Politics Report: Warren-Darby ‘Not Going to Be a Puppet’

I hadn’t had a chance yet to talk to Chida Warren-Darby, the mayor’s director of boards and commissions who now has his support in the race to replace Monica Montgomery Steppe on the City Council. Henry Foster is running with Montgomery Steppe’s support as well as the endorsement (and crucial financial backing) of the largest union of city employees, the Municipal Employees Association.

The San Diego Police Officers Association, whose leaders worked hard to try to prevent Montgomery Steppe from winning her new job on the county Board of Supervisors, endorsed Warren-Darby.

Warren-Darby surprised me with how concerned and critical she was of the city’s preparation and response to the Jan. 22 flooding. Here are some of her comments.

On the flood: “A lot of individuals tried to call in and wanted things cleared in the creek and I want to understand the historical context and see where the break was in the process. We have a responsibility to communicate with the people. I am very intrigued about the response time and emergency plan. I’m still looking for that plan and I haven’t seen it. This won’t be our last natural disaster. We have a lot of work to do for emergency response. I’m not quick to say we did good or not good. My expectation is that things should have been happened a lot differently – why did those calls go unanswered when people asked about the channels needing to be cleared and how are we going to rebuild trust?”

On a potential tax to fund stormwater infrastructure: “It’s a process. I get questions about what I would do as a councilmember, but there’s a lot of information I don’t have access to until I’m in that office. We’re already in a deficit situation. I’m looking forward to local government being more creative in how we increase revenue. We do need the funding – it’s a real thing. We also need a resiliency fund and corporate partnerships. We could have leveraged corporate partnerships to get furniture, materials, hotels – lots of entities that could have stepped up and the delay in response was unacceptable.”

On a potential sales tax increase: (MEA’s leader cited her lack of commitment to support it as part of why they endorsed Foster instead.) “The issue with that was I didn’t give a fast ‘yes.’ I need to be able to communicate impacts to residents, if I want their partnership. I need to be able to communicate the need and impacts well. In theory, I support it but I really need to see the details with it. We’re asking for a lot in a moment when rents are high, SDG&E rates are very high, water rates are high and here we are saying ‘you should pay more.’”

On support from the police officers: “I didn’t hold any punches about who I am as a Black woman and my experiences as a Black woman. As a kid, I was on safety patrol and I engaged with police a lot. They knew us by name. That’s not the case now. There’s a very real stress that goes along with being a police officer. I want to reform our approach to public safety and provide the police department with the tools they need to have better outcomes with residents. Not every officer is bad, but people need to understand the traumas people experienced with the police and that can’t be downplayed. One of the things I’m excited to propose is a pipeline from schools into the police force – 10th grade you start getting trained in how to be a police officer. Our police force would start looking a lot more like our community and that would shift the dynamic.”

On the divide in the City Council: “I’m not going to be a puppet of the mayor and I take offense to any suggestion like that. I get along with all the councilmembers and this should be a season of partnership. It is not always a fight and if there is one now, we have to work through it. We have a limited time with this council and we have an opportunity to do everything we want to do. I always say I’m on the side of the constituent. I’m not here to play on a sports team. I’m here to work. If the [City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera] crew is working on something that is advantageous to constituents, I will go with it — [if it’s the] other side, I’ll go with it. I’m not here to take a side.”

Season of Bank Shots

I think I coined the term “bank shot” for those political advertisements that appear to support one thing but are actually trying to achieve something very different. But it may have been Andy Keatts. Either way, I have never seen a season so full of them.

Rep. Adam Schiff, running for U.S. Senate, is trying to promote the Republican, Steve Garvey, because he wants to run against Garvey instead of one of the other Democrats. Carl DeMaio is promoting a Democrat because, he says, he wants to save the Republican Party the hassle of a fight between two conservatives in the runoff.

And that’s probably why he’s not upset that Mayor Todd Gloria’s allies are using his image to promote an almost totally unknown Republican running in the mayor’s race, Jane Glasson.

That quote is amazing. “Deceptive titles” indeed!

Lawson-Remer hits Faulconer: I’m not sure if this qualifies as a bank shot but I’m going to say it is. And it is the first one I have seen in yard sign form.

County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer is running for re-election against former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer. They’re not on the primary ballot because there’s no need for a primary. With two candidates running, the county doesn’t even run a primary.

But Lawson-Remer is jumping on the interest in the primary to send this message.

Notes

Is Larry Turner San Diegan enough? Last week, I talked to the mayoral candidate about the allegations that he didn’t actually live in San Diego as legally required by the city to run for mayor. He owns a house in El Cajon, where he voted in 2020 and 2022. He says he moved to a condo owned by his campaign manager in East Village with his wife and two kids before he entered the race for mayor.

Now that allegation has turned into a lawsuit. The mayor’s allies in the New San Diego PAC are suing to ensure Turner’s votes don’t count. Bob Ottilie, the lawyer who put together much of the logic of the case, has some experience with that. He was the lawyer for former Mayor Dick Murphy, who argued successfully in 2004 that 5,000 or so write-in votes for then-City Councilwoman Donna Frye did not count because, although voters wrote her name in, they did not fill in the bubble next to her name.

Our print product: The Parent’s Guide to San Diego Schools is out. I’m very proud of our team’s work this year. A few years ago, we created our own metric for the guide that measures each school’s test scores against its poverty level. We came up with the measurement in partnership with UC San Diego Extended Studies Center for Research and Evaluation and this year it is getting nationwide attention.

Send any ideas and feedback about the Politics Report to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org.