council Elections Heat Up

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As many of you may know, the Imperial Beach Mayor is Serge Dedina. He was elected to office in 2014 for a four year term. Two other city council members are not up for election this year: Mayor Pro Tem Ed Spriggs and Councilmember Lorie Bragg.

This week, Spriggs wrote in to explain his position on Prop 59, calling on IB candidates to decline any contributions by Super PACs.

Furthermore, two city council seats are open this November. Current council member Brian Bilbray will not be running for re-election, so the only incumbent in the race is Robert Patton. A total of six candidates are running for the two city council seats.

This week, I contacted the City of Imperial Beach for election information. The City Clerk, Jacqueline Hald, provided me with the following important numbers:   [Read more…]

South Bay, San Diego November Elections 2016

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A breakdown of the measures, school board positions and City County seats in this upcoming election.

South Bay, do you know who’s running for office? What about your state and local measures? Your vote could effect your drinking water, your child’s education, your taxpayer dollars, your roads and more.

But here’s the problem: the number of state propositions & local measures is enormous this year. Just check out Doug Porter’s breakdown of the California State Propositions from his Starting Line. Then there are 35 measures related to San Diego County Doug has covered.

Some of us have full time jobs, kids, elderly parents, spouses, household responsibilities and much more. How do we get a handle on this year’s ballot? This week, my column is devoted to our South Bay measures and candidates.

The Democratic Party breaks things down with their endorsements here. Allison Sampite-Montecalvo at the San Diego Union Tribune also gives an overview this week of the South Bay City Council candidates. Here are some extra tidbits specific to the South Bay:   [Read more…]

Gateway Inn Charged With 5 Counts of Criminal Misdemeanors

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Continued from Slumlord To Evict 20 San Ysidro Children By October

After interviewing occupants of the Gateway Inn at San Ysidro who received 60-day eviction notices that may leave them homeless, I made calls to several city officials this week. Public records show the owner of the dilapidated single room occupancy (SRO) building submitted a request to demolish the hotel — located near the U.S.-Mexico border — although the permit has not yet been approved.

Two messages were left for the Housing Commission regarding this; however, they did not return my calls. One of their documents cite a Single-Room Occupancy (SRO) Hotel Regulations Ordinance (San Diego Municipal Code 143.0510-143.0590) that says (page 3): “Applicants proposing the demolition or conversion of an SRO are required to pay relocation expenses to long-term tenants (residencies of 90 days or more).”

This is further supported by a Voice of San Diego article, which states: “In 2004, a change to a state law called the Ellis Act gave cities the ability to pass regulations to protect SROs from being demolished or turned into market-rate housing. San Diego’s ordinance says property owners can’t convert or tear down an SRO without agreeing to replace the lost units and pay each long-term tenant two months’ rent to cover relocation costs.”

One might then ask if the Ellis Act places the burden of decent affordable housing on the owner of this SRO? Unfortunately, no one has been able to answer my question.   [Read more…]

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