For the first time in public, the San Diego Association of Governments board flexed its new authority.
The move caused a kerfuffle.
Last year’s AB 805 shifted the power on the regional transportation agency’s board, which is composed of local leaders from around the county. It allows the board to call for weighted votes that give more power to bigger cities. Some of the leaders from small cities aren’t big fans.
In this week’s podcast, Sara Libby, Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts explain the significance of the new SANDAG power structure, and the housing vote that caused leaders to put it into play.
Also on the first half of the show: Oral arguments happened this week at the California Supreme Court over Proposition B, the 2012 initiative that ended guaranteed pensions for new city employees. Libby, Lewis and Keatts discuss the huge ramifications and confusion it would cause if the court decides Prop. B should be thrown because then-Mayor Jerry Sanders didn’t follow the proper procedure.
Voice of San Diego reporter Maya Srikrishnan makes an appearance in the second half of the podcast to talk about how the surge in border crossing prosecutions is causing chaos and confusion in federal courts. She also discusses some of her other recent reporting on immigration.
Hero of the Week
Michael McConnell is our hero. The local business owner and advocate for the homeless was the first to raise alarms about the numbers in this year’s annual homeless census. Lisa Halverstadt dug in and found the count left out hundreds of people who live in RVs and people enrolled in programs at the San Diego Rescue Mission.
Goat of the Week
The San Diego Unified School District is the goat. In May, the district announced it was moving forward with a controversial policy to delete staff emails more than a year old. Voice of San Diego has filed for a temporary restraining order to halt the district’s new email destruction policy, which was scheduled to go into effect Friday. Emails are subject to public records requests and can play an important role in keeping public institutions accountable.