The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
Should the Convention Center be privatized? Should we have given both Bob Filner and Carl DeMaio a “misleading” on this fact check? Those were some of the readers’ points in our Top 5 comments of the week.
You can always check in on our dashboard of the latest comments and stories sparking a debate here.
• Will Stockton be the first bankrupt city in California to go after current employee pensions? The mayor and city attorney here have held firm that’s just not a viable route. The story of Stockton is in Dagny Salas’ weekly list of recommended reads.
• By the way, quite a discussion about anonymity, the mayor’s race, politics and family erupted on this SD Rostra post.
What We Learned This Week
A Construction Bond Can Pay for Teachers … If: San Diego’s largest school district will be asking voters to approve a tax hike of $60 for every $100,000 of property they own. And they only need 55 percent of the vote because it’s a construction bond. Yet they’re selling it as a way to pay for teachers. Will the teachers be doing the construction? No. Here’s the plan. Basically, the school district will someday run out of money to pay for a variety of things it wants to do. If they raise taxes now, they will be able to absorb this cost and not cut teachers. Got it?
So-Cal Water Agencies Are at War Again: And here’s a handy guide to understanding the issues and how it might affect your water bills.
Hotel Owners Can Get What They Want: Especially if they have the say, and not voters, on whether hotel-room taxes will go up to pay for a new Convention Center. Now, the city’s hotel owners have about a month to vote in secret. If they approve of the tax hike, rates will go up 3 percent for rooms downtown, 2 percent out to Mission Bay and 1 percent everywhere else. Except that a judge might get in the way.
One in five kids arrested for curfew violations was in San Diego: Curfew sweeps are hailed by local officials but their effectiveness is in doubt. We did a follow-up chart this week to illustrate how San Diego compares to California.
Changes at the Museum of Man
The Museum of Man has closed its store and laid off seven employees, reports U-T San Diego. In January, we interviewed CEO Micah Parzen.
“We feel like we can’t be sustainable from a financial perspective if we continue to adopt the old-school museum model of collect, interpret and preserve, which had been our mission statement for many years,” Parzen told Randy Dotinga.
“We’ve come up with a new vision of ourselves as part town hall, part center for cross-cultural exchange and part participatory museum,” he said.
Sunday! It’s Dance Decision Time
Allie Daugherty has followed three young dancers as they head toward a competition. Stay tuned as the audience either rewards their work or sends them packing Sunday. There’s $5,000 on the line.
Quick Hits
• An “electric expressway” of vehicle charging stations will be peppered throughout the state — including San Diego — after a $100 million settlement between California and NRG Energy. It was a case stemming from the state’s energy crisis many year’s ago. (The Bay Citizen)
• So there’s this “editor’s note.”
• A judge has appointed a receiver to handle the dissolution filing of the Utility Consumers Action Network, U-T San Diego reports. Remember, this is what happened to that watchdog group.
• I wrote recently that big land-use decisions were one of the big stories to watch. I shouldn’t have left out the Chula Vista waterfront. Fortunately, Wendy Fry at U-T San Diego offers a good update on what’s going on there.
Quote of the Week
“But life isn’t fair. This isn’t a question of what’s deserved. I believe our employees deserve that pay raise. It’s about what we can afford.”
— School Board Member Scott Barnett on his ideas to balance the district’s budget. Here’s an explanation of exactly what concessions the district’s asking the teachers union to concede to avoid layoffs. Related: controversial union leader Camille Zombro lost her seat this week.
I’m Scott Lewis, the CEO of voiceofsandiego.org. You can contact me directly at scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0527 and follow me on Twitter (it’s a blast!): twitter.com/vosdscott.