We now know how much the four main mayoral candidates raised over several weeks in June, a crucial month for fundraising even though the primary election is about 10 months away.
As previous news reports hinted, Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher raised $320,000, while Councilman Carl DeMaio raised $545,000, including $274,000 of his own dough.
District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis is lagging in third with $157,000, but she tries to put it all into perspective with this zinger: “Raising a lot of money isn’t a substitute for experience.” (But shouldn’t experience make it easier to raise a lot of money?)
And the sole Democrat in the bunch, Rep. Bob Filner, is in the back of the pack with $104,000, although there’s a caveat or two about his total.
Do You Feel Lucky on Sixth Ave.?
The city has installed curb ramps on Sixth Avenue along Balboa Park to help the handicapped. But they don’t come with stop lights or crosswalks, a fact that’s aggravating advocates for pedestrians. It’s not a problem, says the city.
“By not putting crosswalks in we’re keeping people more aware of their surroundings and letting them make a decision about whether to cross,” a city spokesman said. “If someone with mobility issues wants to cross the street, we want to make it easier. But installing two white lines is not related to that.”
Council Moves Forward on Hiking Hotel Tax
The City Council isn’t guaranteeing that it will extend a hotel tax — er, make that a “tourism promotion charge” — for an amazing 40 years. But it didn’t stand in the way of the process yesterday, as a top hotel rep said the city would bid farewell to a convention center expansion if it doesn’t extend the tax. He also said the “promise of tourism” has been “under-delivered to this community” over the past four decades.
Debt Bill Splits Local Reps and Dems
The debt-ceiling bill passed a deeply split House yesterday, and local representatives were divided too. One Democrat (Bob Filner) and one Republican (Duncan D. Hunter) opposed the bill, while Democrat Susan Davis and the GOP’s Darrell Issa and Brian Bilbray voted for it.
Get This Man a Geography Lesson, Stat!
La Mesa is not part of the city of San Diego. And San Diego’s pension reform initiative is not a statewide ballot proposition. All this would be news to a man who stood outside a supermarket in La Mesa and asked for signatures to push the initiative onto the San Diego, Patch reports.
The man said he gathered “quite a few” signatures. They won’t count if they’re from anyone who’s not a registered San Diego voter.
Big Salary, Not So Big Returns
The county pension system made at least a 21 percent return on its investments for the fiscal year that ended on June 30. Not bad, right? Well, several other pension funds surveyed by the U-T did even better (a couple were at 23 percent or higher).
But the county pension fund does stand quite a bit beyond the others in one area: the base salary of its chief investment officer. His maximum salary is also well above all the others but one.
Pension officials “say they do not concern themselves with peer performance so much as keeping the portfolio well-funded for retirement obligations,” the U-T reports. Huh? An official puts it this way: “Downside protection was viewed as more important than capturing all market gains in an up market.”
He seems to be saying that the portfolio shouldn’t tank during rough times.
Accused Cop Apparently Kills Self
A 41-year-old San Diego police officer has apparently shot himself to death at his home in Clairemont after being accused in a case involving allegations of drunken driving and felony hit-and-run.
He allegedly had a blood alcohol level of .32 during the incident, which occurred in the Serra Mesa neighborhood in February. People with that much alcohol in their systems, four times the legal limit for driving, are at risk of dying. According to one online blood-alcohol level calculator, a 250-pound man would have to drink 22 beers in two hours to reach that level.
The officer was one of several San Diego cops who have faced accusations of misconduct in recent weeks. He is survived by a wife and children.
• A stabbing on Friday night pushed San Diego’s murder toll in 2010 to 30, one more than in all of last year.
Saving State Parks from Closure
Private groups are working to take over the Palomar Mountain and San Pasqual Battlefield state parks, the U-T reports. The state wants to close them; the Palomar Mountain park only takes in about $140,000 a year in revenue while costing roughly $300,000 in “direct, on-the-ground costs,” whatever they are.
When Patients Try Their Patience
You might think a former Marine who looks tough wouldn’t get any guff in his job as a nurse at the UCSD Medical Center emergency room. But patients still try to act out in violent ways, reports the LAT in a story about violence against nurses.
He “said some people give an indication that they may turn violent, such as pacing, yelling or making threats; ‘other times it just happens.”
One time,the nurse was “checking in a patient once who said he was ‘frustrated with the system.’ Suddenly, the patient said, ‘”Let me show you how serious I am” and then he pulled out a knife and started waving it around…. It was just me and a couple of secretaries standing behind me, and I started wrestling with this guy. I grabbed the arm that had the knife and it fell on the ground.’”
Non-Poisonous ‘Poison Pill’ and More
San Diego Fact Check TV examines claims about the beach booze ban and a supposed “poison pill” in new redevelopment laws.
• These Fact Checks also make an appearance on the weekly VOSD Radio show, which also tackles affordable housing and includes a prediction about where the Chargers will end up. (Hint: not here.)
Everybody’s a Cap Critic
The blue-and-white Padres baseball caps are stink-o. That’s the verdict from the Bleacher Report sports blog, which declares that only one of the 30 major league teams, the Astros, have a less impressive cap.
The Padres cap is “just too… boring?” says the blog. “San Diego is a beautiful city, and this hat does no justice for it.”
The cap does have one benefit. With the Padres record the way it is, it’s a handy thing for a player to put over his face while out in public.
Correction: The Morning Report incorrectly described the county pension fund’s returns as being for the first six months of this year. In fact, they were for the fiscal year ending on June 30. We regret the error.
Please contact Randy Dotinga directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.