Mayor Todd Gloria wants to hit the brakes on a program that would have helped people previously charged for black market cannabis dealings break into the legal weed market.
City staffers had put years of work into the proposal, which is known as the Cannabis Social Equity program. It would have been set to take effect in the near future.
If Gloria successfully ends the program, the city will need to return a nearly million dollar grant to the state.
Advocates aren’t happy. The program was supposed to be the city’s way of “saying sorry,” one person said.
Editor Andrea Lopez-Villafaña writes: “It is expensive to get into the legal cannabis market. Like any business, you need to have startup capital and have the time and ability to wade through an array of permitting and regulatory hassles. People with criminal histories are much less likely to have those resources.”
The program would have provided 36 licenses to sell cannabis to people previously charged and waived some fees for them.
Council to Weigh in on Proposed Mega Shelter Lease in Closed Session
The San Diego City Council is set to have a closed-door discussion next week on the cost and terms of Mayor Todd Gloria’s proposal to lease a Middletown warehouse and make it a 1,000-bed homeless shelter.
The planned discussion comes in the wake of the Gloria administration’s decision to postpone a Thursday Land Use and Housing Committee hearing on a proposed 35-year lease for the nearly 65,000 square foot former print shop at Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street – and questions from the city’s independent budget analyst about the initial pitch.
Council President Sean Elo-Rivera, whose office sets council agendas, last week told Voice of San Diego he wanted the City Council to get a closed session briefing on the proposed real estate deal before he’d schedule a final vote.
The City Council is now set to get that briefing on Monday.
It’s unclear when Gloria’s team will request a public hearing on the shelter and lease proposals.
The Search for a New County Manager Gets Political
This week, the executive committee of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council approved a resolution in support of Cindy Chavez, a Santa Clara county supervisor, and her application to be the new chief administrative officer. The proposed resolution will now go to the full group of delegates that represent all the unions within the Labor Council. It follows a similar resolution by the San Diego County Democratic Party.
Chavez had been the leading candidate for the job and was nearly finished with the process when the scandal broke over former County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher’s relationship with an employee at the Metropolitan Transit System. Fletcher vanished from public life and his colleagues halted the hiring process. Former CAO Helen Robbins-Meyer delayed her retirement so the process could restart.
Chavez, who used to run the South Bay Labor Council in the Bay Area, is once again interested in the role but the other applicants are unknown. Robbins-Meyer had been the top deputy to her predecessor, Walt Ekard and there remains interest within some circles and the business community for a leader of the county in a similar vein.
Voice of San Diego Editor-in-Chief Scott Lewis asked the largest union of county employees why it was such a priority for them that Chavez or someone similar get the role.
“We are at a crossroads: We can either cling to the conservative ‘financial experience’ that prioritizes old fiscal policies, or we can embrace a bold, progressive future that truly serves all community members. Our coalition of Democrats, union members and progressives feel Cindy Chavez embodies this much needed change and will deliver on the Board’s pro-worker vision for the future,” said Crystal Irving, president of SEIU 221, which represents over 10,000 county employees.
What’s next: The county is expected to name semi-finalists in May and each county supervisor will be able to nominate two constituents to interview them before finalists are put forward by the end of the month.
A School District in the Affordable Housing Game. Plus, AI in Education
San Diego Unified is taking the first step to building affordable housing on the former site of City Heights’ Central Elementary. Our Jakob McWhinney has been following the district’s efforts on this front for some time.
He writes in the latest Learning Curve that the district’s board members gave staff the green light to begin negotiations with developer Affirmed Housing. The proposal could mean bringing 270 affordable housing units to the former location of Central Elementary in City Heights.
McWhinney also gets into his latest experience at the ASU+GSV Summit. He writes, “This wasn’t so much a gathering of educators workshopping solutions to the problems education faces, as it was a gathering of companies workshopping how best to sell educators on their tech’s ability to solve the problems of the future.”
In Other News
- At least 11 people have become ill with norovirus after consuming frozen oysters from South Korea. (Union-Tribune)
- A San Diego police officer testified at trial against a man who allegedly shot him. He walked jury members through the day in question from his perspective. (NBC 7)
- The Padres will receive just a fraction of what they were owed from a company that bought the rights to broadcast games through 2032 — but later filed for bankruptcy. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Will Huntsberry, Lisa Halverstadt, Scott Lewis and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.
“City staffers had put years of work into the proposal, which is known as the Cannabis Social Equity program. It would have been set to take effect in the *new* future.”
all that work was in the *old* future i guess.
will you please stop calling the Proposed Mega Shelter “a vacant warehouse.” it is much more.
the building was designed by well-known San Diego architect Frank Hope Jr. and is a possibly historic Mid-Century Modern structure.
thanks.