Angelo’s Towing has deals with state, county and local governments. But despite strict requirements on companies who provide tow services to governments, Angelo’s owner, Nash Habib, has habitually misstated his and his company’s history in bids for these contracts.
Liam Dillon followed up his major investigation earlier this week with a rundown of how government agencies were either unaware of or unconcerned about rules being broken.
For example, California’s Highway Patrol still uses Habib’s company for tow services, despite information that wasn’t properly disclosed when Habib applied for the contract.
The city of San Diego, while prosecuting Habib for issues related to his CHP troubles, failed to recognize that Habib had failed to properly disclose bankruptcy information in pursuit of a contract with the city. Now that we asked about it, the city has launched an investigation, Dillon reports.
Nonprofits Picking Up Where Governments Stop
Watching kids after school. Helping mentally unhealthy people in crisis. Caring for abandoned kittens. These are among the critical services provided to the public by the non-profit community, services that may otherwise fall onto the shoulders of government agencies, Lisa Halverstadt reports. “Local nonprofits pick up tasks local agencies aren’t equipped to handle on their own,” she writes, citing a sharp increase in mental health cases that has confronted police countywide and which has been managed, in part, due to a partnership with the organization Community Research Foundation.
And when city officials want to know which body of water has become home to a mass of raw sewage from Mexico, San Diego Coastkeeper’s water testing program has helped focus resources where they need to be, Halverstadt reports.
Building Near Transit: San Diego Explained
In our most recent San Diego Explained, Maya Srikrishnan and NBC’s Monica Dean tackle the concept of transit-oriented development and why San Diego is noted as one of the worst-performing cities for it. Transit-oriented development imagines busy public transit stations surrounded by commercial and residential buildings, so people can walk where they are going and are less likely to drive. But San Diego has some real losers when it comes to appealing transit stations, and people complain our planning organization SANDAG isn’t doing enough about it.
Stadium Reassurances Spark Exchange
The mayor’s pseudo surrogate on stadium stuff, Tony Manolatos, went on KPBS Thursday and proclaimed that a vote to build a new stadium would pass — as Petco Park did 17 years ago.
“We know that if the Chargers, county and city form a coalition, and get behind this plan, it will pass,” he said.
This prompted some banter with Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez on Twitter. She cautioned that organized labor was supportive of Petco and it would be influential in this race. Manolatos agreed that labor’s support would be important. Gonzalez responded that they had better pledge to get a project labor agreement together then.
Water Abuser Among Us
Formerly a dishonor held by a water user in Bel-Air, a water user in Rancho Sante Fe is now California’s biggest water hog despite our severe drought. The user has used nearly 14 million gallons of water in the last year, the Union-Tribune reports, “enough to supply more than 110 typical single-family homes.”
Nope, can’t tell you who the water user is; that’s still a big secret.
News Nibbles
• San Diego’s contracted ambulance service provider says it is back in compliance with response time requirements after a competitor bought out the contract. (KPBS)
• Years after local scandals, we’re still trying to get elected officials to take sexual harassment training. (SacBee)
• In a stroke of government-mandated irony, Albertsons has placed bids to replace Haggen grocery stores; stores which themselves had only recently replaced Albertsons. (Union-Tribune)
• Bill Horn really, really wants to have a vote on the proposed Lilac Hills development project, which the Fair Political Practices Commission has said would have “‘a reasonably foreseeable financial effect’ on his property value, KPBS reports. Here’s your Lilac Hills project refresher.
• Soon, so soon, Ocean Beach will have a community plan, OB Rag writes. It’s been a long, costly process.
• Want to help rename Robert E. Lee Elementary school? You can fill out an online survey! My top picks: “Mr. Rogers Elementary,” “William Shakespeare Elementary” or “Amelia Earhart Elementary.”
Great Bobble-head Mystery of 2015
Sometimes strange things happen, but they usually have an explanation. For example, the recent UFO spotted over San Diego was strange, but it turned out to be missile test (or was it?). But it is unlikely University City residents will ever find out why someone dumped a huge load of former Padres baseball player Chris Denorfia bobble-head dolls on their street and then drove away.
No, they boxes aren’t full of illicit drugs disguised as bobble-head dolls. The residents actually already thought of that and checked, NBC 7 reports.
Seth Hall is a local writer and technologist. You can email him at voice@s3th.com or follow him on Twitter: @loteck.