Morning Report: Mayor Advances Power Play

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer has had multiple chances to kill the proposal to have the city take over from SDG&E the responsibility to purchase power for residents. And he hasn’t done it.

Our Ry Rivard reports that, Friday, the mayor decided once again to let the proposal go forward. The city will begin to develop a business plan to make the change. Faulconer did not say that was his preference and SDG&E will also still go forward with its own proposal for how the city can get to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2035.

At some point, the city will have to make a decision.

Not sure what we’re talking about? Take a moment to review our guide to what’s called community choice aggregation.

Both sides of the intense debate about whether the city should take over the job to buy electricity cheered the mayor’s decision Friday. But what’s also true is he has has had several opportunities to stop the proposal in its tracks and he hasn’t.

Yet.

DA Signals Change in Marijuana Enforcement

Our Scott Lewis took interest in a recent quote from office of District Attorney Summer Stephan. In a statement, a spokeswoman told the Union-Tribune that Stephan’s new administration was “changing focus” from that of former District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, who had a reputation for a hardline stance on cannabis cases.

Turns out, Lewis wasn’t the only one who noticed the statement. He looked into it a bit further.

It came after the DA’s office ended its two-year battle with medical-marijuana entrepreneur James Slatic, who ended up pleading guilty to just two misdemeanors. Slatic, his business partners and his lawyer were charged with a slate of felonies, including money laundering and obstruction of justice.

The lawyer’s case has generated national interest as prosecutors sought all her communications with clients, a potentially unique incursion on attorney-client privilege. That situation has not been resolved.

ACLU in the Podcast Studio

On this week’s podcast, hosts Sara Libby, Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts talked about that district attorney’s decision and a big week of drama for local politics, in particular the local Democratic Party.

Bardis Vakili, a senior staff attorney for the local American Civil Liberties Union chapter, also joined to discuss some of the civil rights issues in San Diego right now, including a police watchdog group’s recent dismissal of 22 death cases, SDPD’s handling of juvenile DNA and how immigrants are treated inside local detention centers.

Sacramento Report: Racial Profiling Rules Set

Law enforcement agencies in California now have clear rules about what data they need to report to the state to help ensure they’re policing fairly.

This month, the state’s Office of Administrative Law approved new regulations detailing a series of things they need to report to the state about their policing stops, including the date and type of stop, the reason for the stop, the officer’s perception of gender or race/nationality of the person stopped and the result of the stop.

California’s eight largest law enforcement agencies, including San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and San Diego Police Department, must begin collecting stop data on Jan. 1, 2018.

Also in this week’s Sacramento Report, Ry Rivard writes about how $1.6 million coming in from a law sold as a way to clean up the Tijuana River valley may be used to instead build a new campground.

Quick News Hits

• New claims against San Diego Unified and the city of San Diego say school staff and police mishandled the sexual assault of a student with disabilities last year at Lincoln High School. (Union-Tribune)

• City officials laid out the process for selecting a new police chief, which will involve a three-stage interview process that includes two dozen community leaders. (Union-Tribune)

• The owner of four San Diego nursing homes will pay $6.9 million to settle allegations that employees paid kickbacks for patient referrals and submitted fraudulent bills to government health-care programs. (City News Service)

• ICE is fighting a court battle to have an Oceanside immigrants’ hearing held in Aurora, Colorado, instead of San Diego because a Ninth Circuit court ruling might benefit him. (Union-Tribune)

• San Marcos parents are concerned about how the district’s school boundary realignment will impact their children. (NBC7)

• San Diego County unemployment drops to 3.7 percent. (Union-Tribune)