The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
Last week, we posted a guide to five things City Councilman David Alvarez has done. Now, we offer five things City Councilman Kevin Faulconer has done. He’s been on the City Council more than twice as long as Alvarez and his list is dominated by bipartisan agreements and protection of the neighborhoods he has represented.
By the way, we had Alvarez on our weekly podcast this week. I asked him straight up if he’d ever fired anyone and if he supported the new Walmarts in his district (here’s background on why that’s interesting). We’ll promote the podcast on our site in the next few days as well. Last week, we had former City Attorney Mike Aguirre on.
According to a new examination by iNewsource, Alvarez is so far benefiting the most from independent committee fundraising. Labor unions have helped raise more than half a million dollars for Alvarez.
I also went on KPBS’ Midday Edition to talk about the mayor’s race, federal government shutdown and the Affordable Care Act.
San Diego Set to Win in New State School Funding Formula
The state is rolling out its new plan for divvying up education funds. The gist: The state will give districts more money to pay for needier students who cost more to educate. That means more for San Diego schools. Christie Ritter tries to figure out where it will go.
Doing the Neighborhood Math
Depending on who you ask, there are either 52 neighborhoods in San Diego, or 125, or 135. It turns out, the city doesn’t have a formal definition for a neighborhood or a list of the ones throughout the city. But, Lisa Halverstadt writes, “Knowing the number of neighborhoods wouldn’t have a significant effect on the city’s approach to neighborhood planning, so it’s not something city staffers have pushed.”
Retired Cop Gets Unemployment
Friday the city attorney sent out a release that a contractor for the personnel department had lost, and would be vigorously appealing, a case in which a police officer claimed unemployment after retiring from the city. You might recall the deferred option retirement program, or DROP, that supposedly helped keep senior employees on staff longer by giving them the chance to retire but keep their jobs for five years while collecting pension payments.
Officer Jorge Leon claims he was forced to retire after the five years he spent in the DROP program and, therefore, as someone forced out of a job, he should be able to collect unemployment. Of course, it has always been said that when an employee entered DROP, he retired. But Leon claims he was misled.
Thursday, we highlighted the three reasons we might be in for a tense race for district attorney. The U-T is also following the race and similarly wonders whether incumbent Bonnie Dumanis’ poor showing in last year’s mayor’s race is making her vulnerable to a tough re-election battle.
What We Learned This Week
• Kevin Faulconer is not a “Republican’s Republican.”
• The bearded face of San Diego’s craft brewing industry, Greg Koch, is taking off for six months and trying to get his growing company ready for that.
• One does not accuse the city attorney of calling former Mayor Bob Filner a sociopath without consequences.
• You want to spark a really quite good discussion about neighborhood development and community input, all you have to do is this: Insult community planning groups.
• David Alvarez has complicated feelings on Walmart.
• Charter schools did not get a shot at facilities and land the San Diego school district is selling off. Not clear why.
• Lazy surfers aren’t the only ones getting food assistance.
Your Sports Report
John Gennaro makes the case on why the Padres should fire Bud Black now that we’re once again watching the playoffs on TV. That’s in our weekly Sports Report.
News Tidbits
• The Miramar Air Show was canceled. NBC explores how that might affect local business.
• Interim mayor/City Council President Todd Gloria is posting his memos online, as promised.
Quote of the Week
“The people who love architecture and love density and understand that the world is going to hell because of suburban development are a very large group of people at this point. And they don’t necessarily think they need to spend their time going out to fight the battles of their selfish neighbors that are just worried about their own property rights.” — Ted Smith, local architect, sounding off on the claim that community planning groups represent the wishes of a community.
Correction: The original version of this story implied that it was the city attorney who had lost the case about the retired police officer’s unemployment claim. It was not. A contractor for the city’s personnel department handled the case.