So far, two San Diego Police Department cops have officially declared they’re running for seats at City Hall.
Larry Turner, a community relations officer for the central district, is running against Mayor Todd Gloria. Terry Hoskins, a community relations officer for the Mid-City district, is running against Council President Sean Elo-Rivera.
Homelessness is a top priority. Turner, an independent, is a big supporter of the Sunbreak Ranch plan, which would create a large homeless camp somewhere outside of town. Homeless San Diegans would either need to relocate there or go to jail, according to the plan.
Sunbreak Ranch supporters had been hoping they could lease land on Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. The Marine Corps has shot that down, as our Scott Lewis learned earlier this week.
Turner has met many homeless people over the course of his eight years as a police officer. He acknowledged to our Will Huntsberry that, as a group, homeless people are as diverse as the rest of San Diegans. Huntsberry asked him if the Sunbreak Ranch idea might be a little harsh for such a diverse group.
Here’s what Turner said: He supports the idea because it would remove homeless people from their current environment, where they are preyed on by drug dealers and thieves and give them a better chance to start over.
Hoskins, a Democrat, is retiring from SDPD later this month.
He supports getting homeless people into shelter first and enrolled in programs before placing them in housing. He believes San Diego is spending millions of dollars to address the crisis, but only making it worse.
The Not Position on San Diego City Attorney’s Job
Wednesday at City Hall was a bit tense.
The Council’s Rules Committee was all set to discuss whether to put a measure on next year’s ballot that would vastly reshape the city attorney’s role by dividing the job. The idea is for an elected city attorney to prosecute misdemeanors and for civil matters to fall to an attorney hired by the City Council. But committee members decided to table the discussion indefinitely, as the Union-Tribune reports.
Why? Council President Sean Elo-Rivera accused City Attorney Mara Elliott of giving “biased advice” in the legal analysis she recently provided to the committee. Elliott didn’t like that.
She denied that she took a position, and said she would not let Elo-Rivera push her out of the conversation. Elliott said Elo-Rivera was mixing up two separate documents she produced: one was a 26-page legal analysis and another was a separate 13-memo where she blasted the idea.
In that memo, she referred to the job change proposal as “the largest structural change to City Governance in decades.”
North County Report: Small Cities and the Housing Battle
North County reporter Tigist Layne is hosting a panel this Saturday about small cities and housing at Politifest. Don’t sleep on it. Tickets here.
She’ll be talking to an interesting group that includes the mayor of Coronado, mayor of Encinitas and a former Encinitas mayor.
California has enacted multiple laws and policies designed to force cities to build more housing. Mayors don’t necessarily like that. They want their autonomy and they want to put housing where they think is better for their community.
Meanwhile the state of California doesn’t have nearly enough houses. (Bonus: The Atlantic had an interesting story on the battle over housing between cities and their states, recently.)
Tigist will explore that tension in her panel.
Read the North County Report here.
In Other News
- On the supes race: inewsource spoke with San Diego Councilwoman Monica Montgomery Steppe and candidate Amy Reichert about their priorities for housing and homelessness if elected to fill the seat Nathan Fletcher vacated on the County Board of Supervisors. The two candidates will join us Saturday for a debate at Politifest. Register here.
- The city of Chula Vista is holding a special workshop today on how the city should address homelessness. For more information on how to participate, click here.
- Expect warm days through Friday. (CityNews Service)
- San Diego State has placed seven fraternities on interim suspension while school officials investigate reports of misconduct. (CBS8)
The Morning Report was written by Will Huntsberry and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.
It’s 1979. Politicians are scrambling – could you even imagine this broad Jen Campbell proposing this last year? Enjoy your last terms in elected office. You were a doctor now to u debase yourself for $150k/year and bring shame to your family.