Morning Report: Measure B Discontent Brewing

A City Council committee is set to discuss a draft ordinance outlining how the city plans to put Measure B, a plan to strengthen oversight of the San Diego Police Department that voters overwhelmingly approved in November, into practice.

The problem: As of Monday afternoon, that ordinance still hadn’t been released by the city. It was released around 5 p.m. But by then, Patrick Anderson, interim commissioner of the Commission on Police Practices, had already canceled a community roundtable meant to review the city’s plan earlier in the day. 

And one of the chief architects of Measure B, Andrea St. Julian, is calling on the Council to delay the hearing until the community has sufficient time to review what’s in the draft ordinance.

“Let’s be really clear: This is the game the city plays,” St. Julian told Andrew Keatts. “They delay, delay, delay when they want, then they put something out and say it has to be done quickly so the community can’t digest it. We are not going to stand for it. This is not the time to rush.”

But another supporter of Measure B and police oversight efforts generally says the process is going fine. 

Councilwoman Monica Montgomery Steppe says the community has been included in the process, and that it’s moving as quickly as can be expected.

Late alert: There will be a hearing June 24 at 9 a.m.

Jerry Sanders Says He’s Done With the GOP

The New York Times checked in with former Mayor Jerry Sanders, the current CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, for a broader piece about the Republican Party’s struggles in big cities across the country.

In it, Sanders “said he renounced his party affiliation on Jan. 7, the day after the mob attack on the Capitol.”

Sanders didn’t say whether he officially changed his party registration. But if he did, it would make him the latest prominent Republican leader to leave the party. District Attorney Summer Stephan dropped her party affiliation after winning election as a Republican.

Mark Kersey left the party in 2019 to become an independent when he was still on the San Diego City Council. That same year, Assemblyman Brian Maienschein, who’d been elected as a Republican, announced he was switching parties and becoming a Democrat. He won re-election as a Dem against a Republican challenger in 2020. Former Councilwoman Lorie Zapf left the party after failing to win re-election in 2018.

La Mesa City Councilman Bill Baber left the GOP as did his former colleague, Kristine Alessio, who cited a “lack of ethics.”

Stephan, who is running for re-election, will be the highest profile candidate to run without any party affiliation after making the change.

No One Seems to Know When the Border Will Reopen

Gov. Gavin Newsom celebrated the reopening of California last week with Minions and a Trolls doll, and here in San Diego Petco Park has been packed.

But there’s an important piece of our economy that remains closed: the U.S.-Mexico border is still closed to non-essential travel, and as Gustavo Solis lays out in the latest Border Report, no one is sure when it will reopen.

Meanwhile, officials in Mexico and Canada have been talking publicly about their goals for reopening their countries’ borders with the United States, and when it might happen.

“It’s worth noting how both Canada and Mexico appear to be more transparent and active in regard to reopening the border than the United States,” Solis writes.

In Other News

• Mayor Todd Gloria signed his first budget on Monday. (City News Service)
• Rancho Peñasquitos residents are serving up a familiar argument for why they don’t want a new housing project in their community: They say it will bring traffic congestion. (KPBS)
• A new report by the San Diego Workforce Partnership, Manpower West and Point Loma Nazarene University says San Diego’s labor market has lagged behind the state and nation. (City News Service)
• Coronado Unified School District has a full agenda for its school board meeting Tuesday at 5 p.m. after absorbing a torrent of condemnation and anger Sunday and Monday. The district will consider disciplinary action against a student, an employee and even review the performance of the superintendent after Coronado High School won a CIF championship game against Orange Glen High School, from Escondido. The coaches had a verbal argument after the game and then Coronado fans and players threw tortillas at the Orange Glen players who are largely Latino. The incident drew intense cries of racism and demands for sanctions.

The Morning Report was written by Sara Libby, and edited by Scott Lewis.