The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
Welcome to the newest political feature from voiceofsandiego.org: The Agenda.
Each weekday morning, we’re going to be linking to and commenting on the political news of the day in San Diego from across all media.
Let’s start, as might become a habit, with pensions.
City workers and firefighters in La Mesa are among the first in San Diego County’s small cities to agree to employee contributions to their pension funds, writes former U-T reporter Ed Mendel on calpensions.com. Employees were given salary increases as compensation, but the city expects to save about $1 million a year through the plan. The story also has easy to understand background on a pension reform plan — that includes increased employee contributions — developed by the 17 smaller cities in San Diego County, all except for the city of San Diego.
Three things from the U-T this weekend: A post on the PolBlog lists the 19 lobbyists fined last week by the San Diego Ethics Commission amid tighter lobbying laws. Numbers say San Diego redevelopment agencies will lose $137 million as the state raids their coffers. Pothole repair and park maintenance may be delayed as a result. The editorial page opines that last week’s decision by the California Coastal Commission to deny the city a waiver for its Point Loma wastewater treatment plant was wrong and should be overturned.
The lead story in the North County Times centers on a proposal for online poker gambling backed by a Riverside County tribe that is opposed by some San Diego County tribes.
Former San Diego City Manager Lamont Ewell, who lead San Diego in the aftermath of its pension crisis, has resigned as city manager of Santa Monica effective the end of the year. Locals quoted in the story are effusive in their praise of Ewell.
Earlier this morning, we posted some more on the leader of the city’s stalled outsourcing program leaving for a private sector job. If you missed it, we had two posts on our question and answer with Convention Center Corp. CEO Carol Wallace on the proposed expansion.
Questions? Comments? Derogatory remarks on The Agenda? E-mail me.