This week, for the podcast, we discussed the curious resolution to the scandal that had enveloped school board member Marne Foster. Ry Rivard joined me as co-host to talk about his story on San Diego’s overabundance of water in during a drought and what we would ask Chargers owner Dean Spanos if he were to agree to an interview.
The guest this week was Bryan Pease, an environmentalist and public interest lawyer who jumped into the city attorney’s race recently. He said he wants to follow in Mike Aguirre’s footsteps and be a lawyer representing the people not necessarily the City Council and mayor.
He’s the only one of the five candidates to say that.
More on Foster and What Happens Now
The district attorney’s warrant seeking information and evidence from San Diego Unified School District was full of revelations about what was happening behind the scene as Foster confronted her son’s school and the district about what she perceived to be unfair treatment. The DA investigator who wrote the warrant describes how it shifted from a problem at the student’s school to an effort by Foster to fund his education.
Mario Koran explains what we learned from it and what we still have questions about.
(Also, just an aside of pride: Koran has been investigating this for months and I’m very proud of how hard he’s worked and how, every step of the way, his journalism has been airtight.)
• As for what happens now, Foster’s colleagues almost certainly will appoint a replacement to her position. If they, for some reason, don’t do that, it will trigger a special primary and then runoff election. That would happen right before the actual scheduled primary and runoff election this year. There’s a meeting Tuesday to decide what to do.
Here’s Koran’s explanation of what we know about how it will work.
Sacramento Report: New Gigs for San Diegans in the Capital City
We’ve been enjoying trying to follow our representatives in Sacramento each week through the Sacramento Report. This week, Democratic state Sen. Marty Block pushed for free tuition at community colleges and his Republican counterpart, Sen. Joel Anderson pushed for more funding for services for the developmentally disabled.
Also, a well-known local activist, Diane Takvorian got a spot on the influential California Air Resources Board via outgoing Speaker Toni Atkins.
• The Coastal Commission is trying to oust its executive director in favor of someone more development-friendly. To save his job, he put together a list of accomplishments, which includes rule changes at the La Jolla children’s pool, the OB community plan update and other SD stuff.
Here’s some background on folks trying to fire him.
Candidate Commentary: Avoidable Flooding in San Carlos
We recently passed out guidelines to local political candidates about how to submit commentaries to us and what might lead us to reject them. Basically, they have to be local. It’s better if they are about a specific topic rather than VOTE FOR ME, etc.
You might see some more of them in coming weeks. We received this one from Justin DeCesare, who launched a long-shot bid against sitting City Councilman Scott Sherman. DeCesare writes about recent flooding in San Carlos and how the city should have been better prepared.
“If the city was not aware of an impending flooding problem on someone’s property, it would be hard to place blame. In this situation; however, the city was well aware — and that is a problem,” he writes.
Quick News
• The U-T is out with a special report on veteran suicides. “I used to think that people who died by suicide were crazy. … I have learned that’s not the case. My husband wasn’t crazy,” said Erin Murzyn, widow of a 44-year-old retired Marine who shot himself less than two years after leaving uniform.
• The paper would also like to remind you that Super Bowls are not necessarily good business for cities that host them.
• San Diego City Councilman David Alvarez was fired up on Twitter Friday, tweeting out observations from his meeting at the San Diego Association of Governments. Here’s an example — you might peruse his feed.
• A San Diego sea lion that crawled into the Marine Room in La Jolla made national headlines. Unfortunately, though cute, it was very sick and malnourished and SeaWorld was caring for it.
• The conservative Lincoln Club has a new executive director. Its previous leader, Ryan Clumpner, has started his own firm and is consulting for Robert Hickey’s city attorney campaign, while still advising the Lincoln Club.
Most Popular Stories This Week
Here is a post of the most-read stories of the week, and here are the Top Five:
1. San Diego’s Oversupply of Water Reaches a New, Absurd Level
The San Diego County Water Authority has dumped a half billion gallons of costly drinking water into a lake near Chula Vista. (Ry Rivard)
2. What Brought Marne Foster Down
Following months of allegations, San Diego Unified School Board trustee Marne Foster resigned over an issue that had never surfaced publicly. (Mario Koran)
3. Historic Mexican Neighborhood Faces a Quintessential Solana Beach Problem
La Colonia de Eden Gardens, a neighborhood in Solana Beach, is zoned for density that its residents don’t want. (Maya Srikrishnan)
4. The Chargers Are Staying! But Another Deadline Is Approaching
The mayor said he was putting a Convention Center plan on the ballot. If he aims for June ballot, it would kill a downtown stadium idea in coming weeks. (Scott Lewis)
5. Border Report: Nabbing El Chapo’s Capos
The Sinaloa cartel of quasi-mythical El Chapo fame took a serious hit over the weekend, when a joint operation between Mexican officials, the DEA, FBI and ICE captured 24 high-ranking members in a cross-border raid in Lukeville, Ariz. and Sonoyta, Sonora. (Enrique Limón)