We looked into City Councilman Kevin Faulconer’s record in conflicts between residents and industry in San Diego. Our hour-long podcast kicked off the week with hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts chatting by phone with the District 2 representative.
Faulconer explained how his rationale changed between disputes in Point Loma, with manufacturer Solar Turbines and now in Barrio Logan. He also weighed in on his campaign manager’s tweet a while back that laughed off any conservative vibes:
[fold-tweet url=”https://twitter.com/tonymanolatos/status/385406018974257152″]
Faulconer is sticking to his guns is the managed competition program, which puts city services out to bid. But an audit recently revealed the first function to go through the process had cost more money for other city departments.
“It’s a new program in this city, it’s a change of business as usual for this city,” Faulconer said. “What we cannot do is stop that program. What we should do is to make sure that’s working the best that it can, make any changes that are necessary to make sure it’s implemented, and implemented correctly.”
For more on Faulconer, check out our San Diego Explained spot on NBC 7 laying out five things to know about the councilman, and read Scott Lewis’ Q-and-A with the GOP’s New Majority about how the group came to back Faulconer in next month’s special election.
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We’ve started to get a better sense of the actionable plans from each of the leading candidates.
Faulconer and fellow Councilman David Alvarez started stumping for their solutions to San Diego’s emergency response failures. Both said adding more fire stations should help cover more ground faster, but they differ on just how many to add. Whether the goal is 19 (Alvarez) or five (Faulconer) new locations, city leaders made some progress, announcing plans Thursday to build facilities in City Heights and Skyline.
Nathan Fletcher and Mike Aguirre joined Alvarez and Faulconer at a debate Thursday, where all four addressed what they’d bring to urban development if elected. Fletcher and Aguirre both floated dream-big ideas in innovation to get San Diego on the map, while Alvarez rallied for more emphasis on transit and establishing a public-private partnership called GrowSD.
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Now for some loose ends.
Looking back, Fletcher’s signature effort has been his work as assemblyman in strengthening penalties for sex offenders with Chelsea’s Law. But tracking how well or often the law works is really hard. Its biggest reform, a one-strike life imprisonment for violent and traumatic sex crimes on children, doesn’t get much action, and costs are hard to nail down. Fletcher said to give the many provisions time to show their worth, and called the law “a tremendous net positive.”
Did you miss our series on Interim Mayor Todd Gloria? Writer Hailey Persinger and photographer Sam Hodgson spent the day with the iMayor, and found how grueling his current gig actually is. Hodgson also detailed an awkward exchange, which Gloria handled with grace.